National intonation in the films of Sergei Parajanov

Abstract

The significance of the study: Interest in Sergei Parajanov's creative legacy has not waned for several decades. His cinematic works and collages continue to inspire contemporary artists, including world-class pop stars such as Madonna and Lady Gaga, 50 years on. Many books, articles and essays have been written about his films and himself in various languages, demonstrating the relevance of his chosen subject.

The main purpose of the study: to determine the role of background and, more specifically, musical means in creating the unique national tone of Parajanov's films, to identify the mechanisms of its implementation, the specifics of the director's work with composers who wrote music for his films, and to highlight the ways in which they solved their creative task.

Methodology: The research methodology includes the conceptual framework of V. Moskalenko's theory of musical interpretation, in particular the concept of intonation as '...a nonconceptual physical and characteristic system of communication that expresses (in audio, visual or tactile forms) the situational emotional and psychological state of an individual'. The work also used general scientific research methods, including analysis, comparison, classification, inferring patterns and generalisation.

Results and conclusions. Based on the analysis of two of S. Parajanov's most famous films, the article concludes that the director's special approach to the embodiment of national intonation in his films asserts the intonation of the word, whose main function in his films is expression, not definition. What is important in a word is not so much its meaning as its intonation, i.e. how it is pronounced, how it sounds. A defining aspect of Parajanov's films is the polyphony of his scores, which synthesise elements of folk music, professional compositions, natural sounds and speech intonations to create a powerful expressive effect. This approach allowed the director to achieve a profound universality, making his works understandable on a cross-cultural level while emphasising national identity. The sound intonation in his films is inseparable from the visual, verbal and symbolic components, creating a holistic visual system. The national intonation in his films is expressed on the background as well as on the visual (frame), verbal (speech), mimetic (pantomime, gesture, dance) and sign (symbolic) levels. The verbal component simultaneously combines the phonic component, as the word is sung or recited in a certain way. In this way, the artist achieves the greatest expressive effect by concentrating the various means of expression.