Nikolai Gogol in silent films

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of Nikolai Gogol's interpretation on Russian screen. The problem of interaction between literature and cinematography is considered in a concrete historical plan, that is connected with the features of the time in which Gogol`s film adaptations were created. At the same time, the level of technical equipment of cinematography and other inherent qualities of it, that are largely determined the approach of the first directors to specific Gogol material, were taken into account. Cinema interpretations like «Dead Souls» by Pyotr Chardynin, «Taras Bulba» by Alexander Drankov, «Christmas Eve» and «The Portrait» by Ladislas Starevich, «The Overcoat» by Georgi Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg are in the centre of the article. Each of the listed film adaptations has its own specifics determined by close connection with other types of art, fragmentariness, melodramatic, an abundance of phantasmagorias, etc. «The Overcoat» stands out in the list of silent interpretations, since presents a new look at the process of Gogol's translation from the language of literature into the cinema language. Compared to previous films, the creators of the 1926 cinematic version of «The Overcoat» took into account Gogol's style, the mood of his work, recreated through the picture of the ghostly expressionist Petersburg.