The author of the essay examines the main trends in contemporary
Russian cinema, correlating them with similar manifestations in world cinema
and, simultaneously, tracing the origins of these phenomena to the Soviet
cinematic past. Thus, the essay’s section devoted to the analysis of manifestations
of the Aesopian language in cinema, reveals models of the use of metaphors,
symbolic allusions, etc., — observed in the cinema of the socialist countries or in
Spanish cinema under the Franco regime - as ways of countering censorship bans.
In this context, it should be noted that these trends became firmly established in
the cultures of the mentioned countries and have been preserved in them after
the acquisition of political freedoms.
The section entitled “Utopian Realism vs “New Sociality” analyses the
technique of combining slice-of-life approach with the magic tale canon, opened
by American director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin in the 1930s,
known as “utopian realism” and widely employed in the Russian cinema of the
past quarter century, in particular in the stage-to-screen trend of the New Drama.
The essay also looks at forms and methods of the trend of magical realism
typical of the turning points in the historical development of different countries
and here exemplified by the cultures of Latin America and the Russian cinema
of the 1990s.
Further, the author analyses the adaptation of Hollywood genre clichés for
Russian blockbusters, as well as a more frank representation of social realities in
the context of new developments in the sphere of economy.

The essay discusses, via the analysis the Soviet and Russian cinema
of the first half of the 1990s, the problem of adoption of a new socio-ethical
stereotype — the positive moral stereotype of an entrepreneur, a businessman
and a private property owner — in post-perestroika Russia. The scholarly novelty
of the presented study consists Pointing out that films of that period have been
mostly evaluated in a fragmented and ambiguous manner, the author analyzes
them in the context of the formation of mass representations (stereotypes and
frames) of one of the period’s most characteristic social figures. The actuality
of the study analysis is evidenced by the ongoing discussions about the ethical
background of entrepreneurship in contemporary Russia and about the nature
of the 1990s. Considering this problem on the basis of a comprehensive analysis
of representative films (Genius, Confessions of a Kept Woman, Limita, Ryaba My
Chicken, Love the Russian Way, and others), the author concludes in 1990–1995
Soviet/Russian cinema, inspired both by the inertia of the former Soviet ideas
about business and businessmen and the dramatic collisions of the first five
years of the post-Soviet era, did not provide the viewer with sufficient artistic
arguments for the ethical rehabilitation of entrepreneurship and, therefore,
failed to fix new stereotypes and instructional representations/frames in the
mass consciousness.

The essay explores the significance of mass scenes in the history
of cinema. It analyzes the directorial style of Sergei Eisenstein and his concept
that the human mass becomes observable only with the invention of cinema.
The image of the mass is created by the editing. Long shots transform the
real human mass into an infinitely growing mass, while close-ups destroy its
image. Film editing involves the audience in the creation of the mass: each
foreshortening offers a new vision of the people united in the mass. Mass scenes
of the film allow the spectator to become infected with the ideas of the mass and
to experience the increase in emotions inherent in a crowd. The film appeals
to the spectator whose properties are predetermined. The spectator agrees to
the viewing conditions dictated by the film and dissolves in the spectacle. The
full involvement of the spectator in what he sees on the film screen is the main
feature of cinema. Therefore, the manipulation of the spectator’s consciousness
during the film screening is inevitable. Due to the psychological characteristics
of their perception, mass scenes are one of the most powerful ways to control
the spectator's emotional and intellectual reactions.

Intensive development of knowledge in the 20th century,
including the emergence of new sciences and humanities, constantly creates a
problematic situation in the sphere of art, shifting art’s designation to what in
the philosophy of science is known as “normal science”. This is associated with
the idea of art as a science that has reached a stage of maturity and consistency
and, therefore, complies with its norms. The concept of art as “normal science”
is characterized by a certain degree of conservatism, as it presupposes art’s self-
protection against deviations from the established methodology.
However, sometimes the artistic processes of modernity require different
approaches. In addition, the emergence of new humanities shifts the already
established methodology of art. This happened in the first decades of the
20th century, in the era of a linguistic turn in the humanities, indicating the
invasion of natural sciences in the humanities; and this is happening today, at
the turn of the 21st century, in a situation of a cultural turn, the emergence
and intensive development of the science of culture. The current turn requires
a deeper understanding of the structure and components of art history, i.e., its
sub-disciplines: art history, art theory and art criticism.
The essay argues that in the situation of cultural turn the theory of art can
carry out functions which the other two sub-disciplines cannot. It propounds
that art theory is able to make a decisive contribution to the elucidation of two
problems: the relationship between art and cultural studies and the problem
of historical time, which is important both for contemporary art and for art
history.

