Vol 9, No 4, 2017

The 37th VGIK International Student Festival received a wide response. Representatives of 40 film schools from 35 countries participated in it, student films from Belgium, Spain, Ecuador, Argentina, the USA, Great Britain, Israel, Switzerland, Canada, Singapore, Mexico, France and other countries competed. A landmark event of the festival was the presentation of the extraordinary scientific and educational project “Triumph on both sides of the ocean”, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Soviet documentary film “The rout of German troops near Moscow”, filmed by directors L. Varlamov and I. Kopalin in 1942 .

The article analyses two closely interrelated research topics: the nature of pre-revolutionary film censorship and the question of the beginnings of cinema in Russia. Early film censorship cannot be studied without considering the arrival of cinema, and, vice versa, since the birth of cinema in the Russian Empire is related to the first cases of censorship. The author argues that the widely accepted date of 1907/8 as the starting point needs to be revised. Even before large-scale commercial production and distribution of feature films such as Sten’ka Razin, in different parts of the Russian Empire ample evidence of growing enthusiasm for the recording of movement can be found. Engineers, inventors, photographers, and showmen became fledgling filmmakers. The author bases her argumentation on the birth of cinema in Russia mainly on examples dating back to the 19th century. During the festivities of Nicholas’ II coronation in May 1896 the French cinema apparatus clashed with the Imperial Police in Moscow. After Russian screenings of Lumières films containing a selection of moving images of the Emperor, the Russian court took matters in their hands and started producing their own Royal films - both private ‘home movies’ and those chosen for public screenings. This is the moment when a relatively stable, yet not public form of film production was established inside Russia continuing for two decades: the Tsar and his family being filmed by the court photographers Matuszewski, and later Jagielski. Some of these court film chronicles were also shown in cinema-theatres. The article also treats the reasons for the later suppression of these early Royal film production in Soviet historiography. While establishing a tight bond between Lenin and the film medium, Soviet film historians had to bury the pivotal role the Imperial court played in cinema’s beginning in Russia. After having been the first object of foreign actualities in Russia, Nicholas II became not only a patron of Imperial film productions; moreover, the interference of Court censorship, overseen by the Ministry of the Interior, made clear that films shown and produced in Russia would have to deal with several censorship institutions protecting the representation of the sacred and regulating the free flow of information. The earliest example is the police confiscating a camera with film material shot by Lumières film reporters in Khodynka in May 1896. At this very early stage a procedure is set for the rise to a development of practices of film censorship.

The article analyzes the problems of cinematic authenticity of one of the key events of Russian history of the 20th century - that is the storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd in autumn 1917. The interpretation of this event of the Great Russian revolution in the author's opinion is a good example to demonstrate the formation of the mythology of the Story, which was one of the meanings of types of screen culture of the Soviet period. The author examines classics of Russian cinema dedicated to the events of 1917 in Petrograd. The study focuses upon three films - October by Sergei Eisenstein (1927), Lenin in October by Michael Romm (1937) and I saw the birth of a new world (2nd part of the novels Red bells, 1982) by Sergei Bondarchuk. Each of the three films is considered as a stage of formation of the image of the fake key events of October 1917. The author reveals the mechanism of formation of the onscreen Canon, which, since the film of Eisenstein, has been perceived as the only possible feature version of the event. Following the task, the author compares subsequent versions of Romm and Bondarchuk's October and concludes that they somehow had at its core thematic and visual concept of an image of the events specified by Eisenstein. The article demonstrates how a combination of different factors, which in the final versions of the films by Eisenstein, Romm, and Bondarchuk has led to the fact that the display concept of the episode "Winter Storm" when in each of them though differed in the details and the circumstances from the origin, coincide in the main idea of the assault on the rebels of the revolutionary masses. Discussing the impact of the three classic films on the related and subsequent films devoted to the events of 1917, the author comes to the conclusion that in the current cinema the visual Canon of interpretation has a strong mythological style, which is at odds with the facts of documentary evidence and confirmation, which are in opposition to the established due to the cinema version. This allows to identify the on-screen episodes analyzed as a complex historical fake, which has obtained a pseudo-real life on screen.

