Theoretical articles of the film critic I.V. Weisfeld (1909-2003) in the Art of cinema magazine

The paper analyzes the evolution of theoretical film studies concepts of the famous film scholar I.V. Weisfeld (1909-2003) in the “Art of Cinema” journal (1931-2003).

The objective of the study is to perform a comprehensive content analysis of the evolution of I.V. Weisfeld’s theoretical film studies concepts in the “Art of Cinema” journal (1931-2003) in the context of the transformation of historical and socio-cultural space.

Based on the content analysis of the discourse of film studies formations concentrated in I.V. Weisfeld’s theoretical articles in the “Art of Cinema” journal (1931-2003), the following was revealed:

• V. Weisfeld’s theoretical film studies concepts were largely confined to the study of problematization vectors of film studies, namely, they concerned a detailed deconstruction of film construction issues, plot and structural image, the style movement of the artist, and a hero’s character;
• most of his theoretical articles were written in line with the ideological and political dogmas of a particular historical period. The texts of the film scholar’s theoretical articles clearly reflected the ideology of the ruling Communist Party, with frequent quotations of the works of K. Marx, V. Lenin and I. Stalin, as well as the resolutions of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party;
• a number of articles contained a sharp criticism of “bourgeois concepts” of Western cinema, defended the values of the ideological and moral content of Soviet cinema as well as the unity of the ideological and professional approach in film studies;
• a significant portion of I.V. Weisfeld’s articles was devoted to the cinematic legacy of famous Soviet filmmakers: S. Eisenstein, D. Vertov, V. Pudovkin, N. Zarkhi, and N. Lebedev in close correlation with criticism and outlining the merits of their work and the development of film studies as a science;
• A significant segment of the author’s conceptual views concerned the problems of integrating film into the educational process of schools and universities;
• The author’s theoretical articles are written at a high professional level (using cinematic terminology), not deprived of expressive artistic imagery; presented theoretical concepts are supported by a clear logic of presentation and coherent arguments based on primary sources;
• The author’s position and attitude towards the subject of research are clearly traceable in the general content and generalizing conclusions; structurally, his articles are usually in a scientific style, have a clear structure and a significant volume;
• V. Weisfeld’s theoretical film studies concepts are presented in a correlative relationship and determination of the transformation processes of the political and socio-cultural segment in the context of historical stages.

1. Andrew J. D. (1984). Concepts in Film Theory. New York: Oxford University Press. 1984. 254 р.

2. Andrew J. D. (1976). The Major Film Theories: An Introduction. New York, Oxford University Press. 1976. 288 р.

3. Alakshin A. A. (2014). Osobennosti redakcionnoj politiki v zhurnalah o kino: sravnitel'nyj analiz (na primere zhurnalov «Seans» i «Iskusstvo kino») [Features of editorial policy in magazines about cinema: comparative analysis (on the example of the magazines "Session" and "Art of Cinema")]. Sign: problematic field of media education. 2 (14): 33-35. (in Russian)

4. Anosova N. (1961). Nekotoryye problemy sovremennogo kino i zhurnal «Sinema» [Some problems of modern cinema and the Cinema magazine]. The Art of Cinema. 10: 116-125. (in Russian)

5. Aristarco G. (1951). Storia delle teoriche del film. Torino. Einaudi. 1951. 165 p. (in Italian)

6. Badalov R. (2011). CHto nam «Iskusstvo kino»? [What is the "Art of Cinema" to us?]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 133-137. (in Russian)

7. Bazin A. (1971). What is Cinema? Berkeley, University of California Press. 1971. 183 р.

8. Bergan R. (2006). Film. New York, DK Pub. 2006. 512 р.

9. Bogomolov Yu. (2001). My byli umnee zhurnala, chto nepravil'no [We were smarter than the magazine, which is wrong]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 5-7. (in Russian)

10. Branigan E., Buckland W. (eds.). (2015). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory. Routledge. 2015. 654 р.

