Художественная культура (Mar 2023)
An Imaginary Capital City and a Real Province in L. Gaidai’s Сomedy Incognito from St. Petersburg
Abstract
The article analyzes the film by Leonid Gaidai Incognito from St. Petersburg (1977) based on the N.V. Gogol’s play The Government Inspector. The author draws attention to the preservation of theatrical aesthetics, which is revealed in the spatial accents and the interaction of the characters. The comedic core of the play, the misunderstanding, is enhanced by the eccentric accents characteristic of the aesthetics of silent cinema. The key dramatic structure of the film is the various types of urban spaces — an imaginary idea of capital city and a real provincial town, as well as the dialogue of their artistic incarnations in the film. The activation of comedy effects takes place at the intersection of extremely serious elements and their childishly naive interpretation and implementation, decoration and attempts to imitate the surrounding space with “adult” (capital) images. The “unofficial” side of the artistic world is exposed by its permanent presence on the periphery of the frame and the stubborn, but not articulated desire to return to familiar forms. The film traces the idea that regardless of the hierarchical way of life, the form of statehood, the existence of a Russian person remains unshakable, only external attributes change in accordance with ideological dominants, but at a fundamental level, the established way of life does not undergo significant changes. Incognito from St. Petersburg can be described as the intellectual apogee of the interaction of various aesthetics and comedic dominants. Masterfully alternating escalation and aggravation with containment and smoothing Gaidai keeps tension and dynamic of the dramaturgy. Eccentric elements, subtly woven into the artistic fabric, allowed the director to inscribe and remove Gogol’s motifs in the prism of his own era and its problems.
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