van der Horst, Aliona
2003 The Hermitage Dwellers. Brooklyn, New York: Icarus Films.
Notes: VHS color 73 minsReviewed 11 Dec 2006 by:
Ray Bucko <bucko@creighton.edu>
Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha NE 68178Medium: Film/Video Subject
Keywords:Art museums - Russia
Museums - Russia (Federation) - Saint Petersburg Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh (Russia)
Saint Petersburg (Russia)
ABSTRACT: This film intertwines the biographies of four employees at the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum with Russian history and Soviet ideology to effectively paint complex portraits of both the institution and its inhabitants. This is an excellent and useful instance of contemporary ethnographic film.
I was initially attracted to this film because I expected it to be an interesting visual demonstration of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to social life, particularly his paradigm of front stage – back stage behavior. The film does indeed accomplish this admirably, but it also contains a plethora of opportunities for illustrating principles of cultural anthropology.This 73-minute film focuses on employees of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Each tells a story of his or her place in the museum, interweaving personal and Russian history, and explaining the importance of their jobs and their surroundings to their personal lives. The "Hermitage-niks" ultimately form a family. The museum is their true home.
Olga Bogdanova is the director of museum maintenance – both supervisor and mother to the staff. She relates her personal relationship to the museum from childhood when she watched the bombing of the Museum and city of Stalingrad / St. Petersburg to the present.
Valentina Barbashova is a research scholar who lost her prestigious job and salary as a scientist and now works at the Hermitage. Her favorite painting in the Hermitage collection is Michael Sweert's “Portrait of a Young Man,” an image of someone who, like herself, has gone bankrupt. She relates to the young man in the painting as her own imaginary prodigal son.
Vadim Kuptsov, a young man now charged with moving art works throughout the museum, served in Azerbaijan in the military. He has a particular relationship to two paintings. One is a still life of a fishmonger’s wares, which fascinated him as a boy. He explains that when he is in a good mood he will view this painting that engenders memories of his youth. In his darker moments, he turns to Rembrant’s “The Prodigal Son,” seeing himself as having returned home after a dissolute life.
Icon curator Alexandra Kostsova identifies in particular with an icon of Mary praying. She speaks passionately about her personal quest to save Russian religious art, much of which was purposely destroyed under Stalin.
Juna Zek curates the collection of clocks and other metalwork, and is most inspired by personal photographs she displays in her office, particularly one of her father who was murdered in a Stalinist purge.
Interspersed among the autobiographical vignettes is footage of the Hermitage itself. Scenes of the grey Russian winter contrast with the bright interiors of the Hermitage; historical footage of the hiding of the art during World War II contrasts with contemporary tour groups from all over the world visiting various galleries. Children and adults are captivated by an amazing mechanical clock with animated animals. There is a Victory Day celebration commemorating the end of World War II, but we also see Catherine the Great and Nicholas II move through the Hermitage rooms -- not as personages but as portraits. For them, this structure was not a public museum but rather their personal palace. The film nicely contrasts the extravagant environment of the Hermitage with the simplity and ordinariness of its more than 2,000 employees.
Besides being a superlative movie and indeed a work of art in itself, this film is ideal for teaching anthropology, ethnography and ethnographic method. As an ethnographic film it fulfills the noble role of de-exoticizing humanity. Many students come to anthropology assuming that it is the study of strange and exotic others, as seen in films like Dead Birds and Nanook of the North. To my eyes, the only exotic individual in The Hermitage Dwellers is Vadim Kuptsov, with his multiple face piercings and sculpted facial hair. Alas, he would hardly be noticed by my students, who share similar bodily adornments.
The film also demonstrates the ethnographic method by combining personal narrative with history and culture, stressing the interdigitation of the Hermitage’s own institutional biography with that of its employees, visitors, and ultimately the global community. It examines too, the relationship of individuals to institutions, providing a sinecure for those who would separate culture from its producers or entrust cultural representation to the rich and powerful alone.
At the same time, the film is a brilliant presentation of the power of visual anthropology with its contrasting portraits of czars and czarinas with workers on a tram in snowy winter. Its visual and narrative richness serve as a “thick description” of contemporary Russian society, in the light of its turbulent past. It shows both the power of ideologies and the realities of all societies, which at root are heterogeneous and resistant to totalization. And it provides a paradigm for ethnohistorical method, voicing alternate interpretations of official history, and intertwining historical and cultural analysis with personal experience and emotion. Did I say emotion? Unlike many classic anthropology texts and even films, The Hermitage Dwellers deals with deep emotion and sentiment, and points out how important this often-omitted element of ethnographic reality is.
Kinship, both metaphorical and socially constructed, instantiated with colleagues and the physical museum itself, is a consistent thread throughout the film -- not surprising for a society that once referred to its monarchs as the great mother and great father. More subtly, the film addresses the anthropology of aging, contrasting the youthful Vadim with 82-year-old Alexandra Kostsova. The museum elders speak reflectively about history and aging, unable to see themselves ever retiring from their work.
The film won the Grand Prize at the 2006 Montreal Festival of Films on Art and was recognized as the Best Cultural Program at the 2003 Dutch Academy Awards. Please note that there are two versions. The Hermitage Dwellers, reviewed here, is a compilation of a longer five-part series entitled Hermitage-Niks: A Passion for the Hermitage. Each segment of that documentary runs 25 minutes.
First Run / Icarus Films provides a web page for this film. Unfortunately this page simply reproduces the narrative from the film case. The filmmaker is not consistent in naming the each of the major paintings incorporated into this visual tapestry, nor does the film company provide a suitable study guide. The State Hermitage Museum has its own website: http://hermitagemuseum.org/. The site contains some of the paintings mentioned in the film: Portrait of a Young Man, and The Return of the Prodigal Son. My best efforts searching 127 still life paintings on the Hermitage website could not produce the amazing painting of fish shown in the film.
But that is a quibble. This is a splendid film for both an introduction to anthropology course as well as upper level courses, and can be used fruitfully to spark discussion of a wide variety of anthropological themes.
* Use offer code ARD07 to receive a 10% discount when buying this title from First Run/Icarus Films.
To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Bucko, Ray
2006 Review of The Hermitage Dwellers. Anthropology Review Database. December 11. Electronic document, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=3006, accessed February 9, 2010.© Anthropology Review Database
(available online: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/)