Framing As a Method of Creating a Film's Metaphorical Context

Abstract

This essay continues the study of the semiotics and synergetics
of Framing in the Art of Cinematography which substantiates the hypothesis
that framing (perspective) constitutes one of the most important codes of screen
communication in its cinematographic and metaphorical contexts. Thus, framing
is represented by two hierarchical levels of representation of contextual semiotic
connections: the connection between mise-en-cadre and mise-en-scène (the
level of the cinematographic form of film sign); and the relationship between
cinematographic imagery, action and meaning (the level of the cinema sign).
Framing consolidates the process of cinematography divided by the artistic and
production dichotomy, which is especially important in the context of mass
culture determined by the total industrialization of all areas of life, including
cinema.
The essay is based on the statement of Sergei Eisenstein that each “high” film
work has the unity of two dialectical categories: the content (abstract language,
part of logical thinking) and the form (emotional language, part of emotional-
sensory thinking). It identifies and analyzes the spatial-temporal and linear-
tonal features of cinematic framing as a method of expressing the metaphorical
existential context of the crisis of Russian self-identification, using as examples a
number of expressive episodes of the documentary film Anna: 6–18 (1980-1993;
dir. Nikita Mikhalkov, DOPs: Pavel Lebeshev, Vadim Yusov, Vadim Alisov, and
Elizbar Karavaev). This film work is explored as a study of the socio-cultural
situation in modern Russia undertaken from a multi-faceted and multi-level
authorial perspective associated with expressive cinematographic framing.