THE MUSICAL AND CINEMATOGRAPHIC SCORE OF THE FILM “OTTO E MEZZO” (1963) AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE CREATIVE TANDEM OF FEDERICO FELLINI AND NINO ROTA

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to reveal the role of the musical space in the film “Otto e mezzo” as a dramaturgical organization and structural formation of the artistic image of the director’s creative confession – “Confessions”. The research methodology includes historical (in the study of the history of the development of Italian cinematography in the second half of the 20th century), biographical (covering the sides of the Fellini–Rota creative tandem) and musicalanalytical methods (in the review of the audio component in the film “Otto e mezzo”), methods of comparative and cultural analysis. The article determined the influence of the neorealist tradition in Italian post-war cinematography on the formation of the unique artistic methods of the Fellini – Rota creative tandem. The peculiarities of the creative communication of F. Fellini and N. Rota in the context of many years of artistic cooperation were highlighted. The key aspects of the interaction of dramaturgy mechanisms and expressive means of the audiovisual whole within the framework of the artistic synthetic phenomenon were studied using the example of the film “Otto e mezzo”. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis of the transformation of the neorealist tradition in the Italian post-war cinematography in the joint projects of Federico Fellini and Nino Rota. The determining influence of the existential concept “Confessions” of the art of the post-war period on the formation of F. Fellini’s aesthetic ideas, which were realized in the framework of the joint work of the tandem Fellini–Rota on the example of the film “Otto e mezzo”, was studied. The structural and organizing role of musical leitmotiv dramaturgy in the context of building a single audiovisual cinematographic metatext is analyzed. Conclusions. The experimental intentions of the Fellini–Rota tandem, which were guided by the artists during the work on the film “Otto e mezzo”, are related to the existential phenomenon “Confessions”. Their joint unique creative experience is designed to answer the cornerstone questions of art of the 20th century: (1) “From what depths of the unconscious do mysterious artistic images arise, which were later embodied in works of art?” (2) “And why did they arise against the will of the Artist himself?” The film masterpiece “Otto e mezzo” is one of the most successful joint projects of the Fellini–Rota tandem, whose creative communication lasted continuously for 26 years until 1978. The score of the film “Otto e mezzo” is multidimensional, including the audio parameter of the film text, which is an important and sometimes even determining factor in the dramaturgy of the entire work. Creating temporal and spatial dynamics, both film images and film sound/ film music as a resource of temporality in temporal art codifies the frame as the rigidity of the baroque figure. In addition, the musical score of the film “Otto e mezzo” emphasizes the circus, festival, carnival imagery that permeated the entire filmography of F. Fellini. Subsequently, it became a permanent stylistic feature of the Fellini–Rota creative tandem.