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FILM THEORY AND FILM HISTORY | AUDIOVISUAL ARTS

The Birth of Cinema in the Russian Empire and Film Censorship

UDC 791.43.03

Summary: The article examines the interrelation between the origins of film censorship in the prerevolutionary period and the year of the advent of Russian cinema. In the author’s opinion, its conventional dating — 1907–1908 — is not exact. She analyzes the examples of the initial supervision of cinema in the Russian Empire targeted not only at the foreign films screening but at the shooting process as well, e. g. prohibition of shooting within orthodox churches, the seizure of the movie camera and film footage shot by Lumière cinematographers in the Khodynka Field in May, 1896.

Key words: cinema in the Russian empire, early cinema, censorship, film projection, early film production, coronation of the last Tsar.

Author: Natascha L. Drubek, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor, Peter Szondi-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, editor-in-chief, “Apparatus” journal: Film, Media and Digital Culture in Central and Eastern Europe (Germany).

FILM LANGUAGE AND TIME | IMAGE GENESIS

The Storming of the Winter Palace as a Mythmaking of National Screen Culture

UDC 778.5.01.067.2

Summary: The article analyzes the cinema interpretation of the Winter Palace storming in Petrograd in the fall of 1917. It focuses upon the process of forging the screen image of the well known historical event by various directors at different stages of Russian cinema development. The emphasis falls upon the objective and subjective factors which determined the formation of mythological look the light of the socio-political conditions specific to different periods of Russian film history.

Key words: the Great Russian revolution, cinema, television, historical events, authenticity, fake, mythology.

Author: Sergey N. Ilchenko, Doctor of Philology, Associate Professor. Higher School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Saint Petersburg State University, editor-in-chief, “Kulturny Petersburg” paper, author, presenter and reviewer of the “Petersburg” radio station.

Contemporary Hero in the Wartime Chronotope

UDC 791.43.01

Summary: By the example of the popular Russian screen hero Stierlitz, the article reveals that “Seventeen Moments of Spring” directed by T.Lioznova is a perfect instance of TV films about World War II in which the protagonist is in fact a contemporary hero rather than a historical one. The thesis is confirmed by the analysis of three layers of the main character interpretation.

Key words: Great Patriotic War (WW2), intelligence officer, multi-episode TV-show, protagonist, Stierlitz.

Authors: Aleksey B. Muradov, Associate Professor, Head of Cinema Department (Moscow State Institute of Culture), author, producer and director of more than 20 documentaries and fiction films; Ksenia A. Shergova, PhD in Arts, Associate Professor of Screen Arts Department (Moscow Media Industry Academy). Author and director of more than 50 documentaries, prize-winner of international film festivals.

PERFORMANCE | THE ART OF PRESENTATION

Film Reconstruction of the Past as a Method of Understanding Reality

UDC 778.5.04.072.094

Summary: The article examines the method of reconstructing the past in the film universe. Such films testify to an intention to reveal the link of times and establish an efficient personalized audiovisual communication between film and audience. They also demonstrate the unique power of cinema to imbed new ideas and concepts in the collective perception.

Key words: reconstruction of the past, a socio-cultural paradigm, cinema, film language, artistic time continuum, collective unconscious.

Author: Vyacheslav V. Marusenkov, PhD (Arts), Senior lecturer of the Department of Cinema Science, VGIK.

Metaphor in Cinema: Specifics of its Creation and Perception

UDC 791.43.01

Summary: The problem of creating a film metaphor and the psychology of its perception has yet to be investigated by Russian art critics, especially in regard to the current changes in the audiovisual sphere. The article examines the characteristics of film metaphor and analyzes the mechanism of forming diegetic and non-diegetic metaphors. It also considers the role of metonymy in the formation of a cinematic metaphor.

Key words: cinema, metaphor, metonymy, diegetic space, perception of the film.

Author: Vitaliy F. Poznin, Doctor in Arts, Professor, Broadcast Journalism Department, Saint Petersburg State University, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Criteria of Composition of Documentaries about Nature

UDC 778.5

Summary: The article analyses the composition of documentaries dealing with the interaction between nature and human society. Their composition is usually characterized by rhythmic montage of audiovisual images while emphasizing accentual sequences. The arrangement of audiovisual raw footage based on threefold repetition of a poetic device imparts wholeness to a film. The elaboration and use of specific rhythmic structure creates a greater emotional impact of the film.

Key words: auteur cinema, interaction between nature and society, filming animals, remote assembling, audiovisual figure.

