Books by Beata Waligorska-Olejniczak
Among the vehicles for personal, national or global expressions and exchanges around cultural mat... more Among the vehicles for personal, national or global expressions and exchanges around cultural matters, the arts have always held a pivotal position. The diverse range of approaches and of study texts in (Re) Writing Without Borders: Contemporary Intermedial Perspectives on Literature and the Visual Arts celebrates the proliferation of word and image media, and the porosity between them, and attests to the continuing relevance of literature and the visual arts in producing and reproducing meaning within contemporary contexts. The essays gathered here examine cross-artistic encounters with a view to capture the most up-to-date interaction between literature and the visual arts.
![Research paper thumbnail of Sacrum w drodze. "Moskwa-Pietuszki" Wieniedikta Jerofiejewa i "Pulp Fiction" Quentina Tarantino w kluczu montażowego czytania. [Sacrum on the way. Venedict Erofeev’s Moscow-Petushki and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction from the angle of montage reading]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54107424/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The aim of this monograph is the attempt of reading the poem Moscow-Petushki by Venedikt Erofeev ... more The aim of this monograph is the attempt of reading the poem Moscow-Petushki by Venedikt Erofeev and the film Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino using the comparative approach, in which we go beyond the range of factual relationships, historical influences or similarities functioning in the structure of the presented world. The purpose of the book is to see both works of art from the angle of the montage theory of Sergei Eisenstein – the outstanding and highly regarded Russian director and film philosopher – which means studying cultural phenomena in their mutual intertextual relationships. The book focuses on the interpretation of the selected Tarantino’s and Erofeev’s texts of culture, in which the subject of the city, the search for the concept of the body at the end of 20th century and the problem of addictions constitute the dominant thematic issues. The monograph also offers the insight into the nature of the phenomenon of postmodernism and treats Eisenstein’s philosophy as the specific type of anticipation of postmodern tendencies in cinematography.
The monograph entitled New Russian Cinema in View of Literary and Film Tradition consists of 6 ba... more The monograph entitled New Russian Cinema in View of Literary and Film Tradition consists of 6 basic parts: introduction and 5 chapters, which are devoted to the interpretation of five different films made by acclaimed contemporary directors.
Chapter 1 is the attempt of reading the original film Doctor Ragin (2004), made by Kirill Serebrennikov on the basis of Anton Chekhov’s story Chamber no. 6. The aforementioned artist is considered one of the most famous and talented Russian directors, who work both in the domain of theatre and cinematography. In Doctor Ragin he managed to show the illusory side of the difference between a hospital room and the world outside. The main problem of the analyzed work is the history of madness of the whole country, in which there are no clear borders between madhouses and the everyday life of the society which claims to be sane. Chamber no. 6 is shown in the film as the safety option, a kind of “island”, asylum, where a man can protect himself against total madness. The film can be read as the diagnosis of the world which is insane, showing the roots of mental problems, which can be found both in the past and in the present.
Chapter 2 tries to answer the question to what extent the problems in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel are still understandable and up-to-date for the contemporary reader. To do so we focus on Menahem Golan’s Crime and Punishment adaptation. Translating the dramatic structure of the novel into the language of film, the director is fixing his attention on the central thought in the novel – hope – which can be associated with the spiritual and moral rebirth of man in the context of cultural and social re-evaluation. This realignment ousts the bond with the source of the life-giving power (God) and supersedes the love for the Other from the universal awareness. Through distinctly extended sign-symbolic layer of the film, which sends the spectator beyond visual contexts, the director is trying to fulfil basic aims of the film: giving information, teaching and edifying.
Chapter 3 focuses on the artistic function of the ordinary in the film The River by Aleksei Balabanov, an unfinished work based on W. Sieroszewski's story The bottom of misery. The exact reconstruction of everyday Yakut's life, their customs, language and folklore, allows us to put The River in the context of the tradition of ethnographic films. The large amount of everyday life details in the visual layer creates symbolic meaning of adapted ethnographic elements (such as grass cutting, repairing fishing nets, preparing meals, clothes, items etc.). Intended mythologization of the depicted world leads to the process of renewal and reinterpretation of archetypes. The film orientation towards archetypal symbols can be noticed in the tendency of the artist's creative adaptation of the cultural heritage of the Nation of the North and in the attempt of universalization of aesthetic values. Balabanov seems to place the new tragic model, constructed by the storyline, in the space of everydayness. The artistic device, aimed at the transformation of the classic perception of the tragic, is primarily based on excluding the tragic from the sphere of sublimity, destructing pathos as well as showing semantic depth of everyday life elements.
