Moonlight People

Among contemporary directors working in the field of experimental cinema, the figure of St. Petersburg Dmitri Frolov deserves special mention. By the way, given the seeming significance of his paintings to us, it is all the more strange that the researchers did not pay due attention to him, and there are no works devoted to his work or individual film works. Frolov is engaged in what is called experimental cinema, works in the field of experiments and, obviously, stands in opposition to cinema "ordinary", commercial, mainstream cinema. His films are an example of strange, often seemingly plot-free dream images, and he works with archetypes, models, concepts, sometimes forgotten plots, refers to eras that have long passed or were supplanted by other, more interesting or informative ones. Dmitry Frolov belongs to the course of parallel cinema - the stream of avant-garde artists, which originated and took shape at the dawn of the perestroika of the USSR.

Comments on the director himself are interesting. Frolov admits that he works in the Art Nouveau style, and attracts him to silent films. He does not hide that he is engaged in stylization, draws inspiration from the plots of the Silver Age, which was incredibly rich in trends, phenomena, creative methods and brilliant minds. By this he seems to pay tribute to the period of a hundred years ago, which has long sunk into oblivion. But those who hold this opinion forget that the short, but busy period - the Silver Age of Russian art in general - gave an incredible amount of material, which is interesting to work with after 100 years.

I repeat that Dmitry Frolov works with potentially very rich material, the legacy of the Silver Age, processing and conceptualizing it in his own way. It is important that his vision is passed through modernity, after a hundred years of a temporary gap, and from this point of view, new prospects for the disclosure of themes and images are opening up.

Frolov stands out from other directors working with themes of the Silver Age, above all (and at least) in the chosen way of narrative. It is worth recognizing that for simple stylization, however broadly understood, you need not so much directorial talent (although it is worth noting that for a naturalistic styling, which the viewer believes, you definitely need a subtle authorial flair). Frolov works on an experimental basis, each of his films is a confirmation of this, in each new film one form or another is chosen that reveals the corresponding content. It seems that Frolov is bored of being within the "framework" of the genre, following a strict and unchanging canon. The boundaries of the canon in experimental cinema are in principle blurred - it should be noted that these canons may not exist in principle. But the boundaries of various arts were also blurred during the time that recreates on the Frolov screen. One art smoothly turned into another, image methods were mixed, the form was subordinated to the tasks of content, and is this often what we now see on the screen? It was difficult at times to breed painting, theater, the word, the nascent phenomenon of cinema.

In connection with the foregoing, it remains a mystery why the figure of the director, addressing such popular and fruitful themes in modern times that enable the author to work with various techniques and techniques, remains in the shadows. But all the same, it is impossible to say unequivocally that Frolov has not gained any fame for the entire time of his career. He is not known by the general public, but he is honored at domestic and European festivals. Some pay tribute to his creative method, speaking of his innovativeness, others often accuse Frolov of making "decadent cinema", "graphomania", creating a movie that nobody understands, monitors boring, "languid", meaningless. A funny paradox lies in the fact that in this tendency to "decadence" one can see, in fact, a reflection of the original meaning of the word "decadence", which plays an important role in the whole work of Frolov, which we will try to clearly demonstrate. Translated from French, "decadence" means "decline", and then the accusation of "craving for decadence" against the director leaves the ground under his feet. It is interesting that Frolov himself refuses to find decadent, decadent motives in his films, saying that he is attracted to the beauty and form of the modern era, but also noting that this subtle beauty often precedes decline. In his works, he tries to reflect that elusive beauty, after which there comes an imperceptible transition to death, to the mirror side of the world.

A romantic feeling of decadence is a feeling of loss: a century, hierarchy, class, life, - a feeling of fatal, inescapable incompleteness of being, "these words of the Russian researcher V.M. Tolmachev, who in his works comprehends the cultural significance of the era of decadence and systematizes it, quite fully reveals what is reflected in the Frolov cinema - the cinema of transition.

"Decadence indicates a high symbolic activity of creative consciousness, which has no other territory and physics, except for itself, mirroring," the researcher says. All this is fully applicable to the work of Dmitri Frolov.

Separately, I want to note that this "activity of creative consciousness", a constant search beyond the boundaries of being, leads to the fact that the feeling of dualism in Frolov's works becomes quite obsessive and inspiring. There is always the real world and the world "on the other side," but often the second world turns out to be a trick, as if it leads the viewer around the finger.