The theatricality and cinematography of Alessandro Baricco's literary works

Kuchina Natalia Postgraduate student, The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute 123104, Russia, Moscow, blvd. Tverskaya street, 25 nataliek@mail.ru

Postmodernism tends to genre and style syncretism, it is characterized by theatricality ^[5]. Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, as a prominent representative of this literary trend, interweaves styles, genres, verbal art with sound arts. In his 2008 film "Lecture 21" ("Lezione 21"), dedicated to Beethoven's ninth symphony, Alessandro Baricco combines the symphony with his own literary composition on the creation of this musical work. He also complements this union with visual images and characters that explain the author's point of view to the viewer. He does the same with his literary works, adding elements to them that simulate acoustic and visual effects, which allows the reader to build suggestive images in his mind, saturated with visual and sound effects.

One of Baricco's novels, filled with hidden theatricality, is "Sea-Ocean" ("Oceano Mare", 1993). According to the principle of the script of a theatrical play, dialogues between the artist Plasson and Professor Bartalbum are graphically constructed – in the original language, the characters' replicas are preceded by their names written in capital letters and a hyphen; in the Russian version, the capital letters in the names are separated by a space and a colon before the replica (this corresponds to the graphical principle of the design of dialogues in plays). Intonation due to punctuation, the use of colloquial expressions ("dove cavolo sono gli occhi del mare? / "Where the hell are the eyes of the sea?») They also bring the prose text closer to the structure of the play ^[6]. Some descriptions are similar to the author's comment on a certain scene: the location of the heroes' rooms in the tavern is clarified (which door is in the corridor, right or left, floor, view from the window), the situation in the rooms ("carpet (blue), (window is open)", the poses of the heroes ("On the windowsill in the Bartalbum room two people are sitting. The usual boy and Bartalbum. They sit with their legs dangling into the void. And the look is in the sea"). Thanks to these techniques, the reader's consciousness begins to draw scenery for what is happening, an imaginary play is played out before his eyes.

"Sea-Ocean" is a play, and the author tries to express everything that happens in it, as in a theatrical action. The parable of the elder blessing the sea, told by a guest from the seventh room, is a performance for the survivors, now living "spettacolo per uomini salvi", and everything that happened on rafts in the "Sea Belly" is an absurd action "spettacolo assurdo". The surrounding landscape — sunsets, raging sea elements outside the tavern windows, clouds floating in the sky, like Plasson's paintings — is also a theatrical spectacle, and the creator of the theatrical atmosphere is the wind:

«E l? dove la natura decide di collocare i propri limiti, esplode lo spettacolo. I tramonti». ("Where nature decides to place its limits, an extraordinary spectacle is born. Sunsets") ^{[2, 86]}.

«Un rumore grande. Uno spettacolo. Era tornato, il mare». ("A flurry of sounds. The end of the world. Sea. It has returned") ^{[2, 117]}.

«Era il vento da nord, sempre lui, a organizzare il silenzioso spettacolo». ("The same north wind furnished a silent spectacle") ^{[2, 121]}.

The life and death of Professor Bartlebum from "Sea-Ocean" is presented as a play — sometimes tragicomic, sometimes farcical. And when the professor realized that he did not live and act in the real world, but was a character in a theatrical production, for the first time in his life he gave free rein to genuine emotions and laughed at himself and the whole world of absurdity:

«Ma ridere della grossa, proprio a crepapelle, roba da piegarsi in tre dal ridere, non c’era verso di fermarlo, con lacrime e tutto, uno spettacolo, una risata babelica, oceanica, apocalittica, una risata che non finiva pi?». ("And he didn't just laugh, but rolled with laughter, folded in half, there was no way to stop him, he laughed at the top of his voice, to tears, to hiccups, to collapse, to exhaustion") ^{[2, 210]}.

         Also in the novel "Silk" ("Seta", 1996), the life of the main character Herve Joncourt was one big performance with a change of scenery. If we analyze the text of the original, and not the translation, then it becomes clear the idea of combining the novel with the script, the detachment of the main character from everything that is happening. When reading the work, there is a feeling as if the whole action is covered with a kind of haze. Although the main narrative line is based on travel, there is no sense of movement and time. The reader watches the play in the same way as Herve Joncourt himself is only a spectator of everything that happens in his life:

«Pioveva la sua vita, davanti ai suoi occhi, spettacolo quieto». ("Life flowed before his eyes like rain: light and serene") ^{[3, 21]}.