Chapter 4 concentrates on the film The Return by Andrey Zvyagintsev in the light of the director’s artistic method. The aim of this part of the book is the attempt to find elements of Zvyagintsev’s artistic world, which can be defined as original and integral components of his artistic method. Therefore, as a result of the analysis of some selected scenes we come to the conclusion that Zvyagintsev's works can be marked by such characteristic features as symmetrically constructed frames, appearance of different variants of geometric figures in the space of the frame, dominance of long, static frames, presence of blurred and dark colors, meaningful silence, semispherical (in Yuri Lotman’s understanding) density of individual frames. In Zvyagintsev’s film we can also observe frequent repetition of the motifs of water, photograph, sacrifice, as well as biblical and cultural-mythological symbols. The repetition of various motifs is used by Zvyagintsev as the artistic device of the loop, the sign of cyclicality and compositional framework. We can also notice that the titles of the films are very important, they can be treated as a kind of hint, an interpretation key, using which the viewer is able to perceive the picture on a deeper level.
Chapter 5 aims to interpret metaphors of death in Renata Litvi-nova’s film The Last Tale of Rita (Последняя сказка Риты, 2012) in the context of Susan Sontag’s concepts, which were expressed first of all in her work Illness as Metaphor. The analysis proves not only the relevance of the American writer’s thoughts in the domain of myths and images associated with death, which are present in collective memory, it also shows a number of similarities between the style of retro glamour adapted by the director and Sontag’s philosophy of new sensitivity called camp. As a result of the process of contextualization the attention is turned to the aesthetization procedures used by Litvi-nova in order to romanticize and neutralize the phenomenon of death. They are introduced due to the adaptation of carnival stylization as well as intertextual references to the poetics of surrealism and fairy tales. The analysis focuses on the process of understanding death metaphors in the text of the film, which at the same time constitutes the attempt of decoding symbolic leitmotivs, methods of theatralization and ritualization of behavior, including selected montage solutions used in the movie.
![Research paper thumbnail of Sceniczny gest w sztuce A.P. Czechowa Mewa i taniec wyzwolony jako estetyczny kontekst Wielkiej Reformy Teatralnej [Theatrical gesture in A.P.Chekhov's drama the Seagull and free dance as aesthetic context of Great Theatre Reform]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54566869/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Najważniejszym celem monografii jest próba wygenerowania tańca Isadory Duncan i sfery zachowań Cz... more Najważniejszym celem monografii jest próba wygenerowania tańca Isadory Duncan i sfery zachowań Czechowowskich bohaterów jako wiecznie żywych kontekstów Wielkiej Reformy Teatralnej, a więc poznanie tekstu poprzez funkcję jego fragmentu. W sukurs prowadzonemu eksperymentowi intelektualnemu przyszła koncepcja duchowości ciała Aleksandra Lowena, Łotmanowskie myślenie o tekście jako strukturze, w szczególności zaś kategoria minus-chwytu, nieobecności znaczącej. Wychodząc od przedstawienia założeń i inspiracji Wielkiej Reformy Teatralnej, postrzeganej w pracy jako wielotworzywowy metakontekst, zwrócono uwagę na koncepcje reformatorów sztuki – Konstantego Stanisławskiego (system przeżywania), Władimira Niemirowicza-Danczenki, Wsiewołoda Meyerholda (biomechanika), Aleksandra Tairowa, Edwarda Gordona Craiga (nadmarioneta) – by na ich podstawie przekonać, że możliwe jest uznanie jakości scenicznego gestu jako czynnika organizującego także potencjalną sceniczną realizację dramatu A. P. Czechowa Mewa, traktowanego jako modelowo nośny kontekst („budulec”) Wielkiej Reformy Teatralnej. Kolejne rozdziały koncentrują się na analizie sposobu organizacji przestrzeni scenicznej przez Isadorę Duncan, percypowanej przede wszystkim z punktu widzenia aktualizacji starożytnych tradycji rytualnych, oraz obserwacji przypisanych bohaterom dramatu Czechowa charakterystycznych gestów, zyskujących niejednokrotnie miano lejtmotywów. Celowo skonstruowana w monografii komplementarna i zarazem antagonistyczna opozycja (minus-chwyt u Czechowa i szeroki gest Isadory) pozwoliła dostrzec w procesie interpretacji istnienie wspólnych dla obu tekstów kultury fundamentów antropologicznych, unaoczniając jednocześnie ważkość fenomenu Wielkiej Reformy Teatralnej i otwierając pole dyskusji dla dalszych rozważań, skupiających się w szczególności na problemie harmonii i dysonansów istniejących między ideą, a jej wcieleniem.
