THE SEMANTICS OF LITHUANIAN URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPES IN SOVIET CHILDREN’S CINEMA
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2020-1-221-231
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.
References:
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Issue: 1, 2020
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 221 — 231
Downloads: 919