Having descended from the pages of philosophical treatises and works of art as a religious and spiritual constant and as a full-fledged hero, the image of the Antichrist gained special popularity among Russian filmmakers associated with Modern. Despite the fact that the existence of the "Satanic cycle" in Russian cinema is a well–known fact, little attention has been paid to the study of this phenomenon. In the works of Russian film critics, the appearance of such films was most often explained either by the dead-end thinking of the bourgeois artist, or by the general decadent "background" of the culture of the Silver Age in general. Be that as it may, both positions converged in understanding the crisis of the phenomenon that arose at the break of the epochs. The author does not dispute this statement, but attempts to consider the image of the devil in Russian cinema of modern as a new form of broadcasting the ancient heretical teachings of the Gnostics, expressed in discrediting the physical world created by God. If, within the framework of traditional Christian doctrine, the devil is never equal to the Creator and is doomed to eternal defeat, then the Gnostics divided the one God of Christians into the "evil god" of matter and the "good god" of spirit. In such world, the victory of good is fundamentally impossible. The relevance of the research is determined not only by the low level of study of the designated issue, but also by the fact that such a topic is one of the artistic forms of expression of one of the basic conflicts of existence — the struggle of good against evil, the acuteness of which is especially evident in the "era of change".
The article examines the main ways of existence of the image of the devil on the Russian films in 1911–1919 — from the first unsystematic appearances to representation in the so called the "Satanic cycle": "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (dir. Vsevolod Meyerhold) and "The Maiden Mountains" (dir. Alexander Sanin). Special attention is paid to films that were previously either not included in the sphere of special interest of researchers, or were not considered within the framework of the designated as a part of the "Satanic cycle": "The Death of the Gods" ("Julian the Apostate") (dir. Vladimir Kasyanov) and "Father Sergius" (dir. Yakov Protazanov).

Animation technologies provide unique opportunities for visualizing and dramatic conceptualizing of four-dimensional space. The concept of the chronotope as a time-space complex, where matter turns into energy and time becomes the fourth dimension, was expressed by Albert Einstein in his theory of relativity and found a strong response in Мikhail Bakhtin’s aesthetics and in the film theory of Jean Epstein who wrote about the four-dimensionality of cinema. Sergei Eisenstein and Gilles Deleuze consider the fourth dimension in terms of film editing. How can one visualize it? Physiologist Alexei Ukhtomsky treated the chronotope as a comprehensive mode of interaction between living systems. Physicist Boris Rauschenbach interpreted four-dimension space as two worlds placed on opposite sides of a sheet of paper, whose habitants find the existence of the other side a miracle. Both models are consistent with Yury Lotman’s drama theory who envisions the plot as a crossing of the border between worlds. Understanding these principles in the context of animation drama permits to analyze the relationship between the space and the plot of an animated film.

In a modern documentary film, the sound solution is an integral part of the creation of a special emotional and semantic space. However, there is a lack of research in film studies literature that addresses issues of sound expressiveness in this type of cinema. Given the dialectical nature of a documentary film, the sound engineer is faced with the multifaceted task of preserving the unique sonic characteristics of the objects of the profile reality unchanged, and of giving the sound material of the film an internal dramaturgy. At the same time, the choice of specific methods and techniques is determined by the creative style of the director, who forms his unique cinematic narrative. The sound engineer, becoming a full co-author of the film, embodies the artistic level of perception of the events of reality, on which this or that author reflects. At the same time, only in a unified aesthetics of a creative approach together with the director of the film can perfection of audiovisual relations be achieved. In this regard, creative dyads are quite often formed in cinematographic practice. In the article, on the example of sound solutions of «Austerlitz» and «Victory Day» by S.V. Loznitsa, created in tandem with V.I. Golovnitsky, examines the methods of constructing a sound score, the analysis of which allows us to demonstrate both the mathematically verified asceticism of the director's style, takes on a cinematic image thanks to the poetic minimalism of the soundman. As a result of the study, we can testify how the use by sound engineer V.I. Golovnitsky of the figurative and expressive variability of the functions of speech, music and noise determined the phonosemantic tonality of the entire score, the perception of which becomes not just a part of screen reality, but a self-sufficient element of the author's non-verbal dialogue.

The parallel development of cinema and graphic design throughout the XXth century naturally led to their intersection and symbiosis, thus making it possible to develop today’s film credits into a specific type of design. Yet there is no academic research into the formation of film titles and film graphics as a separate area of graphic design in either Russian or Iranian art. The authors chose the titles of Iranian films as the object of study. They attempted to define the term “cinema graphics” as an independent field of graphic design.
The absence of elaborate definitions of cinema graphics and the eclecticism of related terms — motion graphics, animation graphics and kinetic typography — is noted; the common features and differences of cinema graphics and graphic design are considered. A proposition is made to define cinema graphics as artistic activities for the creation of titles and other visual material for film production using animation techniques and sound design since graphics, sound and movement are the three elements through which the visual language of the show preceding the film representation is created. The authors also suggest considering cinema graphics as an independent field of graphic design, due to the differences in format between these two kinds of project activity: graphic design is static and uses a two-dimensional fixed surface while cinema graphics is a dynamic art form and creates a moving text in real time.
The authors also lay an emphasis on the emotional-figurative shaping of film credits as a way of encoding utilitarian and practical functions, as well as a tool for creating emotional impressions, which, according to the designer’s intent, the consumer of film products (i. e. the viewer) should experience: balance, hierarchy, accent, color and integrity.