Papers by Beata Waligorska-Olejniczak
Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia, 2011
Rusycystyczne Studia Literaturoznawcze, Dec 29, 2020
Monografia Agnieszki Matusiak Wyjść z milczenia. Dekolonialne zmagania kultury i literatury ukrai... more Monografia Agnieszki Matusiak Wyjść z milczenia. Dekolonialne zmagania kultury i literatury ukraińskiej XXI wieku z traumą posttotalitarną ukazała się w 2018 roku nakładem wydawnictwa Kolegium Europy Wschodniej im. Jana Nowaka-Jeziorańskiego we Wrocławiu. Książka liczy 387 stron, prócz rozdziałów teoretycznych i analitycznych zawiera niezwykle cenną bibliografię, która może stać się praktycznym przewodnikiem dla dalszych dociekań, zarówno dla filologów, jak i historyków, filmoznawców, kulturoznawców, politologów. Autorka podejmuje w nim kwestie związane z milczeniem (po)totalitarnym, rozumianym przede wszystkim jako przestrzeń komunikacyjna, podlegająca zasadom kodyfikacji, obszar obecny w performatywnych praktykach kulturowych i społecznych, oscylujących nieustannie między tym, co można wypowiedzieć, a tym, co musi zostać niewypowiedziane. Można by stwierdzić, że sam temat-ogólnie rzecz ujmując, w obliczu zauważalnego w ostatnich latach zwrotu pamięciowego (mnemonic turn, memory turn, memory boom)-nie jest nowy. Nikt jednak dotychczas nie zajął się problemem traumy posttotalitarnej tak szeroko, a jednocze
Porównania, Jul 30, 2018
Celem artykułu jest interpretacja prozy Swietłany Aleksijewicz ukierunkowana przede wszystkim na ... more Celem artykułu jest interpretacja prozy Swietłany Aleksijewicz ukierunkowana przede wszystkim na ogląd postaci kobiecych, dokonywany między innymi przez pryzmat mitu matki, leżącego u podstaw kultury rosyjskiej. Na podstawie zbiorów reportaży Wojna nie ma w sobie nic z kobiety, Czarnobylska modlitwa. Kronika przyszłości oraz Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka zwrócono uwagę na motywację przedstawianych przez autorkę postaw i wizerunków bohaterek wspomnianych utworów. Historie współczesnych kobiet, utrwalone przez laureatkę Nagrody Nobla, z jednej strony stanowią materiał egzemplifikujący stereotypowe widzenie kobiety radzieckiej w społeczeństwie, z drugiej zaś służą wykryciu cech spajających te obrazy, nierzadko zakorzenionych w mitologii słowiańskiej i chrześcijaństwie. Tekst prezentuje również analizę poetyki pisarstwa Aleksijewicz, stanowi próbę wskazania na dokumentacyjny charakter tej prozy jako nośnika mitu.
