In the cold winter of 1913 in Russia, a group of beautiful women slowly stepped out of the carriage, and walked into the Winter Palace laughing and laughing under the escort of the suave aristocratic officers. Outside the brightly lit palace, the dark cloud of revolution is slowly coming over the city. This is the last court ball of the Romanov dynasty under the lens of Alexander Sokolov. This film produced in 2002 used a long shot without any editing to show the golden age of Russian culture-the magnificence of Tsarist Russia in just 99 minutes. The main time span of the film is from the beginning of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, beginning with Peter the Great's drastic reforms and ending with another violent revolution. Interspersed occasionally images after the October Revolution. I strongly recommend students who are interested in Russian history and culture to watch this movie. In the film, the contemporary Russian elite turns into the low voice outside the lens, passing through the fog of the years, embracing the nostalgia for that golden age, traveling through the exhibition halls, corridors, and dance floors of the Winter Palace, looking for the glorious years. shadow.
The background of the movie The Winter Palace is located in St. Petersburg, the old capital of the Russian Empire. It was the residence of successive tsars from 1732-1917. There are 1500 rooms, 1786 doors, 1945 windows, and 117 stairs in this palace. The famous Hermitage Museum is located in it.
The protagonist in the movie has been fascinated in the voice-over, and with him is a thin, pale, curly-haired French diplomat Marquis, a representative of Europe. They bypassed the luxuriously dressed people and came backstage, when actors wearing exquisite Venetian masks and ancient costumes were preparing to take the stage. However, a red-faced and obese man suddenly appeared in this group, who was beating his men. The protagonist tells us this is Peter the Great. Here, the Frenchman Marquis and the protagonist have the first argument about the ownership of Russian culture. Marquis commented that Peter the Great was a tyrannical man who killed his son with his own hands, indicating that the Asian descent of the Russians made them "worship tyrants." The Russian protagonist outside the camera disagrees. He stated that Peter the Great "taught the Russians to enjoy life" and led the Russians to begin to absorb European music, drama, dance, painting and other art cultures. Marquis went on to say that although Peter the Great “founded a new country from a swamp, he still cited the most primitive and natural regulations and rules.” The protagonist defended: “However, it is still a (authentic) European city. ." The director continued in a voice-over to express a theme that runs through the film: "Russia belongs to Europe, but it does not belong to Europe."
Their second confrontation was in a luxurious corridor full of artworks in the Hermitage. Marquis admired these works of art, satirizing the Russians for a while, "copying the Vatican to St. Petersburg," and satirizing for a while, "Russians are imitating geniuses, because in Russia you are officially not allowed to have your own thoughts (the film's famous quote)", and for a while. These must be the paintings of Italian painters, and only Italy can produce such painters." However, the Russian protagonist pointed out that many of the works hanging here are actually works by Russian artists. Marquis's exhibition hall in the Hermitage seemed to feel the imperial style of his hometown of Bonaparte. The Russians defeated Napoleon, but it did not prevent them from assimilating French fashions in an inclusive manner. This is Russia, on the one hand confronting Europe, while eagerly absorbing the essence of European culture and art. The artworks of the Hermitage exhibitions presented in the film are also a major attraction. These exhibits are the hard work of generations of czars, especially the collection of Queen Catherine. When she passed away, she had collected more than 4,000 precious European artworks, including works by famous artists such as Rembrandt and Michelangelo.
In addition to the visual shock, the French diplomat couldn't help but fall in love with the music of the Russian composer Glinka playing in his ears. Rejecting true fragrance, he proudly argued: "This must be the work of a Germanic composer. Only Germanic has a composer." As the camera turned, Marquis met a Russian teenager who was stopping to watch a painting in which St. Peter and St. Paul among the Twelve Apostles were depicted. As a devout Christian, Marquis asked the teenager how he could truly appreciate the spirit of this work without reading the "Bible" and how he could understand where mankind is going. The director here seems to be questioning all young Russians and the importance of expressing the Christian spirit in Russian traditional culture.
The traverser Marquis seemed unwelcome and was driven everywhere in the palace. Then one of my favorite scenes in the film appeared-they strayed into a mysterious room, which is different from the magnificence in other parts of the Winter Palace. This room is cold, damp, and dark, with no exquisite paintings, only rough Picture frame. Marquis asked what an old man in ragged clothes was busy hammering at. The old man told him that he was making his own coffin and forced Marquis out of the room. The protagonist’s voice-over told Marquis that these coffins commemorate the Battle of Leningrad in the 20th century, when St. Petersburg was besieged by the Germans for 900 days and 1 million citizens were sacrificed. This scene extends the connotation of the film-not only to commemorate the glory of the Russian Empire, but also to commemorate the vast Russian masses who sacrificed for freedom during the dark war.
