Friday, March 27, 2020

Montage & Sergei Eisenstein

Montage & Sergei Eisenstein
The most influential filmmaker of early Russian film was Sergei Eisenstein.

Eisenstein is remembered in film for his contribution of the montage. Unlike continuity editing (editing a film to create a clear and concise sequence of events in the narrative (linear)), montage used the juxtaposition of images to create an emotional impact on the viewer.

The montage changed the way filmmakers approached film narrative. It allows a filmmaker to tell a story through a sequence of shots that manipulate time. The jumble of images and cuts of a montage affect the psychological impact and effect of the film's content. See the crash course #8 for more details on how this works. There are 5 types of montage:


  • Metric
  • Rhythmic 
  • Tonal
  • Over-tonal
  • Intellectual/Ideological

  • We will discuss these in further detail next class.

    The montage technique is still used in editing today. In a script, it is indicated by a series of descriptive lines, each spaced apart to indicate a series of shots, rather than a description that would indicate one shot or scene. Click here for an example and click at this link for an explanation of how this works.

    Here's a few clips from some of Eisenstein's films:
    • Oktober; and (Oktober: the full film 1928)
    • 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.
    Eisenstein was not the only early Russian filmmaker genius. Enter: Dziga Vertov: Man With a Movie Camera (1929, trailer)

    Man With a Movie Camera (1929, full film by Dziga Vertov--another very influential Russian filmmaker. You may watch this film for extra credit if you'd like.)

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