The aim of the article is to give an overview of recent tendencies in contemporary Russian films ... more The aim of the article is to give an overview of recent tendencies in contemporary Russian films by three widely recognized directors (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Vera Storozheva, Pavel Lungin) in the context of the representation of the problem of fear and safety. The films under discussion in this article are Storozheva’s Travelling with Pets (2007), Lungin’s Taxi Blues (1990) and Zvyagintsev’s Elena (2011). The main theme is discussed from the perspective of the individual character reflecting upon his or her own life as well as from the angle of the representation of the collective memory of the Russian nation. The main methodological tool is Mikhail Epstein’s concept of transculture. Epstein’s theory is associated with the logic of an open and universal continuum, the process of transcendence into “no-culture”, i.e. the development of the cultural unit that overcomes the borders of traditional cultures (ethnic, national, racial, religious, gender, sexual and professional etc.). It can be achieved by finding the way of liberation from ‘the prison of language’ and gradual learning about the inborn culture in order to reach an appropriate distance to penetrate it, truly understand and finally abandon. Epstein’s theory is based on the rejection of both ‘leveling globalism’ and ‘isolating pluralism’. Taking into account Epstein’s findings this article suggests that Zvyagintsev’s leitmotiv is an apocalyptic vision of the world devoid of moral values, which can be linked to the breakdown of the family unit and the loss of both cultural and historical continuum. Lungin turns attention to the areas of tradition and orthodox religion, whereas Storozheva is known for her visualizations of women fighting for their independence, which constitutes the foundation of their inner freedom and safety. In all the films fear remains the core emotion which accompanies the protagonists. Lungin’s creation of Shlykov’s Kaukiainen, K., Kurikka, K., Mäkelä, H., Nykänen, E., Nyqvist, S., Raipola, J., Riippa, A. & Samola, H. (eds) 522 character proves that fear and striving for psychological stability can remain pre-intentional and non-conscious although they strongly influence the protagonists’ actions and decisions. Lungin is interested in the mechanisms linking fear and other emotions such as melancholy and anger, trying to make the recipients aware that the liberating power of imagination and music, which is shown as the universal language, can be experienced only after understanding the need of cultural and historical transformation. Similar issues constitute also the core problem of Zvyagintsev’s film; Elena demonstrates fear and egoism as the elementary instinct and drive of people’s decisions in the societies, which have lost their moral directions. Consequently, Zvyagintsev’s narrative requires the ethical engagement of the audience, which stays in contrast to Storozheva’s work showing the protagonist who found the way to suppress and overcome the sources of social or personal limitations. As a result, Natalia’s approach to life could be seen as the manifestation of liberation and the attempt of at least partial realization of Epstein’s concept of transculture.
Studia Rossica Posnaniensia
Человек разбрасывает листовки на Красной площади. КГБ хватает его, смотрит на листовки-а там чист... more Человек разбрасывает листовки на Красной площади. КГБ хватает его, смотрит на листовки-а там чистый лист с обеих сторон. "Что же ты пустые листы разбрасываешь?!!" "А что писать, и так всё понятно!" (Przeworski 21
The focus of the analysis is the issue of complementary oppositions functioning in the perception... more The focus of the analysis is the issue of complementary oppositions functioning in the perception of Moskva-Petushki by Venedict Erofeev. The tool utilised in this process appears to be Sergei Eisenstein's theory of ecstasy, which turns our attention to the problem of montage of literary frames, the length of scenes and the emotional atmosphere of the discussed work of art. The studies focused on these parametres allow us to discover the pulsating dynamics of binary oppositions existing in the structure of the poem, among which the key issue is the dialogue of the mentality of the East and the West. The collage reality of Venichka becomes also the subject of the discussion related to the identity of the human being today and the role of culture as the medium revealing the change of the relationship between sacrum and profanum. The change motivates the reader to consider the problem of stereotype thinking, which today constitutes one of the most relevant issues
The article presents the study of the short film Apocrypha by Andrei Zvyagintsev. The text is aim... more The article presents the study of the short film Apocrypha by Andrei Zvyagintsev. The text is aimed at the interpretation of the movie in the context of the problem of memory, which is emphasised in the selected work in the explicit and implicit visual associations with the figure and poetry of Iosif Brodsky. The recognition of these characteristic elements in the structure of Zvyagintsev’s film has the influence on the perception of its meaning, leading the culturally aware recipient towards discovering its broad interpretative potential in view of the Russian literary tradition. The study is conducted using the comparative method of analysis. The core theory which constitutes the methodological foundation of the study is Astrid Erll’s concept of cultural memory expounded as intertextuality, i.e. the continuous building up of layers of texts, which are mediated, as well as her idea of transcultural memory, defined in the first instance as a process of fluctuation between the indivi...
