EISENSTEIN, SERGEI.   Term Paper ID:26725 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines Russian filmmaker's innovations, theory, techniques, major films, aesthetics, legacy.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines Russian filmmaker's innovations, theory, techniques, major films, aesthetics, legacy. Paper Introduction: The essential elements of film theory were developed in the silent era by Soviet filmmakers intent on explaining the power of this new medium and in making of it a political and social tool, one that could be used in furtherance of the aims of the Soviet state. Indeed, the film theory that developed after 1917 mirrored the dialectics of Hegel, with successive shots seen as offering opposing ideas from which a synthesis was then produced that would have a certain effect on the viewer. Sergei Eisenstein represented one branch of Soviet film theory, a revolutionary branch that was exemplified in his films from the beginning and identified with his ideas of montage, or the ordering of individual shots to produce an effect. Eisenstein was a theorist as well as a filmmaker and was extremely influential through his writings on film as well as through the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. New York: Dover, 197 .Leyda, Jay (ed.). After the Revolution, a move was made to nationalize the filmindustry, which at first was resisted but which was eventually effected.The Soviet regime exercised tight control over film production: "Filmswith a revolutionary content began to appear marked by the cloying,eulogistic manner then in vogue" (Barna 76). Kuleshov found the essence of film in montage, inthe changing of shots rather than in the limits of the individual shot(Youngblood 5-7). Eisenstein: A Documentary Portrait. Montage for Eisenstein is an emotive issue, a means of elicitingresponses and of promoting the inherent excitement of the clash of ideasand people. Swallow writes: In Strike the workers are handled for the most part naturalistically, whereas the capitalist bosses and their agents are often held up to ridicule, for it was Eisenstein's habit to poke fun at those he disliked (Swallow 47).Ivor Montagu, a friend to Eisenstein as well as a film critic andfilmmaker, has stated: Two aspects of Eisenstein's career are apparent in every foot of Strike. On the one hand, here and there, actual material is arranged with economy into a realism poignant in its universality; on the other, the fantastic clowning of the circus shows itself in detail everywhere, and in the exaggerated, even hypertrophied, treatment of particular episodes and the plot in general (Swallow 47). He would fall out of favor in the Soviet system during theStalinist era, but he would remain at the forefront of world cinema, with astrong reputation based in particular on his classic works Potemkin,Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible: I and II. Eisenstein's sound films show a different perspective, and they arethe works of a more mature filmmaker who is now experimenting withdifferent aspects of filmmaking. As mightbe expected, Dziga Vertov was an outright enemy of the film and "declaredthat the movie was only a 'reform' of the fiction film" (Youngblood 81). He explains the dialectic of montage in an essay written in1938: The "Leftists" in matters of montage went to another extreme: while handling pieces of film, they discovered a certain property of montage which so impressed them that they could not shake off the impression for several years afterwards. By the latter Eisenstein means to analyze thenature of the pieces themselves. New York: E.P. This property reveals that any two pieces of a film stuck together inevitably combine to create a new concept, a new quality born of that juxtaposition (Eisenstein 63).Eisenstein in 1938 expressed the feeling that he and others had been wrongto adopt this idea so thoroughly. Vertov'svision of reality is not as staid and dry as we might think reality wouldbe, and he creates as much as he records. In this there is no difference whether you are writing a film-script, pondering the plan of the production as a whole, or thinking out a solution for some particular detail (Barna 76-77).Eisenstein explained that dialogue, characters, costumes, and movements--all the elements of the film--swarmed simultaneously into his mind.Always, though, he would strive to maintain that first vision that hadappeared in the beginning. The film differs in a number of respects from the traditional fictionfilm. Notable as well is the baby carriage drifting down the steps outof control, a symbol of the way the people are left to themselves in thedanger zone that is their life in Russia. Gan inparticular saw film as anti-art, while Kuleshov emphasized the need forexperimentation and for filmmaking to seek a new way of testing images fortheir power to persuade. He suggested now introducing Marxism-Leninism intofilms