Soviet Montage, 1925-1933

Lecture 17

Dialectics of Form:

Eisenstein:“The shot and montage are the basic elements of

cinema”

“The shot appears as the cell of montage.” (organic metaphor)

“So, montage is conflict.”

THEN: There must be conflict in the shot as well.

Conflict within the shot• 1) Shot (enframed image)—– Graphic conflict– Conflict of planes– Conflict of volume– Light conflict– Spatial conflict– Conflict between matter and viewpoint (ex: canted and other

camera angles)– Conflict between matter and its spatial nature (ex: optical

distortion)– Conflict between an event and its temporal nature (ex: slow

motion, fast motion, stop-motion)– Conflict between optical complex and different sphere (ex:

conflict between image and sound)

GRAPHIC CONFLICT WITHIN THE SHOT

CONFLICT OF VOLUME, LIGHT, PLANES, SPACE

GRAPHIC CONFLICT/LIGHT CONFLICT

CONFLICT OF VOLUMES

SPATIAL CONFLICT (CONFLICT OF DEPTH)

CONFLICT BETWEEN MATTER AND VIEWPOINT (ex: camera angles)

CONFLICT BETWEEN MATTER AND ITS SPATIAL NATURE (ex: optical distortion)

From Man with a Movie Camera

Conflict between an event and its temporal nature (ex: slow motion, fast motion, stop-motion)

CONFLICT BETWEEN SHOTS (IN EDITING)

• 2) Montage (editing)—conflict between shots– Graphic conflict– Conflict of planes– Conflict of volume– Light conflict– Spatial conflict– Tempo conflict

– Association montage

– Intellectual montage

Physiological effects produced by optical

means

Emotional effects produced by psychological means

New Ideas and attitudes

Conflict between shots (in editing)

Tempo Conflict

TEMPO CONFLICT

Eisenstein: “Association Montage”

Produces emotional effects by psychological means

Ex: “Association Montage”non-diegetic insert

From Strike (1925)

Eisenstein: “Intellectual Montage”

Produces new ideas and attitudes

Eisenstein: “Intellectual Montage”Each shot is like an ideogram

Ideogram—a written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it

Ex 1: “Intellectual Montage”non-diegetic insert

Overlapping editing

From October (1927)Kerensky, stairs, and the mechanical peacock