Film-Archive - Personal Info: Alexander Sokurov Personal Info. alexander sokurov was born in Russia in 1951. He studied Historyand trained until 1979 as a director at the Moscow Film School VGIK. http://www.german-cinema.de/archive/film_person_view.php?film_person_id=3399
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Extractions: El penúltimo documental de la serie Elegías, describe la vida de un grupo de hombres y mujeres, próximos a la muerte, que habitan en pueblos perdidos geográfica y temporalmente a lo largo del Volga. Para Sokurov, "esta película, como el resto de las Elegías, está basadas en documentos, pero no son documentales. Todas las Elegías tienen que ver con la muerte y trato de que sean poemas fílmicos, en los que el ritmo visual reemplace a las convenciones narrativas. Creo que el propósito del arte es preparar el alma para la muerte". Recreación en torno a la figura de Boris Yeltsin realizado en las fechas de su ascensión política a la presidencia del Soviet Supremo, caracterizado, a diferencia de otras elegías, por la manipulación irónica del material documental. Es una pieza de vanguardia de primer orden, con un particularísmo estilo de montaje que recuerda a Stan Brakhage o Warhol. Para Sokurov el rostro es la verdadera expresión de la individualidad, aquella que resiste a la profanación del cine: "En el rostro del hombre está toda su autobiografía, por lo menos toda la autobiografía a que tenemos derecho". Sokurov aplica esas tesis en este documental, siguiendo las pautas ensayadas en Elegía de San Petersburgo.
Extractions: Pero éste es el Sokurov de ficción y quizá lo que mejor caracteriza al cineasta es su (amplísimo) trabajo en el campo de la non fiction a través de su "género" predilecto, una forma de documental poético, reflexivo y melancólico, que a menudo el propio cineasta ha bautizado con el nombre de elegía. Ha dedicado elegías a figuras como Shaliapin, el citado Tarkovsky, el presidente de Lituania y hasta Boris Yeltsin. En esas obras mezcla filmaciones propias con materiales de archivo, que despoja de su "factualidad" para imponerles un carácter más lírico: los observa y nos hace observarlos y meditar sobre su posible sentido o sentidos. No se trata de arbitrarios ejercicios de montaje, sino de exploraciones de la memoria emocional o histórica de este siglo que presentan imágenes o sonidos factuales con la intención declarada de "convertirlos en símbolos" (todo lo ambiguos que se quiera). En estos trabajos Sokurov enlaza con toda una corriente del documental actual que intenta despojar al género de su secular pretensión de objetividad para poner en primer término la subjetividad, la evocación poética y otros funcionamientos que lo acercarían a esa categoría aún difusa del ensayo cinematográfico.
Extractions: Documentarian, impressionist, historian, and renowned Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov has been creating works since the 1970s that are at times elusive but always mesmerizing. For Sokurov, time is a strong presence he draws from the past with archival footage and uses duration as a form of elegiac mourning rooting his work both in old customs and modern forms. His films consider the impact of individuals and the experience of daily life in a way that has transcended political upheavals, economic marginality, international language barriers, and shifting social customs. His heralded "elegies," the focus of this program, are perhaps best described as poetic and visual essays containing cinematic splendor, hermetic intensity, and a sense of suspended time.
Extractions: In 1990, Russia placed an economic blockade on Lithuania. Sokurov takes us inside the Lithuanian president's office and a housing blockplaces that have been silenced by Russian political power. Shooting in spare, silent black and white, Sokurov aesthetically conveys the cultural climate. 1990, Russia, video (original format 35mm), silent, 20 minutes. A record of a May 1 Labor Day fireworks celebration, Sokurov's Evening Sacrifice is comprised of ecstatic looks at urban crowds and beautifully composed shots of individual faces. Recalling the classic work of Eisenstein and Vertov, this frenetically edited work relies on gesture and facial expressions rather than dialogue to narrate an event. 1984-1987, Russia, video (original format 35mm), silent, 20 minutes.
Alexander Sokurov The summary for this Greek page contains characters that cannot be correctly displayed in this language/character set. http://www.cinephilia.gr/auteur/sokurov.html
Extractions: "Your outstanding and extraordinary works deserve more than wide recognition amidst critics and professionals," the president's press service cites his message as saying. "The point is, you have found an audience that is capable of appreciating the sophisticated skill you demonstrate while exploring the depths of a human soul and understanding that sincerity and loyalty to your artistic principles are more essential to you than commercial success." Sokurov is the author of 25 documentaries and 12 feature films. One of his recent creations, Moloch, won the Grand Prix of Russia's 10th Kinotavr Film Festival and a Best Scenario award at the Cannes festival in 1999. Alexander Sokurov holds many Russian and international awards and prizes.