Author: Nadezhda N. Berkova, Assistant Professor of Cinema History and Theory Department Kazakh National Academy of Arts a. T.K.Zhurgenov.

Hearing and Speech Voice Expressiveness of the Actor

UDC 792.01

Summary: The article investigates the process of actor’s aural perception as the most important component of verbal expressiveness. Speech intonation, both in real life and on stage/screen, is linked with human emotional sensibility. The ability of perceiving the dialogue partner’s inner life and the intonational expressiveness are determined by the presence of emotional auditory susceptibility developed by Scenic Speech classes.

Key words: speech, emotional ear, scenic dialogue, voice, auditory perception, nonverbal communication, emotional intonation.

Author: Irina A. Avtushenko, PhD in Art, assistant professor, Scenic Speech, VGIK, member of the RF Theatre Union.

SCREEN CULTURE | CULTUROLOGY. PHILOSOPHY

Synthesis of Arts in Vasily Kandinsky's Creative Work

UDC 37(09)

Summary: The article examines the processes connected with the synthesis of arts at the turn of the 20th century as exemplified by the work of Vasily Kandinsky, a Russian painter, who also wrote poetry, was interested in music and theatre. Sensing a close link between various art forms, this avant-garde artist understood the importance of integrating artistic properties which inevitably leads to the incarnation of innovative creative ideas. The author explains the origins of the synthesis of arts, analyses the aspects of perceiving new forms by the audience, specifies the tendencies leading to synergy which is starting to take shape in modern art.

Key words: synthesis of arts, V. Kandinsky, Wagner, A.Schoenberg, sounding colors, improvisation, abstraction, sounds of nature.

Author: Natalya S. Kharitonova, PhD (Arts), Associate Professor, Department of Aesthetics, History and Theory of Culture, VGIK.

WORLD CINEMA | ANALYSIS

Counterculture and its Impact upon American Rock Music Documentaries in 1960–1970s

UDC 778.5

Summary: The article surveys a number of most prominent American documentaries devoted to the rock music of the 1960-70s. The author explores the aesthetic patterns which make it possible to find out how the social protest mood was reflected in these films and correlated with mass culture. Special attention is paid to the influence of ‘Direct Cinema’ aesthetics on the evolution of rock music films.

Key words: documentaries, television, direct cinema, rock music, Maysles, Pennebaker.

Author: Maxim F. Kazyuchits, PhD (Philosophy), senior researcher, Institute of Film Art, VGIK. 

FILM INDUSTRY | STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF MANAGEMENT

Development of Culture: Methodological Basis of State Regulation

UDC 338.46

Summary: The article examines the economic aspects of state-regulated culture development. The authors search into the methods and peculiarities of Russian non-commercial institutions, reveal the notion of innovation and the possibilities of its application for expanding the business activity of cultural organizations, formulate the recommendations for developing state regulation tools aimed at attaining the balanced functioning of cultural organizations.

Key words: methods and instruments of regulation, the state, sources and types of financial resources, innovations in the sphere of culture, economic activity.

Author: Igor N. Molchanov, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor, Professor of Economics Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University; Professor of Public Finance Department of Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation; Professor of the Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after Sergei Gerasimov (VGIK).

TELEVISION | DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

Information Requirements of Society and Expressivity of Audiovisual Media

UDC 654.197

Summary: Modern realization of television’s educational tasks is considered in terms of the cultural contradictions stimulated by the screen mediation of social communications. However, the devaluation of out-of-studio documentary forms of reflecting reality is accompanied by the growth of the verbal expression of ideas from the screen which allows a person to change perception modalities together with the content and play the role of a communicator.

Key words: audiovisual media, documentary, verbal communication, expressiveness, television, society.

Author: Liliana Yu. Malkova, Doctor in Arts, Department of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University.

INSTITUTE OF FILM ART, VGIK | INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

The Un-Gone Past in the Context of Research

UDC 791.43.03

Summary: A concise review of the international conference ”The Unfading Image of the October”: the Truth and Memory of the Revolution in the Cinema’ that was held in VGIK in Autumn 2017. The conference was organized by the Institute of Film Art and the School of Culture Studies, Higher School of Economics and participated by film scholars, archivists, culturologists, historians from Russia, Germany, France and the UK. There were 24 speakers representing different spheres of the humanities.

Author: Maria A. Palshkova, Academic Secretary, Institute of Film Art, VGIK.

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