Madison Smith
Jones/1110
10 December 2015
Evaluation of Russian Ark
Many campuses hold cultural events in hopes of possibly connecting the community in which the school resides. They also can be held to inform students and citizens of the city about different cultures and/or subjects that the event pertains to. Campuses can hold many different events such as seminars, movies, or festivals to educate people on different topics whether it be a culture that some may be unfamiliar with or perhaps even just steps in writing papers. Depending on the occasion, most cultural events on campus have relatively good attendance. If the event is being held for a certain culture than sometimes students who attend are those who, in fact, belong to the culture while others are just students who are interested in learning more about it. Nonetheless, events on campus at Bowling Green State University are very beneficial in helping make the university truly feel like home. For instance, on November 19, 2015 the Russian Club on campus hosted an event in which students or citizens of the community could come and watch the movie Russian Ark free of charge. The film was held at Gish Film Theater in Hanna Hall and started at 7 o’clock p.m. The movie is spoken in Russian and is one long continuous shot reviewing Russian history lasting for a total of 96 minutes. The event overall was very well worth attending due to the amazing venue it provided for the film, how well preformed the film itself was, the fact that it benefited the university’s academic mission, and how the event helped meet the goal of building a connected community within Bowling Green.
The movie Russian Ark, also known as Russkiy kovche and directed by Alexander Sokurov, was released in the United States in October of 2002 at the Chicago International Film Festival. The film is widely known for its unique characteristic of only have one shot throughout the entire film without any breaks as well as having over 2,000 people in the movie. The film itself was over multiple centuries of Russian history and actually showed many noble characters such as Peter the Great and Catherine II. The continuous shot throughout the entire film walks us through the Hermitage Museum where there are a variety of paintings and sculptures that the two main characters, Marquis and Sokurov, often speak about. After having toured through the museum, the film opens up into a grand ball room in which a formal ball seems to be happening. This scene contains hundreds of dancers in extravagant costumes as well as beautiful music from an orchestra. The film ends with Sokurov leaving the grand ball room and finding an ocean, when he looks back the building is no longer there. The movies overall story line is to show many centuries and era of Russian history, and it did just that.
When going to any kind of event people expect certain kinds of criteria for the event to follow. For instance, when one attends a comedy movie they expect it to contain jokes that will make them laugh. When going to a cultural event on campus, people usually expect the event to inform them of something they don’t know or to just be able to have fun. However, there are different components that are involved with making that end result happen. Having said that, when going to watch Russian Ark it is expected that a proper venue is provided in order for one to get complete satisfaction from attending the event. This event had done just that because the Gish Theater is the perfect set up to hold a movie. The theater provides very comfortable seating for people who are attending the screening. This happens to be a very important factor when attending an event such as a film because one typically cannot enjoy watching a movie if they are in an uncomfortable setting. The theater also has a great amount of seating for people who attended, even though this event itself did not have that much attendance to where the whole theater was filled. However, this is still a very important aspect that an event such as this must provide due to the fact that many people from both the university and community could have attended. The theater also had a very large screen that one would find at an actual movie theater which was very beneficial for this event because it allowed everyone in the theater to have a clear view as to what was going on. Also, since the whole movie was spoken in Russian, and most of those in attendance spoke English, the large screen was very useful since many people had to read the subtitles to understand what was being said throughout the film. Although the screen with subtitles was available, the movie was a little difficult to follow due to the only language being spoken was Russian. However, the venue itself was very well chosen for this event and should definitely be used in the future for any similar cultural events such as a movie.
Another reason the film was a worthwhile event was because of how well preformed the movie was. Typically for someone to enjoy watching a movie the performance or story line must be able to keep ones attention for a long amount of time. This film was able to do just that thanks to each actor/actresses performance throughout the movie, as well as all the exquisite costumes and paintings that were in the film. Since this film was one long continuous shot the directors main attempt was probably to try and keep something constantly happening so people would not get bored while viewing his film. In order to do so, each performer had to of had many practices so that they would be able to give a fantastic performance that would satisfy those in the audience. It was clear in this film that there were countless hours of practice put in to making it such a great movie, especially since there were over 2,000 people to work with. Although the performance of all of the actors, having over 2,000 in one continuous shot was a little bit distracting. Nonetheless, the performance of the actors and actresses was done extremely well in the scene in which Sokurov enters the grand ball room to find hundreds of people dancing while an orchestra plays. Clearly this particular scene required a lot of work for it to be completely perfect for the end since there was a lot of movement going on. Also, during this scene the camera had moved as if it had been floating in air to get the full effect of what was going on, which must have had to been done before in order to get it perfect for this scene of the movie. The performance throughout the entire movie was spectacular and most likely satisfied the expectations of those who came to this event.
In addition, this event was also very beneficial to the university’s academic mission. Since this movie did pertain to Russian history, many students from either pop culture or history classes could attend and learn something from the movie. In fact, this event had many students in attendance from a pop culture class. With that being said, it is clear that many professors could easily send their students to this event if they wish to have their students learn more about the history in Russia, or even just to see the Russian paintings that were in the movie. Some professors could even send their students as part of an assignment in which if they prove they went, they can receive credit for going. The only downfall to this would be that many students could easily get a signature and then leave before even actually watching the movie, clearly not benefiting the school’s academic mission. A part of the mission statement for the university states “Bowling Green State University provides educational experiences inside and outside of the classroom that enhance the lives of all of our students, other stakeholders, and the many publics we serve” proving how this event was very benefitting towards accomplishing the university’s academic mission since it was an outside of the classroom experience. The event provided a variety of educational information for many students and citizens of the community that worked towards accomplishing the academic mission for Bowling Green State University.
Finally, many cultural events on campus are held in an attempt to bring members of both the university and the city of Bowling Green together as one connected community. The viewing of Russian Ark was able to accomplish that goal due to the fact that that it brought people together to watch something they all had common interest in. Whether the guests in attendance were there for a class or even just to watch the showing for their own enjoyment, each person was there which gave them a chance to communicate with one another. In fact, before the movie had even started, many people were already talking with one another about the film. In order for the city and school to come together, it is important that events like this are held so that members of the city can become familiar with students and faculty of the university.
In conclusion, this campus event that was held definitely satisfies the expectations of many people who want to attend a cultural event. This event itself was a very enjoyable movie and definitely was able to educate those who are unfamiliar with both the Russian language and Russian history. This event was able to accomplish a variety of criteria for campus cultural events such as the how well chosen the venue was, how great of a performance the movie portrayed, the fact that it benefited the university’s academic mission, and finally it satisfied the goal of building a connected community within the city of Bowling Green.
Works Cited
“Vision, Mission, & Core Values.” BGSU Strategic Plan. Bowling Green State University. n.d. Web. 8 December 2015.