2004. Archives. Messenger. The Island of Sokurov. An Official Website of Alexander Sokurov

28 October 2004. St. Petersburg.

Lenfilm studio (October–December). Post–production period of the film “The Sun”.

Sergey Moshkov — the Sound Producer of the film.

Dubbing of american actors.

08 October 2004. St. Petersburg.

The theatre–festival “Baltic House”. Alexander Sokurov visits the performance “Goldoni. Venice”, produced by the famous Ukrainian director Andrey Zholdak. There was the friendly talk with Zholdak after the performance.

The Sokurov's opinion of the performance: “It's the absolutely ancient beauty. The fantastic beauty. Zholdak — theatrical Paradzhanov. All that he's doing with the whole refinement of the scene form, is full of warmth, the real feeling”.

Alexander Sokurov and Andrey Zholdak.

15 September 2004. St. Petersburg.

Lenfilm Studio. The last shooting day of the film “The Sun”.

The firework in honour of the shooting's end.

08 September 2004. St. Petersburg.

The settlement Koltushi under St.Petersburg. The Institute of the Experimental Genetics and the High Neural Activity. There are the shootings of one of the episodes.

Sokurov in the breaks between the shootings.

05 September 2004. St. Petersburg.

The settlement Sapernoe under St. Petersburg. There are shootings of one of the episodes.

On the shootings in Sapernoe.

Alexander Sokurov at the camera in Sapernoe.

20 August 2004. St. Petersburg.

Elagin Palace. There are shootings of the film “The Sun” with the participation of Japanese and American actors.

27 July 2004. St. Petersburg.

Lenfilm studio pavilion. There were guests on shootings of the film “The Sun” in pavilion: a director–animator Yuri Norstein and a conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. Alexander Sokurov discussed with Mstislav Rostropovich the details of the forthcoming project — the staging of the M. Musorgskij's opera “Hovanshina”.

Yuri Norstein and Alexander Sokurov.

Mstislav Rostropovich and Alexander Sokurov.

12 July 2004. St. Petersburg.

There are shootings of the film “The Sun” in the Lenfilm Studio with the participation of Japanese actors.

24 June 2004. St. Petersburg.

The meeting with the American actress Meril Streep in the Hermitage.

Meril Streep and Alexander Sokurov.
Photo: À. Belenkiy, The Hermitage Bridge Studio, © 2004

21 June 2004. St. Petersburg.

The text of Alexander Sokurov's comment concerning the murder of Nikolay Girenko was printed on the front page of the newspaper “Izvestia” and on the web–site www.izvestia.ru.

18 May 2004. St. Petersburg.

The work on shooting sheets of episodes of the film “The Sun”.

27 April 2004. St. Petersburg.

The beginning of the first episode shootings (“Bombing of the Tokyo”).

14 April 2004. Helsinki (Finland).

The selection of the forties automobile for the shootings in the film “The Sun”.

05 April 2004. St. Petersburg.

The Internet–meeting with Alexander Sokurov took place in the Cafemax within the frameworks of “Chat with the Star”.

The themes:
   1. The place of the artist in the modern society.
   2. Artistic vocation and education. Antinomy or mutual addition. Whether it is possible to teach art.
   3. The cinematograph and the “life truth“. The fixation of the objective reality and the author's world.

The answers on the given questions, including the ones in the online mode, look at: “Starchat.ru: Chat with the Star”.

21 March 2004. St. Petersburg.

Lenfilm Studio. The work on the film “The Sun”. The try–outs of the make–up and the video-try–outs with the Japanese and American performers of the main roles. Construction of the pavilion for the shootings of the film.

07 March 2004. Tokyo (Japan).

Alexander Sokurov conducts a casting of Japanese actors for the film “The Sun” and also discusses the organizational questions with japanese members of the project.

01 March 2004. St. Petersburg.

Sokurov's group works on the electronic montage of the video–film “Mozart. Requiem”. The material for it was shot by several TV cameras during the concert on 3th of February.

21 February 2004. St. Petersburg.

“Winter gallery”. Art exhibition of the painter Jurij Kuper, which demonstrates sketches to the projects of Alexander Sokurov: film “The Sun” (Hirohito) and the opera “Boris Godunov”.

03 February 2004. St. Petersburg.

The Small hall of Philharmonic. There was a concert devoted to the memory of academician Alexander Panchenko. The Programme: Pushkin — “Mozart and Salieri”. Mozart — Requiem. Participants of the performance: Leonid Mozgovoj (reading); Soloists of the Mariinskij theatre: Olga Kondina, Zlata Bulycheva, Jevgenij Akimov, Gennadij Bezzubenkov. Chamber chorus “Rossika”. The leader is Valentina Kopylova–Panchenko. Ensemble “Soloists of St. Petersburg”. The leader is Mihail Gantvarg. The conductor is Valentin Nesterov.

03 February 2004. Moscow.

The rank “The National artist of Russia” was given to Alexander Sokurov.

26 January 2004. St. Petersburg.

19–21 p.m. Dvortsovaja square. National Hermitage started the ceremony “Wreath of memory”, devoted to diamond jubilee of raising the Leningrad blockade. There was a light–music performance with the use of lazer beams. The documentary “Russkij perepev” with the participation of citizens of blokade Leningrad was shown at the square. Production of A. Sokurov.

21 January 2004. Irkutsk.

Alexander Sokurov takes part in the programme “Hermitage in Siberia”.

17 January. Culture centre “Hudozchestvennyj”. A press conference. The ceremonial opening of the A. Sokurov's film festival. Demonstration of the documentary “And nothing more”.

18 January. Sokurov visits the museum of the Litvyanka settlement on the lake Baikal. He visits the place where the village Podorviha (Sokurov'd mothercountry) used to be. The demonstration of the feauture film “Taurus”.

19 January. Meeting with cinematographers of Irkutsk. Demonstration of the feature film “Russian Ark”.