The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov (KINO - The Russian and Soviet Cinema)

Alexander Sokurov's 'Russian Ark' is generally acclaimed as a milestone in cinematography. In this film Sokurov reversed the idea of montage, creating instead the sensation of an uninterrupted flow of time encompassing three centuries of Russia's cultural history through a single, 90-minute take. Yet this film is but one milestone in the work of this versatile director. Since the 1990s, Sokurov's films have had international recognition at film festivals and through foreign distribution. In this, the first English-language book to cover Sokurov's full oeuvre, leading scholars on Sokurov unravel his work on documentaries; his early films and literary adaptations; his trilogy on leaders focussing on the decaying body; his films on passing youth and approaching age; and, of course, 'Russian Ark'. The book also provides samples of the major Russian-language studies of Sokurov's films to provide the reader with an insight into Russian approaches to Sokurov. Cover 1 CONTENTS 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 14 Note on Transliteration 16 Notes on Contributors 18 Introduction -- Birgit Beumers and Nancy Condee 22 Part I Documentary Beginnings 32 Chapter 1 Sokurov’s Documentaries -- Jeremy Hicks 34 Chapter 2 Sokurov’s Film Portraits -- Eva Binder 49 Chapter 3 Sokurov’s Cinematic Minimalism -- Sabine Hänsgen 64 Part II Borderlines: Geographical, Literary and Cinematic 78 Chapter 4 Intertextual Visions of the Potudan -- Nariman Skakov 80 Chapter 5 Living and Dying in Sokurov’s Border Zones: Days of Eclipse -- Julian Graffy 95 Chapter 6 Medium Intimacy -- Robert Bird 111 Part III Intimate Encounters 128 Chapter 7 Truncated Families and Absolute Intimacy -- Mikhail Iampolski 130 Chapter 8 A Day in the Life: Historical Representation in Sokurov's 'Power' Tetralogy -- Denise J. Youngblood 143 Chapter 9 History, Alienation and the (Failed) Cinema of Embodiment: Sokurov’s Tetralogy -- Stephen Hutchings 159 Part IV Remapping the Empire 174 Chapter 10 Crowd Control: Anxiety of Effluence in Sokurov’s Russian Ark -- José Alaniz 176 Chapter 11 And the Ark Sails on ... -- Birgit Beumers 197 Chapter 12 Endstate and Allegory -- Nancy Condee 209 Part V Russian Responses 222 Script-Sound-Editing 224 1. Yuri Arabov: The Director Becomes the Author 224 2. Vladimir Persov: This is a Process 227 3. Leda Semenova: Montage is the Final Approximation to the Idea 233 Film Reviews 237 4. Oleg Kovalov: We in The Lonely Voice 237 5. Maya Turovskaya: ‘How is it with me when every noise appals me? What hands are here? 241 6. Petr Bagrov: On Music – However Strange 244 The Oeuvre 247 7. Sergei Dobrotvorsky: The City and the House 247 8. Mikhail Trofimenkov: Sokurov in the Struggle with Reality 254 9. Andrei Plakhov: Rulers and Tyrants 258 Filmography 266 Bibliography 274 Index 278 Studies the work of Russian motion picture director Aleksandr Sokurov, covering his documentaries, early films and literary adaptations, his trilogy on leaders, and "Russian Ark."