Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
(Russkiy kovcheg, Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia 2002, 99 min.)
Originally programmed as a part of the "Choreograph" series this fall at The Dryden, the film is now introduced to you here for streaming.
Two spectral figures roam the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum, passing through salons, galleries, and time periods. One, an unnamed narrator, observes as his European acquaintance alternately admires and criticizes the works on display. Sometimes they are able to interact with the people there, but are often unnoticed. Director Aleksandr Sokurov organized and rehearsed more than two thousand actors and three orchestras across 33 rooms of the museum, and finally executed the single-take film on the fourth try on a cold day in December. Lavishly mounted and exactingly rendered, the film is a whirlwind tour through three hundred years of Russian history.
This video has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
(Russkiy kovcheg, Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia 2002, 99 min.)
Originally programmed as a part of the "Choreograph" series this fall at The Dryden, the film is now introduced to you here for streaming.
Two spectral figures roam the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum, passing through salons, galleries, and time periods. One, an unnamed narrator, observes as his European acquaintance alternately admires and criticizes the works on display. Sometimes they are able to interact with the people there, but are often unnoticed. Director Aleksandr Sokurov organized and rehearsed more than two thousand actors and three orchestras across 33 rooms of the museum, and finally executed the single-take film on the fourth try on a cold day in December. Lavishly mounted and exactingly rendered, the film is a whirlwind tour through three hundred years of Russian history.
This video has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.
