Perhaps no amount of skillful reasoning could have swayed our gatekeepers from their ignorance. But as Kiarostami himself suggested in his dignified statement to the press, the embarrassment is also his, and by extension our own.

| Mar 16, 2020

Despite an undeniable attraction to the majestic, Aleksandr Sokurov seems equally adverse to straightforward spectacle, approaching potentially colossal subjects from odd, specific angles.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 12, 2014

Part pageant and museum tour, part theme-park ride and historical meditation.

| Oct 24, 2013

This is as immersive-and as Shining-level spooky-as history gets.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 3, 2013

The movie's smooth voyage comes to seem like a dream play, suspended painlessly in time.

| Sep 3, 2013

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Awash in nostalgia and dreamlike passiveness, reflecting the lack of a clear way forward for contemporary Russia.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 30, 2004

This is a stunning film, a one-of-a-kind tour de force.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jun 5, 2003

The camera work is fluid, the concept intriguing.

| Original Score: B | May 15, 2003

With unmatched bravado, Sokurov shows scores of celebrants streaming from the ballroom past his camera with nary a misstep.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 15, 2003

A tour de force of modern cinema.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 4, 2003

Even with its deft parade of dressed-up actors, real human emotion is hard to find.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 17, 2003

I have never seen anything like it before. It beats all the vaunts of Imax for size, yet it is frequently on a scale of intimacy only a camera that can move from a tour d'horizon to an intimate close-up in one easy movement could accomplish.

| Apr 5, 2003

Russian Ark does for the history-blind what any halfway decent drug movie can do to nonjunkies: pushes a mean contact high.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 28, 2003

Its central draw is a staggering feat of cinematography.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2003

The experience of watching Russian Ark is like being caught inside another person's dream.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 21, 2003

Merely as a technical, logistical feat, Russian Ark marks a cinematic milestone.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 14, 2003

Filmmakers, critics and more than a few curious moviegoers are going to be studying Russian Ark for decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 7, 2003

For the truth is, given the audacity, the organization, the seriousness of purpose, the movie isn't nearly as provocative as you think it might be.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2003

Apart from anything else, this is one of the best-sustained ideas I have ever seen on the screen.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 31, 2003