Happy 69th Birthday, Alexander Sokurov! Born today in 1951 as Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, this Russian film director is one of the most important directors in both Russian and world cinema.
In 1975, Sokurov entered one of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (a.k.a. VGIK) studios the following year. This is a film school in Moscow.
While there, he became friends with Russian filmmaker, writer, and film theorist Andrei Tarkovsky, and was deeply influenced by his film, the 1975 Russian drama art film 'Zerkalo' ('The Mirror').
Most of Sokurov's early features were banned by Soviet authorities. During his early period, he produced numerous documentaries,
Among his credits, Sokurov is best known for directing the 1997 Russian drama film 'Mat I syn' ('Mother and Son'). The film depicts the relationship between an old, dying mother and her young son.
Set in a small house in the countryside of Russia, a son (Alexei Ananischnov) cares for his sick, elderly mother (Gudrun Geyer) as they prepare for her death.
As the mother struggles to breathe and her health gradually deteriorates, her son holds her, feeds her and does his best to comfort her.
When the son finally brings the mother to her death bed, the two embark on a journey through a hallucinatory outdoor landscape where they spend their final moments together.
The film is a love story, not of romantic love as in "Romeo and Juliet" or "Tristan and Isolde", but rather regarding the profound emotional and spiritual ties that exist between a mother and her son.
The theme of death and of a mother and son recalls the Christian Passion, only here with the roles reversed – a dying mother, rather than a dying son – which has been called a "reverse pietà".
The cinematography by Aleksey Fyodorov features images distorted by filming through painted glass panes, mirrors, and special lenses, together with sounds of "whispering wind, crashing waves, and sea-gull cries," creating an elegiac mood.
The oneiric landscapes have been compared to the work of 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich. He was generally considered the most important German artist of his generation.
The painterly cinematography has been compared to the distortions of American non-narrative filmmaker Stan Brakhage and the work of English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener, and author Derek Jarman, British film director, screenwriter, and artist Peter Greenaway.
The following year, Sokurov directed the four-and-a-half 1998 Russian five-part semi-documentary series Povinnost'('Confession'),he films officers from the Russian Navy, showing the monotony and lack of freedom of their everyday lives.
Airing on Russian television, the dialogue in the series allows the viewer to follow the reflections of a ship commander.
Sokurov and his crew went aboard a naval patrol ship headed for Kuvshinka, a naval base in the Murmansk region, in the Barents Sea.
Confined within the limited space of a ship anchored in Arctic waters, the team filmed the sailors as they went about their routine activities.
However, among his credits, Sokurov is best known for co-writing, directing and narrating the 2002 Russian experimental historical drama film 'Russkiy kovcheg' ('Russian Ark').
Set in the opulent and magnificent Winter Palace, an unnamed 19th-century French aristocrat, notorious for his scathing memoirs about life in Russia, travels through the Russian State Hermitage Museum and encounters historical figures from the last two hundred plus years.
The film uses the fourth wall device extensively, but repeatedly broken and re-erected. At times the narrator and the companion interact with the other performers, whilst at other times they pass unnoticed.
'Russian Ark' is only but a handful of features that used a breathtaking, one-take single ninety-six-minute Steadicam sequence shot. This was accomplished by East German cinematographer Tilman Büttner.
The following year, 'Russian Ark' film was entered into the 55th Cannes Film Festivalin May 2002.
However, the Palme d'Or went to Polish-French film director, producer, writer, and actor Roman Polanski. This was for his 2002 British/French/Polish/German biographical war/drama film 'The Pianist'.
Sokurov is also known for directing the two-and-a-half-hour 2011 Russian drama/fantasy film 'Faust'.
The film premiered at the 68th Venice Film Festival, where it was honoured with the Golden Lion; the highest prize for the best film at the event.
Over the years, Sokurov has collected a number of awards at Berlin, Cannes, Moscow, Toronto, Locarno and European Film Awards. He currently lives and works in Russia.
In 2016, Sokurov said, "He [Tarkovsky] loved what I was doing but, to be honest, I was quite reserved about his work. In hindsight, I think, 'Wasn't I brave to go against him?' I was insane to argue with this great master."
Later that same year, during a meeting in December of the Council for Culture and Arts, Sokurov appealed to President Vladimir Putin to reconsider the verdict of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov (which Putin refused).
One of Sokurov's trademarks in his films are paintings. They often include long, accurate shots of real paintings in his film and his videos. Though beautiful to watch, Sokurov suffers from severe eyesight problems.
Sokurov is considered to be the spiritual heir of the great Tarkovsky. Sokurov -- who has enjoyed a long creative relationship with Tarkovsky -- has discounted such comparisons, but certain similarities between their works remain indelible.
These include a predilection towards very long takes, natural performances by their actors, and an almost otherworldly use of natural sounds and music.
And, perhaps most important, both directors are concerned with the essential questions of human existence and the state of the human spirit.
Sokurov has been active from 1978–present.
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