Contemporary Directors Research Articles

Semantics of Transition: Death and Resurrection of the Hero in Film Fantasy at the Turn of the 20th—21st Centuries

The article is devoted to the study of human metaphysical experience through cinema art. The material of the study is widely known fantasy films (“The Lord of the Rings”, “The Matrix”, “Harry Potter”, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Avatar”), in which the sacral space is realized as a magical fairy tale or a dream, and the hero acting in it is identified with the concept of “soul” or “consciousness”. The aim of the study is to semantically and cognitively analyze the visual image of transition through death, which is offered to the viewer by cinematography, and to model the director’s concepts included in it. The author’s concept of transition is based on the works of M. Eliade, A. van Gennep, C.G. Jung, M.P. Hall and is revealed as a multi-phase process of soul transformation in the conditions of spiritual or perceptual crisis. It is established that the transition scenario in the films considered includes an “entry point” into another world, a series of initiations and an “exit point”. In this context, death and resurrection are the climactic phase and have different symbolic connotations, their essence depending on the prototype that the hero imitates. As it has been revealed, the imitation of cyclical forces of nature (solar, agrarian deities) by contemporary directors is interpreted by them as a long stage of soul maturation, which is no longer opposed to, but naturally precedes the imitation of the “divine archetype” (in the Christian tradition, Christ the Saviour). The axis of transition from forced submission to the endless cycle of renewal to the evolutionary stage of spiritual maturity is the act of “awakening” expressed in the willingness to voluntarily sacrifice oneself out of love and compassion for others. Death and resurrection in this case manifest the metaphysical transformation of the soul aspect into the spiritual one. At the same time, in the process of studying the film material, a tendency of a transgressive nature was detected, namely the replacement of the concept “soul” by the concept “brain”. As a result of identifying the functions of the human brain with the functions of a computer in the mental space, there is a danger of substitution of the divine image by artificial intelligence, which can provoke the blocking of the channel “soul – spirit” and the involutionary turn from spirit to matter.

The sound of war: A comparison between Apocalypse Now (1979) and Farha (2021)

For a long time, filmmakers have used war movies as a potent tool for probing the human condition, the results of battle, and the psychological effects of war on individuals and communities. While Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola and Farha (2021) by the contemporary director Darin Sallam both explore the raw reality of battle, they were made decades apart. In this comparison, we will look at how both movies use sound to express the fright and tragedy of battle. This study examines the political context, setting, style of music, style of direction, and conclusion of two war films and finds many points of similarity between them. The argument made in this report is that regardless of the historical and contextual distinctions between the Vietnam War and the Palestinian Nakba, Apocalypse Now and Farha successfully portray the experiences of people and the long-lasting effects of war, surpassing the particular actual incidents they present.

Visualizing a ‘missing people’ in Sousa Dias’ Still Life: The filmmaker as metallurgist

Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari’s geophilosophy, Patricia Pisters adopts the term ‘metallurgical’ to describe the filmmaking of contemporary directors of political cinema who exploit the unprecedented opportunities afforded by digital technology to recycle and remediate transnational visual archives. Similarly, in the light of Deleuze’s meditations on modern film in Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1989), Pisters identifies metallurgical filmmaking with the ‘forging’ of a supra-national ‘world memory’ and a liberated ‘people to come’. My interest in this article is to ponder the extent to which these concepts might be useful for analysing the intermedial documentaries of Portuguese filmmaker, Susana de Sousa Dias (1962–present). More specifically, I am interested in exploring how Sousa Dias’ work with archival photographs of political prisoners in her early film Still Life (2005) might suggest both an ‘interruption’ of a chronological national history and, at the same time, an appeal to the suppressed social memory of a ‘missing people’ from Portugal’s dictatorial past. To elucidate this premise, I propose that the mugshots function as symbolic counterpoints to the transcontinental ‘patriotic masses’ of regime propaganda with which they are intercut in the film. By extension, I also propose that they evoke the de-individuated memorial consciousness associated with a ‘world memory’.

