The problem of integrity of the author's text in art is often perceived as axiomatic: any use of "someone else's" text within the “author’s own” work is declared as plagiarism. However it has been demonstrated that the problem of “quotation”, “collage” etc. is not so simple: the history of world art offers many fascinating examples of “playing” with someone else’s art texts in the context of one’s own work. The most complete form of this kind of creativity is historical documentary or montage movie. The article examines the innovative experience of the acknowledged founder of this trend Esfir Shub, who not only collected what would later become film archives, but also started a new field of creative work.
Further experience of using archival chronicles in world cinema to create substantive works opened up many creative paths both for historiographic screen texts and free-form author essays. The article traces the attempts of Alain Resnais, Paul Rotha, Frederic Rossif, Artavazd Peleshian, Alexander Sokurov to create original movies based on the already existing screen texts of the past. Particular attention is given to the methods of distancing archival frames, transition from chronicle narrative to figurative metaphor.

The article discusses characteristic features of Russian prerevolutionary non-fiction cinema, which has been little studied to date. The proposed analysis gives a fresh look at its place in the performing art of prerevolutionary Russia and determines certain specific aspects of its artistic form. Can it be considered figurative cinema or is it mostly symbolic? Does it reflect all aspects of life in Russia at that time, or does it address them selectively?
A new approach to the analysis of pre-revolutionary films and their comparison with Dziga Vertov’s post-revolutionary pictures make it possible to offer a more accurate description of the artistic techniques of the time, which is extremely relevant and timely in the light of unbiased assessments of the ongoing processes.
Dziga Vertov’s film “Kinoglaz” (1924), which has been selected for comparison is largely a staged film, which does not shy away from dramatic techniques. Georges Meyer, one of the first documentary filmmakers who worked in Russia for a long time, shot his first film “Moscow in Winter” (1908) exclusively as a piece of chronicle, as a documentary, but his second one, “Sevastopol and the Squadron in the Black Sea” (1908) is already made using staged elements.
How should we treat surviving pre-revolutionary newsreels, as images of the past or as signs referring to the past? The purely staged film “Kinoglaz” tends toward figurative language. Pre-revolutionary non-fiction cinema is largely sign-oriented, although the so-called “tsarist chronicles”, which depict the ritual of autocratic power, are therefore more figurative. The chronicle, that is, documentary approach, practiced in early films, remained a device for only a short time, soon to be supplanted by staged shots, especially since the beginning of the First World War. True, this does not apply to regularly released newsreels, where the documentary character, relying on reporting techniques, is not in question.

The article studies the history of tap dance in the context of Soviet cinema and its use as an artistic device for the allegoric interpretation of time in Soviet films of the Perestroika era. The source material for the study is the films "Winter Evening in Gagra" by K. Shakhnazarov (1985) and "The Servant" by V. Abdrashitov (1988). They are the most striking and well-known examples of the use of tap dancing as an important part of the author's imagery for representing the receding times.
To complete the in-depth analysis of the above-mentioned films, the article also conducts a small study of the introduction of tap dancing and its functions in the cinema of an earlier period, when tap dancing was formally banned as a Western dance alien to Soviet culture.
The triumphant arrival of the once-banned tap dance on cinema screens in the post-Stalin cinema contributed to its rediscovery as an artistic device that carries the energy necessary to reflect the spirit of the times in a special dynamic and plastic form.
After all, the pulsating rhythm of this dance was originally related to the imagery associated with a precise tapping to mark time, resembling the sound of a moving train. And the emphasis on the sincere emotional performance of the dance became essential to ensuring the necessary perception by the audience of both the inner state of the performers and the time itself, which the dance expresses. These features of tap dancing were used by film directors in different ways, but the relevance of the dance for perestroika cinema remained a constant, it fitted equally well into the story of the parting ghost of the "thaw" and the working through the trauma of the Stalin era.
In addition to the importance of studying the specifics of tap dancing in these films, it offers new possibilities for understanding the concept of time and taking a new look at familiar stories through the semantics of dance images.

