Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) Selected Filmography:

YEAR	FILM: as director
1924	STRIKE
1925	BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
1928	OCTOBER: TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD
1929	THE GENERAL LINE
1929	STURM UBER LA SARRAZ
1930	ROMANCE SENTIMENTALE
1937	BEZHIN MEADOW
1938	ALEXANDER NEVSKY
1939	FERGHANA CANAL
1943	IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART I
1947	IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART II
1979	QUE VIVA MEXICO

Russian Cinema and montage as mode of expression:

• montage: French term for editing: literal meaning: "to assemble"

Lev Kuleshov: approach to montage: 1st theorist of Soviet cinema: experiments:

• juxtaposing the face of an actor and other images: revealed the impact of montage
• approach to editing: emphasizes dynamic discontinuous relationships:
  • between shots and the juxtaposition of images:

    • creates ideas not present in either one by itself

• editing constructs meaning: thesis + antithesis = synthesis

Eisentein: studied the films of D.W. Griffith and Kuleshov's montage experiments

• convinced that in cinema one could manipulate time and space:
  • creating new meanings for images
• built new cinematic grammar: montage of conflicting shots:
  • goal: persuading the viewer towards a certain POV: dialectical montage

Eisentein’s dialectical montage:

• action broken up as a series of clashing shots
• no tracking shots used to convey movement
• kineticism: jagged intense movement within the frame
• functions as a film metaphor:
  • where 2 shots are put together to suggest a comparison

From The History of Cinema for Beginners by Jarek Kupsc:

Scenes from POTEMKIN

bgs: 03-04