Stage as the Extent of Artistic Exploration of the Director-Author. Part 4. Luchino Visconti: Theatrical Practices of the Film Director

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify the problems of creativity of directors-authors who have realised their artistic potential both in author's cinema and in the plane of the stage and to define scientific landmarks that will contribute to the comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of the film author in stage art. Research methodology. The methods of scientific analysis, comparison, generalisation, and introspection of the artist were used in the development of the topic. In addition, analytical and systematic methods were applied in their unity, which is necessary for the study of the art history aspect of the problem. The scientific novelty of the study consists in determining the universality of directing as a specific type of artistic and aesthetic activity; in clarifying the mutual influence of stage and screen arts in the use of expressive means; in the determined features of the film author's activity in the stage space through the adaptation of screen means in theatrical productions, which became the subject of a special study for the first time; in coverage, the universal activity of directors-authors who resorted to reforming the language of cinema and the language of stage production; in the discovery of original principles of the creation of a film and specific means of film expression, which not only found direct embodiment in films and contributed to the emergence of notable author's film works, but also had a significant impact on the author's theatrical direction, which was distinguished by the search for visualisation of stage images. Conclusions. It is proved that the stage creativity of film directors-authors calls into question the theoretical postulates about the perniciousness of the intrusion of the theatre culture into the territory of the screen. It has been found that the visual and expressive means that provide the chronology of image creation (long shots, intra-frame montage, acoustic, light-shadow effects), the use of which is considered a high degree of skill in cinema, have their origins in stage art.

Keywords: director-author, stage space, director's tools, theatre, stage, screen, acting skills, musical art, television.