Eisenstein, Montage & Charlie Chaplin

Eisenstein & The Importance of Montage

As film continued to gain popularity, the film culture around the world inspired various directors and auteurs to create new and exciting films. The most influential film maker of early Russian film was Sergei Eisenstein.

Eisenstein is remembered in film for his contribution of the montage. The montage changed the way filmmakers approached film. It allows a filmmaker to tell a story through a sequence of shots that manipulate time. It is still used today and carries with it a psychological impact. In a script it is indicated by a series of descriptive lines, each spaced apart to indicate a series of shots, rather than description that would indicate one shot or scene. Click here for an example.

Here's a few clips from some of his films:

• Battleship Potemkin (Odessa Step Sequence) (1925)
• Oktober
• Alexander Nevsky (1928) (battle on the ice sequence) - Music by Sergei Prokofiev. We can see how the invention of sound in the next few years will revolutionize film. The exciting tone of the music, nicely reflects the glory, fear, and trepidation of the characters in this scene.

And now for something completely different--our first look at silent film comedy with Charlie Chaplin:

Charlie Chaplin
The Circus (1928, short film)
The Idle Class (1921, short film)
The Rink (1916, short film)

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