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)—
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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
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Graphic conflict
Conflict of planes
Conflict of volume
Light conflict
Spatial conflict
Tempo conflict
– Association montage
Physiological effects
produced by optical
means
Emotional effects produced by
psychological means
– Intellectual montage
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