THE RUSSIAN ARK (2002) HSE x ITS Film Poster Collaboration

Russian Ark (Russian: Русский ковчег, romanized: Russkij kovcheg) is a 2002 experimental historical drama film directed by Alexander Sokurov. The plot follows an unnamed narrator, who wanders through the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, and implies that he died in some horrible accident and is a ghost drifting through. In each room, he encounters various real and fictional people from various periods in the city’s 300-year history. He is accompanied by «the European», who represents the Marquis de Custine, a 19th-century French traveler. international co-production between Russia and Germany, Russian Ark was shot entirely in the Winter Palace of the Russian State Hermitage Museum on 23 December 2001, using a one-take single 87-minute Steadicam sequence shot.

File of the Original Arts:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VJ7FJOB_ZE69iE2trklqnyM5K9csBi_C?usp=sharing

The poster embodies an Art Nouveau aesthetic with its graceful composition and rich ornamental detail. The Hermitage Palace, a majestic icon of Russian history, is the poster’s visual centerpiece, depicted with intricate architectural details, gilded windows, and a classical facade glowing in the golden light of dusk.

In a more symbolic interpretation, however, the museum appears to float on the waves of a turbulent ocean—sapphire and turquoise waves swirl around it, illustrated by the gently flowing, curved lines of Art Nouveau.

The poster presents a grand and melancholic atmosphere with a grand opera stage, adorned with red velvet curtains that rise, revealing a world trapped in time. Crystal chandeliers on the ceiling glow softly, illuminating the golden carvings and classical architectural details that exude the glory of the Russian Empire.

In the center of the stage, a man dressed in 18th-century clothing stands elegantly.

The poster features a towering, spiral staircase that seems to spiral endlessly, representing the passage of time and the differences in civilizations recorded in Russian history. The staircase is adorned with gold carvings and classically ornamented balustrades, which become increasingly blurred as the steps rise, reflecting the transition from one era to another.

The poster embodies the elegant and symmetrical Art Deco aesthetic, with a dynamic composition centered on a man in 18th-century clothing ascending a grand staircase. The staircase is designed with bold lines and geometric patterns typical of Art Deco, exuding a sense of luxury and monumentality, as if heading towards the pinnacle of civilization or the eternity of history.

The poster is designed in a comic style with colorful, expressive lines, featuring a large wooden fan spread wide open, taking up most of the composition. Each fan blade is decorated with historical faces from various eras of Russia, drawn with the bold detail, dramatic expressions, and contrasting shadows typical of comic illustrations.

This poster presents a dramatic and surreal composition, showing a grand museum with its walls covered in classic Baroque and Rococo oil paintings. What makes it unique, however, are the historical figures that emerge from the paintings, as if stepping into the real world, blending into the vast museum space and gleaming in golden light.