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ANDRZEJ WAJDA AND SCREEN ADAPTATION OF RUSSIAN CLASSICS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2016. Issue 4 (10). P. 93-108

The article reveals the principal stylistic and semantic features of screen adaptation of Russian classics by the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. The emphasis is on the transfer of texts Leskov and Dostoevsky on screen. Andrzej Wajda analyzes the nature of female and male love, as well as the aspect of obsession with the idea. Using the devices of Kabuki theater in adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel ‘Idiot’, Andrzej Wajda expands the semantic field of death’s and love’s aesthetics. The specificity of the Slavic soul is attained through the combination of different cultural stratums.

Keywords: screen adaptation, Andrzej Wajda, Kabuki theater, Dostoevsky, Leskov, Russian classical literature, Slavic soul, obsession with the idea, destructive power of love

THE SEMANTICS OF THE IMAGES OF FAMILY MEMBERS IN THEIR RELATIONS WITH THE GUEST IN THE TEXT OF P. P. PASOLINI’S SCRIPT AND IN HIS FILM “TEOREMA” // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 2 (12). P. 125-145

The article compares two texts of a different nature, but with a single semantic kernel: the script for the film “Teorema” and its screen implementation. The research is built through the analysis of the relationship between all the characters in the film with the central character, since the author (P. P. Pasolini) gives him both a deep content and a multifaceted symbolism. On the way of comparing the word and the frame, the following conclusion is made: what is written in the text of the script carefully and verbosely is visualized on the screen by mean and minimal speaking means, and vice versa – what several words are said about, expands in the visual text of the film and turns into a perfect and the finished thought. In Pasolini’s style, the word continues the frame, while the frame is a silent word, which means the word embodied in eternity.

Keywords: cinematography, semiotics of cinema, filmscript, Pasolini, initiation, mythological thinking, image of the desert, transformation, hierophanic representation

THE MAIN TRENDS OF MODERN RUSSIAN CINEMA: SEMIOTICS OF HERO AND HEROISM // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 3 (13). P. 99-115

The article covers certain specific aspects of modern cinema that are developing in accordance with certain tendencies. We are in the presence of children’s and youth’s cinema rebirth engaging the mechanisms of spiritual and moral values. Powerful metaphysical basis in cinema leads to a change of visual space and time as well as to the forming of parable genre specifics. Modern cinema refers to the Soviet cinema therefore the heroic basis and the reference to history are increased.

Keywords: children’s and youth’s cinema, semiotics of hero, new type of hero, metaphysics, parable, historical context, heroism

CORRELATION OF PERSONAL AND CREATIVE BEGINNING IN CREATING OF THE ACTOR’S IMAGE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 1 (15). P. 120-133

The article analyzes individual semantic structures that have an external and internal nature and help in the process of creating an actor’s image. The author is interested in precisely the problem associated with determining the place of the actor’s personality in his screen character. We can formulate some aspects of the actor’s influence on the consciousness and lifestyle of the viewer and society on the example of documentary films about three famous actors. The specificity of the actor’s personality becomes an part integral of his screen hero. The analysis of the films reveals the opportunity to explain and prove that Cary Grant creates on the screen an image that he would like to be in reality, while Jean-Paul Belmondo projects his human credo onto his screen character, and Heath Ledger ceases to exist as a person in each role, dissolving into it. The semantic core of “alter ego” in the screen image is filled with meaning depending on the internal settings of each, that is, it is purely individual, it is inevitable in the profession of a movie actor.

Keywords: the Hollywood star, inner and outer transformation, duality, the process of getting into the image, the screen image, the romantic hero type

MOSCOW FILM FESTIVAL: FROM HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY (EXPANDING OF THE VISUAL SEMIOTIC FIELD) // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2018. Issue 2 (16). P. 132-150

The article contains a number of problems concerning the history of the Moscow international film festival and the current situation associated with the expansion of the semantic field of contestant films. In the process of gathering statistic data on the program of the festival for 40 years I reveal the organizational and ideological aspects of changing the principles of selecting competitive films. Also I take into account the fact of participation in the program of famous directors and films. Besides I show how many times and which countries received the main prize, as well as which films left a noticeable mark in the history of cinema were shown at the Moscow film festival at different times. The article fully analyzes the specifics of the style and semantic component of the films shown at the last anniversary Moscow film festival. Result of analysis of contestant films reveals the stylistic and semantic trends that characterize the situation in modern cinema. It is found out that accentuation of patriotic feeling actualizes military theme, which connected with instability of social and spiritual situation in the world. Today there is a trend associated with the deepening of realistic tendencies in cinema. Cinema is often refers to classics, as well as to modern reality and is not afraid of experimenting.

Keywords: the film festival, the competition program, modern film process, the theme of war in cinema, emotional empathy, moral message, desacralisation, the screen interpretation of classical literature

THE SEMANTICS OF LITHUANIAN URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPES IN SOVIET CHILDREN’S CINEMA // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2020. Issue 1 (23). P. 221-231

The article analyzes the specific reasons for the occurrence of episodes demonstrating urban and rural landscapes of Lithuania and creating a distinctive atmosphere within the frame in Soviet children films. Since Vilnius baroque was influenced by Italian architecture, filmmaking in Lithuania created the illusion of Italy for Soviet cinema. Another reason lies in the ground of otherness of the culture, inside which an image of an enemy was easier to create. But along with this extreme point there is another opposite aspect in the context of Soviet children cinematograph – visual demonstration of the absolute identity of Lithuanian urban space to Russian, or, more precisely, Soviet one. The use of Lithuanian cities landscapes was mosaic by its nature. Different meaning, than the one they performed in reality, was attributed to certain places that the audience saw in frames. The urban space of Lithuania in children’s Soviet cinema is devoid of its true meaning. The article reveals those patterns by which filmmakers deliberately refuse to show historical and everyday objects of this Baltic republic in a recognizable way.

Keywords: landscape contrast, Lithuania, urban environment, Soviet children’s cinema, visual code.