«К РАДОСТИ»: ДЕВЯТАЯ СИМФОНИЯ Л. БЕТХОВЕНА В КИНЕМАТОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИЯХ

Abstract

The article examines the cinematic interpretations of Ludwig Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, specifically focusing on the theme written by the composer to Friedrich Schiller’s text, An die Freude (Ode to Joy). The motif known as the “Freudenmelodie” (“the melody of joy”) holds a prominent place among the most popular classical musical topoi in cinema. Its multilayered semantics has contributed to an extensive history of extramusical associations with Beethoven’s opus. Cinematic approaches to this musical motif vary, ranging from simple diegetic connotations in mainstream films to “catastrophic non-banality” and profound treatments in the context of auteur self-expression. This article is the first to explore the interaction between the composition’s complex synthetic spectrum of meanings and the visual structures employed in films. One aspect involves the visual representation of musical affects, expressive features, and emblematic figures. Such are, for example, graphic elements within the frame in Abel Gance’s Beethoven’s Great Love, mirroring effects in Tengiz Abuladze’s Repentance and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, visual “intonations” in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun, and kitsch and visual clichés in Kira Muratova’s Passions. However, it is filmmakers’ treatment of musical time that indicates a truly comprehensive assimilation of the multidimensional semantic depth of the opus. Temporal structures in films correspond to the essence of Beethoven’s music through existential compression of montage rhythm (Ingmar Bergman), multilayered intraframe movement (Bernard Rose), mystical transformation of the onscreen space (Tarkovsky), super-speed object movement (Muratova), and the musicality of silent forms of motion (Tarkovsky, Muratova).