One of the main problems of film practice and film theory is the search and comprehension of adequate techniques and elements of expression making the film language fit to embody on the screen the “hero of the time”. The “new reading” of the past-time creations is aimed not only and not so much at the viewers’ general acquaintance as at the analytical understanding and sometimes rethinking the essential parameters of development of the domestic cinema. In this regard comes to the fore the appeal to the films of the latter half of the 20th century which set a new vector in the screen representation of relations between individuals and the human society, with a special focus on the historical past of our country.
The two post-war decades had worked fundamental changes in the sociocultural and economic life of the country, a period of “ottepel” (“thaw”) came, if rather short. The film directors of that era strove for greater authenticity in the reflection of the real world and the basic moral and ethical principles and values of the new post-war generation. Yet the iconic films of the 1950s and 1960s set forth the themes of sparring between generations, of search for identity. The 1960s were the time of cardinal reassessment of social life and history that found reflection in the films of the next decade. The “social romanticism” of the 1960s gave in the 1970s way to the historicism of artistic thinking which became not just a thematic area but an expression of hard thinking of their authors not only about the past but also about the present and the future of the country. Despite the ideological boundaries, cinema found artistic forms and stylistic techniques fit to express the internal need of the society to awaken to social and existential issues. The domestic cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, with all its auteur innovations, held tight to its basic principles based on the conception of the modern social, moral and spiritual problems through the prism of history and understanding the laws of the social development, which becomes particularly relevant at the present stage of evolvement of Russian cinema.

The article examines the expressive power of the centripetal model of the film’s artistic space. Its most important feature is the opposition of the external and the internal, the relevant and the irrelevant. In the core of the film’s artistic space the main values of the story gain relevance, putting into focus the aim of its creation.
The temporal picture on the periphery and in the center of the film may differ widely, and this goes for the historical time as well. In commercial films the methodic time is driven out of the spatial core, reduced to the time of a single event, in extreme case a chance one.
Auteur cinema, on the contrary, by way of centripetal space models tends to drag out the historical time transforming it into the time of myth. In the works of major contemporary filmmakers history develops as "a soul’s adventure" (F. Braudel).
As to the centripetal space itself, it appears to be complex, arranged as a onechamber labyrinth, eventually multidimensional.
The article provides a spatial and temporal analysis of films embracing historical time and basing on the centripetal model of space: “I Also Want It” by Alexei Balabanov, “Django Unchained” by Quentin Tarantino, “Mulholland Drive” and “Inland Empire” by David Lynch.

In the present situation, the problem of understanding screen images of pre-revolutionary newsreels is quite acute. With the passage of historical time, the viewer perceives them in a completely different way compared to the time when they were created.
Considering the prolonged neglect of pre-revolutionary chronicles, the study of their senses and connotations is innovative and relevant.
Visual images require a special approach, since their perception occurs in a different way than that of verbal information. Therefore, their study should be carried out with somewhat different analytical means, which is implemented in this work.
The world of on-screen reality of pre-revolutionary newsreels has the qualities of a ghostly world that requires the viewer's trust. We can percept this on-screen reality in its entirety only with the help of our imagination when peering into film images.
In addition to the obvious visible meaning, film images of pre-revolutionary newsreels have hidden invisible connotations that can be deciphered only if the viewer has sufficient cinematic experience.
This experience allows one to feel the very breath of the bygone life in the newsreel he or she is watching, which is the most important thing in its understanding and interpretation. The prevailing contemporary ideas about the meaning and connotations of pre-revolutionary newsreels have a mythical quality; in this work they are compared to the real content of newsreel images.
The present study is supplemented by the analysis of specific prerevolutionary non-fiction films; it will help to achieve a more profound analysis of the meaning of the surviving pre-revolutionary newsreels.

The research is devoted to the study of literary allusions in animated films, the determination of the specific aspects of their use and functions.
The allusions to literary texts used in animation can be implicit and explicit in nature and can vary in size. They are elements of intertextuality. Literary allusions structure the film both as a complex, multifaceted text, and as an ironic, parody game of the authors with the audience.
They not only form the subtext of the animated film, but also perform various functions, including plot-forming, evaluative-characterizing, comic. A screen product with literary allusions, being an example of diversified structure, cannot be attributed exclusively to an elite or mass type of art.
The use of literary allusions is not so common in modern animation compared to other types of allusions. This is due to the fact that deciphering a literary allusion requires a certain cultural background on the part of the viewer, in other words, he or she should be well-read.
Since the reading level of the modern viewer is declining, literary allusions used in films are becoming simpler. Structure-forming literary allusions are not so often used in animation, while fragmentary and deconstructed allusions, reduced to a recognizable or replicated literary phrase, become the most frequently used stylistic device.
The artistic practice of animation demonstrates that with the help of literary allusion and the techniques of postmodern poetics, it is possible, on the one hand, to create films that will be easily accessible to not only a person familiar with literature and art, but also to an average unsophisticated viewer, and on the other hand, to make a work of mass culture, which includes mainstream animation, interesting to a well-read viewer who is able to detect hidden meanings and an intertextual dialogue with texts of art and culture behind the exterior of the plot and action.
The incorporation of literary allusions into the structure of the film's artistic image contributes to the creation of a parody-game effect and opens up the possibility for a multiplicity of interpretations.

