The article examines the specific features of recording reality in the Soviet newsreel of the 1930s, brought about by the dialectic of the public identity at the turn of the civilizational movement from the struggle and destruction of the old pattern of life of the 1920s to the creation of a new as of yet unknown world. The analysis draws upon the analogous social order of an ancient polis based on the mythological "programming" of the society through heroic and aesthetic norms. Attention is drawn to the methodological similarity of the ways of connecting people into an integral community with its own ideal models of the social structure and the relationship between the individual and the public. Therefore the role of an example is essential here. This is not so much a program of a human being’s self-improvement as an ideal norm of a structural unit of the community.
The filmmakers of the early 1930s faced two seemingly contradictory challenges: to create a screen chronicle of the country and the society’s transformation, on the one hand, and to form a screen model of the future, extracting its constituent images from the present, on the other. So, they get actively involved in the nation’s creative labor, not as mere observers, but as enthusiastic participants in overcoming the difficulties of the stressful path to the ‘bright new future’ At the same time, a desire for a more expressive generalized, hence simulated, screen representation of reality is born, which leads to the emergence of an aesthetic canon of capturing the facts of life, gravitating towards the mythologized symbolism of reality images. The persistent tendency to forge a cinematic canon of Soviet reality at the beginning of the decade turned into the final crystallization of the mythological concept of reality, followed by its functioning in the rigid “crystalline” limits of the once found formula, which received the name of “normative aesthetics”.
The audience’s perception also changes replacing the specifics of the flow of life with the generalized “canon” of Soviet reality. These contradictory motives for the work of documentary filmmakers, based on the demands of a society looking to the future, gave rise to a particular stylistic form of newsreels of the 1930s, which have been so criticized by subsequent generations of researchers.

When it comes to Soviet-era films, scholars and historians often ignore or make little of the political and socio-cultural context, focusing on the artistic merits or the director's position. This even made it possible to divide the productions of certain periods into two categories: films that remained within the ideological agenda, and truly auteur works that went beyond the canon. There is no denial, though, that the creators of both existed within the same cultural framework that largely determined the artistic choices they made. That is why it is so important to consider the canonical component of Soviet cinema, inextricably related to the communist ideology.
A brief overview of complying with an artistic canon throughout the history of art reveals its sociopolitical nature: the canon is often a reflection of the values and attitudes that are (or should be) dominant in the society at the time.
One of the most typical and indicative periods in the history of Russian cinema is the Stalinist era, from the early 1930s to the mid-1950s. The cultural and ideological turn to socialist realism alongside with the strengthening of the censorship allows one to talk about the formation of well-established standards in Soviet film industry. The specific nature of the socialist realistic canon, at least in relation to cinema, lay in its ambiguity and dependence on the personal decisions of those in power. In many respects, the canon exists within abstract concepts, including three principles of Socialist Realism: popularity, ideological commitment and concreteness. The plasticity and versatility of these concepts largely allowed them to be used freely in the form most suited to the prevailing circumstances.

At the height of the Thaw, the mythology of asceticism flourished, taking extreme forms of martyrdom and passion-bearing, bordering on fanaticism. The on-screen fairy-tale of the “Grand Manner” cinema became a reality: directors showed the devotees with the degree of authenticity that they would not dare to demonstrate in the 30s and 40s. The radical, and sometimes even shocking, characterization of the heroes of revolution (“Pavel Korchagin”, “The Forty-First”) caused a furious controversy about the relevance of such naturalism.
The convergence between the images of the ascetic heroes and the lives of religious martyrs and ascetics became apparent. Heightened drama, life and struggle beyond human capacity, the rejection of personal happiness for the sake of the public good, sacrifice - those are the main features of the characters of “Pavel Korchagin”, “The First Teacher”, “The Forty-First”, “The Communist”, etc.
The main stumbling block was the phenomenon of female asceticism (“The Forty-First”, “Commissar”). The revolutionary idea came into conflict with the essence of the human nature and the nature rule. The resigned sacrifice of Maryutka and Commissar Vavilova made the audience shudder. Their wild acts unnatural for women (like sacrificing the loved one and the child) reflected the twisted fate of the whole country. The idea of the victory of mind over matter was discredited, and the myth was literally blown up from within.
The cinema of the Thaw showed a gradual emancipation of the pupil from the mentor, essentially destroying the mythological triad. And the heated debate on excessive radicalism and naturalism in the depiction of the hero and the unnaturalness of female asceticism was the evidence of a more precarious position of the mythologeme. The fate of new fanatical heroes was treated not merely as the only form of existence in the mythologized Soviet space, but also as human tragedy. Or was it a mistake? The question mark still remains.