The article deals with the method of cine-reconstruction of the past in the film space. Basing on analysis of the means used cinematic language in B. Bertolucci’s The Conformist the author traces visualization of the inner world of the personage through the reconstruction of his past as well as the mechanism of transformation of the current system of images into a new form of socio-cultural paradigms. The system of tools employed allows one to freely converse with the viewer using both the structure and imagery of the film, and the possibility of using the image to convey the deep essence of the author's message. Artistic and temporal characteristics of the screen text are inscribed into the viewer as elements of creation a direction of reflection on the material presented, often as a mythical code, which appeals to the collective unconscious. Reality surround is the result of an interaction between two forces, that is consciously-the unconscious movement of society toward a certain goal, and the base starting this movement. It is possible that this new goal is the continuation of existing, and perhaps vice versa. These works show that screen art, having a direct conversation with the viewer, has the opportunity to implement a new concept of collective consciousness.

The author analyses the challenging issue of audiovisual material organisation in documentaries which has not yet received ample attention. It is shown how assembly-rhythmic construction of audiovisual forms with frame accentuation points out the completeness of a film composition. The author draws attention to the films about ecology, or alternatively about the interaction between nature and society. It is analysed how basic accentual frames connect the parts of the whole by using distant assembling, harmonizing the structure of the documentary by means of artistic and poetic devices (in technical terms - optical methods), providing visual and sensual perception of images in certain rhythm. For the analysis the author has selected a series of films: Inhabitants, The Seasons of the Year by A. Peleshyan, where the composition is united by triple repetition of the same pictures, Salty Tears of Turan by V. Belyalov and L. Muhametgalieva, containing triple picture shifts with petrogliphs (ancient stone art), Golovnev's Little Katerina with the composition structured by triple picture shift with the use of one camera technique. In his documentary Brothers and birds S. Bychenko uses triple or quadruple picture shift by applying triple/ quadruple exposition and by supplying documentary shots with quotations. The thesis of assembly-rhythmic film construction is grounded on the base of the number “three”. Thus the documentary material is organized according to the "laws of organic nature phenomena structure" (Sergei Eisenstein), which are included in the recommended methods for art creation. But this does not mean that the techniques in question can be incorporated as a canon. Film language develops in the process of searching experiments. Feeling/understanding of the rhythmical construction, as well as knowledge of the laws of art, correlated with the above mentioned contributes to the creation of works that would have inspiring persuasive force.

The author analyzes the processes associated with synthesis of arts at the turn of the 19-20th centuries basing on Russian artist Vasily V. Kandinsky’s creation. He felt a certain relationship between different kinds of art and the need for combining them to create something special, new and unique. For the first time, the artist wrote about this in his book Concerning The spiritual in art, where he articulated the idea of affinity of all kinds of art, especially music and painting. Defining pictorial art as a part of spiritual life that promotes the movement forward and upward, Kandinsky develops not only the theory of the influence of color and color combinations on the viewer, but argues that the form (abstract or geometric) has an inner sounding in turn. Thus, straight lines are youthful, the curves convey maturity, the point is a small world, the horizons sound cold and flat, the verticals are warm and sublime, sharp corners are warm, while straight lines are cold and austere. Vasily Kandinsky believed that the composition was a chord of colorful and picturesque forms that exist independently as such, which are caused by inner necessity and constitute the whole, called a painting. The artist claimed that our harmony is based mainly on the principle of color and sound contrast. Not accidentally, Vasily Kandinsky, noting a strong impression in his youth from Wagner’s operas, entered the Monogram signature on his works in the triangle, and used musical terms for titles of his works: improvisation, composition, Fugue, Concerto, Suite, and others. Defining the scenic arts as part of spiritual life, which contributes to moving forward and upward, Kandinsky developed not only the theory of color effects and color combinations on the viewer, but argued that the form (abstract or geometrical) has inner sound in turn.