After coming out of the dim room, Marquis and the protagonist met Catalina II who was teaching the royal family's court etiquette. Then, a strange scene appeared. Empress Catalina, supported by her attendants, ran in the snow-covered back garden, drifting away, symbolizing the empress's gradual withdrawal from the stage of history. I heard that this back garden on the second floor of the Winter Palace used to breed exotic plants and exotic animals collected from all over the world by people sent by the Queen during the summer. Of course, these have long since disappeared in the long history.
They continued to wander and witnessed a ceremony where the Tsar received the Prince of Persia in another exhibition hall. Then the two protagonists met three scholars in modern suits in a dark room. They were discussing the repressive rule and speech surveillance in a particular era. One of the officials said angrily: “(The authorities) only want the fruit of the oak tree. They don’t intend to understand how to water the cultural tree. But the day the oak tree fell, it was their end.” The golden age of Russian literature A generation of poets represented by Pushkin started. At its peak, realist masters such as Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov appeared. At the beginning of the 20th century, "symbolism" and "futurism" emerged. Waiting for the new trend of modernism (I borrowed Bulgakov’s famous magical realism book "The Master and Margarita" and haven’t read it yet...). However, the Russians seem to be unable to escape the fate of being ruled by a centralized powerhouse. In fact, I personally believe that Russia is not the only one who often followed centralized powers in history. France had Napoleon who surpassed Caesar's power, and Germany had Hitler. However, many Western European countries seem to have successfully escaped from the shadow of the monarchy amidst the vicissitudes of history and transformed into a modern polity. In my opinion, this section of the film aims to raise the question: how will Russia’s former golden age culture be inherited in the future, and when will Russia usher in a full cultural revival.
To add, I think the subtle point of the film is that when the director shows the age of empires, the lens is full of warm and soft sunlight, but when it comes to the war years and [beep-] rule in Russian history, the light becomes cold and dark. .
The protagonist wandered to a new corridor, and in front of them appeared the last queen Alexandra and her sister Elizabeth Grand Duke, who frowned under the cloud of revolution. Then, a group of aristocratic girls sprang up from the bright corridor, their light spring shirts resembling the gauze of the ancient Greek goddess under the brush of Sandro Botticelli. As soon as Marquis clapped his hands, the girls fluttered away with their slender white arms like angels and butterflies, which contrasted with the Renaissance masterpieces hanging on the corridor wall. The girls took us to another room, where we witnessed a warm afternoon tea with the family of the last Tsar Nicholas II. However, just a year later they will be killed by the Bolshevik bullets. Although the people's livelihood was withered under the rule of Tsarist Russia, there were a large number of serfs who had been cruelly exploited and oppressed for generations, but it also gave birth to a large number of great writers with world influence. After the October Revolution, Russia's close ties with European culture and the spirit of eager students for European culture also passed away. The musical "Princess Anastasia", in which Nicholas II's youngest daughter Anastasia escaped to death, conveys the deep sympathy of Europeans for the family of the last tsar.
Then finally came the highlight of the film: in a spacious white ballroom, the ball that paved the way for the beginning of the film finally began. In order to show off this grand palace banquet in 1913, the director hired more than 2,000 actors. In the passionate sound of Russian music, graceful and luxurious noble men and women danced gracefully, and the shadows of their clothes and temples showed the last glory of the Russian Empire. The Frenchman Marquis, who was infected by this magnificent atmosphere, changed his previous contempt for Russian culture and decided to stay in Russia at this time (true fragrance). At the end of the song, the people scattered, and the nobles who participated in the dance walked through the glorious corridors and long staircases of the Winter Palace in a bustling manner. In the director's long shots, these red men and green women seem to linger in this majestic palace forever. Their time seems to be fixed in this dazzling moment, rather than under the butcher knife of the revolution four years later.
This is the director's nostalgia for Tsarist Russia. I personally agree with Russia’s ideological spirit that embraced the great European culture, technology, and art at the time. However, “revolution is not a treat for dinner” and “nothing is uneventful”. I stay too much in the yearning for aristocratic life, and I often ignore it. The real life of the general public. But in fact, doesn't an empire often show the style and sentiment of the top class? When we talk about the prosperous Tang Dynasty, we are not only concerned about the elegance and grace of the royal family. Who cares about the bleak, boring, and difficult living conditions of the illiterate people at the bottom who occupy 90% of the empire’s population? This is probably the tragedy of historical reincarnation.
The protagonist who bid farewell to Marquis did not stop in this flourishing scenery. He left the Winter Palace alone and returned to the sea, and showed that the fate of the Russians will always carry the future of mankind, drifting in the vast sea, echoing the previous questions Marquis asked Russian teenagers. The film here draws a lonely end to the magnificent picture of the golden age of Russia. And where will this Russian Ark stay? Or drift forever? Maybe time will tell us the answer.
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