Vol 10, No 2 (2018)

Anniversary celebrations in honor of the 100th anniversary of the All-Russian State Institute of cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov (VGIK), one of the leading film schools in the world, began. Officially, the date of the celebration falls on September 1, 2019, but preparations for the landmark anniversary are in full swing. The Republic of Kazakhstan became the first among foreign honors of the famous film school, where "Days of VGIK" organized by the Minister of culture and sports of Kazakhstan were held in Astana and Almaty

The first decade of the 20th century witnessed two revolutions in the world of arts: firstly, the upcoming of Avant-Garde art, and secondly - the birth of cinematic art. In painting, architecture and literature new revolutionary languages actually finalized the process of “onthologisation” which has begun much earlier. ttis process signaled its appearance with Modernity itself and reached its climax in the late 19 th century. We can observe since then a new species of artists whose artworks actually defy ideological meanings. Meanings and messages of artworks clearly distance themselves from convictions shared by authors. Visual and verbal arts as well as important strata of musical and theatrical productions embrace the discourse of Nature and Universe (i. e. primary components of Being). Avant-garde art makes the final accent in this development of Modernity. tte newly born film art seems to compensate functions ignored or denied by other artistic activities. Cinematic productions start realizing the «human and cultural tasks” (ideological propaganda, sentimental comfort, entertainment and other social functions). Elite-bound taste and high cultural pretentions seemingly fall out in early cinema. tte break-through in film art reaches its peak around 1910 parallel to the upheaval of Early Avant-Garde in painting. Handling of camera, constructing of visual field, as well as experimental boundlessness in space-and-time transformations bring the socially acceptable film narrative to the kind of onthological explosion on screen. In fact, film language itself (independently from any ideology or sociability) develops new methods of seeing. A decade before film art would enter its stormy “marriage” with Surrealism, masters of the screen already detected ways of hypnotic charm and irrational hurricane passing before our eyes. As examples of such inherent onthologization of means in film art we can see the structure itself of the “picture” and deliriumlike narration in several early films, i. e. Cabiria directed by Italian Giovanni Pastrone in 1914 as well as American masterpiece of 1915 - The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Pyryev passed away fifty years ago. However, for all these years he did not become a purely “historical” figure, his films have not gone into “nothingness”, disputes about his personality and creation have not ceased. The director, screenwriter, organizer of film production, he left a rich creative heritage. Having not received a special education and actually a dilettante in art, Pyryev, nevertheless, for half a century of work in the cinema has reached the highest professionalism, having traveled from the actor and the assistant to the screenwriter, helmer, director of Mosfilm, initiator and the first head of the Union of Filmmakers of the USSR. Ivan Pyryev's creation is known to many millions of viewers of different generations for those lyrical, musical comedies with which the heyday of Soviet cinema of the socialist realism period is identified: The Country Bride, Tractor Drivers, They Met in Moscow, Symphony of Life, Cossacks of the Kuban. Analyzing the era of the “Stalin Renaissance”, it should be noted that Pyryev filmed, in fact, always in demand, a movie about the struggle between good and evil, about the desire of heroes to go through any obstacles to reach happiness. And this means that I.A. Pyryev created genuinely “national films” in the 1930s and 1940s. These same tendencies became the basis of the pictures set by him during the Great Patriotic War, the heroic drama Secretary of the Communist Party District Committee and the lyrical comedy Six O'Clock in the Evening After the War, each of which inspired the audience with faith in victory and gave hope for happiness. The appeal of Pyryev in the late 1950s to the adaptation of F.M. Dostoevsky was unexpected and paradoxical. The explanation here is one: the turbulent, reeking talent of the artist pushed him to new creative searches in order to escape from stereotypes of the “Soviet” theme. His best screen interpretations of Dostoevsky's novels are the films Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Not all succeeded Pyryev’s screen reading of the most complicated works of Russian literature was not absolutely efficient. However, he did a lot to passionately, persuasively and passionately told about the tragic fate not only of Dostoevsky's heroes, but of Russia itself. He created films about love, its immense power, condemning nihilism, cynicism and lack of spirituality. That is why the phenomenon of Pyryev, as a unique phenomenon of domestic cinema, remains an object of close attention and research of modern film studies.

