Techniques for Representing the Author in Alexander Sokurov’s films

Abstract

One of the features of A. Sokurov's art is the author's manifest
subjectivation of the material. In addition to the implicit presence of the author
evident in the choice of the idea, the main character, the entire artistic solution,
the director explicitly manifests himself in films.
In this regard, both the degree and the quality of the author's presence in
his own work are of interest. The focus of this study is the obviousness of the
author's direct involvement in the very fabric, the structure of the film.
The main purpose of the work is to identify and study the methods of the
author's self-representation. The article analyzes films united by the pronounced
author's "presence": the so-called cycle of non-fiction “Elegies”, the films “Maria”,
“Russian Ark” and “Francophonie”. This approach makes it possible to identify
several basic techniques the director uses to represent the author's image. The
first one is typical of Sokurov’s art and presupposes the author who becomes
the narrator of the film and models the narrated construction into a subjective
artistic image.
Another way of doing it, when the author acts as an interviewer, the latter
is replaced by a silent interlocutor observing his hero. In this case, the director
uses the principle of long-term observation, which allows him to see what is
usually hidden behind words and external phenomena.
Perhaps, the very unique way is turning Sokurov himself into the main
character of his own film. Here the maximum subjectivation is achieved: the
author shares his thoughts, feelings, enters the frame, actively interacts with the
characters, forcing them to violate the principle of the “fourth wall”. Sokurov
even removes the figure of the actor and takes his place himself, in order to
literally appeal directly to his viewer, lure him after with him.
Thus, this study allows us to reveal Sokurov's combination of documentary
cinema, television broadcasting, first-person computer game technologies and
augmented reality simulators, expanding the boundaries of filmic reality and
the language of cinema