The Canons of Capturing Reality in the Documentary Cinema of the 1960s
Abstract
The essay deals with the problems of new expressive means that
appeared in Soviet documentaries in the late 1950s — 1960s. It analyzes the main
expressive means of capturing the new screen reality on examples of Castles in
the Sand (dir. Yakov Bronstein and Algimantas Vidugiris), Katyusha (dir. Viktor
Lisakovich), Marina’s Life (dir. Leonid Kvinikhidze), Look at the Face (dir. Pavel
Kogan), and Nikolai Amosov (dir. Taimuraz Zoloev). Its main interests are plastic
solutions, the frame structure, the designation of the object of shooting and the
author's presence in the interframe space or inside the frame; changes in the
attitudes of the author and the protagonists, the author’s attention to personality,
and the expressiveness of human presence in the film.
The essay discusses the existential and philosophical components of the
documentary films of that period, as well as changes in the aesthetic and
ideological pictures of the world, which influenced the principle of capturing
reality and the concept of authenticity. Documentaries of the Thaw are viewed
via the formation of new canons of capturing screen reality, including new
capturing techniques (hidden camera, habitual camera, method of provocation),
principles of intraframe editing and new space-time frame characteristics.
The principles of intraframe editing, new spatial and temporal characteristics of
the frame are presented in the progressive analysis of assembly phrases and the
compositional structure of the frame of films. The author examines the principles
of the formation of the protagonists' characters, the positioning of a person
within the frame and the general stylistic paradigm of documentary genres.
Taking as examples film portraits, film essays and polemical films, the essay
explores novel means of forming spectator paradigms in the documentaries of
the Thaw within the context of the author’s attitude towards the selected material
and the protagonist.
Keywords
canon,
documentary cinema,
1960s,
chronicle,
documentary,
Soviet documentary cinema,
aesthetic canon,
author's model of reality UDC 778.5.03.03с(09)«1960» Maria V. Bezenkova PhD in Arts,
Associate Professor,
Film Studies Department,
Sergei Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) The Canons of Capturing Reality in the Documentary Cinema of the 1960s
References
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Review
For citations:
Bezenkova M.V. The Canons of Capturing Reality in the Documentary Cinema of the 1960s. Vestnik VGIK. 2019;11(3(41)):30-41. (In Russ.)
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