Represents the author coined notion of thanatochronotope, which is used for description of art works aesthetically, optically, and rhythmically determined by the object­matter of death. The concept is applied to analysing the complex “representative urban cinematic texts” of St. Petersburg and Kiev in the films by Russian and Ukrainian directors, namely Lev Kulidzhanov, Andrei Eshpaj, Alexander Sokurov, Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Ivan Dykhovichny, Alexei Balabanov, Sergei Masloboyschikov, Alexander Shapiro et al. To resolve some theoretical and historical problems of film art the author conceptualizes the notions related to the representative urban cinematic text, which was not identified within the general notion of urban text previously. The article reveals both the specificity of the St. Petersburg cinematic text and its heterogeneity. The notion of thanatochronotope provides for analysing both the representative urban cinematic text and its decadent paradigm within the frame of the film thanatology approaches that swiftly develops as a new philosophical and culturological method. This approach is also used for Kiev cinematic text analysis and its comparison with the St. Petersburg cinematic text.