and the finding of its equivalent in cinematographic terms to forge alink between dialectics and film (Barna 81). The combination of Eisenstein's instinct for dynamics and dramatic construction (even without a traditional hero) and his brilliant cameraman Eduard Tisse's pictorial sense. Therevolt began when the sailors were given maggot-infested food and refusedto eat it. This turns the tide, and a major mutiny begins, eventually reaching thestreets of Odessa with a tribute to a fallen comrade. This sequence is especiallyaffecting as Eisenstein selects certain specific figures from the crowd andmakes the viewer identify with them as they are shot by the almost facelesstroops. The motion picture was not yet three decades old when Eisensteinstarted his filmmaking activity, but in that time film had stopped being anovelty and had already achieved some recognition among the arts. The third stage in the process was called"facing the camera," the point at which the dream became a reality and thefilm was actually shot. In truth, though, the film centers more on the act offilming than on the sort of record one might associate with the idea of theKino-Eye, for the camera follows the cameraman as he dodges trains, leansout of moving cars, searches through factories, and represents the world ofthe city in image after image. . Eisenstein was not a prolificfilmmaker--in a 22-year career he made only 7 films, and four of these weremade in a period of four and a half years (Swallow 43). The two major theoreticalthreads that emerged were held by Dziga Vertov on the one hand and SergeiEisenstein on the other, and the division occurred with the release ofEisenstein's first film, Strike, in 1925: Strike unleashed a veritable furor of comment and controversy, centering on the role of the individual in the fiction film, a question that had been implicit in the polemics over both the actor and the popularity of foreign films. Eisenstein distinguishes three distinct creativestages, and this begins with what he calls "the first vision": The most important thing is to have the vision. One ofthe most enthusiastic reviews appeared in Soviet Screen and applauded boththe "dialectics" of the work and the strong influence of constructivism asshowing that a new form had been found for the Soviet cinema. . The next (i.e., the second stage, that of elaborating the script) is to grasp and hold it. The Battleship Potemkin is itself the "hero" of the film. in Potemkin he enlarged on his montage experiments in Strike, bringing to perfection the new language discovered there. But in the final stage the "first vision" itself underwent deliberate modifications, necessary corrections. won the film its justly enduring fame (Youngblood 83). At first, they merely protest, but when the captain ordersthose who are protesting to be shot, one of the sailors asks those withrifles to think about the fact that they are shooting their fellow sailors. Always, Eisenstein sought unity, even though hewould later look back on his films and believe that he had been lessinterested in unity than in the dialectical process in his early films.Viewed today, these films retain their coherence and their power, and theyhad a huge influence on the development of film aesthetics long after theirinitial release. October was his next filmand turned to the second Russian revolution, the revolution in ideas thattook place after the overthrow of the czarist government. This essential process was Eisenstein's method and elevatedfilmmaking to the level of an art, an art that expressed ideas and that didso in a unified fashion. Eisenstein saw film as anti-bourgeois-art rather than anti-artas a whole and also agreed with Kuleshov about the power of montage. . The filmwas released in 1926 and attracted the most attention that year, and bothpraise and criticism were heaped upon it by the press: For most present-day critics, Potemkin stands as the vindication and purest example of the "Russian" technique of rhythmic montage (especially in the Odessa steps sequence); for many, it is the perfectly constructed movie. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. . Notes of a Film Director. . Vertov'sintention can be seen in his 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera, which isessentially a record of a day in the life of the city of Moscow. TheSoviet cinema had achieved an international reputation even before WorldWar I. Alexander Nevsky in 1937 was conceived asa piece of history with contemporary overtones: The defeat of the invading Teutonic Knights by the forces of Alexander Nevsky in the thirteenth century became by implication a comment on Nazi aggression and, more ominously, proved to be a prophecy of what was to happen in Soviet Russia three years later (Swallow 124). Barna alsofinds, however, that the finished product also shows the importance ofspontaneity and discovery (91). Eisenstein: The Growth of a Cinematic