St Petersburg was designed to make a grand, imperial statement. Built on a major scale, it is as beautiful on film as it is in real life. Rather than diminishing in importance when the capital was transferred to Moscow, it continued to play an important role in Russian history and culture. From the dramatic events of the October Revolution to the 872-day siege of Leningrad, the city has had 3 different names in its 300 year history and continues to draw film crews today.

Sergei Eisenstein was one of the first directors from the Soviet Union to gain international acclaim. Having received praise at home and abroad for The Battleship Potemkin, in 1927 he released October (Oktyabr). A propaganda film about the October Revolution, he used innovative montage techniques, linking and repeating certain images to influence the audience. Visually stunning, Eisenstein recreates the chaos and violence of the revolution. You’ll probably enjoy it more if you have some knowledge of this period of history, but even if you don’t, it’s engrossing, with many of the more iconic images certain to stay with you long after you’ve finished watching the film.

Eldar Ryazanov’s The Irony of Fate (Ironiya Sud’by) is a classic of Soviet-era comedy and is still shown every year on New Year’s Eve, the main winter celebration in Russia. One New Year’s Eve a group of friends go to a banya in Moscow to celebrate. One of the party, Pavlik, is supposed to be flying to Leningrad, while another, Zhenya, has just got engaged. Excited about both matters, they proceed to get drunk and then unable to remember which friend got engaged and which is supposed to be flying to Leningrad, chaos ensues. The film is a sweet romantic comedy which makes light of stereotypes of the Soviet Union and the uniformity of soviet architecture.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Leningrad became St Petersburg once again. The change in political system brought many changes to the lives of the city’s inhabitants. Films set in the last 20 years depict a city almost unrecognisable from the cosy charm of The Irony of Fate.

The 1997 film, Brother (Brat), showcased one of Russia’s most significant contemporary directors, Aleksei Balabanov, and a major acting talent in leading man Sergei Bodrov Jr. Following the fortunes of Danila Bagrov (Bodrov), the film provides an insight into the more grim sides of Russian society in the 1990s, depicting crime, poverty, dysfunctional families and the problems facing Russian youth. Danila returns to St Petersburg from military service and gets involved in organised crime through his elder brother, provoking to violent consequences. Whilst not a film for the faint hearted, it is absorbing. A sequel which follows Danila to Moscow and the US has a similar body count but is slightly funnier. It is also an interesting response to the many two-dimensional, cold-hearted Russian characters portrayed in American action films made during the Cold War. Sergei Bodrov Jr. was tragically killed while filming in the Caucasus in 2002.

Leaving behind the wilder excesses of the 1990s, the 2003 film The Stroll (Progulka) offers a more pleasant portrayal of life in St Petersburg after the collapse of Communism. Aleksei Uchitel’s 90-minute film shows the interaction between two boys and a girl strolling around St Petersburg on a summer’s day. Shot almost in real time, it is the closest you’ll get to walking around central St Petersburg without actually being there. Although less obviously disturbing than Brother, The Stroll is by no means a saccharine depiction of the city: the boys compete over the girl and there are many references to materialism. The ostentatious wedding parties, costumed locals fleecing tourists and the final revelation of Olga’s ultimately manipulative and spoiled nature reflect the complicated dynamics of Russian society today.

The film which arguably does St Petersburg’s imperial architecture most justice is the 2002 Alexander Sokurov film Russian Ark (Russki Kavcheg). Shot in a single 96-minute take it is unashamedly beautiful. An unseen narrator is accompanied by a European visitor on a walk around the Winter Palace. Now the main building of the Russian State Hermitage Museum, they drift through the building in different periods of its history. They meet an array of real and fictional characters, at times interacting with them and at others passing by unnoticed. From the splendour of Tsarist court ritual and celebration to the siege of Leningrad, the film showcases the city’s history, culminating in a lavish recreation of the last imperial ball held in 1913.

All the films mentioned above are widely available on DVD with English subtitles.