The author focuses on the most significant documentaries and TV-movies employing rock music of the 1960s-1970s, and highlights the aesthetic modes of their social correlation with mass culture. Special attention is drawn to the creative synthesis of the aesthetics of direct cinema, exemplified by the group R. Drew (B. Leacock, D. Pennebaker, A. Maizels, D. Maizels, etc.) as well as individual filmmakers and rock music in the intense socio-cultural context associated with it. Rock music greatly differs in its interaction of a performer and audience: there is often a systematic violation of the boundaries between audience space and scene. Direct cinema uses different strategies for presenting the character in the frame. Long-term observation, usage of atypical size and angles in the established television and cinematic tradition of documentary in many ways made the traditional essays and reports specifically spectacular. Within this strategy fans become being represented and perceived as a collective character, that is, public with all the features of its ethos becomes an integral part of the image of the artist, inseparable from it. The general decline of the artistic diversity of documentaries about rock music is largely the result of the active integration of this subgenre into the commercial sphere of TV and film industry, characteristic for the style emerged within the television. Creative pursuits of the group drew were directed not so much against the revolution in screen arts, but for modernization of the outdated artistic approaches to documentary filmmaking. Anyhow rock music as well as rock culture expressed through the means of direct cinema testify to the efficiency of the basic methodological goals.

State regulation of culture refers to the topical methodological issues of economic science. The methods and instruments of regulating economic activities of economic entities differ in their discussion. Non-profit cultural organizations perform important social functions in society. For Russia, the relatively low (in comparison with the OECD countries) is characterized by the level of demand for paid cultural services. Modern problems of the industry are associated with macroeconomic instability, a complex situation in the market of goods and services. The financial provision of cultural organizations is characterized by the lack of reliable sources of funding through extrabudgetary funds. This adversely affects the implementation of financial plans and compliance with the regulatory deadlines for the implementation of public tasks and activities. Improving the methodology of state regulation of cultural organizations involves the development of theoretical foundations (principles, methods, methods, technology, logic) and contributes to improving the practice of economic work. The stable state of business entities is largely determined by the measures of financial support, a prominent place among which belongs to the methods of financial (fiscal and budgetary) and monetary (monetary) regulation. To finance the statutory activities and the future development of nonprofit cultural organizations, it is necessary to apply project-oriented funding, attract extrabudgetary and private funds in the form of grants, sponsorship and sponsorship assistance, and create endowment funds. Periodically conducted adjustments of the amount of budget financing hinder the activities of cultural organizations, lead to the failure to meet the targets. It is necessary to develop strategic plans for the medium-term period in conjunction with tactical activities at the macro and micro level, as well as constructive activities for their implementation. A promising area of work of cultural organizations is to increase investment attractiveness and expand the innovative component in their work. In the state regulation of cultural activities it is necessary to apply innovations based on modern methods and technologies of management, domestic and foreign experience. Participation in the preparation and implementation of financial innovations will improve the economic performance of cultural organizations.

Contemporary realization of enlightenment tasks of TV is considered in the article in context of cultural contradictions, stimulated by screen mediation of social communications. The request of society for audiovisual information grows outside mass media today: it has entered into document flow, mediates social ritual, in a new way enters culture. At the same time there is a devaluation of authenticity of a documentary shot in television practice, complication of the visual figurativeness built around oral forms of expression. The culture of oral communication presupposes that TV shows are meant mainly for acoustical perception, submitting their visual component to the spontaneity of oral speech at the different levels. To the person, whose social activity, work, daily routine are mediated by screen and do not lose at the same time their authenticity, today it is harder and harder to differentiate the sphere of journalism or art as conditional, "other" environments in which he himself becomes an object of the influence, a target of transformed audiovisual representation of reality. Broadcasters by all means raise the perceptual attractiveness of content in fight for the viewer, whose own activity grows in the media field and his communicative status loses definiteness. At the same time the priority of enlightenment tasks even in political segment of broadcasting is lost, and the social mission of the leading TV channels in audiovisual communication becomes doubtful.

Information about new books in the Library of the Russian State Institute of Cinematography

НЕПРОШЕДШЕЕ ПРОШЛОЕ В ОБЪЕКТИВЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ

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