The Problem of a Man in L.N. Tolstoy’s Drama and A.N. Sokurov’s and L. von Trier’s Movies
The problem of continuity in Tolstoy’s drama and cinematography A.N. Sokurov and L. von Trier is discussed. The focus is on the idea of a man. In the works of these authors the “philistine tragedy” is often combined with a drama of spirit, which was typical for the genre of the modernist “new drama” in the turn of XIX-XX centuries. Now the “old” synthesis is revealed in a new way - on the territory of another, although very related, kind of art - the cinematic one. The image of the internal transformations of personality, fluidity and processuality of the human consciousness, often in situations of “disintegration”, occur in the context of the everyday social milieu in the works of all above named authors. Tolstoy, Sokurov, and von Trier raise the historiosophic and sociospheric aspects of the humanity problem with the backdrop of a moving, unfinished and unfinalized life. The moments of Sokurov’s and Von Trier’s closeness are as follows: the same attention to metaphysics, the same interest in the hidden depths of man, the frequent pathos of gloominess and disappointment, etc. The Danish film director expressed his remarkable interest in the work of A.A. Tarkovsky, whose influence, as well as Tolstoy’s and Pasolini’s, is very recognizable in a number of films by von Trier and Sokurov. The heroes of the film-makers are depicted as closely “linked” (according to Dilthey’s formulation) with history in the episodes of its crisis.