Film Texts Research Articles

Analysis of the Dual Subject Identity Cognitive Construction Mechanism in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep Based on Lacanian Three Worlds Theory

Chen Kaige's short film 100 Flowers Hidden Deep guided by the theme of "moving house" serves as a narrative thread, portraying the inner struggles of a modern individual faced with conflicts between tradition and modernity. This conflict not only exists within the protagonist's inner world but also permeates society, leading the film's characters to exhibit different attitudes and behaviors when confronted with various dilemmas. This paper explores how the unique character configurations in the film, hidden beneath the clash of tradition and modernity, project onto Lacan's Three Worlds Theory, offering a fresh interpretation from a film text analysis perspective on the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic worlds. Starting from the dilemma of the self and the other, this paper interprets the existence and forms of the self across different dimensions, attempting to decipher how the film text constructs the journey of self-recognition for both the protagonist and the audience in a symbolic and psychoanalytic world. This analysis is an integral part of psychoanalytic studies, with profound implications for film text analysis. The film not only provides a new interpretation of character settings and plot arrangements but also offers essential theoretical support for film production and audience comprehension. 100 Flowers Hidden Deep by Chen Kaige demonstrates the importance and value of Lacan's Three Worlds Theory in film text analysis.

Shit happens on the big screen: faecal motifs in contemporary film

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse various excremental motifs and their functions in selected contemporary films. Drawing on concepts such as Julia Kristeva’s abject, Mary Douglas’s taboo and Mikhail Bakhtin’s grotesque body, the authors demonstrate that dirt in the form of excrement holds metaphorical and symbolic potential in cinematic representations. Faecal tropes selected for discussion range from the use of excrement as a means of humiliation (The Help, Green Book, Kornblumenblau) or resistance (Silent Grace, Hunger) to an understanding of defecation as an ideal and peaceful act (Jarhead, Halkaa) or as a trigger for culturally conditioned disgust (Death at a Funeral, Daddy Day Care), to the use of faecal matters as a demarcation line between ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the world of the future (Uncanny, The Platform) or as a productive substance entangled with multiple life forms (The Martian). Since filmic texts can be regarded as a taxonomic representing of faecal motifs that have received considerably little scholarly attention, the discussed examples do not exhaust the topic, but lay the foundation for more detailed analysis in the future.

«Дистанционный монтаж» Артавазда Пелешяна в семиотической перспективе (на основе теоретических работ режиссера)

The article explores the renowned Armenian documentary filmmaker Artavazd Pelechian (born 1938), whose acclaim surged in 1988, marking the end of the Soviet era, when many figures of Armenian culture became peripatetic. Through a semiotic lens and metalanguage, the article delves into the core elements of “Montage-at-aDistance,” examining the interplay between image and sound/music, and the generative potential inherent in the director’s cinematic language. It particularly emphasizes a distinct montage language, founded not on coupling, docking, and splicing film frames (akin to Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein), but on decollage, influenced by Marcel Merien’s principle. Pelechian employs a theory of distance to deconstruct the narrative, thus embedding the emotional depth of documentaries. His “Montage-at-aDistance” aligns typologically with T.S. Eliot’s theory of personalized poetry and emotion. A theory of distance catalyzes for the viewer's intellectual engagement, as it eliminates everything deemed “superfluous” and “noise” (in a semiotic context) from the visual series. The author’s message is dispersed throughout the film text and, at the structural and pragmatic level, is crafted into a “frame” structure, assembling a cinematic “picture” within a frame.

Simbolismo del puente en The Man Who Would Be King de Huston y Kipling

This article studies the presence of the bridge in The Man Who Would Be King (1975), a John Huston’s representative film shot, as is usually the case, from an adapted screenplay (signed by himself). The meticulous analysis carried out reveals a considerable presence of the bridge (beyond the famous final scene) that activates many of its symbolic associations, especiall those linked to the ideological background of the Kiplingian hypotext, and contributes to interconnect the entire network of signifiers that assemble the film text.

