The Queen of Spades (1982) as an Analysis of the Imagery in Pushkin's Eponymous Novel

Abstract

The article looks at the deconstruction and analysis of a literary work by screen means using the example of The Queen of Spades (1982) directed by Igor Maslennikov.
In the film both the characters and the narrator are placed in a certain space with several time planes, and their interaction determines the dramatic movement of the picture. The authors outline and analyze the structural space of the screen version of the story. The article deals with the analysis of Igor Maslennikov's film The Queen of Spades (1982), in which the space of the film becomes a platform for the deconstruction of A.S. Pushkin's eponymous story by screen means.
Along with preserving the plot and individual details, the film copies the architectonics of the original material, including the epigraphs. In the film they reflect the analyzed structure of the story and reveal its characters as abstract entities, e.g. Hermann as Explorer, the Countess as personified Doom.
The original story is deliberately de-dramatized, in order to expose its basis, its «skeleton». The artistic world of The Queen of Spades is considered artificial but perfectly realistic, in which there is no place for the magical or the supernatural, and all extraordinary occurrences are the result of the author's structural manipulations. Hermann is transformed into a character beyond the storyline but still interacting with the plot: he is aware of the artificiality of his surroundings, but accepts the "rules of the game" in order to find the artistic and structural center of the story - the Countess's boudoir.
The film opens up new facets of the art of film adaptation — its viewing does not imply just watching the subjective interpretation of the literary plot, but its joint deconstruction (by the director and the spectator).