Studying silence as a dramaturgically important element of a film is an important aspect in VGIK’s curriculum. The instructors don’t only introduce the student sound designers to the technique of its creating, but devote enough time to the artistic aspect of the phenomenon of silence, offering them to comprehend it on their own, by way of expanding their knowledge about the time, space and circumstances of its intended on-screen representation. The educational process includes studying different film-scholar, philosophical and aesthetic views on the phenomenon of silence and, accordingly, a multi-angle approach to the formation of ‘quiet spots’ in the soundtrack of a motion picture. In class, the students create sound sketches, come up with dramatic situations that create the possibility of silence and analyze the films containing ‘quiet scenes.’ Such tasks prepare the student to perceiving and creating silence as an artistic and semantic image of a quiet episode by means of music and ambient noises, in the dynamic flow of sound. Modern technologies, taught at VGIK’s Sound Design Department, enable the students to render silence in different ways, taking into account the dramatic context of a particular movie and the director’s aesthetic concept. However, the hands-on mastery of techniques and various technologies is inextricably linked with the mastering of aesthetic parameters and criteria of sound designs created by the students, including those related to the formation of «quiet places» in a film. In conclusion, the authors summarize the basic approaches and principles of creating silent spots in the film’s soundtrack, practiced by the instructors and passed on to the students in the process of performing class assignments.

The article studies montage options in creating the visuals (storyboard, explication, sketches) for a future film. The tasks given to future artists of feature and animated film at the Art department of VGIK include making a series of sketches for the script or a work of art. Such approaches as catching the spirit, the architectural style, the kind of characters and their line of action are fairly well-known. However, the montage sequence of the future movie, the interrelation between separate sketches, the dynamics of on-screen developments, the anticipation of montage choices both in the film as a whole and in separate episodes are less often taken into account. The article gives examples of some montage patterns described in S.M. Eisenstein’s work and the principles that should be applied when creating preliminary sketches. Eisenstein emphasizes that the main task of montage is related to the problem of consistent presentation of the chosen theme. It is demonstrated that a sketch series is a narrative, a pictorial text. Hence, not only stylistic unity is of the utmost importance, but above all the relations between the sketches, when their connection, interrelation gives rise to a new semantic unity and each one of the sketches acquires a new, nondepicted emotional and sensual semantic meaning. This peculiarity is well known in psychology when the thought process is analyzed. There are no isolated mental objects, they always come in pairs and large structural systems that surpass in their integral semantics the sum total of meanings of their constituent elements. Montage as the interaction of contradictions and contrasts must be taken into account while making preparatory sketches. Taking as an example some short series, the article shows how a simple rearrangement of the sequence of images changes the overall meaning of the whole visual artistic narrative.

The article examines the modernisation of screen culture’s aesthetic and semiotic structure based on the synthesis of technology and creativity.
The relevance of the problem lies in the fact that the existence of contemporary artistic culture is somehow connected with the transformations of media environment in the 20th–21st centuries where the screen acts as the main formgenerating “material medium”. Being a new communicative paradigm, screen (audio-visual) culture is a phenomenon of the information age, standing out from conventional arts. Screen production, represented today by old and new media, is global in nature, actively influencing the individual and the society and changing the socio-cultural space of the world.
The artistic-semiotic structure of screen culture in the course of its evolution has passed through three historical and aesthetical periods. The first one was the era of modernism whose aesthetics was closely connected with scientific and technological progress and the emergence of a new type of culture based on the synthesis of technology and creativity. The phenomenon in question is photography and cinema that outshone the centuries-old classical culture. The second period, which began in the 1960s–1970s, being associated with the formation of postmodernist aesthetics, was caused by the transition of culture from modernism to the information age, which brought it to an artistic deadlock due to the overabundance of information. The third period (the turn of the 20th– 21st centuries), connected with the transformation processes of globalisation and digitalisation, can be defined as “computer-centric”, where the forms of digital info-aesthetics prove to be most demanded in the cultural sphere.
Reflecting on the impact of computer technologies on screen culture, it should be noted that digital aesthetics changes human conscience and the way people perceive reality. That is why the study of this process is one of the most relevant tasks of the theory and practice of screen creativity.

