The bulk of influence, beginning from the October 1917 Revolution until the late 1950s (oftentimes referred to as the Stalin era), brought a cinematic language to the fore and provided the groundwork for contemporary editing and documentary techniques, as well as providing a starting point for more advanced theories. Labor, movement, the machinery of life, and the everyday of Soviet citizens coalesced in the content, form, and productive character of Kino-eye repertoire. Kino-Eye forged a film and newsreel collective that sought the dismantling of bourgeois notions of artistry above the needs of the people. The collectivization of filmmaking was central to the programmatic realization of the Communist state. Films that focused on individuals rather than masses were deemed counterrevolutionary, but not exclusively so. The production of films-how and under what conditions they are made-was of crucial importance to Soviet leadership and filmmakers. A semiotic understanding of film, for example, is indebted to and in contrast with Sergei Eisenstein's wanton transposition of language "in ways that are altogether new." While several Soviet filmmakers, such as Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, Esfir Shub and Vsevolod Pudovkin put forth explanations of what constitutes the montage effect, Eisenstein's view that "montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots" wherein "each sequential element is perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other" has become most widely accepted. Post-Soviet film theories relied extensively on montage's redirection of film analysis toward language, a literal grammar of film. In fact, montage is demonstrated in the majority of narrative fiction films available today. Alfred Hitchcock cites editing (and montage indirectly) as the lynchpin of worthwhile filmmaking. Its influence is far reaching commercially, academically, and politically. It is the principal contribution of Soviet film theorists to global cinema, and brought formalism to bear on filmmaking.Īlthough Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s disagreed about how exactly to view montage, Sergei Eisenstein marked a note of accord in "A Dialectic Approach to Film Form" when he noted that montage is "the nerve of cinema", and that "to determine the nature of montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema". Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing ( montage is French for 'assembly' or 'editing'). This is intellectual montage.Sergei Eisenstein (left) and Vsevolod Pudovkin (right), two of the best-known Soviet film theorists But somehow, it is within our nature to relate the different shots, because they are next to each other, and create a story. What story do you think is being told here? That the little boy got hit by the car?Īll of the above shots could have ben taken on different days, on different locations, and the different actors may have never even seen each other. The Kuleshov effect refers to matching the eyeline of different characters, in different shots, to help the viewer connect the shots in terms of space and time.Ģ) Shot of a little boy going left (antithesis)ģ) A bike wheel lying on the ground, spinning, and a pair of untied shoes next to it. In other words, when you place a shot (thesis) next to a different unrelated shot (antithesis), you end up with a response from the audience that is different from a response from viewing either of those shots alone.Ī great effect that montage editors use was developed by Kuleshov. Essentially, this 'dialectic' refers to the "thesis plus antithesis equals new response" theory. Soviet filmmakers followed a "dialetic" approach to film editing. Influenced by Porter’s theory that that one can view two unrelated shots and deduce that the two are actually related specifics of cinema were contained in the organization of the cinematic material (which meant separate shots and scenes), in the joining and alternation of scenes among themselves, in other words, in montage.”Įisenstein called his montage work ‘the intellectual montage.” Conventional Narrative filmmaking, according to Eisenstein, tended to “direct emotions,” whereas his intellectual montage, “suggests and opportunity to direct the whole thought process as well. Overtones of an intellectual sort: i.e., conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual affects. It went further and became Eisenstein's proudest "Invention". Intellectual montage is montage not of generally physiological overtonal sounds, but of sounds and
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