«Ogni tanto, nelle giornate di vento, scendeva fino al lago e passava ore a guardarlo, giacch?, disegnato sull'acqua, gli pareva di vedere l'inspiegabile spettacolo, lieve, che era stata la sua vita». ("Sometimes, on a windy day, he would go down to the pond and stare for hours at the water, streaked with light and inexplicable pictures that made up his life") ^{[3, 62]}.

And when he gets into the new unexplored world of Japan, the feeling of life does not change – it's still the same scene, only with other unusual decorations:

«Cap? di essere arrivato vicino alla dimora di Hara Kei quando vide un'immane voliera che custodiva un numero incredibile di uccelli, di ogni tipo: uno spettacolo». ("He realized that Hara Kay's dwelling was somewhere nearby when he saw a huge aviary containing an incredible number of all-different birds: miracles, and that's all") / "Non sembrava vita: se c'era un nome per tutto quello, era: teatro. ("It hardly felt like life. If he had tried to express what he saw in one word, it would have been the word "theater") ^{[3, 25]}.

The fact that Barikko's characters tend to be theatrical is also indicated by the characters of the novel — script "Smith & Wesson" ("Smith & Wesson" 2014). Tom Smith and Jerry Wesson discuss the surging stream of Niagara Falls and the suicides committed there:

"SMITH Vengono da ogni parte per vedere questo spettacolo, sta diventando una vera mania ^{[8, 6]}. (People from all over the world come to see this performance. It becomes a real mania", translated by the author of the article)

SMITH S?, ma perch? da l?. WESSON Ah, quello... Che ne so... ? spettacolare, ecco. ("But why here? - Well, I don't know, it's more theatrical/SPECTACULAR.

SMITH Cio WESSON Piuttosto che spararsi chiusi in una stanza... Come un grande teatro, no? Forse hanno nella testa di fare la loro ultima grande recita. Gran finale, mi spiego?" ("What do you mean? – Instead of closing yourself up and putting a bullet in your forehead…This place is becoming a big theater stage for them, no? Perhaps they are losing the last role in their minds. A theatrical finale full of greatness. You know what I mean?")" ^{[8, 18]}.

Analyzing the construction of the narrative in "Smith & Wesson", we can say that Baricco goes beyond the theatrical script. The dialogues of the characters taking place in the present are replaced by a flashback of the memories of witnesses of the events about the day of the unsuccessful jump from the height of Niagara Falls of the main character Rachel in a specially constructed barrel. Thus, a cinematic component appears. The name of the script, which completely repeats the name of the most famous American company producing weapons since 1852 ^[10], is a direct reference to American culture and westerns, it is no coincidence that in the last scene the characters tell that they opened a shooting range in Mexico. So the names of the characters Tom and Jerry in an ironic way repeat the names of the heroes of the famous American serial cartoon of the same name.

In his most famous theatrical monologue, "1900 – the Legend of the Pianist" ("Novecento. Un monologo., 1994) Alessandro Baricco describes the scenes in as much detail as possible so that the author's intention is clearly understood:

«(L'attore esce dalla scena. Parte una musica dixie, molto allegra e sostanzialmente idiota. L'attore rientra in scena vestito elegantemente da jazz man da piroscafo. Da qui in poi si comporta com e se la band fosse, fisicamente, in scena)" ((The actor leaves the stage. Dixie's music is playing, very funny and mostly idiotic. The actor returns to the stage elegantly dressed as Jazz man on a steamer. From that moment on, he behaves as if there is a real jazz band on stage)" ^{[1, 239]}.

In addition to many successful theatrical productions in different countries of the world, in 1998 the film "The Legend of the Pianist" ("La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano") was directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, the music for the film was written by Enio Morricone. Undoubtedly, cinema provides more visual means for imaginative transmission of what is happening, but Baricco manages to create a similar cinematic effect in the text with the help of the author's commentary on the construction of scenes and the music accompanying the scene. The monologue "1900" goes beyond the scope of a theatrical play, as it is based on cinematic flashbacks.