The attitude of contemporary Iranian directors and screenwriters toward patients with mental disorders in comparison with general population

BackgroundMental disorders are accountable for 16% of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Therefore, accessible, cost-effective interventions are needed to help provide preventive and therapeutic options. As directors and screenwriters can reach a great audience, they can use their platform to either promote stigma or educate the public with the correct definition and conception of mental disorders. Therefore, we aimed to measure the stigmatizing attitude of contemporary Iranian directors and screenwriters toward patients with mental disorders in comparison with a general population group.MethodsIn this comparative study, we included 72 directors and screenwriters between 18 and 65 years of age with a minimum involvement in at least one movie/television show, and 72 age and educationmatched controls. We collected the demographic data of the participants, and used the Persian version of the Level of Contact Report (LCR) to measure their familiarity with mental disorders, and used the Persian version of Social Distance Scale (SDS) and Dangerousness Scale (DS) to measure their attitude toward them.ResultsCompared to the general population group, directors and screenwriters had significantly lower SDS (12.51 ± 3.8 vs. 13.65 ± 3.73) and DS (12.51 ± 3.8 vs. 13.65 ± 3.73) scores (P < 0.001), indicating a more positive attitude toward patients with mental disorders. Familiarity with mental disorders was not significantly different between the groups. Female sex was associated with a more negative attitude among the directors and screenwriters group. Additionally, among the SDS items, ‘How would you feel about someone with severe mental disorder marrying your children?’ and ‘How would you feel about someone with severe mental disorder taking care of your children for a couple of hours?’ received the most negative feedback in both groups. And among the DS items, ‘there should be a law forbidding a former mental patient the right to obtain a hunting license’ received the most negative feedback in both groups.ConclusionsIranian contemporary directors and screenwriters had a more positive attitude toward patients with mental disorders, compared to general population. Due to this relatively positive attitude, this group of artists can potentially contribute to anti-stigma initiatives by offering educational materials and resources, promoting mental health care, and improving access to mental health care.

An Insight Study of the Film Omkara by Vishal Bhardwaj

Shakespeare’s plays were originally intended for theaters, but some contemporary directors have incorporated them into their works. The focus of the study is on Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2006 film Omkara, which is regarded as one of the best adaptations in Indian cinema history and is an adaptation of the Shakespeare play Othello. This article attempts to comprehend how Bhardwaj adapted Elizabethan-era plays and placed them in a very different context. Through it, the paper seeks to examine the similarities and differences between the films and their original sources of inspiration while highlighting the timeless qualities of Shakespeare’s works that make them culturally and historically relevant.

Genesis of Syncretic Nature of Ukrainian Musical

The purpose of the study is to analyse the formation and development of the musical and to determine its syncretic nature. The research methodology. The method of systematic analysis of the genesis of the musical and its syncretic nature was applied; the axiological method made it possible to generalise the place and role of the musical in the entertainment culture of Ukrainians; the empirical method is based on the study of development trends and the application of the latest practices in domestic musicals. The scientific novelty lies in the general outline of the genesis of the musical, the current state of the Ukrainian musical genre as an integral cultural model, and the generalisation of the syncretic nature of the musical, which goes beyond the established stage canons. Conclusions. The genesis of the musical as a genre is connected with the process of constant syncretism of different genres of stage art, as well as pop music, cinematography, modern technologies, and is in constant adaptation to any changes in society and its system of values. Contemporary directors and producers try to syncretise as many different types and genres of art as possible in a musical, combine circus elements, modern technologies, and social networks to create a unique stage product, to maximise the boundaries of the genre, which actually reveals the syncretic nature of the contemporary musical. Thus, it can be stated that the musical, due to its syncretic nature, reflects a system of values that correlates with the values of the majority of society. Key words: musical, syncretism, musical theatre, musical director, musical artist, new technologies, commercialisation.