Long ago, Australian filmmakers discovered that it was the issues
of universal interest that could ensure worldwide success of their films. One of
such issues was the leftwing youth protests expressing the unwillingness of the
young people to live according to the rules of the older generation. These protests
peaked in the late 1960s and immediately found their way onto the screen. The
importance of the problem ensured an almost inevitable international success
of the films which dealt with those events.
Yet there was another reason for the close attention paid by Australian
filmmakers to the May 1968 events. Many of them (including the authors of
the analyzed films) matured during those tempestuous years. Like many young
people in Europe, they were fed up with the hypocrisy and lies of the older
generation. They wanted to believe that changes were about to come. What
interests the filmmakers of today is not so much the leftist movement itself
or the revolt of the young against the society of their fathers but the results
which transpired twenty years after the events, following the disillusionment
and the shipwreck of youthful hopes. Some found solace in conformism and
indifference, others in despair and nihilism.
But luckily the filmmakers saw a third path: that of love and care for the
destitute; and, by consequence, that of the belief in the coming changes for the
better

The article “Visual picture of the world in the reflection of modern
media” is a part of the scientific work devoted to the analysis of the methods of
disclosure of the plurality of meanings by means of visualise and ways of their
influence on the viewer's perception.
The analysis offered for discussion of questions allows to trace in a new way
process of search of expressiveness of screen culture, including off-screen media
content and art projects. We also consider how with the advent of computer
technology, modern media, United in a single screen culture, seek to reflect the
picture of the rapidly changing world in its mosaic, in the development of end-to-
end time. Special attention is paid to the visual form of plastic images of cinema
and television, which largely predetermined the path of development of visual
perception of the world through sensory knowledge of the global process-taking
place in the world. The author highlights the question of how the screen directs a
person on the path of solving problems on links/trailers, lifehacks / commercials,
running lines, while providing the right to choose, and new judgments, sometimes
non-trivial, and sometimes false.
Revealing the connections of new communicative means the author offers the
concept of the birth of a new civilization, where online communication, information
exchange, media messages, various formats-not just a way to change the transmission
of information, but civilization with its own laws and rules of communication, with
a new language, based on technical and English — language terms, expanding the
possibility of merging different cultural layers, with its philosophy and aesthetics,
where visualization is a way to control the viewer's attention. Various forms of
editing in its broadest sense become the main "bridge"of the whole" composition" of
the world order, where the division into the size of the event series, media persons is
decisive. Various forms of editing in its broadest sense become the main "bridge"of
the whole" composition" of the world order, where the division into the size of the
event series, media persons is decisive. To reveal a number of issues, the author
draws Parallels with the cinema, highlighting the similarities and differences in the
specifics of the spectacular nature of the two components of modern screen culture.

The essay analyzes the game nature of screen attraction - one of the
most important tools of television dramaturgy. Attraction is examined, in the
tradition established by Sergei Eisenstein and developed by Russian and foreign
researchers, not just as entertainment but as a way of influencing audience
perception. TV viewing is regarded as a special kind of game developing in
accordance with the rules established by a program’s format and repeated in this
program’s each new release. The key aspects relating classic TV communication
to game are: voluntary selection and viewing of the programs; clearly marked
place and time of occupation; a set of rules mandatory for a particular game;
the feelings of joy and fun generated by the participation in TV viewing;
immersion of the viewer in the "otherness" of the game and simultaneous
presence in everyday life. The rules of communication game are accepted by
all participants in the process: the makers of a TV product, the partakers and
the audience. Voluntary way of program viewing is an indispensable condition
for TV communication, and the attractions are its most active moments: they
are designed to capture and keep the viewer's attention, and to evoke emotions
associated with the pleasure produced by game.
The essay explores the attraction-like nature of TV shows both as a
content and as a set of the signs, as a way of the functioning of the audiovisual
language. The variability of the TV spectacle is investigated as the phenomenon
of postmodern aesthetics, as an aesthetic merit rather than an immanent
disadvantage a priori depriving TV products of the right to uniqueness

