Metaphor in Cinema: Specifics of its Creation and Perception

The main feature of a metaphor is the transfer of the characteristics of one object to another one, i.e. categorical shift of meanings and a new semantic content arising as a result of it. Unlike the linguistic metaphor, which is actually a tightened, compressed similarity or contiguity, the local cinema metaphor as a rule is a visual comparison of specific objects. The author analyzes the difference and interaction of verbal and visual metaphors. Some features of creating a non-diegetic cinema metaphor are like a mechanism of creating a hieroglyph, because screen metaphors are often a way of describing an abstract concept through the connection of images of concrete objects. A particular object can acquire a metonymic and metaphorical meaning due to the context of episode. For modern figurative language of cinema a diegetic metaphor is more organic, because this one is a part of the screen narration. A significant role in the creation of the diegetic screen metaphor plays both the previous experience and the short-term memory of the viewer, helping him/ her to apprehend the metaphor. The questions considered in the article are just a small part of the theory of screen metaphor, which includes the consideration of such kinds of metaphor as orientational (spatial), conceptual, dynamic, color and sound metaphor, as well as analysis of a metaphor usage in different genres of animation, documentary, comedy.