Alexander Sokurov Retrospective Notes on the alexander sokurov Retro THE LONELY VOICE OF MAN (197887). A youngman comes home after a civil war stint and marries a medical student. http://www.geocities.com/fvispo/film/sokurov.htm
Extractions: Watching MOURNFUL INDIFFERENCE after DAYS OF THE ECLIPSE, MOTHER AND SON, MOLOCH and even THE LONELY VOICE OF MAN is a bit of a shock to the system with its stylized acting and camera movements. Thi is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House that goes soft in its critique of the hermetic bourgeoisie and the warring world they'd rather ignore. The bourgeois' full-blown indulgence may have drawn Sokurov's sympathy, perhaps not surprisingly given his own tendencies later on. On its own, a not very useful documentary on Andrei Tarkovsky, and particularly useless if you've seen Chris Marker's superior ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF ANDREI ARSENEVICH. Sokurov's admiration of Tarkovsky is clear; he is unhesitant in describing the awe of those who had worked with him, and for those of us who never had the opportunity, Sokurov seems satisfied to linger on Tarkovsky's former residences (a washbasin, even), expecting awe in absence. This is Madame Bovary on hallucinogens. Sokurov runs with the ball on his source text even moreso than in MOURNFUL INDIFFERENCE. I'll surmise that Sokurov finds the romantic yet doomed Emma Bovary a kindred spirit, and I'll even add that Sokurov has a lot of fun (yes - "Sokurov" and "fun" together in one sentence!) as Emma's lifestyle choice spins out of her grasp. Eras, languages and visual scale are conflated, and there's a sexual candor previously unseen in Sokurov's depictions of Emma's fantasy life.
Arca Russa Alexander Sokurov Translate this page Regia. alexander sokurov. Sceneggiatura Anatoly Nikiforov, alexander sokurov.Dialoghi. Brosi Khaimsky, alexander sokurov, Svetlana Proskurina. http://www.drammaturgia.it/giornale/spettacoli/cinema/cinema_articoli/arcarussa_
Alexander Sokurov's Russian Ark Forget Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco entering the restaurant in Goodfellas orHitchcock's oneshot chamberplay Rope sokurov stages Russian Ark as a http://worldfilm.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr121302.htm
Extractions: The Hermitage in St. Petersburg served as location for "Russian Ark," a lush meditation on history, art, and Russia in the guise of a bravura filmmaking stunt: all of the film's 97 minutes were shot in one single, relentless take. Forget Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco entering the restaurant in "Goodfellas" or Hitchcock's one-shot chamberplay "Rope" Sokurov stages "Russian Ark" as a feat of logistics and coordination in the sprawling building with a cast of over 800 actors and several hundred extras. The camera swoops and glides, drifts, pulls in, and sails through doors opened just in time by the invisible narrator or one of his mysterious companions. Neither he nor we are particularly sure why we are there; as we pass gilded halls, paintings by the masters, scenes from Russian history, diplomatic receptions, and the climactic ball complete with live orchestra, we search for clues, connections, and meaning. The uninterrupted flow seduces into a trance.