The Music to Valentin Kataev’s Fairy Tale The Wishing Seven-Colored Flower in the Space of Russia’s and China’s Screen Culture

The present article focuses on music in the space of screen culture. It discusses the interpretation of Valentin Kataev’s fairy tale The Wishing Seven-Colored Flower [Tsvetik-Semitsvetik] that was presented in the following artistic projects: a) the short television film The Wishing Seven-Colored Flower, created in the late 1960s through the collaboration of composer Evgeny Krylatov, directors Garnik Arazyan and Boris Bushmelev; b) the animated film with the same title by Russian and Soviet director Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and Soviet composer Yuri Levitin (released in 1948); c) the animated film by Chinese director Cao Xiaohui and Chinese composer Lu Shiling (1974), whose title retains also a similarity to the original source title. In regard to Krylatov’s and his colleagues’ film, addressed to a children’s audience, analyzing the interaction between the musical component of the film text, the video sequence, and the verbal-plot sequence clearly reveals Krylatov brilliant talent, his professionalism in the field of orchestral style and symphonic dramaturgy, as well as the organic synthesis of his inherent modern thinking — one that is recognizable by his composition techniques, as well as the traditions of the Russian musical classics. In a similar way, Yuri Levitin’s music carries out a dramaturgical function when accompanying animate films, while demonstrating elements of contemporary compositional means (namely, the aleatory technique). Modern compositional techniques also appear in Lu Shiling’s music, making themselves present in the texture of clusters as the main elements of sonorical sound. However, in contrast to the work of his Russian colleagues, the latter’s music carries out a purely illustrative function in the animated film.

Ольга Кобилянська в кінематографічному дискурсі

The article emphasizes the need to supplement the literary discourse with the topical issue of intermedia poetics, namely the film reception of the biography and works of Olha Kobylianska. It is noted that cinematography had an organic impact on the life and works of the Bukovynian author. This is evidenced by her autobiographies, biographical studies, as well as the works written under the impression of cinema (“By Situations”), or which imply the cinema code in the plot (“Black Apostol”), or those that demonstrate a pronounced cinematic poetics (“Ghost”, “Battle”). The poetry and prose of the author are mentioned to become an integral part of the cinematographic discourse, that is traditionally activated in relation to writers on the eve of their anniversary. The analyzed documentaries “Valse Brillante. Olha Kobylianska” (2013) and “To be one’s own goal. Olha Kobylianska” (2014) present a receptive version of her biography, created in a productive collaboration of filmmakers and literary critics. The functional potential of the biographical films, that popularize and actualize the works of this outstanding personality, contribute to the full understanding of Olha Kobylianska as a complete artistic phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the fact that compared to biographical projects, film reception of the writer’s works is significantly more productive, which contributes to the reconstruction of a holistic perception of her literary heritage. The films “Earth” (1954), “The Wolfhound” (1967), “The Melancholic Waltz” (1990), “The Princess” (1994), “Nature. The third film” (television series “The Island of Love” 1995–1996), “Early on Sunday, I dug a potion” (2019) are the film texts of different genres that demonstrate the occasional attention to the works by Kobylianska in the cinematic environment, due to a certain historical situation, another anniversary or the desire of filmmakers to reinterpret the works of the classic.

Memanifestasi Deiksis dalam Film “Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap” Karya Bene Dion Rajagukguk: Analisis Pragmatik

This research aims to analyze the use of deixis in the film "Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap" from a pragmatic perspective. Deixis is an important aspect in linguistic studies which is related to the use of signs that refer to the context of space and time. The film text analysis method is used to identify and analyze the use of deixis in the context of situations involving characters, location, time, and interactions between characters. The research results show that the use of deixis in this film aims to create a communicative effect and build relationships between the characters and the audience, by using personal, time, place, atmosphere, and social deixis. The use of pointing signs, such as body gestures and the placement of objects in scenes, is used to clarify the spatial relationships between characters and objects in the story. Pronouns are also often used to replace previously introduced references, maintaining cohesion in the narrative. In addition, the effective use of time-telling words helps the audience understand the sequence of events and establish chronology in the story. This research provides deeper insight into the use of language in communicative situations in the context of films, as well as a contribution to the development of pragmatic theory and an understanding of the audience's experience.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FILM TEXTS AS A MATERIAL FOR THE STUDY OF IRONY

The main purpose of the article is to study the use and difficulties of translating irony in English-language film texts. For this purpose, a thorough study of theoretical research on the concept of "irony" was conducted. The increasing demand for Ukrainian-language dubbing of foreign films and the Ukrainization of the film industry make this issue particularly relevant. To achieve this goal, general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, historical method and description were used. The article deals with the origin of the phenomenon of irony, sarcasm as a negative form of irony, the peculiarities of multimodal use of irony in film texts and the difficulties of its translation. In the course of analyzing scientific works on the study of irony in the field of cinema such communicative functions of irony as criticism, ridicule and parody were identified. The ways of conveying ironic content were also considered, namely: visual, acoustic and kinesics. The results of this study can be used to identify, interpret and translate irony. The study makes a significant contribution to the scientific heritage of both translation theory and practice and pragmalinguistics. After all, translating irony requires not only deep knowledge of the source and target languages, but also an understanding and ability to interpret the intention of the ironist. The scientific novelty of this study is an attempt to cover and generalize the ways in which irony is used and translated. Given how widespread irony is in film texts, the results of the study indicate that further research is relevant.

