Wavelength / Russian Ark
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| Figure 1 - Wavelength (1967) |
The arrow of time goes
forward continuously. Certain determinations, descents, ascents, surprises
appear in life. Like the movement of a wave, it descends and rises in
unexpected times. Sometimes it bothers. Wavelength is an experimental film
which is directed by Michael Snow. It is a continuous tracking shot from one
side of the room to the other over 42 minutes. The camera is slowly moving into
the picture frame. Wavelength is not only an experimental movie but also contains
several messages. The camera is in constant focus and several events develop
beyond the focus. But the camera never gets out of focus. At the end of a
period, the intertwined wave images reveal that the past and the future combine
and the wave identify with time (Figure 2). We don't know the length and intensity of the
wave. However, it is known that time is like a flowing river.
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| Figure 2 - Wavelength (1967) |
Despite the force of
its present, the Russian Ark (2003) also has a ruthless movement in the sense
of Wavelength (1967). Russian Ark is a first film to be shot in one single
uninterrupted 96-minute movie. Cinematography, music, set pieces, staggering
logistics of coordinating people and events are perfectly in one take. It was
set and filmed in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg where it used to be the
Czar's winter palace and follows the European a 19th-century diplomat and they
wander thought its halls and passed thought various times periods of Russian
history.
The museum itself that
witnesses history and the various Russian figures that float through its halls,
the gaze of the camera that records and frames its image of history,
architecture, and artifacts, or the specter of an uncertain and indeterminate
Russian present that haunts the halls of its monumental past. As opposed to the
fluid movement of the camera follows the rhythm of the dancers, musicians, and
various guests at the hall. Biagionli (2005) has widely researched on Russian
Ark movie which the film itself examines the identity and national politics
that emerge from such desirous orientations toward Europe. Biagionli also argues that, films reveal the
instability of geographical, historical, and cultural points of reference.
Russian Ark reveals nostalgia often produces various forms of erasure and
national myths of origin.
The thematic features
and concept of time in Wavelength and Russian Ark can be seen in both films.
Like Michael Snow's film, it is known that the image will eventually end; this
is the fate of the human and of a film. Although Russian Ark moves in and out
of different historical periods there is no editing; everything in the film
that refers to the motion of our present. The relationship between the
artifacts in the museum is a source of living memory and film as a living body.
Historical events turn them into a transparent timeframe as they climb the
corridors and the staircase that has been drifting through the centuries.