The article analyzes the influence of audiovisual content created by users of digital technology on non-fiction cinema. Our contemporaries take a rather active creative stand, often conveying their own common vision of reality.
Тechnical means of recording reality have become consumer orientated, thereby increasing the demand from the amateur audience for recording themselves and their environment.
A potential contemporary hero of a documentary can actively use network communication technologies and create digital content independently, reflecting his personal attitudes, which in the future may hinder the documentary recording of reality.
In most cases, in the Internet space, the modern user independently creates his own screen image, which should be defined as a «network screen image».
At the same time, for the most part, an amateur user who creates audiovisual content, focuses on the presentable appearance of his «network screen image», and therefore the content of «network screen image» acquires peculiar features that distinguish it from other images of screen culture.
It should be noted that certain difficulties in creating a non-fiction film can occur since the image of the hero of a documentary film can come into direct conflict with the attitudes of the hero who is concerned about the presentable appearance of the "network screen image". In his turn, the director risks coming under the influence of the hero's own presentation of his image on the networks. The article notes that the modern viewer, who is actively creating video content, could have formed his own «visual» consumer basket, and, despite the diversity of modern screen culture, common vision of reality becomes a significant obstacle on the way to the development of aesthetic perception.

The article explores the network-like (rhizomorphic) structure of a movie’s artistic space. The rhizome pattern is a seemingly chaotic interweaving of lines, paths, and meanings. It is a concept of postmodern philosophy that describes a fundamentally non-structural and non-linear way of organizing a coherent system, leaving open the possibility for immanent autochthonous flexibility and, accordingly, the realization of its internal creative potential of self-configuration. The rhizome is a radical alternative to self-contained and static linear structures that entail a rigid axial hierarchy. The rhizomorphic labyrinth is a set of specifically organized associations. The way these associations form and influence each other becomes one of the basic notions of rhizome dramaturgy. The rhizome, presumably, has two important structural elements: the node and the plateau. A node is the intersection of the rhizome threads, a plot-significant element of dramatic structure, semantically and ontologically bound by the integrity of the screen work. A plateau occurs between nodes, of which there can be more than two. In the plateau area, the character moves through the space of the rhizomorphic labyrinth, and the plateau is often subject to linear interpretation. Using the examples of such films as The Hand of God (2021), The Great Beauty (2013) by Paolo Sorrentino, Dazed and Confused (1993) by Richard Linklater, Amarcord (1973) by Federico Fellini, Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006) by David Lynch, the author assesses them in terms of nodes and plateaus. Assumptions are made about the ways of forming non-linear forms of narrative works. At the same time, an analysis is made of the very concept of non-linear narration and the possibility of its application to film dramaturgy, which, in any case, complies with an axial orientation relative to the timeline. The nonlinearity of a film should be understood as the space of interpretation available in its analysis.

Modern art criticism has given sufficient insight into the principles of introducing music in the diegetic and non-diegetic space of a film. However, one aspect of the vast relationship between music and cinema dramaturgy is still understudied, namely the timbre of musical instruments or singing voices. Timbre became the object of close musicological studies in the second half of the XXth century, as new compositional techniques and artistic trends in musical creativity, sonorics in particular, came into play. But mere physical characteristics of the timbre cannot give an exhaustive idea of its significance in art. A musical and aesthetic assessment of the sound, the timbre’s quality is necessary. The article addressing the sound aspect of cinematic works focuses on the expressive and aesthetic side of a musical instrument’s timbre as an important component of an audio-visual image. The analysis aims at revealing the semantics of a musical timbre, directly related to the cultural context of the filming period, the director’s inner world, perceptual psychology, cognitive processes and the viewer’s associations when watching a film.
The topic is considered with specific reference to the cello’s timbre, given the significance of this instrument not only for the musical art but also for cinema, especially the auteur film direction. The study of semantics and peculiarities of psychological and aesthetic perception of the cello’s and other musical instruments’ timbres seems to be a rather promising trend in modern research devoted to the versatile range of issues related to the sound in cinema. The timbral aspect of the film sound enhances our insight into the performance potential of a musical score and its role in characterization and rendering the dramaturgic pattern of a film.