Обучение иностранных студентов пересказу на основе кинотекста (в аспекте русского языка как иностранного)

The aim of the study is to substantiate the need and possibility of using the method of retelling film texts in one’s own words as one of the means of mastering oral monologue speech in the practical course of Russian as a foreign language at an advanced stage of training. The paper provides rationale for using the method of retelling based on authentic feature films, describes the content of teaching retelling by considering all its components, presents a set of practical tasks aimed at developing the skills and abilities of processing the original text by reduction, simplification and expansion. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the following: it is the first time that the content of teaching foreign students how to retell based on film texts in the Russian language course has been clarified, the specifics of interpreting linguistic and non-linguistic components of the film text in secondary oral text production has been revealed, which made it possible to develop a set of exercises aimed at forming the speech skills and abilities necessary for the construction of a narrative-descriptive monologue. As a result of the study, it was found that teaching retelling based on films is directly linked to the work on reconstructing a text perceived by ear taking into account the presented paralinguistic information and the formation of the corresponding skills of organizing the content and choosing linguistic means of narration/description, namely, the skills of conveying the statements said by other people and using text compression means.

Variation of translation reception of Q. Tarantino’s film discourse

Within the framework of the article, the phenomenon of variability of translation reception of Q. Tarantino’s film discourse is considered. The authors conduct a comparative analysis of translation solutions used by the Russian-speaking translators as part of their work on Q. Tarantino’s films when transmitting significant elements of the author’s idiostyle. The focus is on the analysis of variability and evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the Russian-language translations of the film discourse of this director, which together make up the translation reception of his film works. The research methods include the continuous selection method, the method of contextual analysis, the method of functional semantic analysis, descriptive method, the method of contextual analysis, the method of interpretation of the film text, as well as methods of quantitative calculation. The original film texts of Q. Tarantino’s English-language films “Pulp Fiction”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood” and their translations into the Russian language have served as the material for the study. The authors analyze the film dialogues and films by Q. Tarantino as the main means of nonverbal and verbal representation of his idiostyle. It is argued that the films by Q. Tarantino are a significant example for the study of some aspects of translation reception into the Russian language due to the presence of a large layer of intertextual component in these works. It is emphasized that the interpretation of a literary text involves projecting the translator’s worldview onto the conceptual sphere of the translated work, as a result of which the latter becomes a co-author of the script. After analyzing the empirical material, the authors conclude that, regardless of the time of the release of the film, translators most often resort to such translation methods, as direct translation, modulation and addition, broadcasting numerous lexical, stylistic and pragmatic-semantic features of Q. Tarantino’s film discourse. Thanks to the development of information and telecommunication technologies and as translators gain more access to information, there are opportunities for improving the quality of translations due to the expansion of background knowledge in the field of pop-cultural and historical realia of the original linguaculture, actualized in the original film discourse.

Translation solutions used in the binary and intersemiotic translation of the graphic novel about the Marvel universe

The article discusses the key translation solutions that have been applied by translators in the binary and intersemiotic translation (film adaptation) of a graphic novel about the Marvel universe. The object of the study includes occasionalisms, substandard lexis and onomatopoeia in the graphic novel “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” as one of the most popular within the analyzed universe. Within the framework of the research, such linguistic methods as the continuous selection method, the contextual analysis method, the structural and semantic analysis method, the descriptive method, the comparative analysis method, the contrastive analysis method, as well as quantitative calculation methods are used. The authors conduct a comparative translation analysis of the translation and the original of the comics “X-Men: Battle of the Atom”, during which they identify occasionalisms and distribute them into certain thematic groups. The study highlights the main types of onomatopoeia typical of the English-language graphic novels. The calculation and analysis of translation solutions used in the transfer of onomatopes used in the comics into the Russian language are carried out. Attention is paid to the main types of stylistically substandard lexis – vulgarisms and swear words, which are also considered in terms of translation from English into Russian. When analyzing the transformations of the verbal component of a graphic novel in its intersemiotic translation (film adaptation), the authors focus on the occasional lexis, since in this type of translation only occasionalisms can have correspondences. The substandard lexis in the film adaptation is omitted, and when translating onomatopoeia, the verbal component is converted into the sound component of the film text. In the intersemiotic translation, only a part of the occasionalisms is preserved, which is conditioned by the reduction in the number of characters and significant locations.

