The Hymns of Muscovy

6/12/2023

Dimitri Venkov Introduces His Film "The Hymns of Muscovy" on Mubi There are good reasons why images of buildings aren’t as impressive as real life buildings. Quite obviously the volume, the scale, the materiality are missing in pictures. Real life architecture has always provided me with a powerful emotional and tactile experience, yet in an image, no matter still or moving, it loses most of its punch—it no longer makes my head spin nor gives me butterflies in my stomach. I rarely concentrate on architecture in films. Actually, most directors don’t want me to: architecture is a backdrop for the action, an instrument to create a mood, a vehicle for the characters’ state of mind. In other words, it is ancillary to something else in the film. Rarely is it treated as a subject in its own ri