The article explores the motif of a festival from an unconventional perspective: it does not examine its idyllic representation, but its dramatic potential for the plot based on an existential conflict. It is this kind of conflict that underlies the plots of such movies as «Another Round» (dir. Thomas Vinterberg, 2020), «Toni Erdmann» (dir. Maren Ade, 2016) and «Hope» (dir. Maria Södal, 2019). The article looks into the structure of the festivity motif and the impact of its components on the principal existential conflict of the film.
The festivity motif creates such oppositions as life and death, the profane and the sacred, the individual and the social. The appearance of the motif in question in the movie results in the emergence of a specific ambiance: the festivity space which is included into artistic space of the film. This inclusion is by no means accidental: it provides some special opportunities to the plot and is connected to the film’s dramatic conflict.
The existential conflict is the character’s inner contradiction, but its portrayal requires a particular external ambiance. The festivity space makes it possible to develop the character’s internal conflict through the external space, using its unique properties. These properties are: the overturn of the reality with crossing of the sacred boundary; the opposition of the individual and the social; the splitting of the character between being and not-being; the clash of the sacred and the profane. The researcher lays an emphasis on the way these features participate in the development of the existential conflict on the screen.
The festivity motif comprises both spatial and temporal dimensions. The unauthorized crossing over the festivity space and time boundaries entails serious consequences for the characters. The article includes a case study of such crossing. The author arrives at the conclusion that the plot-forming potential of the festivity motif is determined by the conflicting unity of the elements of its structure.

The article addresses the topic of the mutual influence of cinema and society, reflected in the personality and the changes in the costume and appearance of the movie character. In this context the collaboration between the designer and the film director is analyzed as illustrated by certain works by Yves Saint Laurent in the French cinema of the 1960s. Unlike the costume designer, the couturier, who works mainly outside the boundaries of studio filmmaking, introduces signs of the social dynamics of his time into the artistic space of the film and, in particular, into the image of the film character. Thus, the article draws attention not only to the role of costume in creating the image of the movie character and its significance in the stylistics and dramaturgy of the film, but also to the socio-cultural context within which the costume exists, reflecting through external indicators internal personality changes and signs of important social shifts. The films created with Yves Saint Laurent can be analyzed not only in terms of costume as an in-the-frame artistic detail and an element of the screen persona, but also treating wardrobe as the character’s “milieu”, lifestyle, personality and inner world, manifesting themselves also through articles of clothing which cease to be just mere “objects”, becoming cultural codes of the epoch with a timeless cult status. The main research material includes the films “The Pink Panther” (by Blake Edwards, 1963), “Arabesque” (by Stanley Donen, 1966), “Beauty of Day” (by Luis Bunuel, 1967). The example of Yves Saint Laurent’s work in the French cinema of the 1960s testifies that the collaboration of the designer and the director is not only a commercial, but a socially significant phenomenon. This fact suggests that the study of period costumes in various national cinemas can contribute to a better understanding of social processes and states of mind of members of different social groups and their relationships dynamics.

Modern digital technologies applied in animation have reached a level which allows for attaining maximum realism in recreating invented worlds and characters.
While facilitating and accelerating the production process, 3D modeling programs, motion capture technologies, game engines, simulations of natural phenomena and physical properties of objects hamper the creation of the director’s authorly visual style. To solve this problem, animators and production companies tend to modify the visual style of their work by employing the artistic techniques typical for cel animation.
The combination of artistic techniques with technological innovations allows the animators to add a unique visual style to computer animation.
The analysis of modern animated works made it possible to identify the main methods and means used by the authors to correlate the visual solution with the director's conception. Stylization of 3D computer graphics as 2D is made by using non-photorealistic rendering and game engines that process images in real time, e. g. the employment of a «cel-shading» render, which uses a solid color fill, explicit chiaroscuro borders, a limited number of colors, and an outline stroke.
The addition of two-dimensional lines created on top of three-dimensional objects in three-dimensional space is also applied. Mixing animation with other types of graphics, such as comic book, helps achieve stunning up-to-date results. The emphasis on decorativeness, “artistic” images, the texture of the materials, light and shadow let you get the picture in the "hand-paint" style.
Experiments with artistic design via the latest computer technologies change the approach to new imagery. The fusion of artistic means and the technological possibilities of modern CGI is becoming mainstream in creating a unique visual style

The article deals with the challenges of film adaptation of literary classics in the history of Russian artistic culture. It focuses on the representation of the imagery of Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) in cinema and on TV. He was one of the most often filmed writers in the XX century, but in the post-Soviet period his works ceased to be required by screen culture, despite their relevance and suitability for the screen. Analyzing the metamorphoses that Gorky's works have experienced, the author examines films of different artistic quality and reveals the ideological and creative standpoints of their directors. The representation of Gorky's images was most interesting and profound in the film adaptations by V. Pudovkin (“The Mother”, 1926), M. Donskoy (“Gorky's Childhood”, “In the World”, “My Universities”, “The Mother”, 1955, “Foma Gordeyev”, etc.), G. Roshal (“The Artamonov Business”), S. Solovyov ("Egor Bulychev and Others"), R. Nakhapetov ("Enemies"), G. Panfilov (“Vassa”, “The Mother”, 1990), V. Titov (“The Life of Klim Samgin”), etc. The peculiarity of these films is not only that they faithfully convey the key ideas and spirit of the writer's works, but also that each of them turned out to be innovative and relevant at the time of its creation. This is proof that the works of screen culture, based on Gorky's realistic plots built in turn on deep knowledge of social problems and character studies, can still be in demand today.