11. Bykov D. (2001). 90-e. Sady skorpiona [90-e. Gardens of the Scorpion]. The Art of Cinema. 1: 40-43. (in Russian)

12. Casetti F. (1999). Theories of Cinema, 1945–1990. Austin, University of Texas Press. 1999. 368 p.

13. Demin V. P. (1966). Fil'm bez intrigi [Film without intrigue]. Moscow, 1966. 220 p. (in Russian)

14. Dobrenko E. A. (2008). Muzej revolyucii. Sovetskoe kino i stalinskij istoricheskij narrativ. [Museum of the Revolution. Soviet cinema and Stalin's historical narrative]. Moscow: New Literary Review, 2008. 424 p. (in Russian)

15. Fedorov A., Levitskaya A. (2022а). Theoretical Concepts of Film Studies in the Cinema Art Journal in the First Decade (1931–1941) of Its Existence. Media Education. 18(2): 169-220. DOI: 10.13187/me.2022.2.169.

16. Fedorov A., Levitskaya A. (2022b). Theoretical Concepts of Film Studies in Cinema Art Journal: 1945–1955. International Journal of Media and Information Literacy. 7(1): 71-109. DOI:10.13187/ijmil.2022.1.71.

17. Gibson P. C., Dyer R., Kaplan E. A., Willemen P. (eds.). (2000). Film Studies: Critical Approaches. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 2000. 148 р.

18. Jesuitov N. M. (1958). Kinoiskusstvo dorevolyucionnoj Rossii [Cinema art of pre-revolutionary Russia]. Questions of cinematography. Issue 2. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 252-307. (in Russian)

19. Kenez P. (1992). Cinema and Soviet Society, 1917-1953. Cambridge, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 291 p.

20. Komarov S. V. (2000). Zhizn dlinnoyu v vek [Life is long in a century]. Moscow, VGIK. 2000. 71 p. (in Russian)

21. Lebedev N. A. (1959). Dumaya o budushchem [Thinking about the future]. The Art of Cinema. 8: 50- 57. (in Russian)

22. Lebedev N. A. (1964). Fil'm i zritel' [Film and the spectator]. The Art of Cinema. 6: 43-49. (in Russian)

23. Lebedev N. A. (1958). Nas vedet partiya [The party is leading us ]. The Art of Cinema. 1: 55-66. (in Russian)

24. Lebedev N. A. (1974). Vnimaniye: kinematograf! [Attention: cinematography!]. Moscow, Iskusstvo. 1974. 438 p. (in Russian)

25. Levitskaya A. (2022). Theoretical Concepts of Film Studies in Cinema Art Journal: 1956–1968. Media Education. 18(3): 390-438. DOI: 10.13187/me.2022.3.390.

26. Levin E. S. (1967). V zashchitu syuzheta [In defense of the plot]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 33-42. (in Russian)

27. Livingston P. (2009). Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman: On Film as Philosophy. OUP Oxford. 2009. 215 p.

28. Margolit E. (2001). 60-e. Vospominaniya o pochtovom yashchike na vorotah [60th. Memories of the mailbox on the gate]. The Art of Cinema. 1: 26-30. (in Russian)

29. McIver G. (2016). Art History for Filmmakers. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2016. 256 p.

30. Medvedev A. (2011). «ZHurnal ne daval sovetskomu kino rasslabit'sya» [«ZHurnal ne daval sovetskomu kino rasslabit'sya»"The magazine did not let Soviet cinema relax"]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 106-112. (in Russian)

31. Plantinga C. (1993). Film Theory and Aesthetics: Notes on a Schism. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 51(3): 445–454. DOI: 10.2307/431516 (in Russian)

32. Ryabchikova N. S. (2014). Pervye gody sovetskogo kino i problemy istoriografii [The first years of Soviet cinema and problems of historiography]. Humanities, socio-economic and social sciences. 9: 173-175. (in Russian)

33. Shlapentokh D., Shlapentokh V. (1993). Soviet Cinematography 1918-1991: Ideological Conflict and Social Reality. N.Y.: Aldine de Gruyter. 1993. 293 p.

