The Role of Cinema in the Development of the Creative Thought of the Japanese Writer Tanizaki Junichiro

The subject of the study is the work of the largest Japanese writer of the XX century. Tanizaki Junichiro (谷崎潤一郎, 1886-1965), in particular, the essay "The present and the future of cinema" (活動写真の現在と将来, Katsudo:syasin no genzai to se: Paradise, 1917). This work can be described as a milestone, because it marks the beginning of the evolution of Tanizaki Junichiro's creative thought – passion for modernism, progress, cinema. After the publication of the essay "The Present and the Future of cinema", there is an increased interest in the writer's visual techniques characteristic of screenplays; in the early 1920s, a series of works appeared ("Blue Flower" (青い花, Aoi Hana, 1921), "Ave Maria" (アヴェ・マリア, Ave Maria, 1922), "Residents of the port city" (港の人々, Minato no hitobito, 1926), "The Love of a fool" (痴人の愛, Chijin-no ai, 1924), etc.), filled with cinematic scenes, references to Hollywood actresses and Western films. The object of the study is female images in the writer's work, which were created with an eye to Hollywood actresses. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the landmark essay "Present and Future cinema" was not translated into Russian and was not subjected to scientific analysis in Russian literary studies, respectively, the work of Tanizaki Junichiro was considered without taking into account the influence of cinema on him. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the writer became not only one of the creators of the new female image "modan ga: ru" (from the English modern girl) – modern women copying the appearance and habits of Hollywood actresses – in Japanese culture, but also created a female face that penetrated the fabric of Japanese culture, influencing its reality.