Interlitteraria, 2020
The article focuses on the film House of Fools (Dom Durakov, 2002) of Andrei Konchalovsky, who is... more The article focuses on the film House of Fools (Dom Durakov, 2002) of Andrei Konchalovsky, who is one of the most recognized contemporary Russian directors. The selected work is analyzed from the point of view of its intertextual relationships with Russian literary texts and cultural phenomena. The motif of the train, the paradigm of jurodivyj and the reference to the artistic worlds of acclaimed Russian writers (Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Vyrypaev) are among the main parallels which are discussed in the publication. The eclectic nature of the film allows treating it as a cultural archive founded on the storage capacity of the cultural memory. In the context of war, the sphere of art and the imagined can be seen as the most stable reality.
Porównania, 2018
Celem artykułu jest interpretacja prozy Swietłany Aleksijewicz ukierunkowana przede wszystkim na ... more Celem artykułu jest interpretacja prozy Swietłany Aleksijewicz ukierunkowana przede wszystkim na ogląd postaci kobiecych, dokonywany między innymi przez pryzmat mitu matki, leżącego u podstaw kultury rosyjskiej. Na podstawie zbiorów reportaży Wojna nie ma w sobie nic z kobiety, Czarnobylska modlitwa. Kronika przyszłości oraz Czasy second-hand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka zwrócono uwagę na motywację przedstawianych przez autorkę postaw i wizerunków bohaterek wspomnianych utworów. Historie współczesnych kobiet, utrwalone przez laureatkę Nagrody Nobla, z jednej strony stanowią materiał egzemplifikujący stereotypowe widzenie kobiety radzieckiej w społeczeństwie, z drugiej zaś służą wykryciu cech spajających te obrazy, nierzadko zakorzenionych w mitologii słowiańskiej i chrześcijaństwie. Tekst prezentuje również analizę poetyki pisarstwa Aleksijewicz, stanowi próbę wskazania na dokumentacyjny charakter tej prozy jako nośnika mitu.
Slavica Wratislaviensia, 2017
On the experience of old age in the context of contemporary existential dilemmas. Film Elena by A... more On the experience of old age in the context of contemporary existential dilemmas. Film Elena by Andrei ZvyagintsevThe article constitutes the attempt of looking at the problem of the old age from the point of view of Vladimir, the main male character of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film Elena. His retired existence can be treated as the model example of the golden autumn of life. This vision can be associated with the images promoted by today’s media as the period of so called “third age”, i.e. old age full of new opportunities, with health good enough to take advantage of newly marketed products guaranteeing comfortable and worry-free life. The publication examines the quality of the family relationships, built up by the selected film character, on the basis of the interpretation of space in which he is meant to function. The analysis allows the author to come to the conclusion that the old age and life experience does not protect the characters from impulsive behavior, which is the conseq...
Slavica Wratislaviensia, 2018
Thanatography: Strategies of representationsof death in Renata Litwinova’s film Rita’s Last Fairy... more Thanatography: Strategies of representationsof death in Renata Litwinova’s film Rita’s Last Fairy TaleThe aim of the article is the interpretation of Renata Litvinova’s film Rita’s Last Fairy Tale 2012. The author shows that the examples of rite de passage, which are present in the selected work of art, are introduced to neutralize the perception of death. It is done, first of all, due to the strategies of aestheticization and romanticization, which emphasize the conventionality of the world presented. The picture of death proposed by Litvinova is almost entirely devoid of any aspects of physiology. The stylization suggested in the title of the film is realized with the use of elements of retro glamor, dark humor and irony. The process of perception is also focused on the attempt of decoding the film leitmotivs such as the symbolism of the mirror or the ways of theatralization of behavior, taking into account some montage solutions.Tanatografia. Strategie reprezentacji śmierci w fi...
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Books by Beata Waligorska-Olejniczak
Chapter 1 is the attempt of reading the original film Doctor Ragin (2004), made by Kirill Serebrennikov on the basis of Anton Chekhov’s story Chamber no. 6. The aforementioned artist is considered one of the most famous and talented Russian directors, who work both in the domain of theatre and cinematography. In Doctor Ragin he managed to show the illusory side of the difference between a hospital room and the world outside. The main problem of the analyzed work is the history of madness of the whole country, in which there are no clear borders between madhouses and the everyday life of the society which claims to be sane. Chamber no. 6 is shown in the film as the safety option, a kind of “island”, asylum, where a man can protect himself against total madness. The film can be read as the diagnosis of the world which is insane, showing the roots of mental problems, which can be found both in the past and in the present.
