Literary Specifics of Biographical Film Story: On the Issue of Genre Heredity

The genre heredity concept is articulated on the analysis example of I. Drach’s screen version of the biographical film story “I’m coming to you” (1970), dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Lesya Ukrainka. The film is marked by innovative approach of I. Drach as a scriptwriter to the image of the poetess. Contrary to the tradition of documentary film to interpret her biography in a certain matrix key (as a fighter and revolutionary), Drach tried to identify Lesya Ukrainka primarily as a private individual, as the woman who knew how to sacrifice herself for the sake of love. Without aiming to show in detail the entire biography of the poetess, the author of the film story chose only a small fragment of her life – four years 1897–1901. In terms of biopic genre heredity, the article observes how this biographical film presents possible ways of processing and contamination of available documentary material (letters, memoirs, reminiscences of contemporaries) and integral creation by Lesya Ukrainka (her poetry, translations, renditions). Hence, the biopic on the basis of multi-genre text material appears as a kind of intertextual plexus. At the same time, the film pays much attention to the feelings, thoughts, creative impulses and state of mind of the heroine. By analogy with the poetics of literary writing, the form of the poetess’ inner monologue was chosen in accordance with the portrait film genre. It is clear that through the prism of Lesya’s life and creative experience the personal attitude of the poet I. Drach emerges towards understanding and reproducing the figure of creative personality in art: the author’ vision logically leads to those biographical episodes that in the existential sense appear the most significant.

Retro-Series About the Artists of Soviet Popular Music: Between Conventions, Past and Reality

The article deals with the dramaturgical and aesthetic patterns of the Russian TV series of the 2000s–2010s, which provide insight into the lives of famous Soviet pop music artists. The main characters in the biopics studied were inspired by Leonid Utyosov, Pyotr Leshchenko, Lyubov Orlova, Anna German, Lyudmila Zykina, Valentina Tolkunova, Alla Pugacheva, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Edita Piekha, Valery Obodzinsky and Muslim Magomaev. The article gives an overview of the similarities in the development of historical and biographical film genres in Hollywood and Soviet cinema. Moreover, a brief introduction to Soviet films about musicians is provided. The main part of the research is devoted to the issues of adaptation of Hollywood conventions of the music biopic genre In Russiania. Through the interaction of the Soviet past, Hollywood standards and contemporary Russian realities, the specific features of different narration types are revealed, the issue of authenticity is considered, and the status of pop music in the past and present is outlined. In addition, the types of dramatic conflicts and types of heroes are analyzed, questions of the commercial component in relation to Soviet popular culture are raised.

The docudrama of a destiny: Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu

First, a brief excursion is made in the evolution of the historical-biographical film in the Republic of Moldova by highlighting the stages and personalities from the history of this category of non-fiction films. The research focuses on the televised historical-biographical film Evocare. Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu/Evocation. Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu – a co-production of Romanian filmmakers (Romanian Television Film Studio) and the Republic of Moldova (State Company Teleradio Moldova) – dedicated to the eminent personality of the history of our culture – Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu. The authors of the film managed to evoke the multiple activity of the protagonist (writer, poet, playwright, scientist, folklorist and also the most dramatic moments of his troubled destiny. Some similarities and differences in the aesthetic conditions of the TV film and the one for the screen are revealed. The aesthetic peculiarities of the televised historical-biographical film were highlighted, the premises of its approach to docudrama – a species with a perspective of the non-fiction film.

The historical-biographical film: destinies and personalities

The history of national cinema shows that the evolution of non-fiction biographical film began with subjects dedicated to prominent personalities. These were included in the film magazine “Soviet Moldova” and in the almanac “Life in pictures”. In 1961, the first historical-biographical film “The Legendary Brigade Commander”- a eulogy to Grigore Kotovski (director A. Litvin) appeared at the “Moldova-film” studio, followed by other films dedicated to the heroes of the times: Pavel Tkacenko, Elena Sârbu, Tamara Cruciok, which were dominated by a pronounced propagandistic character. A new level of national historical-biographical film can be noticed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the filmmakers: Emil Loteanu (“Academician Tarasevici”), Andrei Buruiană (“Ştefan Neaga”), Vlad Druc (“Ion Creangă”) made their debut. Yet, the idea of biography especially predominates in the creation of Anatol Codru, who played a significant role in the affirmation stage of this kind of nonfiction film, bringing through his films, “Alexandru Plămădeală”, “Alexei Şciusev”, “Dimitrie Cantemir”,”Vasile Alecsandri” a new breath in the context of the films made before him. He imposed himself through a poetic-philosophical vision on the destinies and the creation of the personalities, who contributed to the spiritual prosperity of the nation.

The Reluctant Wife: Ginnen Upan Seethala and Gendering Revolution

This paper sets out to examine the politics of representation of the biographical film, Ginnen Upan Seethala (2018), which focuses on the life and times of Rohana Wijeweera, a rebel leader who led two failed insurrections in post-independence Sri Lanka. It argues that while the film seemingly exonerates the leader and the movement, through a discourse of domesticity, it simultaneously engages in a nuanced representation of Chithrangani Wijeweera, the wife of Rohana Wijeweera, a woman who has been positioned at the margins of the masculinized historical record of the JVP party. While such records have largely ignored testimony in which Chithrangani constructs herself as a reluctant wife who is subordinated to the dominant ideology of the party and its leader, the film provides her a more expansive and empathetic role and thereby bears witness to her tale of victimhood and survival, unraveling how patriarchal political conquest coopts women as strategic sites of political domination.

Beyond the Voice of Egypt: Reclaiming Women’s Histories and Female Authorship in Shirin Neshat’s Looking for Oum Kulthum (2017)

By drawing on postcolonial feminist discourse and Hamid Naficy’s (2001) notion of ‘accented’ cinema, in particular his approach of combining the interstitial position of exilic and diasporic filmmakers with concepts of authorship and genre, this paper explores the intersection between biographical film, gendered rewriting of history, and self-narrative as a site of resistance to nationalist and patriarchal ideologies in Shirin Neshat’s Looking for Oum Kulthum (2017). I argue that Neshat’s authorial style and her position as an exilic artist inflect the biographical film in its traditional form, showcasing an innovative perspective on the genre, restructuring it to reveal the constructedness of not only a cinematic process, but also of history and historical figures. Blending the stories of a present-day Iranian woman filmmaker and the professional life of the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum, Neshat displaces the biopic from its Western-centric roots by explicitly opening it up to a discourse of contemporary gender politics in the Middle East. In doing so, she exposes the social forces that shape the production of the biopic in relation to the notion of female authorship in the context of the transcultural circuits and feminist reclaiming of Oum Kulthum’s international stardom.

Cinematic Equivalence in Subtitling: A Case Study of the Biographical Drama Forever Enthralled

We propose in this paper a conceptual model of how equivalence may be achieved in subtitling to allow the target language viewers the opportunity to enjoy a comparable cinematic experience as that enjoyed by the source language viewers. We follow Brock’s (2015) adaptation of Goffman’s (1981) participation framework in communication and take Nida’s (1964) Dynamic Equivalence as the point of departure to propose Cinematic Equivalence as the conceptual model as well as the aim of film subtitling. This model is illustrated by examining the English subtitles of a Chinese biographical film called Forever Enthralled (?????). Based on our conceptual model, we make suggestions for subtitling training and practice.