The essay deals with the gradual cessation of discussions of the
theory of the “iron” (rigid) screenplay (championed by Vladimir Sutyrin and
Mikhail Bleiman) and the theory of the “emotional” screenplay (developed
by Sergei Eisenstein and Aleksandr Rzheshevsky) As these two theories were
discussed by very different personalities, their institutional or group identification
is complicated. In the second half of the 1930s, Boris Shumyatsky and Bella
Kravchenko developed the concept of the ideological screenplay. The main apologist
of the ideological screenplay theory was Valentin Turkin. He expounded it in the
book “The Dramaturgy of Cinema” in 1938. The same historical period saw the
development of the practice of publishing scripts in and periodicals and as books,
as well as the phenomenon of recording screenplays from films.
Turkin stood on a radical literature-centric position: "The film can be better or
worse than the screenplay, but there is a screenplay next to it with which it can
be compared. <...> With this screenplay, you can make a picture again and again.
Finally, it can be printed, brought to the attention of the viewer, give the viewer
the opportunity to compare the film with the screenplay, and read the screenplay
without watching a movie <...>. The screenplay can and must be always a ‘verifying
artistic document’". If the screenplay expressed the ideology of the film, then it was
not only an independent but also a more important work than the film itself.
The screenplay’s specificity developed in three stages: 1) the prevalence of the
“iron” screenplay in the 1920s; 2) the fashion for the emotional screenplay and the
beginning of the publication of screenplays in periodicals and in book form; 3) the
formation of the concept of the ideological screenplay. In the Soviet culture of the
1930s, literature was considered as the primary source of ideas. Other arts played
the role of copies, dramatizations, interpretations, etc. Moreover, in a number of
statements, although it appears to be the goal of screenwriting, the film already exists
as something that a screenwriter can write down with a certain degree of precision
and excitement. The research of the genesis of the ideological screenplay conducted
for this essay has been based on rare periodicals and the archive of the All-Russian
Society of Playwrights and Composers (Vseroscomdram). Numerous examples
cited in the essay demonstrate the features of literature-centric thinking. And such
materials as articles published in periodicals and lively discussions provide well-
known patterns with vivid details

The essay explores the implementation of VR technologies in film
production, — a development due to which audio-visual content, which is in
high demand both in television and on the Internet, has taken a new direction,
and which is a topical issue in contemporary film studies. VR technologies allow
the viewer who sits on a swivel chair and wears a VR-helmet incorporating
360-degree rotating LCD monitors to watch different areas of action.
A characteristic feature of VR content is a multi-sensory experience including
sight, hearing, smell and touch. VR creates a digital reality with maximum
sensory immersion. VR is different from cinema, theatre and 3D technologies:
here the deception takes place not only at eye level but also at cerebral level.
The essay argues that the use of VR technology is particularly successful in
the genre of docudrama. A vivid confirmation of this argument is The Hermitage
VR. An Immersion Into History (Russia,18 minutes). In this film, the dual nature
of docudrama, which combines various elements of documentary and fiction
cinema, allows to recreate historical eras, with the viewer becoming a witness
to unique historic events. The film’s director Mikhail Antykov tells the history
of the Hermitage Museum in a spectacular form, making the viewer empathize
with the events they see through their VR glasses. The powerful artistic image
is enhanced by the excellent acting of Konstantin Khabensky in the role of a
mystical museum guide. Via facial expressions, gestures and gait, the actor
conveys the emotions of a person walking through museum halls. Thoughtful
re-enactment scenes representing various historical epochs, augmented by
unusual camera angles, inventive lighting and music score, create a metaphor
for time and give the viewer an illusion of participation in the unfolding events.
Identifying the latest trends in film production, the essay demonstrates
that VR technologies continue the evolution of screen arts which possess the
potential to transform into an independent and profitable industry similar to
traditional cinema. The author concludes that an increased interest in a national
culture, little-known facts of history and the general historical heritage of a
nation is a fertile source of content for the producers of VR-docudramas.