Arca Russa Di Alexander Sokurov Translate this page alexander sokurov (indicato dall Accademia del cinema europeo come uno dei miglioriregisti del momento) riesce in unimpresa che fa rabbrividire un http://www.blackmailmag.com/Arca_Russa.htm
Extractions: Home Back 8 Mile About Schmidt ... Agua e sal Arca Russa Dieci Era mio padre Essere e Avere ... Frida Gangs of NewYork Il Film Gangs sul set Hollywood Gangs Ginostra ... Archivio Cinema Speciale Gabriele Salvatores: Io non ho paura Intervista Filmografia Regia: Alexander Sokurov Interpreti: Sergey Dreiden, Maria Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovioy Sceneggiatura: Anatoly Nikiforov e Alexander Sokurov Ideazione visiva e fotografia: Alexander Sokurov Dialoghi: Brosi Khaimsky, Alexander Sokurov e Svetlana Proskurina Direttore della fotografia e operatore steadicam: Tilman Buttner Operatore HD: Stefan Ciupek Musiche: Sergey Yevtushenko Coreografie: Galy Abaidulov Prodotto da: Andrei Deryabin, Hermitage Bridge Studio, Jens Meurer e Karsen Stoter, Egoli Tossel Film Durata: Nazione: Russia/Germania Anno: Distribuzione: Mikado Un film che condensa molteplici miracoli tecnici ed espressivi, con lambizione di comunicare il legame continuo tra storia, cultura e vita. Alexander Sokurov (indicato dall Accademia del cinema europeo come uno dei migliori registi del momento) riesce in unimpresa che fa rabbrividire: un unico piano sequenza di 90 minuti (il primo vero piano sequenza totale della storia del cinema) allinterno dellonirico labirinto architettonico dellHermitage di San Pietroburgo, uno dei musei più celebri e splendidi del pianeta, antico epicentro dei leggendari zar di Russia. Unimpresa che annovera lequivalente di 33 set illuminati contemporaneamente per permettere alla steadycam guidata dal bravissimo
Requiem: The Visionary Films Of Russian Master Alexander Sokurov DIRECTORS IN FOCUS Requiem The Visionary Films Of alexander sokurov. Directedby alexander sokurov Germany /Russia 1997, 35mm, color, 73 min. http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/calendars/02marapr/sokurov.htm
Extractions: Requiem: The Visionary Films Of Alexander Sokurov This retrospective was organized by James Quandt at the Cinematheque Ontario in collaboration with Jytte Jensen of the Film and Video Department, Museum of Modern Art, New York, with generous assistance from Alexei Jankowski, Studio Bereg, St. Petersburg. MOTHER AND SON (Mat i syn) March 8 (Friday) 7 pm Russian with English subtitles Mother and Son is a slow, soft, and sad poem about the last day of a woman weakened by disease, and about the loving son who cares for her in her remote cabin home. Formal elements converge to reinforce the elegiac tone: the whispering wind, crashing waves, sea-gull cries, and other natural sounds recall the glissandi of violins; the images, distorted by filming through painted glass panes, mirrors, and special lenses, are reminiscent of German Romantic painting; the pace of the film verges on stillness, as though fixing on the moment between life and death, consciousness and oblivion. In the triumphantly pre-Freudian universe of the film, the parent is a literal burden who is carried through the world by her son in a sort of reverse pieta. DAYS OF THE ECLIPSE (Dni zatmeniya) March 8 (Friday) 8:30 pm Directed by Alexander Sokurov
Film Comment Magazine: Alexander Sokurov by TONY PIPOLO left Russian Ark. Unloved in his native Russia, alexander Sokurovnevertheless qualifies as his homeland's unofficial cinematic elegist. http://www.filmlinc.com/archive/fcm/9-10-2002/asokurov.htm
Extractions: left: Russian Ark Unloved in his native Russia, Alexander Sokurov nevertheless qualifies as his homeland's unofficial cinematic elegist. His formidable body of work over the last 25 years - paralleling the decline and fall of the Soviet Empire and the slow, painful reconstruction of Russian life - is a prolonged act of mourning. In ten features and more than twice as many documentaries and avant-garde works, he has displayed an undiminished humanism and a unique aesthetic embracing both film and video. Though some of Sokurov's features have literary sources - Shaw, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky - they are hardly conventional narrative adaptions. And while many of his nonfiction works are direct responses to the social and political upheavals surrounding the dissolution of the Soviet Union, they frustrate the usual expectations one brings to documentary film.
RLFF > Alexander Sokurovs Russian Ark Premieres At RLFF alexander sokurovs Russian Ark Premieres at RLFF. The Russianfilm director alexander sokurov created something of an arty http://www.rlff.com/db_world02/cinema.cgi/news02/view_658.htm
Extractions: The screening was introduced by Ian Christie who mentioned that, most of the directors previous films had been shown at the respective RLFFs over the years. Sokurov first came to London in the late 1980s when the British Film Institute played an important part in introducing him to a Western audience. Christies intro was followed by words from the director of the State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg (where the film was shot) and by the films producer and associate producer respectively. It was pointed out that Russian Ark was the first film with a museum as protagonist and that they hoped that their film could help bring Russia closer to the West.
