Aesthetic byzantine: Yury Borev as an actor in the film “Yaroslav the Wise” by G. Kokhan

Abstract

The article deals with the acting of the leading Soviet philosopher aesthetician Yury Borev in the film “Yaroslav the Wise” (1981) by G. Kokhan. He plays a Byzantine ambassador representing aesthetic conservatism and monarchism. The particular intonation profile, combining the tone of order and bureaucratic muttering, creates a comic effect. The character himself in the system was simply meant to show the emancipation of Russia from Byzantium. The keys to such acting are to be found in Borev’s work on the comic. Borev argued that comicism includes the automatization of speech and discursive complacency, that the bureaucratic type of thought is the predominant subject of comic representation, that comicism is not incompatible with ekphrasis and the animated picture. The realization of these theoretical positions in the actor’s acting enhanced the drama of the film, turning it from an illustration of historical events with a mere appropriation of the emotions and doubts of alater era by people of the distant past into a quite convincing reconstruction of the power system of ancient Rus. Thanks to Borev’s play the aesthetic self-definition of Russia is shown in the film, which is not reduced to the simple opposition of the people and the nobility.