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FILM THEORY AND FILM HISTORY | AUDIOVISUAL ARTS

From a Screen Document to a Poetic Image. Making Sense

UDC 791.43.01

Summary: There seems to be no concepts more remote in meaning than document and image. But world practice of screen document refutes this delusion. The article examines specific techniques for bringing a documentary shot out of a factual narrative into the realm of artistic imagery, documentary film poetry is woven from. Using the original styles of D.Vertov, J.Ivens and A.Resnais as examples, the ways of forming a poetic text based on a document are revealed.

Key words: screen document, documentary image, poetic structure, distancing, documentary film poetry

Author: Galina S. Prozhiko, Doctor of Arts, Professor, VGIK.

FILM LANGUAGE AND TIME | IMAGE GENESIS

Initiation by Fear as a Model of Soviet Film Tales of the 1960s

UDC 7.03

Summary: The article explores the fear challenge as an initiation phase of young pioneer heroes in terms of the updated Soviet tall story of the 1960s. Researching this issue makes it possible to get an insight into the genre’s transformation due to the historic collapse of the Soviet mythological consciousness.

Key words: Soviet cinema, fairy tale, fear, initiation, myth, «thaw», «post-thaw»

Author: Polina Yu. Zernova, 4th year student, Department of Cinema Studies, VGIK.

The Image of War in the Cinema of the 60s. Knights without Past and Future

UDC 778.5 с/р1960+778.5.044 с/р1941–1945

Summary: The analysis of the films about the Great Patriotic War made in the 1960s reveals the romantic illusions of the characters about heroic deeds during the war. The article considers the cinematic image of the war from the prospective of the generation of filmmakers whose ideas of the war are separated by a distance. The representation of the War in the Thaw movies shows the inevitable collision between the idealistic views of the ‘young knights’ and the reality of the devastating war.

Key words: Great Patriotic War, “thaw”, knights, idealistic poeticized image, time distance.

Author: Alena V. Ianushko, 4th year student, Department of Screenwriting and Film Studies, Department of Film Studies, VGIK.

PERFORMANCE | THE ART OF PRESENTATION

B.M.Nemensky’s “Berlin Sketches” and the Traditions of Russian Fine Art

UDC 75«Неменский Б.»+9(47)2«1941–1945»

Summary: The article is devoted to the work of Boris Nemensky, one of the most significant contemporary artists. He fought in the Great Patriotic War and this theme became dominant in his work. The ‘Berlin Sketches’ series which belongs to his early period was created in April–May, 1945. It documents various moments of the battle for Berlin and the first days after the Victory. The author examines how his sketches and drawings represent the dramatic conflict of the belligerent parties and uses the expressive means of the pictorial language: light, color, space and all the elements of composition.

Key words: the Great Patriotic War, pictorial component, composition, color, traditions of national culture.

Author: Olga K. Kleymenova, Dr. of Philosophy, PhD of Art, Professor, Head of the Department of History and Theory of Fine Arts, Production Design Department, VGIK.

Composition of a Series of Artist's Works as an Emergent System

UDC 75.011.2

Summary: The article examines the composition of a series of artist’s works. “A series” denotes here a selection that is most illustrative of the artist’s activity and reveals the evolution of his creative concept, his reference points and the technical specifics of his works. The serial perspective provides a much more complete insight into the body of an artist’s works as a comprehensive whole in its dynamics and gives a sense of its artistic value.

Key words: composition, artistic challenges, worldview, the essence of creation.

Author: Alexander V. Sveshnikov, Doctor of Arts, Full Professor at the Department of Fine Arts, All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S.A.Gerasimov (VGIK).

The Expressive Function of Color in Modern Non-Fiction Films

UDC 778.5.03.071

Summary: The article analyses the use of the expressive function of light as a means of reflecting the emotional impact on the audience illustrated by modern nonfiction cinema. In creating a non-fiction film light serves as an artistic tool of the director’s esthetic vision. The chromatic and achromatic properties of light are components of the visual concept helping facilitate a deeper perception of the filmed document.

Key words: contemporary Russian documentary films, expressive means, perception, color, monochrome picture, artistic vision, color expression.

Author: Anastasia A. Shtandke, Post-Graduate student, VGIK.

SCREEN CULTURE | CULTUROLOGY. PHILOSOPHY

A Character in the Space of Leisure. An Essay on Dramatic Composition of Film

UDC 791.43.01

Summary: The article examines the precedent for creating a heterogeneous artistic space for a film, when the character finds himself in a new social reality, the world of the elite. To define the nature and characteristics of this space a new term — ‘the space of leisure’ — is coined. It is the game that determines the time of dramatic action, the borders of the playing area and, more importantly, sets the rules of the game. A character who does not know or ignores these rules, a spielbrecher, is challenged by the solidarity of the gamers in the space of leisure. This character must be shut out of the playing area. All this provides a powerful plot-creating potential of the film.

Key words: art place, plot, space of leisure, playing area, spielbrecher.

Author: Natalia E. Marievskaya, Dr. of Arts, Associate professor, Department of Screenwriting, VGIK.

WORLD CINEMA | ANALYSIS

The Concept of Latent Dramaturgy in Contemporary Iranian Cinema

UDC 791.43/.45

Summary: The article is devoted to the use of latent dramatic techniques in Iranian cinema caused by the reality of Iranian society, prohibitions and censorship and Islamic ideology. Another source of developing such techniques is the worldview of Iranian filmmakers with their national cultural values. All these factors produce original Iranian films rich in implicit meanings.

Key words: conflict, Iranian cinema, Islamic culture, censorship, concept of the hidden, metaphorics, symbolism.

Author: Maria R. Chirkina, Lecturer at the Department of Screenwriting and Cinema Studies, VGIK; member of the Screenwriters’ Guild, the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation.

Sound Space of M. Garrone’s Films: from Fiction to Reality

UDC 778.5.04.071:78+778.5И(Итал.)

Summary: Modern cinema has a huge arsenal of expressive means that make it possible to achieve a certain type of artistic convention of the represented diegetic space. One of such artistic means is the search for a form of audio-visual relations that ensure the credibility of screen action. Using the films of the Italian director M.Garrone as an example, the article examines the use of the elements of sound in their interaction with the image, the ways of creating an illusion of a document or the plausibility of a fictional film action.

Key words: soundtrack, audiovisual analysis, plausibility, reality rendering, Italian cinema, artistic convention, audio corporeality.

Author: Julia V. Sorokina, Post-Graduate student, VGIK.

TELEVISION | DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT

TV Speech: the Polycode Nature of Verbal Inclusions

UDC 654.197

Summary: The verbal audio is not an autonomous element of a TV show being always perceived together with the visual component. The auditory speech supports the narrative aspect of a TV program as a single multi-layered text presented on the screen either as an voiceover commentary or direct statement of the participant in the shooting, recorded synchronously with the video of the speaker. Both kinds of mediaspeech have a poly-code nature expressed in creating semantically new ‘third meanings’ while integrating the verbal construction with the dynamic visuals.

Key words: media speech, television speech, television work, polycode, narrative, attraction.

Author: Irina N. Kemarskaya, PhD in Philology, Leading Researcher, Research Sector, Academy of Media Industry.

For further discussions please contact the authors on: vestnik-vgik@vgik.info

© Translated by The Laboratory of the Foreign Cinema, VGIK.