Beyond the Real: The Painting in the Cinema by Alexander Sokurov

Abstract

The declarations by the Russian director Alexander Sokurov —who is fully active nowadays— seem to contradict the huge originality of his cinema. This friction is specially evident in the case of his declarations about the influence of painting in his work. Nevertheless, beyond the apparent regressive character of his words, a serious lecture of the paradigm that commonly guides the relationship between painting and cinema could be done. In this sense, Sokurov recognizes he is indebted to the tradition of Russian iconism, a tradition barely studied by occidental historians or critics and which is the main source of the peculiar devices found in some of his films.