Intellectual and Barbarian Figures in Film: The Bear and the Devil

Abstract

Abstract The article suggests that cinematic figures can be divided into two basic groups - barbarian and intellectual. The definition is based on the level of the figures’ intelligibility in the works of Jean-Luc Godard and Andrei Tarkovsky. As Claude Lévi-Strauss’ myth analysis shows, there are structural similarities between cinematic figures and myths, the article searches for a closer, more site-specific link, engaging fairy tales, i.e. local myths, as a more efficient way of observing the distinctive features of the figures in specific regions.