Культура України (Mar 2020)
The Background of Stunt Performing Art as a Kind of Cinema Art (20s of the 20th Century)
Abstract
The aim of this study is to identify and characterize the features of development of stunt performing art as a scientific discipline in its own right in the early period of the Soviet film industry (20-ies of the twentieth century). Research methodology. The scientific provisions of the article are substantiated at the level of the set of general scientific methods of cognition, cultural and art methodological approaches. The historical method was applied (to identify the origin and formation of stunt performing art in the Soviet cinema industry); terminological method (to clarify the interpretation of the terms “circus trick”, “cinema trick” and “gag”), typological method (to identify typological features of cinema tricks in Soviet cinema of the 1920s), etc. Results. The circus stunt in the infanthood of Soviet cinema art becomes one of the main expressive means of representing a new hero. Young Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s focused on the development of revolutionary art of the masses, mostly playgrounds led by a street clown and an eccentric, whose purpose was to entertain, and in the arsenal, apart from the skills of safe falls (the so-called cascades), series of tumbles. The idea of educating a film actor of a new formation, capable of performing tricks of any complexity without a stunt double, remained dominant among Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s. The formed strategy of performing the tricks independently in Soviet cinema was relevant to the second half of the 1960s. Novelty. Prerequisites for the formation of techniques for stunt work, as well as the process for the evolution of tricks, in accordance with the development and popularization of new genres of Soviet cinema in the 1920s are studied and analyzed. The concepts of “trick” and “gag” have been refined and supplemented. The specifics of the educational and creative process in the Soviet cinematic workshops of the State Cinematography College and the Eccentric Actor Factory are considered. The stages of the emergence of tricks according to categorization are systematized; the features and performing techniques of the most common tricks of the film industry in historical retrospect are considered and revealed. The personal contribution to the development and professionalization of stunt performing art by leading actors and directors of the early Soviet cinema has been determined. The practical significance. Information which is given in this article can become useful for the Ukrainian theorists and people on the ground of art in the context of involving it to educational and scientific appeal.
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