Genius. It ismeant to do more than record events, for Vertov also wanted to demonstratewhat he called the Kino-Eye, his new principle of cinematic realism. One of his favorite reflections went as follows: Biologically we are all mortal, but we become immortal in what we achieve for society--in those contributions we make towards carrying the torch of social progress from one generation to the next (Swallow 46).A second prescription offered by Eisenstein was as follows and helps definethe difference between Eisenstein and Vertov: The films I make are never "film eyes" but always "film fists." I never make films in which the camera is an "objective witness," to be watched by an impassive eye of glass. He says in 1938 that what should besought is greater attention to the content of the whole, or that whichunifies the whole (Eisenstein 64-65). Whatthis meant was that Vertov conceived of the camera as a disconnected eyethat was free to record events from perspectives beyond what the humanbeing could see. History should be interpreted from the viewpoint of its topical relevance. Hewould show that power in stark relief in his masterpiece, Potemkin. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.Eisenstein, Sergei. Eisenstein was a theorist as well as a filmmaker and was extremelyinfluential through his writings on film as well as through the films hedirected. Strike was a film with a very different impetus, a committed work in bothconception and execution that was originally intended to be part of a cycleof films concerned with the history of the working-class movement inRussia. Political and revolutionary film and filmmaking was the subject ofEisenstein's work and his theoretical writings. The mother is killed so that shecan no longer protect her child, representing the future of Russia.Montage is used throughout this sequence to juxtapose shots and create adynamic tension. . I prefer to hit people hard on the nose (Swallow 46-47).This contrasts with Vertov's desire to use the camera as an objectivewitness to history, in essence elevating the documentary to the highestlevel through "news" films without any comment, either implied or stated,so that the camera would only record whatever it happened to see. Eisenstein's methodology with Strike began with the first vision, andthe first vision for this film included a frontal attack on the "bourgeois"film and its influences and the creation of a revolutionary art that wouldbe without compromises. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1968.Swallow, Norman. The sailor-heldbattleship respond by firing at the headquarters of the troops. Potemkin founded a language that fundamentally affected the whole evolution of cinematography from that time to the present day (Barna 1 4). A new vision was born, and in accordance with this new, superior vision, Eisenstein--past master of montage "in hindsight"-- virtually recreated his film (Barna 77). a cinema which not only will be opposed to bourgeois cinema in respect of its class attributes, but will also categorically excel it by virtue of its methods (Leyda 32). The constructivists influenced both strains of Soviettheory, Vertov and Eisenstein. There was no need to debase the heroes of the past nor to elevate modern man to bring them to a common level (Barna 2 7). With Potemkin, "Eisensteinwas passionately intent on discovering new artistic techniques forreinvigorating film art and on finding a cinematographic equivalent of therevolutionary feeling he was striving to express" (Barna 91). Vertov emphasizes the theoretical nature ofthe film by including the audience responding to the film--there is neverany sense that what is being created is anything but a film. Film Essays and a Lecture by Sergei Eisenstein. Still, the theory is verydifferent from that of Eisenstein, however, it is actually carried forth. The sailors on thePotemkin, however, send a message and get the sailors on the other ships tojoin in the revolution. to say that Eisenstein was one of the greatest film directors of our time is to say something both very obvious and very little. The people aregathered to pay tribute to this fallen hero when the troops of the tsararrive and begin indiscriminately firing into the crowd. Works CitedBarna, Yon. He said they were right to see that theresult of the juxtaposition of two montage pieces is something more likethe product than the sum, but he says it was a mistake to overrate thepossibilities of juxtaposition and to underrate research into the problemof the material juxtaposed. They saw filmed theater asthe art of the past, and what they wanted was an art of the future: "Thecinema of the future was inseparable from technology, both to be at theservice of the first proletarian government" (Youngblood 4). The essential elements of film theory were developed in the silentera by Soviet filmmakers intent on explaining the power of this new mediumand in making of it