The article looks into a certain instructional problem in teaching fine art caused by the discrepancy between the students' ideas about the objectives of modern art and their insufficient proficiency to attain the corresponding visual goals. The author argues that in most cases the views on modern trends and schools in art are taken by the students for granted, uncritically. These are not their own artistic solutions, but borrowed mythopoetic concepts circulating in their milieu.
Such a phenomenon is not uncommon. Our thinking, especially artistic thinking, which is based on axiological ideas, is very easily amenable, as psychologists say, to suggestion in the waking state (not to be confused with hypnotic suggestion). The resulting fairly firm mythopoetic views without an insight into their nature create the illusion of an unquestionable aptitude to perceive the form and artistic tasks.
Besides, the basic technical competence of many students lags far behind their aesthetic ideas. Practical exercises aimed at filling this gap by improving their skills are resented by the students who mistakenly consider them primitive, unworthy of what they think are the "higher" objectives of fine arts. This leads to misunderstanding the learning goals and a decrease in interest in learning, which they often perceive as mere copying of ready-made templates.
Tackling this issue is quite a challenge. The article proposes a method of individual approach, consisting in the initial study of the students’ mythopoetic beliefs, the search for contact based on mutual understanding, discussion and encouraging them to do this exercise in a familiar stylistic manner. The subsequent inevitable failure of such an attempt makes it possible to clearly demonstrate that such solutions is impossible without the core principles inherent to all artistic movements without exception. Such an approach may allow to channel the student's work into a more meaningful direction and increase their interest in learning.

The authors of the article addressed one of the fundamental aesthetic and philosophical problems, the solution of which is closely related to the understanding of the essence of art as a special form of spiritual life and intellectual activity.
Theoretical reflections on this topic have a long history, but the context in which it is considered is constantly changing – both because of the internal evolution of art itself, and as a result of the accumulation of specific knowledge and the improvement of research tools. For this reason, the solution of the problem tackled in the article is periodically reviewed and requires constant reinterpretation. This article attempts to investigate the problem at the current level of understanding of the structure and content of thinking.
The study is complex in nature. Using data from various sciences, especially theoretical works of modern psychology (the concept of multiple recoding, the concept of a figurative-conceptual model of reality, etc.), the authors draw attention to a complex composition of thought processes, in the structure of which figurative and conceptual elements are closely intertwined, making it difficult to clearly and unambiguously distinguish between artistic and scientificphilosophical thinking. In this perspective, various examples of the influence of science on the method of artistic creativity and artistic styles are considered on specific historical material.
On the other hand, some artistic experiments that proclaimed the idea of merging art with science (the so-called conceptual art, sci-art) are also considered. It is shown that the implementation of this idea, despite the theoretical claims of its authors and their followers, in fact, did not yield any significant aesthetic results. Ultimately, the consequence of such interpretations of art inevitably becomes the loss of its aesthetic essence and specific role in the system of culture and public consciousness.

The article explores the relationship between the genre of black comedy and the technique of grotesque. Black comedy balances on the edge of the feeling of horror, which in spite of everything causes laughter. At the heart of this genre is the fear of death, one can say that black comedy seems to imply the grotesque, since the technique involves visualizing the transition and "being stuck" in between two totally opposite, contradictory emotions.
In the films which were selected for the article, grotesque images are the most vivid, consonant with modern reality, and exemplify various objects of myth-making: zombies, angels and vampires.
Those are transgressive subjects of cinema, because they are helpless in the face of something concrete and definite. Time has no power over them, although the bodies of the characters are constantly changing and the rules of new historical realities always cause unexpected damage.
Their life in death cannot be called happy, as far as immortality turns out to be a burden that each category of the grotesque characters has to bear in their own way. Taking three movies as an example — “Death Becomes Her” (1992, dir.
Robert Zemeckis), “Dogma” (1999, dir. Kevin Smith), “What We Do In The Shadows” (2014, dir. Taika Waititi) — an attempt was made to analyze various borderline states between life and death, expressed through the ambivalent nature of laughter inherent in the grotesque.
And despite the fact that every plot twist in the films under discussion ends with a gag, the conflict in these movies is related to the tragic discrepancy between the form and the rules of space, in which death is the end, not the beginning or continuation.
The article can be useful both for active playwrights and directors, as well as students studying the basics of drama, and a wide range of readers interested in the nature of the grotesque structure. The analysis is based on the scientific research of M.M. Bakhtin, Y.M. Lotman, Y.N. Tynyanov, Y.N. Arabov.

Insufficient conceptual elaboration of visual communication of adjacent shots in terms of the interplay of their compositional elements in modern debate on screen space calls for examination of the editing process as a specific element of creating video footage. Using relevant case studies, the author dwells on both inter-shot juxtapositions and the construction of an intra-screen composition via various methods of designing the visual concept.
The study consists of three main paragraphs: the first one presents the juxtaposition of adjacent shots in a video sequence, the second examines intrashot editing, during both shooting and post-production, the third paragraph outlines the features integrating the two types via truncated reality, additional visuals and the artistic effect.
The article summarizes the options for creating an audiovisual product in linear, nonlinear and on-set editing as «horizontal» assembling of the footage, provides examples of the current methods for the overlay of visual objects on the main image in modern media, clarifies the direct dependence of the composite shot structure on its location in the television footage, looks into the endogenous process of visual communication of adjacent shots in the interaction of their compositional elements within the TV screen space given the bigeminality (duality) of intra-shot and inter-shot editing.
Based on the results of the work, the author proposes to introduce such terms as horizontal editing, volumetric editing, structural editing, as well as bigeminal editing, representing modern methods of organizing the TV screen space. The present scientific publication is addressed to TV and film industry professionals, Internet content creators, and may also be of interest to TV viewers and a wide range of readers.