Screen art space: the real and the imaginary

Abstract

Screen space is just a reflection of reality, that is why interpreting the cinema in terms of such concepts as “real” and “imaginary” one means, of course, conventionally real and conventionally imaginary. Already in films of the silent period one can see the various ways of combination of a real and imaginary art space. In the sound film the combination of the real and the unreal becomes one of the essential dramatic and visual techniques. The authors, considering the peculiarities of perception of the viewer, allow him to understand where the real and unreal screen space is using images and sound. In the article there is no survey of aesthetic features of fantastic, dreamlike and virtual space. The main attention is paid to the interpretation of episodes representing protagonist’s imagination in the films of the 20th and beginning of 21st century. The imaginary situations are considered here as the visualization of escapism, i. e. human desire to escape from reality. A characteristic stylistic features of the imaginary in these cases are the irony and game elements. With the development of film art techniques the methods for combining screen chronotopes denoting the real and the imaginary are becoming more diverse.

Keywords:

cinema, screen art space, real and imaginary in the cinema, escapism