Chapter 2 tries to answer the question to what extent the problems in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel are still understandable and up-to-date for the contemporary reader. To do so we focus on Menahem Golan’s Crime and Punishment adaptation. Translating the dramatic structure of the novel into the language of film, the director is fixing his attention on the central thought in the novel – hope – which can be associated with the spiritual and moral rebirth of man in the context of cultural and social re-evaluation. This realignment ousts the bond with the source of the life-giving power (God) and supersedes the love for the Other from the universal awareness. Through distinctly extended sign-symbolic layer of the film, which sends the spectator beyond visual contexts, the director is trying to fulfil basic aims of the film: giving information, teaching and edifying.
Chapter 3 focuses on the artistic function of the ordinary in the film The River by Aleksei Balabanov, an unfinished work based on W. Sieroszewski's story The bottom of misery. The exact reconstruction of everyday Yakut's life, their customs, language and folklore, allows us to put The River in the context of the tradition of ethnographic films. The large amount of everyday life details in the visual layer creates symbolic meaning of adapted ethnographic elements (such as grass cutting, repairing fishing nets, preparing meals, clothes, items etc.). Intended mythologization of the depicted world leads to the process of renewal and reinterpretation of archetypes. The film orientation towards archetypal symbols can be noticed in the tendency of the artist's creative adaptation of the cultural heritage of the Nation of the North and in the attempt of universalization of aesthetic values. Balabanov seems to place the new tragic model, constructed by the storyline, in the space of everydayness. The artistic device, aimed at the transformation of the classic perception of the tragic, is primarily based on excluding the tragic from the sphere of sublimity, destructing pathos as well as showing semantic depth of everyday life elements.
Chapter 4 concentrates on the film The Return by Andrey Zvyagintsev in the light of the director’s artistic method. The aim of this part of the book is the attempt to find elements of Zvyagintsev’s artistic world, which can be defined as original and integral components of his artistic method. Therefore, as a result of the analysis of some selected scenes we come to the conclusion that Zvyagintsev's works can be marked by such characteristic features as symmetrically constructed frames, appearance of different variants of geometric figures in the space of the frame, dominance of long, static frames, presence of blurred and dark colors, meaningful silence, semispherical (in Yuri Lotman’s understanding) density of individual frames. In Zvyagintsev’s film we can also observe frequent repetition of the motifs of water, photograph, sacrifice, as well as biblical and cultural-mythological symbols. The repetition of various motifs is used by Zvyagintsev as the artistic device of the loop, the sign of cyclicality and compositional framework. We can also notice that the titles of the films are very important, they can be treated as a kind of hint, an interpretation key, using which the viewer is able to perceive the picture on a deeper level.
Chapter 5 aims to interpret metaphors of death in Renata Litvi-nova’s film The Last Tale of Rita (Последняя сказка Риты, 2012) in the context of Susan Sontag’s concepts, which were expressed first of all in her work Illness as Metaphor. The analysis proves not only the relevance of the American writer’s thoughts in the domain of myths and images associated with death, which are present in collective memory, it also shows a number of similarities between the style of retro glamour adapted by the director and Sontag’s philosophy of new sensitivity called camp. As a result of the process of contextualization the attention is turned to the aesthetization procedures used by Litvi-nova in order to romanticize and neutralize the phenomenon of death. They are introduced due to the adaptation of carnival stylization as well as intertextual references to the poetics of surrealism and fairy tales. The analysis focuses on the process of understanding death metaphors in the text of the film, which at the same time constitutes the attempt of decoding symbolic leitmotivs, methods of theatralization and ritualization of behavior, including selected montage solutions used in the movie.
