Historical Themes in Fiction and Documentary Cinematography: Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this article to investigate the peculiarities of the representation of historical transformations in fiction and documentary cinematography, to reveal the artistic potential of cinema in the coverage of historical issues.
 The methodology. The main methods of cognition were used: socio-communicative, axiological, culturological approaches, figurative-stylistic analysis and structural-functional method, art history approach combined with morphological analysis, hermeneutic approach. The specified methods contributed to the in-depth study of fiction and documentary films aimed at the coverage of historical or current events.
 The results. In the course of the study, it was found that the line between documentary and fiction films is extremely thin, especially when the films claim to cover historical events or real figures. Despite the fact that fiction cinema is realized thanks to the play of actors, and documentary cinema is realized thanks to the shooting of real participants in the events, the means of expression of both types of cinematography are similar. One of the results of the analysis was the conclusion that documentary cinema uses a greater number of expressive means than fiction films. This is due to the fact that the directors of fiction films strive to document the aesthetics of the film, and the directors of the documentary, on the contrary, to strengthen the artistic component. Historical themes combine documentary and fiction films, while the aesthetics of documentary films is more diverse.
 The scientific novelty of the research. In this research for the first time, we investigated the historical transformations in fiction and documentary cinematography from the point of view of cultural meanings and aesthetic foundations of both types of cinema, and also analyzed the potential of cinematography to reveal hot and controversial topics on the example of contemporary cinema works.
 The practical significance of the article. The presented research can be used by filmmakers in both the field of fiction and documentary cinema in order to create an objective, unbiased and artistically valuable screen product. In addition, the conducted analysis can be useful in teaching professional courses in the specialty 021 “Audiovisual art and production”.