Three Stories on Amour: Melodramatic Qualities in the Cinema World of Kira Muratova

The aim of the research consists in studying a role and specificity of melodramatic elements’ functioning in K. Muratova’s films under consideration. Taking into consideration the tasks being set, the study employs the following methods. The methodology of the research is comparative genetic, which is conducive to understanding the melodramatic qualities as a cultural phenomenon, as well as to examining the coexistence of melodramatic devices and principles of the auteurist cinema within the creation of the film director under study; structural method being contributory to revealing the sign and image system of melodrama within the structure of the indicated films, as well as to ascertaining the key regularities of their interaction; and textual critical method, being instrumental in detecting melodramatic elements in a cinematographic text of each of the films (from a plot in general to a dramatic concept of an episode), as well as to analysing the devices of cinematographic expressiveness.

Conclusions: The research has proved the mediated existence of certain characteristics of melodrama (modi of plot) in the K. Muratova creation. Based on the stuff of the films having the love triangle as a principal element of content, the study finds out the film director’s inclination to parodying genre features of melodrama. The K. Muratova film works under consideration also witness her addressing to visitors via melodramatic means of expressiveness, which by their functional load bring about the empathy of an event, the strengthening of emotionality of a scene, the commiseration for heroes, etc.