![]() ![]() Those five montage types tend to overlap in practice which can be seen in the Odessa staircase scene. Rather than at emotional experience as in the tonal montage, here the meaning of the individual shots has to be figured out by the viewer. As the last and highest stage, Eisenstein defines the already mentioned intellectual montage. The fourth type, called overtonal or associational montage, is a combination of the first three types and therefore also a mixture of motoric and emotional effect. Tonal montage, however, focuses on the creation of an emotional expression. This type causes a simple emotional reaction. ![]() Thus, for instance, long shots get a longer screening time than close-ups. In contrast, in the rhythmic montage the length of the shots depends on the content. The metric montage is the most simple kind and translates into a “consistent beat”, for example the tapping of one’s toe with the beat. Metric means that the individual consecutive shots have the same duration, regardless of their content. In his essay “The Fourth Dimension in Cinema”, Eisenstein differentiates between five types of montage, of which each has a certain effect on the viewer: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal and intellectual. The interaction between those two has to be a contrary movement, only then “dialectical montage operates fully.” He explains: “It is exactly what we do in cinema, combining shots that are depictive, single in meaning, neutral in content – into intellectual contexts and series.” Įisenstein lays emphasis on the relation between two shots. In this sense, the combination of two images of concrete objects has “to be regarded not as their sum, but as their product” a depiction of an abstract concept or idea that is graphically unrepresentable, invisible and not a fixed symbol. In this logic he refers to German philosopher Hegel (1770-1831) and his dialectical process, in which one shot ( thesis A) and the succeeding shot ( antithesis B) clash and simultaneously unify to synthesis C and yield a higher, ‘third meaning’. Eisenstein used to describe this kind of montage as ‘intellectual montage’: “The prospect of a discursive cinema that could lay out arguments and present entire systems of thought” fascinated Eisenstein, “he envisioned using montage to generate not only emotions but also abstract concepts: ‘From image to emotion, from emotion to thesis.’” In contrast to conventional editing that juxtaposes continuing shots, Eisenstein held the belief that shots create the most powerful meaning when they clash. In the following years, Eisenstein enhanced his theory of attractions to a theory of dialectic montage, which involves the spectator and his own thoughts, conveys an ideological thought and encourages to imitate the seen events. It is not the realistic depiction that interests Eisenstein, but the motoric and associative construct behind it and that all shots are selected with regard to an underlying concept and effect. Thus, it is his purpose to not only combine concrete visual images, but to cause whole chains of associations. In this treatise Eisenstein describes his “attempt to create a ‘film language’ consisting of visual figures of speech and abstract discursive arguments.” He understood the term ‘attractions” as images or events which easily attract the attention of the viewer, similar to circus acts. ![]() ![]() In 1923, Eisenstein published his first and most famous essays: The Montage of Attractions. The recipient should be dissuaded from his habitual viewing or thinking patterns. The movement of Surrealism grew out of a Parisian society of artists, writers and filmmakers who tried to create an immediate translation of dreams, imagination and the unconscious. In addition, a comparison to Louis Buñuel’s Un chien andalou, one of the most famous Surrealist films, will be drawn. This essay will examine the innovative montage techniques of Eisenstein and their meanings with emphasis on The Battleship Potemkin. Truth could be boring and so the events had to be dramatized to encourage imitation. Cinema was the easiest way to transport a political conviction to all people, from upper class to peasants, who were unable to read. Sergei Eisenstein’s Montage Techniques and their Meanings in Comparison to Louis Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou In the 1930s the Soviet revolutionary cinema changed the former understanding of film editing, ahead of everyone Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), whose aim it was to promote the idea of political rebellion. ![]()
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