The article is devoted to the consideration and analysis of techniques for displaying historical authenticity on the screen when working with the artistic expressiveness of costumes. Currently, historical films are becoming increasingly popular, so creating a historically accurate costume on screen is an important task for filmmakers. Demands of viewers for truthfulness and “quality” of films are growing along with the development of technology and media. It has now become easier for viewers to recognize an inaccurately depicted image of a historical era in cinema. The methods of artists working on historical costumes are changing due to the significantly expanded possibilities of searching for historical material. The article identifies general modern trends in the work of costume designers with historical material. The process of perception of film images by viewers is also of great importance. The feeling of authenticity of screen images is based on a subconscious belief in the reality of what is happening on the screen. Therefore, watching historical films also lays down an idea of the culture of the era shown in the film. The article examines the process of forming viewers' ideas about images of the past based on the film image. A costume in cinema can perform a large number of functions that are important to the culture as a whole. Therefore, attention to the “truthfulness” of the images depicted on the screen is so important. It is a fairly reliable historical costume rich in decoration helps to understand the true meaning of the plot and makes the audience immerse themselves in a different reality.

The article investigates the continuity of expressive possibilities of fine art in cinema. The competent use of composition, color and lighting choices borrowed from painting contributes to the development of screen imagery in cinema as art.
In the early 20th century the idea of the synthesis of arts has become increasingly popular, due to the development in cultural, social and political life of people as well as historical events in general. Although cinema is rightly considered an art that has absorbed the potential of literature, theater and music, the influence of fine arts, and painting in particular, seems to be the most obvious. Directors are often inspired by famous canvases, or choose to quote certain paintings – copy their composition, lighting and color peculiarities – and sometimes even reproduce entire plots in their films. In the history of cinema one can find a number of examples of collaboration between artists and filmmakers.
The visuals of the film become the distinctive feature which lets the viewer identify the director’s style and specific aesthetics. This aesthetics can be influenced both by the experience of other directors and by certain trends in fine art, or by the impression of individual works of artists or even their artistic journey as a whole. To this or that extent the works of most highly recognized world-class directors show evidence that their authors turn their attention to the masterpieces of fine art or individual techniques used in them which testifies to the continuity of pictorial traditions in cinema in general. This approach does not only expand the expressive possibilities of cinema, but also contributes to the development of onscreen intertextuality as a whole. The adequate use in cinema of composition, color and lighting approaches borrowed from painting contributes to the development of imagery of cinema as art in general, and the study of the language of plastic arts in the context of the search for new visual ideas can enrich the range of cinematographic methods and technologies.

The article refers to film interpretations that actualize the intellectual heritage of the American thinker Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), who highlighted the dehumanizing aspects of the technological progress and largely predicted the prevalent social moods and intentions of the next two centuries. Many Hollywood films about «runaways» from civilization, social outcasts, «inner emigrants» have been inspired by his observations and intuitions. The object of the analysis is the cinematic interpretation of Thoreau’s ideas, namely Douglas Sirk's “All that Heaven Allows” (1955) and Damian Szifron's “Misanthrope” (2023).
The article addresses the problem of the dependence of the emotional and semantic content on the visual structure. The analysis of the films demonstrates that image includes dramaturgy and ideas. For instance, the saturated color contrast in Douglas Sirk's film conveys mutual misunderstanding, while the rounded shapes of objects express a hermetic bourgeois way of life in an American provincial town. The deep space in Damian Szifron's film generates a sense of a meaningless rush of civilization, the rectangular shapes of skyscrapers and monitors create the image of a cobweb enslaving urban space, and the sharp tonal contrast serves both as a stylistic device and as a means of conveying the anxiety and tension of today's world.
The article argues that the determination of the emotional and semantic content by the visual structure is expressed by Aristotle's concept of "form" (morphe, logos). That’s how the Greek philosopher named a latent (alethic) image of a phenomenal object, a piece of art included. A form or an image is a demiurgeous idea, a goal (telos), a substance, that does not become and does not emerge. Moreover, form taken with no correspondence with matter can be looked upon in thought only, abstractedly. All substances perceived by human senses are of a material matter, so any formed up singular thing — a motionpicture in our case — is where the form reveals itself, finds its completeness.

The article presents an in-depth study of various narrative techniques used in Joker (dir. Todd Phillips, 2019) which allow the audience to discern the real and imaginary events of the film. Since the film widely employs the unreliable narrator trope, the identification of the events occurring or being radically transformed in the protagonist’s imagination is possible through analysing the narrative techniques used, which can be divided into two groups: the so-called “story” techniques based on a specific sequence of actions and / or words, and audio-visual, which include camera-angle, the position and movement of the camera, the score, etc.
A close look at the “story” techniques makes it possible to specify the hallucinations based on the following model: “A situation ambiguous from the standpoint of public opinion/morality: the protagonist gives a negative assessment of his possible actions in this situation but the key counterpart convinces him that the actions, taken or proposed, are the right thing to do”. Other imaginary events are identified by means of actual cinematic techniques, such as camera closing-up on a TV screen with the subsequent transition of the action into the screen space, the use of a musical leitmotif, etc.
Distinguishing between the imaginary and real events allows us to rather accurately determine the stages of accurately determine the stages of transformation of an ordinary mentally conditioned person Arthur Fleck into the Joker, a monster in terms of cultural monsterology, as well as the film’s embodiment of the evil clown archetype as an agent of chaos that also defines the “borders of the possible” for a conditioned person in modern society. The article thus concludes the efficiency of such an analysis of narrative techniques for a more precise reading of the film’s imagery and understanding of its implied meanings.