The Scandinavian crime drama was born out of a mix of Dogme 95 and “Twin Peaks” kind of TV series. Apart from a gripping plot, the main feature of the genre is an extraordinary heroine capable of taking on society's challenges, punishing the strong and standing up for the weak. The Scandinavian mythological tradition and the historical and country-specific context had a key influence on the shaping of the image of the heroine in question. Thus, given the harsh climate, the rather far apart residences and military campaigns, a woman often had to take on male roles. And Scandinavian goddesses were equal to men. With the advent of Christianity, thanks to the literary tradition, women managed to retain their significant role.
Striking heroines appear in the works of Andersen, Strindberg, Lagerlöf, Bremer. In the 20th century, Astrid Lindgren created a series of bold, singular heroines. Pippy Longstocking inspired Stieg Larsson to create Lisbeth Salander, who in turn spawned an abundance of Scandinavian heroines such as Saga Nooren, Sarah Lund, Alfhildr Enginsdotter, who have gained worldwide recognition. They are reclusive, strange in comparison to their colleagues, sometimes sociopathic, not always able to behave properly in society, but always ready to put everything on the line for the sake of truth. At the same time one can observe a tandem of partners of opposite sex having completely dissimilar personalities, but perfectly complementing each other.
It is important to note, however, that invariable there is a certain ambivalence present in the heroine’s character. She arouses sympathy and protest of the audience, as if demonstrating that she is neither good nor bad, neither better nor worse than anyone else, but just like everyone else. This is a feature of the Scandinavian character, described by the Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose as the Law of Jante. Of particular note is the fact that the strong tradition of mythology gave rise to a new genre previously unexplored in Russian film studies - New Nordic Magic. It is some kind of a low-budget fantasy, where a fancy story is set in a modern city. Two Norwegian series, “Ragnarök” and “Aliens from the Past”, are examples of this genre, enabling one to talk about complex matters in a straightforward manner not being wary of giving offence.

The article addresses the interaction between ballet (and more broadly — dance) and cinema, which so far has been little investigated in Russian interdisciplinary art studies. The material for the research has been defined as movies by two outstanding Spanish film directors, who are both part of the Spanish culture with its characteristic attitude to dance, and share the connection to the aesthetics of the Spanish Baroque.
The ballet trilogy by Carlos Saura (“Bodas de sangre”, “Carmen”, “El amor brujo”) reveals how the flamenco ballet contributes to the manifestation of national characteristics in classical Spanish narratives. The unique sound and plastic means of flamenco heighten the dramatic tension and expose the essence of the characters, which imparts greater authenticity in terms of the Spanish context.
Pedro Almodóvar's film “Hable con ella” presents both ballet art and its antipode, contemporary dance. The film is taken as an example to demonstrate, among other things, the functional use of “ballet fragments” (taken from Pina Bausch’s productions). They add depth and additional meaning to the story, anticipate what is happening on the screen and create a unique, poignant visual plastic image.
The author comes to the conclusion that the conventions of musical and dance dramaturgy and the unique plastic means of flamenco in the movies of Carlos Saura as well as the use of the symbolic language of contemporary dance by Almodovar facilitated the free expression of the director's original intentions and increased the emotional impact on the viewer's imagination. Moreover, both filmmakers use dance as a unifying element, holding the plot structure together with the “bodily strength” of the dancers, taking the “linear dimension” of the narrative film to a poetic level. In addition, surprisingly for both directors, the dance became the starting point, a kind of impulse, a trigger, in relation to the creative act of moviemaking.

Actualizing the discourse of the multi-level screen space, the present study places the main emphasis on the process of creating the visual copy of an object and its placement in the mise-en-scene both during its visual capture and while video editing.
The study considers the practical application of this artifact using a monitor screen or a mobile device in the filming process and in post-production in the form of augmented reality exemplified by an element of additional visuals.
The author gives relevant examples of the simultaneous usage in the miseen-scene of a portion of real space when it is fixed within a complex frame and points out the essence of both the background picture of the acting space and the backdrop in the screen image of the monitor-scenery, along with this investigating the placement of objects in perspective in a screen space which comprises several visual planes.
Close attention is given to the extra-spatial display of an object inserted directly into the screen space as augmented reality, which is «played up» in the shot by means of classic camera techniques used for large-screen, television, and video filming. Particular attention is paid to creative techniques of editing at the points of transition of the image of an object between two screen worlds, thus combining different screen spaces into a single closed composition of the complex frame, which emphasizes the visual multidimensionality of the screen construct.
On the basis of this work intermediate results in the study of television screen space are confirmed, and the concept of «copying technique» is introduced into scientific discourse.
The present publication is intended for television and cinema professionals, as well as creators of Internet content, it will be also useful for training specialists in creative universities, and be of interest to a wide range of readers and viewers.