It is obviously that there is only one single shot in the whole film Russian Ark, but as viewer I don't get bored at all because the total progress is never monotonous. The panning of camera was doing so well, and sometimes it was tilting and sliding, sometimes it was swooping. It shows a variety of lens feature in one-shot. I think that the pleasure of watching this long shot of this movie is concerned in “discovery”, following the camera we discover the secrets of the Winter Palace and Hermitage museum with Marquis and the narrator. We see Peter the Great reprimanding the subordinates, Catherine the Great's rushing to washroom. We see the luxurious life of the Tsar, enjoy hundreds of world famous paintings and sculptures, witness the decline of Russian and encounter angels and death,and finally board the “Ark” with the narrator to drift in the boundless sea.
The ending scene of the film is a high point because the planning and execution of the ballroom scene as the camera weaves among the dancers and circles is of great exquisite skill. But those mise-en-scine suggest that the camera is no longer tied entirely to the narrator. Even though the camera still briefly comes back to him as he bids farewell, but then it moves on in a final passage. The camera passes among the leaving guests while it is gliding down the staircase to present the whole hallway which the The crowd is extending forward. At the bottom of the staircase the camera turns around and moves backward continuously though the crowd, then the camera stops suddenly and reveals an open door at the left. Outside there's a sea, or a snowfield showing in a mist and we hear the voice of the narrator “the sea is all around,we are destined to sail forever”. This is an sophisticated end for the aesthetic stylistically unique film.
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