The film adaptation preserves the scene of a musical duel with Jelly Roll Morton, a real-life American jazzman. With the help of small strokes, Tornatore managed to convey the real struggle between the pianists and the atmosphere of intense expectation of the listeners, their involvement ^[9]. When the Nine Hundredth plays the final composition of the duel, none of those present notices anything around: one gentleman's cigar falls out of his mouth onto his trousers, another's glass of champagne falls out of his hands, an elderly lady's waiter accidentally knocks off her wig, but she does not notice it. The visual embodiment coincides with the textual description, where Baricco could only use words, choosing comparisons and epithets in order to convey universal delight with the help of lapidary sentences:

«Il pubblico si bevve tutto senza respirare. Tutto in apnea. Con gli occhi inchiodati sul piano e la bocca aperta, come dei perfetti imbecilli." ("The audience listened with bated breath. Everyone froze. They stared at the piano and opened their mouths like real idiots") ^{[1, 260]}.

The two works, literary and cinematic, have many unifying elements. The most frequently used technique that holds the reader's and viewer's attention is a constant reference to memories, which allows you to introduce new topics and switch the recipient's attention to them. Also, to maintain interest, the author, and after him the director, introduce unreal events into reality (imaginary walks of the Ninetieth through cities, countries, based on the stories of other people). Russians Russian translation, the title of the work was transformed, combining the name of the literary work ("Novecento"), which is transmitted digitally, like 1900, and part of the title of the film in Russian ("The Legend of the Pianist"), and it turned out - "1900: the Legend of the pianist." And a few years ago, Barikko published a monologue about 1900, in the form of a comic book he adored since childhood, in which the famous pianist turned into the Disney character Goofy.

One of Baricco's most structurally complex novels, City (1999), reflects the writer's passion for American culture, namely boxing and westerns. The novel "City" has been translated into many foreign languages, but the title remains unchanged and is an important paratext component, a semantic unit. The title explains the complex structure of the novel, it creates communication between the author and the reader, helps to comprehend the text, sets a certain rhythm of the narrative.

"City" is characterized by a short syntax, a lot of conversational dialogues, replete with facts, pauses, repetitions and silence. The spoken language of this novel reflects the life of the city and its inhabitants, as well as the inner "cities" of the characters' thoughts and feelings. Such language is natural for cinema, it is a retrospective of American Western-style films, but it is not devoid of literary poetry.

The novel is filled with theatrical and cinematic scenes, none of which is secondary: from the house of the boy genius Gould, from the lectures of Professor Kilroy or Larry's boxing matches without pauses, in an instant, there is a transition to the fictional Shatzi "Closingtown":

«Sul manto della prateria il vento inclina paesaggio e anime verso ovest, curvando Closingtown come un vecchio giudice stanco di ritorno dall'ennesima condanna a morte. Musica. La musica era sempre quella li, la faceva Shatzy con la bocca." ("On the expanses of the prairies, under the gusts of wind, the landscape and human souls lean towards the west. The whole of Closintown bent over like an old judge coming out of another death row cell. Music. The music was playing all the time, coming from Shatzi's lips.") ^{[4, 355]}.

In "City" Alessandro Baricco again shows the theatricality of what is happening in the life of the city and its inhabitants. First of all, the boxing matches that are held to entertain the residents of the city are called a strange and rather sad performance ("spettacolo strano / abbastanza triste"). In the epilogue, the boxer himself recalls the most vivid fights and admits to himself that he played a play every time ("dare spectacolo"). The whole life in the ring turned out to be a theatrical performance.

The writer fills his novels with the unique aesthetics of theater and cinema in search of the most complete form of expressing philosophical meanings, creating a comprehensive imagery of the work. Even at the beginning of his literary activity, he wrote a manifesto, where he defines the principles of his writing as follows: "... to tell not only through written words, but through images of cinema, musical notes, theatrical dialogues" ^[7]. And he follows this manifesto in most of his works, giving new forms to literary texts. Two author's strategies are distinguishable: a detailed description of the visual and sound accompaniment of the action or half-hints aimed at the gradual recognition of interwoven theatrical and cinematic techniques, hints that help the reader understand what is happening.