In Soviet Montage Theory, conventions of space and time that were rigid rules in Western Cinema right up until the New Hollywood Movement, were thrown out of the window. It underlies the famous match-cut from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the ending of Apocalypse Now, certain sequences from Call Me By Your Name, the train and tunnel at the end of North By Northwestand countless other examples whereby merely transitioning from one shot to another can have a deep, profound impact on the audience.īut arguably, Eisenstein’s greatest legacy is a different one. But the legacy of Intellectual Montage goes far beyond the films of the Soviet Union. It is pretty obvious that this is vital for a propaganda filmmaker.
Intellectual Montage is the juxtaposition of two (or more) shots that when put together, produce an intellectual effect in the viewer – they convey an idea. In his theory, Eisenstein classifies five methods of montage, the last of which is called “Intellectual Montage.” This is the most influential and important parts of his ideas. Whilst it contains some of the best examples of Intellectual Montage and contains powerful imagery, Oktabyr is a hard film to watch– often confusing, jarring and abstract, it watches like Nietzsche reads.
One such example of this is Eisenstein’s Oktabyr (1927), a film made to commemorate 10 years since the Bolshevik’s October Revolution. Importantly though, Soviet Montage was theorised first and put into practise later. Its dramatic Odessa steps sequence, arguably one of the most frequently imitated scenes in film history (from The Untouchables to The Naked Gun 33&1/3 to Star Wars Episode III), is a masterful example of how film can powerfully convey meaning. Battleship Potemkin (1925), his most impactful film, represents perhaps the pinnacle of Eisenstein’s conception of Soviet Montage. Although virtually all his films fall into the category of propaganda (of the Soviet variety) they are nontheless remarkably powerful. His theory’s effectiveness is undeniable. Sergei Eisenstein formulated perhaps the most famous and fully-fledged version of Soviet Montage. However, the Soviets thought editing could be more. Simplicity was the primary concern of mainstream Western film makers. They key thing was to ensure spatial and temporal continuity, so that the audience easily understood how each shot flowed to the next. You cut to demonstrate the progression of the story (from one scene or shot to the next) or for dramatic effect. The audience interpreted the man’s expressions completely differently in each instance as hungry, mournful and desiring respectfully, simply based on what followed after the first shot.īut why is this important? Well, at the same time Kuleshov was experimenting in Moscow, in Hollywood, editing was all about continuity. The audience was then shown the exact same shot of the man, followed by a coffin, and then the same shot followed by a woman. To demonstrate this, Kuleshov showed a shot of a man and a bowl of soup to an audience. Famously re-told by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, the Kuleshov effect is the idea that the audience will create meaning in the juxtaposition of two shots that would not exist if the shots were viewed in isolation. The core of Soviet Montage is best expressed in the Kuleshov effect. As a result, (so the legend goes) they learned the power of the edit. In the early days of the Soviet Union, there was no celluloid to be found, so students were forced to take film-prints and re-cut foreign films. It is the idea that the juxtaposition of one shot and another is what makes cinema, cinema. One of these students was Lev Kuleshov (of the Kuleshov-effect fame) and one of his students was Sergei Eisenstein, who together are the fathers of Soviet Montage Theory, one of the most overlooked film movements in cinema.įirst off, what is Soviet Montage Theory? Soviet Montage is all about the ‘cut’, the crucial moment when one shot transitions into another.
Thus, the Soviet Union founded the world’s first film-making school and young intellectuals soon began experimenting. In such circumstances, there was no more effective way of spreading an ideology than through propaganda films.
After seizing control of the largest country in the world, one of the top priorities for the Bolsheviks was conveying to a largely illiterate population just what Communism was. “Of all the arts the most important for us is cinema”, wrote Russian revolutionary and communist leader Vladimir Lenin in 1922, and he was correct.
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