What an exquisite movie. It won me over gradually. After the first twenty minutes I was thinking: «This may be a technical stunt, but hardly more than that». As the film progressed, I realized how the director and the cinematographer were actually creating a work of astonishing beauty, and yet nothing could prepare me for the final scene («Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh»). The movie is a very peculiar and personal meditation on Russian history (despite all their differences, it reminded me of Oliveira’s ‘No, or the Vain Glory of Command’, which is better, I think) and I can only hope that one day I’ll be able to identify all events depicted or alluded to. And it’s an hommage to Russian cinema too: notice, for instance, Eisenstein’s Vakulinchuk looking at the Romanovs’ last dinner. Oh, and there’s the Hermitage, a bit like Versailles in ‘Marie Antoinette’. To film in the actual place gives the movie a unique feeling and its final brush of splendour. [13/03/2011]