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note: For the fifth time since its original 1949 production that ran for 742 shows, Death of a Salesman has been revived on Broadway. This time it is the transfer of a Young Vic production that was first produced in 2019 in the United Kingdom and won two Olivier Awards. While the leads for the U.S. production remain the same—Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke—many of the other cast members are changed, and the sole director this time round is Miranda Cromwell, who had worked with Marianne Elliott on the Young Vic show. While there have been all-Black and mixed-cast productions in the United States since 1962 (Steve Marino offers a brief overview of these in his review), this is the first Broadway production trying this out, and they decided not to use an all-Black cast but keep certain characters in the show as white, which creates a slightly different resonance. That is clearly the focus of several of these reviewers, some of whom were more appreciative than others.David Palmer suggests that since Salesman has become so well-known, contemporary directors can approach it like jazz musicians, ready to take the drama in new and exciting directions to create fresh levels of meaning, and this latest version is an African American riff, one that allows Biff and Linda a greater dignity, Willy a credible level of insanity, and Happy a new interpretation borne out through a series of telling handshakes. Through the lens of Blackness the Loman family is able to morph into something entirely new, and Palmer concludes that this production presents “the struggle for dignity and acknowledgment as the core of the play.” Pointing out that Miller’s plays have been subjected to a variety of innovative approaches in the past, Marino describes how this new production incorporates Black cultural elements into its design, though he questions some of its staging decisions. While he did not feel that the play’s casting choices had that great of an impact overall given the play’s universality, Marino notes some moments when it was more effective than others. And while Marino tolerates most of the play’s innovations, Deborah Simon is less benevolent, suggesting that the set and a variety of effects were too disconcerting, as well as the cast lacking in cohesion, which all ultimately diminish the impact of Willy’s fate. Jane Dominik is similarly critical of certain aspects of the production, but offers even more detail and finds elements to also approve in this latest Broadway rendering of what has arguably become America’s best-known drama, to which, as Simon reminds us, “attention must be paid!”

Comprehending Tarkovsky: the philosophy of creativity of Carlos Reigadas

The subject of the article was to identify some similarities between the creative concepts of two filmmakers: our great compatriot Andrey Tarkovsky and contemporary director Carlos Reygadas. Their comparison, as well as the culturological analysis of Reygadas’ films, allows us to conclude that there is a conceptual closeness that largely determines the philosophy of the work of both masters, based not on the principle of recreating reality, but on the desire to create their own artistic word.

Funeral de Estado (Sergei Loznitsa, 2019): o funeral do documentário

From Claude Lanzmann’s controversial interdiction of documentary images produced by genocidal political regimes, this article analyzes the discursive choices of the documentary State Funeral (2019), from Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa, against Harun Farocki’s Aufschub (2007), Alain Resnais’ Nuit et brouillard (1956), Vanessa Lapa’ The Decent One (2014) and Rithy Panh’s, L’image manquante (2013). All these films use archive footage. To what extent do totalitarian regimes’ official images, without the marks of enunciation of the director who manipulates them in the present, enable the image ethics, or do they resemble the perpetrators’ propaganda? The proposal presented here relativizes Lanzmann’s concept, but the contemporary director must turn explicit its discursive intervention and show himself as the film enunciator. In this way, he could re-signify and use these images. Authors like Cristina Teixeira Vieira de Melo, François Niney and Arlette Farge are discussed.

The Sense of an Ending: Contemporary Visions of Medea

The story of Medea’s murder of her own children to gain revenge against their faithless father has been tackled from many angles by playwrights and directors from Euripides’ time to the present. In recent years, due to highly sensationalized, real-life cases of mothers murdering their children, it has become fodder for sociologists, criminologists, psychologists, and feminists. Many recent productions (both original plays and directorial approaches to Euripides’ original) have avoided tackling the difficult questions raised by Euripides’ ending, which demands an answer to the following question: how could the gods send down a dragon-drawn chariot to rescue a woman who murdered her own children? Many contemporary authors and directors prefer to eliminate Euripides’ ending in order to focus on more immediate issues, such as the psychological or social damage resulting from patriarchy, colonialism, and misogyny. After considering several such productions, this article analyzes three plays that directly tackle Euripides’ troubling ending: two original scripts, by Heiner Müller and Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei respectively; and a production of Euripides’ original by Japanese director Miyagi Satoshi. Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei is Professor Emerita of Theatre at UCLA. An expert on postwar Japanese and cross-cultural performance, she is also a translator, director, and playwright. The author of Unspeakable Acts: The Avant-Garde Theatre of Terayama Shūji and Postwar Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2005) and co-author of Theatre Histories: An Introduction (third edition, Routledge, 2016), she has published over a hundred articles, chapters, and reviews. She is an Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal and a Fellow of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.

