ASSOCIATIVE MONTAGE AS A TOOL OF THE AUTHOR’S INTENTION IN THE FILM “WATER-MIRROR OF GRANADA” (1955) BY J. VAL DEL OMAR

Abstract

The article analyzes how the Spanish film director J. Val del Omar, with assistance of associative montage of symbolic and allegorical images, created a complete narrative with a specific storyline in the film “Water-Mirror of Granada” (1955). The storyline is interpreted by the author of the article as a visualization at the figurative and metaphorical level of the initiatory spiritual path of human being. It is noted that such an approach formally unites the montage method of J. Val del Omar with principles of the Soviet montage school of the 1920s and 1930s. In contrast to the clearly expressed political and ideological orientation of Soviet cinema, the content of the works of J. Val del Omar has an ambiguous religious and symbolic character, due to both the personal preferences of the film director and the censorship requirements of the era of the authoritarian Franco regime. The article also analyzes the role of the systems of film sound accompaniment and multi-screen film projection invented by J. Val del Omar, which allow to “wake up” the viewer’s personal memory, providing with possibility to supplement the author’s semantics with own interpretation, thereby enhancing the effects of associative montage