“Residual Meanings” and the Aesthetic of Intermediality in Pavel Saltzman’s Central Asia in the Middle Ages

This article analyses Central Asia in the Middle Ages, an unfinished novel by Pavel Saltzman (1939–1950), first published in 2018. In the novel, the aesthetic of film editing and the discursive “madeness” of the narrative used by the author, which refers both to the literature of German Romanticism and to Eastern historical and literary sources, transforms an example of artistic avant-garde into a fundamentally new work in terms of artistic features. According to the article, the literary game of the Gothic novel employed by the author gives Saltzman’s text the dynamics of a spectacular film text, which conceals several symbolic and associative meanings. These include the adventurous narrative itself, the medieval historical plot, the inevitable associative parallels with the tragic pages of the history of the twentieth century, and the philosophical and aesthetic comprehension of man and their place in the world in the spirit of the German Romantics and modern postmodernism simultaneously. The research methods in relation to this literary text rely on the semiotic theory of Yu. M. Lotman and B. A. Uspensky. The results of the study are determined both by the author’s approach and modern literary and cultural studies concepts of Aage A. Hanzen-Löve, I. S. Kukui, and O. D. Burenina-Petrova. The novel is analysed for the first time according to the directions of “residual” memory of the author’s text that are relevant to this work, primarily in intertextual connection with E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Devil’s Elixirs, as well as according to the cinematic ways of expressing the narrative. The author proves that Saltzman’s text relies on the principle of compositional film editing, which brings it into the sociocultural discursive practice. Additionally, the article traces intertextual links between the two novels in the plot and thematic aspects, concluding that the text is original for modern literature and determining the prospects of its transfer in sociocultural practice.

Forecasting the Future Feature: How Film Industry Hierarchies Shaped Trailer Discourse, 1919–1959

The coming attraction film trailer has successfully maintained its prominent role within film promotion for over a hundred years. This article explores the shifting historical status of the trailer within the film industry and how industry trade press reported on its development and widespread adoption. Across this period these publications worked to delineate the discursive borders within which trailer debate occurred: from attacks on the trailer’s usefulness to related claims of accuracy and fidelity. Exploring the creation of this discourse challenges the idea that the increasingly negative tone around the film trailer in the twenty first century is a uniquely modern phenomenon. The article argues that these initial industry strategies need to be understood in relation to key cultural and industrial concerns around commerce and artistry, critical cultural gatekeeping, and broader interests in forecasting. By focusing on a largely overlooked element of the classical Hollywood system, we demonstrate how trailers existed in a disputed space within that system: a crucial promotional tool but also a creatively potent film text.

The Rewriting of Eileen Changs Female Characters and Its Significance in the Film Love After Love

In November 2021, the film Love After Love, based on Eileen Changs short story Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier, was released, sparking widespread attention and controversy. Using the basic method of textual close reading, this paper compares and analyses the source text produced by Eileen Chang with the film text collectively interpreted by the films screenwriter and director to discover the rewritings and changes in the image of her female characters from the short story to the film, and to interpret such rewritings in the theoretical field of feminist literary criticism, in order to answer the question of how Eileen Changs portrayal of women can be adapted to and inspires the contemporary cultural context of China in the adaptation of contemporary creators. The film liberates the female characters in Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier from the anxiety and pain of lack of desire and self-suppression and also gives them the possibility of reclaiming their dignity and selves, which, on the one hand, is adapted to the cultural context of the increasing call for womens emancipation in contemporary China, but on the other hand, it has not yet escaped from the phenomenon of masculine writing that has been prevalent in the Chinese cultural context since the beginning of the twentieth century.

From Orthodoxy to the Universal Logic of Human Rights: A Case Study of Film Thappad (The Slap)

Abstract This article analyses the film Thappad (The Slap) (2020) directed by Anubhav Sinha, which portrays slapping as a form of domestic abuse and a violation of women’s right to self-respect. This study investigates the incorporation of Universal Human Rights principles into the discourse of Hindi cinema. Through textual analysis of the film text, the paper examines how the film employs the language of rights as a counter-narrative against patriarchal ideologies, promoting gender equality and dignity within domestic settings. It argues that by countering the conservative cultural perspectives pertaining to spousal abuse through the discourse and philosophy of Human Rights, the film contributes to societal transformation. The paper identifies a shift in the film’s discourse from traditional, orthodox narratives to universal narratives centred around rights.