Papers by Beata Waligorska-Olejniczak
Chapter 1 is the attempt of reading the original film Doctor Ragin (2004), made by Kirill Serebrennikov on the basis of Anton Chekhov’s story Chamber no. 6. The aforementioned artist is considered one of the most famous and talented Russian directors, who work both in the domain of theatre and cinematography. In Doctor Ragin he managed to show the illusory side of the difference between a hospital room and the world outside. The main problem of the analyzed work is the history of madness of the whole country, in which there are no clear borders between madhouses and the everyday life of the society which claims to be sane. Chamber no. 6 is shown in the film as the safety option, a kind of “island”, asylum, where a man can protect himself against total madness. The film can be read as the diagnosis of the world which is insane, showing the roots of mental problems, which can be found both in the past and in the present.
Chapter 2 tries to answer the question to what extent the problems in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel are still understandable and up-to-date for the contemporary reader. To do so we focus on Menahem Golan’s Crime and Punishment adaptation. Translating the dramatic structure of the novel into the language of film, the director is fixing his attention on the central thought in the novel – hope – which can be associated with the spiritual and moral rebirth of man in the context of cultural and social re-evaluation. This realignment ousts the bond with the source of the life-giving power (God) and supersedes the love for the Other from the universal awareness. Through distinctly extended sign-symbolic layer of the film, which sends the spectator beyond visual contexts, the director is trying to fulfil basic aims of the film: giving information, teaching and edifying.
Chapter 3 focuses on the artistic function of the ordinary in the film The River by Aleksei Balabanov, an unfinished work based on W. Sieroszewski's story The bottom of misery. The exact reconstruction of everyday Yakut's life, their customs, language and folklore, allows us to put The River in the context of the tradition of ethnographic films. The large amount of everyday life details in the visual layer creates symbolic meaning of adapted ethnographic elements (such as grass cutting, repairing fishing nets, preparing meals, clothes, items etc.). Intended mythologization of the depicted world leads to the process of renewal and reinterpretation of archetypes. The film orientation towards archetypal symbols can be noticed in the tendency of the artist's creative adaptation of the cultural heritage of the Nation of the North and in the attempt of universalization of aesthetic values. Balabanov seems to place the new tragic model, constructed by the storyline, in the space of everydayness. The artistic device, aimed at the transformation of the classic perception of the tragic, is primarily based on excluding the tragic from the sphere of sublimity, destructing pathos as well as showing semantic depth of everyday life elements.
Chapter 4 concentrates on the film The Return by Andrey Zvyagintsev in the light of the director’s artistic method. The aim of this part of the book is the attempt to find elements of Zvyagintsev’s artistic world, which can be defined as original and integral components of his artistic method. Therefore, as a result of the analysis of some selected scenes we come to the conclusion that Zvyagintsev's works can be marked by such characteristic features as symmetrically constructed frames, appearance of different variants of geometric figures in the space of the frame, dominance of long, static frames, presence of blurred and dark colors, meaningful silence, semispherical (in Yuri Lotman’s understanding) density of individual frames. In Zvyagintsev’s film we can also observe frequent repetition of the motifs of water, photograph, sacrifice, as well as biblical and cultural-mythological symbols. The repetition of various motifs is used by Zvyagintsev as the artistic device of the loop, the sign of cyclicality and compositional framework. We can also notice that the titles of the films are very important, they can be treated as a kind of hint, an interpretation key, using which the viewer is able to perceive the picture on a deeper level.
Chapter 5 aims to interpret metaphors of death in Renata Litvi-nova’s film The Last Tale of Rita (Последняя сказка Риты, 2012) in the context of Susan Sontag’s concepts, which were expressed first of all in her work Illness as Metaphor. The analysis proves not only the relevance of the American writer’s thoughts in the domain of myths and images associated with death, which are present in collective memory, it also shows a number of similarities between the style of retro glamour adapted by the director and Sontag’s philosophy of new sensitivity called camp. As a result of the process of contextualization the attention is turned to the aesthetization procedures used by Litvi-nova in order to romanticize and neutralize the phenomenon of death. They are introduced due to the adaptation of carnival stylization as well as intertextual references to the poetics of surrealism and fairy tales. The analysis focuses on the process of understanding death metaphors in the text of the film, which at the same time constitutes the attempt of decoding symbolic leitmotivs, methods of theatralization and ritualization of behavior, including selected montage solutions used in the movie.