34. Stam R. (2000). Film Theory: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 2000. 381 p.

35. Stein S. (2019). Granicy kinovedeniya kak subdisciplinarnoj predmetnosti iskusstvovedeniya [The boundaries of film studies as a subdisciplinarity of art criticism]. The logic of visual representations in Art: from Iconographic space to Architecture to the screen image. Moscow: RSUH. 234-314. (in Russian)

36. Stishova E. A. (2011). Ob iskrennosti v kritike [About sincerity in criticism]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 124-132. (in Russian)

37. Trimbach S. (2011). Iskus kino [Iskus kino]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 138-141. (in Russian)

38. Villarejo A. (2007). Film Studies: The Basics. London: Routledge. 2007. 182 p.

39. Weisfeld I. (1968). Emocional'nyj mir dokumental'nogo fil'ma [The emotional world of a documentary film]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 61-72. (in Russian)

40. Weisfeld I. (1949). Estetika amerikanskih agressorov (o knigah T. Lejna «Amerikanskij kinoscenarij I YU. Vejla «Tekhnika napisaniya scenariya») [Aesthetics of American aggressors (about the books by T. Lane "American screenplay and Yu. Vail "Technique of script writing") ]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 30-32. (in Russian)

41. Weisfeld I. (1964). Dejstvitel'nye trevogi [Real worries]. The Art of Cinema.. 6:36-42. (in Russian)

42. Weisfeld I. (1962а). Dramaturgiya harakterov i harakter dramaturgii [Dramaturgy of characters and the character of dramaturgy]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 82-88. (in Russian)

43. Weisfeld I. (1978). Dvizhenie stilej i ustojchivost' predrassudkov [The movement of styles and the stability of prejudices]. The Art of Cinema. 7: 90-104. (in Russian)

44. Weisfeld I. (1936). Itogi diskussii o «Duhe fil'my» [The results of the discussion about the "Spirit of films"]. The Art of Cinema. 6: 46-51. (in Russian)

45. Weisfeld I. (1963). «Kinopravda» i prosto Pravda ["Kinopravda" and just the truth]. The Art of Cinema. 12: 77-80. (in Russian)

46. Weisfeld I. (1984). Kinoprocess: puti issledovaniya [Kinoprocess: ways of research]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 83-94. (in Russian)

47. Weisfeld I. (1939). Kul'tura detali v kino [Culture of detail in cinema]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 37-45. (in Russian)

48. Weisfeld I. (1976). Metodologicheskie problemy sovetskogo kinovedeniya [Methodological problems of Soviet film studies]. The Art of Cinema. 11: 53-57. (in Russian)

49. Weisfeld I. (1967а). Nacional'noe – internacional'noe [National – international]. The Art of Cinema. 9: 19-29. (in Russian)

50. Weisfeld I. (1967b). Ne povtoryaya projdennogo [Without repeating what has been passed]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 30-33. (in Russian)

51. Weisfeld I. (1948). O knige N. Lebedeva «Ocherk istorii kino SSSR» [About N. Lebedev's book "An essay on the history of cinema of the USSR"]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 20-24. (in Russian)

52. Weisfeld I. (1962b). Partijnost' iskusstva i individual'nost' hudozhnika [The partiality of art and the individuality of the artist]. The Art of Cinema. 7: 11. (in Russian)

53. Weisfeld I. (1974). Poeziya pedagogicheskogo poiska [Poetry of pedagogical search]. The Art of Cinema. 3: 147-157. (in Russian)

54. Weisfeld I. (1969). Revolyuciej mobilizovannoe i prizvannoe [Revolution mobilized and called]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 5-15. (in Russian)

55. Weisfeld I. (1960). Scenarist - eto pisatel' [Scriptwriter is a writer]. The Art of Cinema. 10: 87-93. (in Russian)

56. Weisfeld I. (1952). Scenarij priklyuchencheskogo fil'ma [The scenario of an adventure film]. The Art of Cinema. 8: 71-77. (in Russian)

57. Weisfeld I. (1965). Syuzhet i dejstvitel'nost' [Syuzhet i dejstvitel'nost' Plot and reality]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 114-124. (in Russian)

58. Weisfeld I. (1937). Teoriya i praktika S.M. Ejzenshtejna [Theory and practice of S.M. Eisenstein]. The Art of Cinema. 5: 25-28. (in Russian)

59. Weisfeld I. (1973а). Teoriya kino i hudozhestvennyj process [The theory of cinema and the artistic process]. The Art of Cinema. 4: 106-117. (in Russian)

60. Weisfeld I. (1973b). Togda i segodnya [Then and today]. The Art of Cinema. 2: 19-30. (in Russian)

61. Woll J. (2000). Real Images. Soviet Cinema and the Thaw. London. New York: I.B. Tauris. 2000. 267 p.