According to recent research, video games are recognized as a new kind of art of the 21st century. Is it possible to distinguish the concepts of ‘‘entertainment’’ and ‘‘art’’ when dealing with this phenomenon? The purpose of this article is to analyze the significance of the game in contemporary society, to characterize the dominant features of ‘‘personal management’’ of a work of art, and to consider the influence of game aesthetics on the language of up-to-date cinema. The digital age, new technologies, computer modeling and virtual aesthetics modernized the classical thesis of ‘‘the life as a game’’ into a new philosophical concept. There are more and more attempts in succession to create a full-fledged virtual reality where a person could feel oneself to be an individualized god, commanding over all the processes taking place with the one and one’s life. The ultimate goal is the creation of such a global ‘‘game world’’ in which every person would be able to try oneself in any social role or avatar, building relationships with anyone, playing and enjoying it. So this desire for an interactive fusion of game forms with the objective reality that we are accustomed to is forming a rich and multilayered cultural platform nourishing diverse areas of contemporary art. The game industry has gone a long way of its development as a form of art. Nowadays video games and movies “imitate” each other and combine mixed aesthetic trends - the boundary between the Game and the Film is being increasingly blurred. On the one hand, games tend to cinema, using professional directing, scriptwriting and cast. On the other hand, mainstreamification of gaming technologies attracts many filmmakers looking for new artistic forms, concepts and visual mechanics that are interesting and relevant for contemporary mass audience.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the latest science fiction series in the context of the mind-body philosophical problems. The synthesis of theoretical knowledge and empirical science (phenomenological, psychoanalytic, neurophysical and cybernetic experience) is used for the analysis. Prospects for the development of artificial intelligence, including the issue of creating self-conscious robots, unfold not only in science fiction but also in reality thus causing the high ratings of the cyberpunk genre. The destruction of the boundary between man and machine, natural and artificial body, physical and non-physical, real and virtual, is the key point of the newest series The Black Mirror, Electric Dreams of Philip K. Dick, Altered Carbon, Westworld. Mind-body dialectics in philosophy construed by R. Descartes and B. Spinoza, further developed by phenomenologists, is actualized today in the context of technological development. Despite the insights and warnings of science fiction writers, scientists seek for making the breakthrough in the invention of an “artificial man”. This tendency is caused, first of all, by the desire to conceive the arrangement of human consciousness: how it is generated by matter - the network of neurons of the brain. Solving this philosophical dilemma inevitably leads to unpredictable consequences and radical changes in the development of civilization. Nevertheless, this step is fatal in the general tendency of demiurgy and mimesis, which underlie all the cultural, creative and aesthetic activities of mankind. The author comes to the conclusion that cinema demonstrates models of the possible development of events and the consequences of technogenic tendencies, while the reality clearly indicates that the era of posthumanism has already begun, and we’re witnessing the most incredible scenarios created by the world of science fiction.

Presentation of new books

The article (the end of the publication, beginning: No 1 (35), 2018) analyzes the sound features of Japanese motion pictures created in the second half of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries, on the example of the speech expressiveness of screen actors. The peculiarity of the acting game for a long time was one of the obstacles to understanding and accepting Japanese films by the Western audience. The approach of Japanese film actors to taking roles was based on traditions of the theatrical performance. However, theatrical techniques organically entered the artistic structure and became distinctive features of the genre of dzidaigaki (costume-historical film), especially loved by the audience. The main vehicle in the sound design of such films was the actor's speech using an ancient language, differing from modern Japanese by the presence of additional endings and pronouns. The mode of stylization of speech, associated with a special attention to detail, brings the audience closer to the time displayed on screen, adding realism in the perception of the screen event. The article presents stylistic, phonetic, semantic features of actor's speech in Japanese films not only in costume and historical genre, but also in fantasy and animation films. In the latter two genres, the onomatopoeia (sound imaging) plays an important role in creating the sound design of the film, which is so common in Japanese colloquial and written speech that can also be attributed to a peculiar Japanese cultural tradition. Analysis of sound designs of the Japanese films, including the use of onomatopoeia, is the novelty of the work presented. The article’s topicality is that analyzing another view of the world can broaden the horizon of seeing a specific creative task that is not even related to the “Japanese theme”, while opening up new creative opportunities. In addition, the material of the article in some extent fills a gap in Russian cinema studies, related to the theme of sound in Japanese cinema.