The author of this paper proposes to use the characters’ typology, suggested by the Russian psychologist V.I. Garbuzov, which is based on human instincts, for the analysis of characters in Russian film comedies. She emphasizes that defining the type of a character can shed light on the type of a correlated storyline. The author notes that despite the ages-old interest in characters’ typology, this issue is yet relevant for the theory of cinema.
The problem of the characters’ typology is far from exhausted, and today there is a clear need to search for new methods of systematizing movie characters by type. The author notes its practical importance for scriptwriters since, having decided upon the psychological type, they will be able to elaborate the most organic arches for their heroes. And the problem of the character’s natural existence in the given circumstances is still a major focus of film critics’ attention and is extremely relevant for contemporary Russian cinema.
The typology proposed by the author includes 7 character types: the egophilic one (based on the instinct of self-preservation), the genophilic one (based on the instinct of procreation), the altruistic one (based on the eponymous instinct), the research one (on the instinct of investigation), the dominant type (on the instinct of dominance), the libertophilic one (on the instinct of freedom) and the dignitophilic one (on the instinct of preserving human dignity). This typology reveals the leading intrinsic motive of the hero, his basic need, it determines the type of his reaction, and also sheds light on the possible development of story lines. The researcher emphasizes the relationship between the character and the plot and illustrates it with some characters of well-known Soviet and modern Russian film comedies. She notes that characters often form dyads, according to the type of their interaction.
Thus, the dignitophilic type is often embroiled in conflict with the libertophilic one, and the latter with the genophilic one, etc. The author assumes that the use of this characters’ typology can be an effective tool for screenwriters, especially at the stage of plotting story lines in a screenplay.

Modern computer technologies are constantly changing. The industry does not stand still, until recently stuntmen, life size puppets and mannequins were the main tools of filmmakers for creating action scenes. There was no question of the faces of the elderly actors looking young again on the screen. Now the customary technologies are becoming a thing of the past, although they are still in use on set.
Modern cinema uses digital doubles to achieve similar goals. The aim of computer graphics studios is to create digital doubles as similar to people as possible. At first, these were very sketchy computer models that were quite conspicuous, and there was no question of complete realism.But with the advance of visualization technologies, digital doubles have become more and more realistic. As it turns out, the method of copying reality raises problems of perception.
Solving these problems proved not an easy task, besides technological aspects there are cultural and psychological difficulties related to the perception of computer generated characters. The problem turned out to be so significant that it spawned a number of studies dealing with the causes and ways of overcoming this phenomena. There even appeared a special term — “The effect of the uncanny valley”. The mechanisms of overcoming this problem have not been elaborated yet. But nevertheless, it can be stated that the essence of the problem lies not only in the technological sphere but also in absence of an integrated approach to its solution.
The thorough differentiation of technical professions in screen arts has created a certain vacuum in creative work, and the solution for this problem may lie in a fundamentally new approach to the use of technical means. The essence of scientific research should be the use of psychological and aesthetic analysis, which makes possible not only to overcome the negative consequences of the “uncanny valley” effect but also turn them into positive ones.

The notions of style and genre are of great importance for the fine arts. Many researchers write their papers proceeding from these notions. It is all the more important to define some scope of these concepts with regard to the film poster, as there are a lot of dark spots and confusing definitions related to this type of poster, as well as to film art itself.
This article uses one of the largest collections of film posters, the poster archive of the Russian State Library as its source material. All cited examples belong to the least explored part of the collection – Soviet posters advertising foreign films. The image of the film poster is influenced by a number of factors: the established traditions of this kind of posters, the printing technique, the style specific to the epoch, the artist's own artistic style, as well as the style and school of the filmic work.
The film poster artist is guided by the content of the film, its emotional tone, the peculiarities of its imagery in general. One of the main functions of the film poster is to give the first impression of the film, including its genre. This is achieved by various methods: the use of certain colors; the use of typical traits for certain film genres; thus comedy is often conveyed by caricature.
Most often the film is presented by the film poster via portrait, but there are also landscapes, animalistic images, and as mentioned above — caricature. The film poster itself is a subspecies of the spectacle poster rather than a separate genre. The film poster, which is a synthetic form with respect to artistic and expressive means, combines the traditions of fine art and cinema. Given its specific variety of genre and stylistic peculiarities, the poster has its own place in the fine art.

The use of a complex methodology in cinema studies is constantly being discussed. There are researches on sociology, psychology, aesthetics and semiotics of cinema. The movement towards an integrated methodology makes the idea of a philosophy of cinema relevant. The synthesis of different academic approaches in cinema studies can be only understood in terms of philosophy.
Each discipline sees and is able to explain through cinema merely what is connected with its agenda. An appropriate methodology needs to be developed so that these different aspects of cinema are transformed into the elements of a uniform system. The article analyzes the philosophical approach to cinema studies of Gilles Deleuze, who made cinema instrumental in examining time.
Deleuze’s work in question explores Henri Bergson's argumentation of dramatic changes in the perception of time. It would seem that it was cinema, with its ability to capture the dynamism of social life, that should have demonstrated the meaning of such changes. Bergson understood, quite traditionally, the ability of cinema to recreate time in the forms of space. Deleuze shares the conventional point of view on the fate of philosophy, which argues that previous philosophy disappears and, dissolving in art, exists only in artistic manifestations. The authors conclude that:
1. The intrusion of philosophy into cinema dictates the need to develop a theory as a mediator between film philosophy and filmmaking.
2. When studying cinema through other liberal sciences, it is necessary to avoid discussing specific aspects and strive for a systematic consideration.
3. The study of cinema from the point of view of various schools of thought, does not exclude finding points of contact between them.
4. The need for an integrated methodology in studying cinema involving philosophical angles is also dictated by the rapid development of technology. It is necessary to take into account what has already been accomplished in the philosophy of technology.