록키와 아도니스

This article examines the Rocky films, the most successful sport film franchise in the world, and the Creed films, the equally successful reboot of the Rocky universe first released in 2015. While prior criticism focuses on the Rocky films’ dated narrative of white working-class masculinity in favor of the updated racial and gender diversity of the Creed films, my article highlights the former’ enduring achievements, as well as the latter’s process of “remasculinization” despite the surface inclusiveness. The first section surveys the key issues of sport studies, (sport) film studies, and masculinity studies, in relation to the term “ideology.” The second section looks at the “negative dialectics” of ideology and utopia portrayed in the Rocky films, and reads the representation of masculinity in these films from the perspective of “post-masculinity.” Drawing upon the theme of “crisis of white masculinity” which has been ardently adopted by American literary and film texts since the 1950s, the last section argues that the Creed films create an extended Black version of this theme in a way similar to Fight Club.

Specifics of film/video translation of the realities of Chinese culture into Russian (based on the material of feature films).

The problem of transmitting the national and cultural identity of a people through language is due to the presence in the latter of special linguistic and cultural units, which include realia. This work is devoted to the problem of describing and systematizing realities in such a specific field of translation activity as film/video translation. The object of the study was the words-realities of Chinese culture, the subject of the study was the specifics of their translation into Russian. The research material was the historical series «The Three Kingdoms» in Chinese with Russian subtitles. The methodological basis of the study was the method of discursive analysis of film text, proposed in the works of R. A. Matasov. The results of the study made it possible to systematize the word-realia into thematic groups, give them a linguocultural commentary, identify the method of translating the word-realia and evaluate its validity in relation to the original film text.

FILM TITLE AS UNIT OF TRANSLATION AND IMAGE-SENSE (BASED ON ENGLISH AND KOREAN)

Purpose. The article focuses on the study of film titles that we consider an integral part of cinema text from the point of view of its special sign nature. A film title gives the key to the subject matter of the film story line. The translator faces a number of challenges as it is essential to capture the semantic multidimensionality of the original title in order to transmit accurately the same vision, sense and tonality embodied in the original title.
 Methodology. The study is done in the light of the synergetic approach to film translation that emphasizes the dominant role of the image-sense and its influences on translation solutions. The polysemiotic nature of a film text should be taken into account while dealing with film title translations.
 Results. The image-sense is an integral unity that can be cognized only in the context of the whole as the essence of semiosis, unity of individual and general, creating an authentic image in a viewer’s mind. Image-sense is characterized by unpredictability and ambiguity that can be eliminated due to video image and the interaction of some semiotic systems in creating an integral entity. The research materials are film dialogues of Korean and American feature films.

Exploring the New Aesthetic Significance of Chinese Film Art under the Influence of Digital Technology

Film, rooted in technology, possesses unique aesthetic characteristics that are intertwined with technological advancements. Since the beginning of the new century, the integration of digital technology has facilitated a seamless transition of film art from production to distribution, ushering in a new era of digital film aesthetics. This paper focuses on investigating the relationship between digital technology and film art, clarifying the developmental origins of both, and using the degree of digital technologys integration into film art as a starting point. By examining classic digital film texts, the paper explores the reshaping of various aspects of film production through the application of digital technology. Based on film aesthetic theories, this paper aims to deconstruct traditional film aesthetics through the lens of digital film, making meaningful attempts to establish the aesthetic framework for Chinese digital film art.

Films as emergent educational resources in Indian upper primary social studies classrooms: a multimodal inquiry

PurposeThis study explores the relevance of film texts in Indian social studies classrooms for students at the upper primary level. It examines how different types of visual texts can facilitate awareness, critical thinking, discussion and action.Design/methodology/approachUsing multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), this paper critically evaluates five selective films from regional cinemas in India and explores their teaching implications for social studies. The study argues that films are vital multimodal resources that can challenge the prevailing narratives in social studies pedagogy. It conveys how the suggestive revised taxonomy could benefit the students. It proposes a classification system for film analysis with discussion and states how films can bring out interrelated themes and encourage deeper, critical inquiry within the curriculum. The study finds discourse around the films and qualitatively stresses dialogue exchange with sentiment analysis using MAXQDA software. Developed by VERBI software, MAXQDA is a product whose name is inspired by the German Sociologist Max Weber, while the ‘QDA' stands for Qualitative Data Analysis.FindingsThe films act as multimodal texts, navigators, metaphors, communicative circuits and catalysts. The paper concludes that films can improve and expand multimodal learning of social studies in three ways: films help learners connect emotionally with the concepts, films make the learning process more appealing and extend it beyond classroom boundaries and films offer a unique insight into the socio-cultural subtleties that are often limited in textbooks.Originality/valueThis research pioneers an intersectionality-driven framework for film analysis in the curriculum for Indian upper primary social studies, offering innovative pedagogical tools to enrich Indian curriculum insights and bridge existing knowledge gaps.