The article dwells on the work of Asghar Farhadi, one of the leading Iranian film directors, a proud winner of a number of prestigious international awards. The author proves that modern Iranian filmmakers show preferences to other genres as opposed to those favored in the 1990s; metaphorical ellipses have replaced the obvious conclusions and contemplative moralizing has given way to focusing on characters’ inner world. The article emphasizes that A. Farhadi was among the first in Iranian cinema to have fully mastered the achievements of European psychological drama. The logic of characters’ behavior and cause- and-effect relationship appeared to have been the most vulnerable point in the films of Iranian New Wave. The first films by A. Farhadi (“Dancing in the Dust”, 2003; The Beautiful City”, 2004; “Fireworks Wednesday”, 2006) manifested a significant step forward in this respect. Though these pictures are less known to the audience and not so generously acclaimed and rewarded by international film festivals as his famous “Salesman”, they show Farhadi’s skills of a talented psychologist more apparently. The author notes that by turning to psychoanalysis, Farhadi does not reject social aspects, but merely shifts the highlights. His social criticism does not have the acuteness of an open confrontation, but is subtly interwoven into his contemplating narratives, characters’ reflections and motivations. The article also touches the image of women, which has considerably changed since the late 1990s. The director is less interested in social contradictions and tension caused by the oppressed status of women in an Islamic society. Instead, he is more concerned with their inner world and how they deal with complicated issues.

The role of cinema in Russian culture has traditionally been high. The federal and regional budgets, organizations and citizens take an active part in the financial provision of culture and art. However, despite the fact that the costs of supporting the cinema are assessed as very limited, this creative sector of culture is focused on high profitability, which can be achieved in the process of project management. The specifics of the financing of cinema necessitate the search for innovative approaches involving financial market institutions in order to raise funds for financing venture investment projects. Approved by the world practice ways of attracting financial resources are: sale of a share in the project; transfer of distribution rights; organization of private funds; attraction of state funds; bank loans; tax benefits; preferential use of scenery; charity. Analysis of the economic situation of the cinema organizations leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to make practical use of the methods and institutions of state and public support recommended by science and popular in foreign practice. To activate the work in the film business, it is necessary to search for new tools aimed at increasing profitability and reducing the risks of venture projects. Importance of quality and coordinated establishment of the final variant of the price of a film product by all participants in the process of film production, consisting of a film company, a distributor, a retailer, and taking into account the opinions of the end users of the population (in terms of age and age structure and level of education, place of residence, professional qualifications and employment). Priority in the digitalization environment should be given to the preparatory work: the development of marketing strategies and advertising budgets as necessary elements to stimulate innovation and investment in film production.

The article is devoted to the cultural phenomenon of the "new drama", which since its the beginning of the 2000s up to present day has a significant impact on the Russian cinema. The authors of the trend, first of all, are close to the theme of contemporaneity. However, while seeking for a holistic, philosophical understanding of time, they turn to the past. One of the most important historical films that appeared in the circle of the "new drama" were the TV-series The Diary of the Murderer (2002) by Kirill Serebrennikov, staged according to the scenario of the famous playwrights of the “post -Vampilov wave” Nina Sadur, Elena Gremina, Mikhail Ugarov. The creators of the picture offered their understanding of the revolution: they believe that this historical event was a diabolical game in which the notions of humanity and morality were destroyed. Kirill Serebrennikov masterfully presented their idea, using the techniques of postmodernist deconstruction: playing with the usual cultural cliches, particularly cinema (the heroic image of the commissar and the like), the director opens up a different sense of images and events behind them. Another important problem that the authors of the series are exploring is the fate of the intelligentsia and its ability to withstand the catastrophe of the revolution. They come to the sad conclusion that the educated people were too weak and too far from understanding what was happening to resist the morale of the lumpen manifested in the revolution. This understanding of history to some extent determined the approach of the "new drama" to the theme of contemporaneity. Particularly, the ideologists of the trend and the creators of the Theater.doc Elena Gremina and Mikhail Ugarov believe that a modern social theater and cinema will help the cultural layer to soberly look at reality, understand the psychology of the crowd and all the dangers associated with it.

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The academic peer-reviewed journal "Vestnik VGIK" (Journal of Film Arts and Film Studies)  is the leading scientific periodical of the All-Russian State Institute of cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov. The decision of the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission of Russian Ministry of education "Vestnik VGIK" is included in the List of leading reviewed scientific journals and publications to publish basic scientific results of dissertations on competition of scientific degrees of doctor and candidate of Sciences to meet the requirements of WAC on the scientific field of "Art history","Philosophy of science".  Recommendations for authors.