GENRE EXPERIMENTS OF K. TUR-KONOVALOVIN THE FILM-NOVEL «KRUTY 1918»

Abstract

Film-novel is a specific synthetic genre that appeared at the end of the 30-s of the 20-th century, when silent cinema gave way to sound cinema. This is an experimental form of the novel, which arose as an embodiment of the idea that art should be syncretic. Usually, such work combines the means of cinema and literature and is oriented towards a screen adaptation. K. Tur-Konovalov is a Ukrainian screenwriter and director who managed to transfer his cinematic experience to literature, and his literary experience to the field of cinema. Today, K. Tur-Konovalov is known as the author of the film novels «Rezhyser» («The Film Director») (co-authored with D. Zamriy and O. Lisovykova), «Khudozhnyk» («The Artist») (co-authored with D. Zamriy) and «Kruty 1918». The question of the creative style of K. Tur-Konovalov is relevant and studied insufficiently. The purpose of the article is to analyze the peculiarities of the cinematographic writing of K. Tur-Konovalov in the film novel «Kruty 1918». It was found out that the film novel was created with a conscious focus on certain cinematographic methods of narration: dividing the action into short episodes, laconism of dialogues and author’s explanations, montage nature of episodes, etc. The composition of the work is free, reflecting the presence of three time planes: present, past and future. The main attention is focused on the historical truth modeling in the work, first of all, in the prefaces, which resemble a kind of documentary evidenceі about past long-ago times and explain the role of Ukraine in the international arena, in introductions, which introduce the documentary testimonies of participants and eyewitnesses of the events near Kruty, and in the epilogue, which tells about the further fate of the students who were not shot. The authenticity of the film novel is facilitated by the introduction of well-known personalities (A. Goncharenko, M. Hrushevskyi, S. Petlyura, V. Pypskyi, M. Muravyov and others) into the plot. It is noted that there are no extensive portrait descriptions of the characters in the work, since the author’s main goal was to influence the reader’s imagination by visualizing only individual details in the images of the characters. Only occasionally do we come across the inner thoughts of the characters. The plot is revealed through the actions of the characters, their dialogues. Individual scenes (a kind of film stills) are described succinctly, they are easy to imagine. It is indicated that the events of the novel are concentrated in time and space. The following genre elements are emphasized: the author’s intervention in the course of depicted events (the presence of various types of messages, comments, indents, and biographical references), the simultaneous use of several artistic representation techniques (simultaneity), special colorism. K. Tur-Konovalov’s genre experiments take place on the border between literature and cinema.