Extractions: The second in Alexander Sokurov's teratology of films concerning twentieth century dictators, Taurus is a poetic and partially factual film of the last days of Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Ulyanov 'Lenin'. Holed up in the country and cared for by a determined doctor, his wife and a group of uniformed guardsmen, Lenin muses over his life with the ambiguity and vagueness of the old man that he is. With moments of extreme clarity and ramblings both poetic and pathetic, he unwittingly illuminates the state of contemporary Russia (and beyond?) and questions how man negotiates his place in the world. Such themes are consistent with Sokurov's other works, as is the strong visual rendering of the land. The white flowering fields where Lenin and his wife are placed for a picnic are particularly gorgeous. This and other whites (gowns and soft window lighting) provide impressionistic support to the murky greens that filter the entire picture. It's as if Lenin is a sunken ship filmed in the murky depths; his life, mind and political power slipping away. Thus whilst based on 'the facts', the film is ghostly and partially hypnotic. The story's historicism is played against a firm mysticism, exemplified by the film title and the fact Lenin was indeed, born a
Extractions: Welcome to the Kinoeye archive. The ultimate aim of the archive is to provide a near-as-damn-it definitive index of intelligent and thoughtful English-language analysis of cinema from the new Europe on the web. This page is devoted web and print resources on the Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov (also written as Alexander Sokurov). Entries in bold are articles that have appeared in either Kinoeye or Central Europe Review We are always looking for more articles to add. Please contact us if you have any suggestions. The infinite journey
Village Voice: Take 4 -- 2002 Film Poll Undistributed. Critics Voting for alexander sokurov. Best Director, J.Hoberman. Stuart Klawans. Patrick McGavin. Nick Rutigliano. David Sterritt. http://www.villagevoice.com/take/four/artist.php?artist=694
Chicago Reader Movie Review Directed by alexander sokurov. Rating * * * * Masterpiece. alexander sokurov's 218minutevideo, Confession, manages to elevate this theme to the level of art. http://www.chireader.com/movies/archives/2002/0802/020816_2.html
Extractions: Masterpiece By Fred Camper Top Top I n one of my favorite jokes connecting Russian pessimism with a failure of imagination, two Russian fishermen catch a golden fish. It offers them three wishes if they'll spare its life. The first fisherman says, "I wish that the hold of the boat be filled with cases of vodka," and his wish is granted. The second says, "I wish that the entire ocean be turned into vodka," and they lower a bucket and start drinking. Then the fish reminds them that they have a third wish. They look at each other, scratch their heads, and the first says, "I guess we'll just take another case." Alexander Sokurov's 218-minute video, Confession , manages to elevate this theme to the level of art. Considered by many Russia's finest living director, he's created a madrigal to melancholy, a hymn to failure, in which an apparently gay naval commander lacks the courage to act on his desires. Set in the cramped space of a nondescript ship amid barren arctic snowscapes, it consists mostly of the sailors' repetitive actions and the commander's lugubrious narration. The few possibilities for happiness or meaning hinted at hardly offer convincing ways out of the gloom. Stan Brakhage includes a line from Louis Zukofsky's poem "A" "Raise grief to music" in his 1967 meditation on war, 23rd Psalm Branch . Sokurov may be said to have raised melancholy to music in
ALEXANDER SOKUROV, LIDER DEL CINE INTELECTUAL Translate this page alexander sokurov, LIDER DEL CINE INTELECTUAL. Hoy, alexander sokuroves uno de los líderes del cine intelectual de nivel mundial. http://novostiar.by.ru/n39/text/a9.htm
Extractions: ALEXANDER SOKUROV, LIDER DEL CINE INTELECTUAL "Figura eminente del cine moderno", "cineasta hipnotizador", "artista por excelencia del séptimo arte" son algunas de las frases que suelen utilizar los críticos al referirse a la obra de Alexander Sokurov, realizador ruso que acaba de cumplir cincuenta años. Es una edad nada madura para un cineasta, pero Sokurov ya tiene en su haber una treintena de películas, muchas de las cuales han sido todo un acontecimiento en el arte cinematográfico ruso. A principios de los años ochenta, sólo un reducido círculo de especialistas conocía el nombre de este realizador. Sus primeras producciones no se exhibían en los cines ni figuraban en la programación de TV por ser consideradas como "demasiado irracionales" y "carentes de acción". Pero cuando sus filmes salieron por fin a la pequeña y gran pantallas, de inmediato atrajeron la atención de los aficionados al cine y provocaron en la prensa acalorados debates. Alexandr Sokurov,