From the loneliness of a black screen, the voice of the narrator, a present-day filmmaker, states, \I open my eyes and see nothing."" Then, transitioning slowly as he continues to speak, the narrator and the audience are borne into the snowy Russian world of 18th century St. Petersburg at the State Hermitage Museum. In the midst of the snow, gentlemen-officers and their ladies arrive by coach to a party being held inside the Hermitage, which holds Russia's history and art from the past 300 years.
The audience, along with the narrator, float weightlessly on the heels of the partygoers, through crowded, noisy halls and down into dark, subterranean passageways. In one of these passageways the narrator is introduced to a man, the Marquis, a 19th-century French writer and diplomat, who, too, is observing these past events.
Through the film the narrator/filmmaker, the Marquis, and the audience follow the last 300 years of Russian history, moving room to room in the Hermitage, stepping into the present and quickly back into the past. Through the radiant labyrinth of the museum, the filmmaker crosses paths with the Marquis and the two journey together trying to understand the past unfolding before them.
During this historical journey the two debate larger issues concerning Russian culture, history and identity from two very different perspectives, the Marquis; a French Russophobe with a 17th-century outsider's perspective, and the filmmaker, a 20th-century Russian with the ability to contextualize the past.
This is a magnificently beautiful and tragically saddening film about the chaotic past of Russia and the development of its own art, culture and national identity. Of the many facets of this film-visual imagery, cinematography, historical context and humanistic search for national identity-it is hard to decide which layer should be appreciated most. Visually spectacular, the unique and finely detailed costumes for 2000 actors involved are only complemented by the stunning rooms of the Hermitage Museum.
The single, fluid shot embodying the entire film is both an achievement in film and adds to the feel of moving through 300 years of history seemlessly. And the last two layers of the film, historical context and the search for understanding the development and preservation of a Russian national identity, while deeply moving to the average film goer, must be an intense experience for a person of Russian origin or with a Russian background.??
Perhaps the only downfall of this epic film is that, at times, the amount of history and cultural debate between the Marquis and the filmmaker is difficult to understand as quickly as it is discussed in the film.
The greatest injustice that could be done to this film would be for an American audience to get muddled down in the history and subtitles and miss the connection between art and history argued by the film. If we do not learn or understand what has happened in the past, as awful and tragic as it has been, then we are to allow the lessons of art and history to be but mere ghosts with no bettering effect on each other or our world.