Introduction

Introduction Aisha Z. Cort (bio) The articles and interviews of this Close-Up interrogate the numerous dimensions of Contemporary Cuban cinema. The pieces included endeavor to explore the use of film not only as a narrative mode for the official voice of the Cuban nation but also a narrative tool for counterhistories. The authors of the investigations that follow have centered their projects around an exploration of major sociohistoric and sociopolitical developments in the revolution and their intersection with themes of identity politics, counternarratives, and techniques of film production. The cultural currency of film in Cuban revolutionary society has provided for a uniquely crafted and skilled film culture in Cuba. It is rich in not only nuance, but also inventiveness and interpretational innovation. Nationalized in 1959 with the formation of Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, commonly referred to as ICAIC, through over sixty years of the revolution, Cuba's film industry has long held a privileged position within Cuban and also global society, serving as an informal measuring stick for the nation's progress. The early years of the revolution produced seminal films from directors such as Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Humberto Solás, and Julio García Espinosa who inserted themes of race, class, and gender into the revolutionary dialogue. Alternative voices such as Nicolás Guillén Landrián, Sergio Giral, and Sara Gómez served as a warning to those who would posit in their works serious questions regarding the incongruities that existed between the tenets of the Cuban Revolution and artistic and racial dialogue and expression. Contemporary directors such as Gloria Rolando, Eric Corvalán Pelle, Miguel Coyula, and Damián Sainz utilize a variety of genres, embrace new filmic techniques and resources such as international partnerships to develop and distribute their films globally and also to more freely interrogate the themes in their films that might have been considered controversial and antirevolutionary within contemporary Cuban society, which, coupled with various [End Page 174] instances of sociohistorical and political change in Cuba, has furthered the evolution of Cuban cinema in more recent years. Within the context of debates around the relationship between art and revolution, it is critical to examine Fidel Castro's 1961 meeting with intellectuals, during which he launched a phrase that defined Cuban cultural policy for years to come, "Dentro de la Revolución todo; contra la Revolución nada" (Within the Revolution everything, against the Revolution, nothing). "Palabras a los Intelectuales" (Words to the Intellectuals) (as they have been known from then on) was an intervention delivered at the conclusion of three days of meetings whose goal was to discuss and define the boundaries of artistic creation within the Cuban Revolution. They were inspired by the tensions between two artistic organizations of the early years of the Cuban Revolution, Lunes de Revolución and the ICAIC.1 In this speech Castro not only laid the groundwork for the cultural aesthetics of the revolution, but also set the precedent for future conflicts, which would inevitably arise between the tenets of the Cuban Revolution and Cuban artistic expression. The tensions between Lunes de Revolución and the ICAIC originated largely from the censoring of the 1961 film P.M. and, on a smaller scale, from debates over which organization should be entrusted with disseminating cinematographic criticism. P.M. was a short film directed by Saba Cabrera Infante (brother of Lunes de Revolución's editor, Guillermo Cabrera Infante) and Orlando Jiménez-Leal. In this film, the directors portrayed Havana's nightlife from the point of view of the city's Afro-Cuban population.2 ICAIC, the official organization of Cuban film workers, supported the revolutionary government's decision to ban the film, while Lunes de Revolución did not. The positioning of these two groups on opposite sides of the fence with regards to the issue of artistic censorship helped to transform Lunes de Revolución, previously an ally of the revolution, into an enemy. Pitted against each other in this manner, the tensions between ICAIC and Lunes de Revolución brought to a head the previously veiled issue of the limits of artistic expression within the Cuban Revolution...

Temporitms kā režijas instruments. Ieskats Latvijas režisoru praksē

The object of the research is one of the basic concepts of theatre theory – the tempo-rhythm of the performance. The starting points are the explications of the director Oļģerts Kroders (1921–2012), which give instructions about the intended temporhythm of the production “The Tragic Story of Hamlet, the Danish Prince” (1972). The research also uses examples of the organization of temporhythm in other productions made by Kroders. The purpose of the research is to compare various workstyles to conclude how contemporary directors’ thoughts of temporality in the construction of a theatrical timespace differ from their predecessors’ ideas, whether they plan to change the pace of action, how the rhythm of performance is formed and whether they give importance to the rhythm and tempo of a spoken text. In the course of the research, contemporary directors of different generations were asked these questions. Examples of stage practice in the article are analyzed mainly from the point of view of theatrical semiotics, in which great importance is attached to the relations of time and space in the production and modulation of these relations by means of rhythm and tempo. Attention is also paid to the director’s work with the actor in the rehearsal process, striving to achieve a certain dynamics of the character’s external and internal action, which is consistent with the actor’s technique described in the director and theorist Konstantin Stanislavsky’s book “The Actor: Work on Oneself: The Creative Process of Embodiment”. It was concluded that the temporhythm is an essential professional tool of theatre directing in the organization of the production’s time-space, in revealing the culmination of the action to the viewer, in achieving the unity of form and content also in the 21st century. However, only a part of the directors purposefully works with the actor to bring the character’s internal temporhythm into line with the performance’s temporhythm.