a political and social tool, one that could be used infurtherance of the aims of the Soviet state. Strike illustrates certain important elements in Eisenstein'saesthetic. The issue now became explicit, and Dziga Vertov had a worthy rival in Eisenstein, the inventor of a new kind of fiction film (Youngblood 8 -81). Over the next several years,the industry struggled to find a voice and a structure, and critical andtheoretical arguments over issues of artistic integrity and what we mighttoday call "political correctness" were legion. A contemporary of Eisenstein, director Grigori Kozintsev, said of hiscolleague: In Eisenstein's case the most important thing to consider is not so much his place in the history of the contemporary cinema, but in the history of modern culture as a whole. Reviews of Strike indicated the degree to which Eisenstein was ableto convey his political aesthetic through the images on the screen. It is evidentthat the dialectic view of film montage was still strong in Eisenstein'swork, and that that same dialectic mirrored the ideas involved in thesecond Russian revolution and in the development of a Marxist-Leniniststate. I believe myself that he was essentially an investigator, in search of an art form that had not yet been created, and his films were just the first steps in the development of that art (Swallow 42).Yet, these films were giant steps, taking the incipient artistry of themotion picture to the level of an art form and creating for it an aestheticthat differentiated it from other art forms. Potemkin tells the story of a revolution in 19 5 which began with therevolt of the sailors on the Battleship Potemkin, then in the harbor. The first essential was clarity. Sergei Eisensteinrepresented one branch of Soviet film theory, a revolutionary branch thatwas exemplified in his films from the beginning and identified with hisideas of montage, or the ordering of individual shots to produce an effect. Indeed, the film theory thatdeveloped after 1917 mirrored the dialectics of Hegel, with successiveshots seen as offering opposing ideas from which a synthesis was thenproduced that would have a certain effect on the viewer. Dutton, 1977.Youngblood, Denise J. Anotherreview praised the film for extolling class consciousness andinternationalism and for being absolutely unlike a Western film. The fourth stage was the montage stage, and thiswas of singular importance: On the cutting-table the filmed material revealed many surprises and accidental intrusions which had to be eliminated or modified where they threatened to obscure the original vision. In the 193 s Eisenstein published a series of notes outlining hismethodological approach to filmmaking, and though the notes were writtenlong after the production of Strike, they do indicate the method by whichthis film was structured. From a technical standpoint, Alexander Nevsky served for Eisensteinas a means of addressing issues and problems in audio-visual composition.He wanted to create with this film an organic fusion of sound and image.In order to shape his first vision, Eisenstein also had to decide how tocope with the issue of the proper presentation and structure of ahistorical film: The answers came to Eisenstein as he elaborated his plan for the film. Vertov tended to the documentary and to theview that the anti-art nature of film was best expressed with no art atall, with only a recording of events in as near an accidental fashion aspossible. Soviet Cinema in the Silent Era 1918-1935. He suggested that the Sovietcinema would create a new film language, and clearly he intended to be partof that process and to offer his insights into what that language shouldentail: I believe that only now can we begin to hazard a guess concerning the ways in which a genuine Soviet cinema will be formed, i.e. Anothersquad of troops is sent against the sailors on the battleship, and twoother battleships approach in support of the troops. The most striking sequence in the film occurs when the soldiers marchdown the Odessa steps, firing indiscriminately into the crowd of citizens,showing that the citizenry is thought of as completely subservient to thepower structure and that the power structure in no way sees it necessary torespond to the desires of the people. The revolution therefore builds from a minorincident into a major conflagration over the course of the film. The constructivist elements represented by Eisenstein referred to thefilm theory of Aleksei Gan and Lev Kuleshov. The vital importance of editing after thefact is also apparent in this film: . Eisenstein's film theory was always political in nature, shaping thedemands of the aesthetic to the superior requirements of politics, all inkeeping with his stated view that we transcend the limitations of life tothe degree that we serve society at large. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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