writings

Destined to Sail Forever: Sokurov’s Russian Ark

Written by kara

Sunday, 05 December 2010 05:07

"I am an eye. I am a mechanical eye.

I, a machine, I am showing you a world,

the likes of which only I can see"

-Dziga Vertov

Whilst countrymen Vertov and Alexander Sokurov could not be more disparate in their historical contexts or ideological leanings, both a subscribe to the theoretical ‘Kino-eye’, an all seeing lens capable of capturing ‘history’ with the live gaze of the camera. Vertov’s documentary cinema was made with the purpose of recording ‘truth’, time and place; Sokurov’s visual manifesto Russian Ark attempting to document location, a single place, however, suspends reality to create a film that transcends temporality and context. From its introductory frame to its last, there will not be one interruption, the film, a representation of history, spatiality and performativity taken ‘in one breath’. A single steadicam shot ushers the audience through different ‘scenes’ shot in one location, observing bygone eras and interacting with inhabitants of the past and present. The lens of the camera is offered as a gateway into a world that is no longer bound by temporality and historical context. Russian Ark was met with both critical and audience acclaim, celebrated for its unique cinematic structure and groundbreaking technical achievements. Immense and calculated use of set design, characterisation, camera movement and postproduction techniques such as manipulation of frame rates and colour grading, invest the film with meaning which would otherwise not be communicated without these elements of mise én scene.

Mirrors, Mazes and Mayhem: Set Design and The Shining

Written by kara

Sunday, 05 December 2010 04:27

Mirrors, Mazes and Mayhem: Set Design and The Shining

Kara Bombell

“What is anachronistic about the ghost story is its…contingent and constitutive

dependence of physical place and, in particular, on the material house.”

(Jameson. 1981. pg8, para 15)

Kubrick, not one to underestimate the importance of set design in the ‘haunted house’ genre, made no less than an historical feat of production and set design in his film The Shining. The Overlook Hotel that we see in the film is in fact an amalgamation of on-site locations and elaborate, constructed sets. Kubrick and screenwriting partner Diane Johnson made clear their intention to reconcile the audience’s seat in reality with that of a supernatural world. Is Jack Torrence descending into madness? Is he possessed by The Overlook Hotel? More importantly, is this the same thing? The interchangibility between the psychological and the paranormal provides The Shining with “the artistic satisfaction of a fairytale” (Ciment. 1980. para.11) and the ability to introduce elements of set design that not only contain performance, localise action or create mood, but create meaning, investing the film with ideas and feelings that would otherwise not be communicated. I will discuss three set design motifs used in The Shining and how they contribute to the film’s mise en scene.