The Portrayal of Women’s Empowerment in Select Indian Movies

AbstractFeminism, the empowerment of women, and gender equality are frequently discussed concepts in contemporary India. The film industry, among other stakeholders, is taking steps to contribute to women’s empowerment. In India, the film industry is seeking to change society by touching on topics that are rarely discussed in public. Contemporary directors have begun to give greater visibility to the problems women face. There is a new wave of women‐centric movies that is bringing about a quiet rebellion in India. This article reveals how women's values are portrayed in select Indian movies.

Труд, отчуждение, искренность: ответ Аки Каурисмяки «посткинематографическому» экрану

The anthology “To Each His Own Cinema” was created for the 60th Cannes Film Festival Anniversary. It included episodes by contemporary directors dedicated to the present and future of the cinema in the context of digital technologies and post-continuity. Aki Kaurismäki presented the three-minute episode “The Foundry”, which demonstrates the visual, auditory and narrative features of the author's film style in a concentrated manner and also relays Kaurismäki's response to the changes that are taking place in the cinema of the “digital age”. In the episode and in Kaurismäki's works in general, he refers to stories, images (labor, working class, factories, mines, marginalized elements, etc.) and old-style film and shooting techniques which are not that popular. But this is the most interesting thing because it shows Kaurismäki's point of view on the nature of cinema as an activity. In the article, the author shows the analysis of the figures of workers and the images of their actions (images of labor) in connection with Kaurismäki's film style and in the context of the “death of cinema” discourse in the digital age. Reflections are based on the analysis results of two trilogies: Proletarian trilogy – Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988), The Match Factory Girl (1990), and Finnish trilogy – Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002), Lights in the Dusk (2006).

РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ ФИГУРЫ МАНЬЯКА ЧЕРЕЗ ПРИЗМУ КИНЕМАТОГРАФА США 1960-80-х ГОДОВ: ОТ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОГО ПЕРСОНАЖА К МИФУ О ЖАНРЕ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ КИНО

This article considers the figure of a maniac as a key aspect of the reception of the US cinema of the 1960s-1980s, which influenced the aesthetic and narrative features of contemporary cinema. The first thematic block of the article substantiates that the historical context of the American film industry of the second half of the XX century served as the basis for the legitimization of socially disapproved characters who previously appeared in low-budget cinema predominantly. To clarify the reasons why the serial killer as an object of film theory became associated with horrors and exploitation films of the 1970s, it is refuted that his screen image completely follows the logic of genres that developed in this decade. There is expanding of the issues of films about maniacs by an analysis of the theme of ‘criminally insane’ characters in the US cinema of the 1970s on the example of the film of the same name by Nick Millard in the second part of the article. It is concluded that the audiovisual and genre patterns of low-budget cinema of the last century motivate contemporary directors to turn a serial killer into a historical character.

Art of director, screenwriter, and actor Martin Scorsese as an author's cinematography model

Martin Scorsese is an outstanding contemporary director, who strongly influenced the artistic and aesthetic foundations of American (authors’ in particular) cinematography of the 19th–20th centuries He was and remains one of the outstanding creators who shaped the aesthetics of the “New Hollywood” cinematography. In the period from 1917 to the early 1960s, there was a paradigm of “classic Hollywood”, in which films were produced according to the dominant aesthetic, genre and narrative formulas, the characters represented themselves as specific typical images with understandable motivations for the general public. Martin Scorsese is a representative of cinematography, who changed classical views of film art. That is why the study of Martin Scorsese's work remains relevant for researchers in the field of cinematography and culture to the present day. The purpose of this work is to study the creativity of director, screenwriter and actor Martin Scorsese, as well as to identify the author's style in the artist's work, determine his author's handwriting and manner. The methodology of this research is based on theoretical methods of scientific knowledge, in particular, the method of information analysis and synthesis, the cultural method, as well as historical and comparative methods were used.