Alberto Lattuada has never got in the focus of interest of the film research in Russia. Though this original director left a mark in history of such movements in the Italian cinema as neorealism, caligraphism, verism. The article points out the reason of ignoration which can be applied to similar cases. The subject of the primary interest for the Russian researches are Lattuada’s adaptations of the Russian literature, two of which are analyzed here — “Tempest” (from the novel “The Captain’s Daughter” by Pushkin) and “The Steppe” (from the short novel by Chekhov). Topicality of the research offered is not in the Russian origin of the novels but also in their classical status — as H.-G.Gadamer mentioned: the classic opens the truth. Continual rethinking of the classical literature heritage by the means of cinema is necessary. As it is known there are notionally two kind of “polar” ways of screen adaptation. Some films pattern the literature origin. Their directors try to keep dramaturgy (plot, character sketches, genre), stylistic structure (means of depiction and expression, temporythm), main idea and subject matter. Other adaptations refuse to “translate” the literature source, to create counterpart reconstructions of the artistic structure and the ideas. They loosely exploit the motives and “images” of the origin instead. The article reveals that on the one hand being a kulturtrager Lattuada cares about the formal similarity and strives to render the “spirit” of the literary source, on the other – he creatively initiates transformations. In some cases it is done by “translating” artistic structures of literature into the film language perceived as movement, rich in the events, action at the present moment (“The Steppe”); in other cases – through changing the message (“Tempest”). As a matter of fact Lattuada’s artistic methods can be defined as eclectic. Eclecticism was peculiar to the director as far as material is concerned too. His works demonstrate that there is nothing negative in it.

The article studies Mohsen Makhmalbaf ’s films made outside Iran. The cult Iranian film director of the 1990s was forced to leave the country in 2005 for political reasons, which radically changed the character of his work. The author states that the phenomenal success of his films was largely predicated on the revolutionary phase in Iranian history, but the coveted freedom from fundamentalist restrictions seems to prevent the director from attaining the same heights.
The turbulent times of the 1980s and 1990s – the Islamic Revolution and the tragedy of the Iran-Iraq war – fueled Makhmalbaf 's creative energy, but when the revolutionary chaos gave way to civilian life, he changed from a rebel into a traveler, from a revolutionary into a humanist.
Outside Iran, Makhmalbaf has tried himself in various genres: a philosophical parable (“Sex and Philosophy”, 2005; “Scream of the Ants”, 2006), a documentary (“The Gardener”, 2012), an action film (“The President”, 2014) and a drama (“Marghe and Her Mother”, 2019). Each new film was made in a different country, which to an extent shows Makhmalbaf 's interest in other cultures, but his explorations appear too superficial, and conclusions are too banal to hold the viewer’s attention.
Nevertheless, his film “The President” stands out among his émigré works and reveals the director’s potential to successfully work in the genre of a suspense and satire, which is completely uncharacteristic for him. The release of the movie coincided with several political upheavals in the world.
However the numerous historical allusions in the film are too universal to emotionally affect the audience, so the conclusion is that arrogance, opportunism and incompetence of political leadership will continue to create instability and despair in the XXI century. Makhmalbaf ’s determination to work in different countries around the world emphasizes the process of creative search, which is not completed and shows no consistent trend so far.

The influence of social networks turned out to be much stronger and more serious than one could have imagined 10 years ago, it drastically changed the structure of society and the model of social ties within it. And, as it is well known, the models of public relations inevitably influenced cinema throughout its existence.
The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the problem of integrating social networks into cinema has been very little studied. Thus, the main theoretical premise of the present paper is to use the study of social networks as an integral part of the modern media space to identify the main points of their interaction with cinema, to consider how the new audience perception affects film production and film business, as well as to determine the vector of further development of the modern film process. Of significant interest are the parallels between the live-action and non-live-action forms of cinema, which are embodied in two leading social networks: Instagram is a live-action form where all the consumed content is staged, whereas TikTok meets the basic requirements for a documentary (the most popular videos are the most truthful real-life images that capture the moment and reveal some instant of reality).
Psychologists are sure that in the new reality, when people are looking for new guidelines and are defining new norms for themselves, social networks are becoming a most important vector.
An interesting phenomenon is related to the fact that many filmmakers in the classical sense of the word are drifting into the digital space. Thus, in 2019, Boris Khlebnikov’s “Storm” received The Digital Reporter’s award “Best Internet Series”.
A marker of the era: the iconic auteur director of the 2000s completed the transition from the big screen through television to the smartphone screen in two years. This, in turn, reflects upon modern filmmaking. These changes in the norms of perception give rise to new forms of film idiom.