Russian Ark (IMDB). Never title was more perfect.
This is the kind of movie very few will like, but it is a masterpiece worth your time. A one of a kind. It is about Russia and its history, it's about its spirit, its fighting between being European and being else, love and hate. It is the Hermitage, in a flood and fire of events.
That's why I put the two movie posters here, they both represent perfectly well the movie, and so the Russian history and spirit.
And this is the other poster... both are simply perfect
The plot is pretty simple while being on an extremely complicated 'background'. A man, Russian, wakes up in the Hermitage, the beautiful museum in Saint Petersburg and that is also a symbol of French looking spirit that was instilled in Russian aristocracy at the time. You never see him.
His companion is a French (hehehe) aristocrats... and they travel inside the beautiful rooms of the Hermitage but their walk is a walk through the rather tumultuous history of the country, perfectly represented with events in this journey towards modern times.
All superb and you admire the director and all actors as you realize that it is all a 1 take movie, one hour and half long. It is pure masterpiece.
When it ends, you wonder what's ahead and also grasp that it is not only a soul searching journey, but it is an analysis of its never to end internal. The two characters walks through the forming years that seem never to end, there is never an adulthood; they walk through the 'Ark', a powerful meaningful term, of Russian soul, a museum, its history and culture. The walk start with one of the two being pro European and the one being not against but Russian first, as something else. It ends that the two have switched vision. What it is then.
Both, Russian and European, go through much in relating with each other, change positions while not renegading anything.
Watch it. Trust us, we both loved it.
But not if you are a 'mission impossible' person.
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