Репрезентация феномена интерсекса в современной культуре: кинематографический дискурс

Today, significant changes are taking place in the approach to the study of many sociocultural phenomena. Duality and polarity of their perception and analysis are being mitigated, alternative facets of the familiar and the generally accepted are coming to light, a number of “marginal” ideas are becoming the “new norm”. The research paradigm of the 20th – 21st centuries pays special attention to non-binary gender. Modern researchers focus on such issues as self-identification and search for gender identity, mechanisms of gender construction, variability of sex-role and identification models, non-conventional forms of gender identity (transgender and agender, intersexuality, etc.), as well as their representation in contemporary culture. One of such nonconventional phenomena of culture today is intersexuality, the current form of the well-known philosophical idea of androgyny. Intersex as a phenomenon of contemporary culture is considered as an element of the emerging non-binary gender system. Nowadays, intersex is not only the denomination of a person with biological characteristics atypical of the binary gender paradigm, but also the name of a distinctive culture discussing the problems of this new kind of people, who have become a significant part of our society. This article studies the representation of the intersex phenomenon in contemporary culture through the lens of cinematography. The sociocultural status of intersexuality explains the increasing quantity and thematic diversity of cinematic material. Intersexuality is a subject of active artistic reflection of many contemporary directors (L. Puenzo, C. Lavagna, J. Solomonoff, R. Féret, S. Savory, etc.), the discussion of acute social, legal and ethical problems being their focus. Thus, the leading themes are as follows: self-identification of intersex people and their search for gender identity; the problem of medicalization of intersex people and the legality of “corrective”/ “normalizing” operations from both medical and ethical points of view; parent–intersex child relationship; socialization of intersex teenagers and social acceptance of this new type of person.

Dänemark – Hollywood – Europa

Abstract Thomas Vinterberg is one of Scandinavia’s well-respected contemporary directors. His career is best noted for his involvement in the launch of the Dogma 95 Manifesto and it was his acclaimed Festen (DK 1998) that started the prolific film movement that followed. Yet, as this article shows, Vinterberg repeatedly tried to reinvent himself as an artist, taking on different genres, themes and aesthetic approaches. When his all-star science fiction film It’s All about Love (2003) and his pan-European co-productions met with the disapproval of critics and audiences alike, he returned to realist films. The subsequent success of his dramas – including Submarino (2010), Jagten (2012) and Druk (2020) – reinstated his status of an auteur filmmaker. The three films share a number of continuities, including a penchant for themes of homecoming, dysfunctional family relations and everyday socio-cultural conflicts within the limits of close-knit communities or circles of friends.

Prolegomenon

Kathleen McHugh explores the complex functions of women’s anger in the work and aesthetic circuitry—culture, texts, audience, reviewers—of contemporary feminist filmmakers. For all its ubiquity as a feminist feeling, anger has been little considered critically. While 1970s white theorists of feminine/feminist film aesthetics did not mention anger, feminist lesbian, materialist, and women-of-color critics lamented its absence. Julie Dash’s 1982 Illusions inaugurated an aesthetics of anger from a Black feminist perspective that exemplified the ideas in Audre Lorde’s foundational 1981 essay, “The Uses of Anger.” Drawing from Lorde’s and Sara Ahmed’s ideas about the creative value of feminist anger, together with recent affect theory on “reparative reading” and “better stories,” the essay explores four contemporary directors’ films and media works for how anger shapes their texts and critical reception and cultivates a mode of affective witness in their audiences.

L’Acte de traduire et la remédiatisation

"I am well versed in translating poetry – especially that of Yves Bonnefoy – as well as the theatrical essays of the contemporary playwright and director Valère Novarina. What the two authors have in common is that they make the work of the Hungarian poet János Pilinszky resonate in Hungarian without having known him. When one translates a text, its reception is often facilitated by another work of the target culture through which the work to be translated is transmitted. Patrice Pavis' expression ""verbo-corps"" seems very relevant when it comes to translating for the stage. As for the translation of plays, in general, there is one version to be published and read, and another to be performed. In the latter case it is important to see in front of us the stage and the actors (if possible already designated) to choose the rhythm of the lines, as well as to keep or reject the puns, or substitute some for others. I give some examples from our Hungarian translation of Valère Novarina. In order to shed light on the terms of adaptation and remediation from the point of view of theatre as a meeting place par excellence for various media, and not from the point of view of translation itself, I finally take as examples some shows I saw at the Festival d'Automne in Paris in 2019."