
<p>SERGEI EISENSTEIN: THEORETICAL CRIB NOTES Notes for a Lecture by Peter Thompson (Revised 10/8/90) 
   Personal Contexts: Eisenstein studied engineering. Worked with modular pipefittings 
   at the St. Petersberg Department of Public Works. Charicaturist. Studied set 
   and costume design. Playwright. Worked with Myerhold. Bi-sexual (at least: 
   remark to Kenneth Rexroth after "Que viva Mexico!": "I have to return to the 
   Soviet Union. They will tell my mother and it would kill her if she knew.") 
   Historical Context: the times demanded partisanship. Certainty. Will. Therefore, 
   his metaphors of industry and mechanics. Futurists. Theorist: similar to Heidegger's 
   statement about the one star which you spend your life shinning. Eclectic, 
   not systematic. Gradually changed his stance on intellectual montage. </p>
<p>FILM FORM "THE UNEXPECTED" (1928) Written after seeing a troupe of Kabuki actors 
   in it European tour of 1928 performing in Moscow and Leningrad. Hailed the 
   junction of the Kabuki and the sound film. Monistic Ensemble--sound, movement, 
   space, costume, voice function as elements of equal significance. Transference--the 
   method of transferring the basic affective aim from one material to another 
   ("...from one category of provocation to another". See, for example, Satyjit 
   Ray's "Pather Panchali".) Felt that tanka poetry should be seen, not read.</p>
<p> "A STATEMENT" (1928) E., V.I. Pudovkin and G.V. Alexandrov signed a joint 
   statement on sound film. Danger of sound: that ADHESION of sound to the visual 
   piece increases its inertia as a montage piece and increases the independence 
   of its meaning. Opportunity: only in contrapuntal use of sound will it become 
   a montage element. E. calls for non-synchronization of sound and visual images.</p>
<p> "THE CINEMATIC PRINCIPLE AND THE IDEOGRAM" (1929) Discussed the development 
   of the hieroglyph. E. Is most interested in the "copulative" category of heiroglyph 
   where two objects when placed together become a concept which is regarded not 
   as their sum but as their product, a value of another dimension: the ideogram. 
   This is what is done in montage in cinema: combine depictive shots which re 
   neutral and single in meaning into intellectual contexts and series. Principle 
   of ideogram: denotation by depiction. Laconism: compressed, brief forms characterize 
   Japanese poetry. Haiku, for E. is montage theory at work, for it is a series 
   of shot lists which creat a psychological effect. Disproportionate depiction 
   of an event: talks about child's picture of stove and room and huge matches 
   which show how important they are--that this is natural in humans. E. feels 
   that "absolute realism is by no means the correct form of perception. It is 
   simply the function of a certain form of social structure." p. 35. Shot: montage 
   cell (which can form an embryo). Montage: characterized by the collision of 
   two pieces in conflict from which arises a concept. E. talks about Pudovkin 
   thinking of montage as linkage and E. thinking of it as collision. E. thinks 
   of linkage as just a special case of montage. Montage compared to the explosions 
   of an internal combustion engine which drive the tractor (or film) forward. 
   (E.'s definition of film art: the film must plough the psyche of the viewer 
   according to class principles). Stalin: artists are the engineers of the soul. 
   Conflicts: Graphic directions Scales Volumes Masses--volumes filled with various 
   intensities of light. Depths Stresses the principle of conflict: counterpoint. 
   Talks about two methods of teaching drawing: without reference to the frame, 
   or by cutting out compositional elements from a cherry tree branch (framing). 
   These ways are analogous to two basic tendencies struggling in cinema: 1. artificial 
   spatial organization of an event in front of the lens. 2. picking out, organization 
   by means of the lens, hewing out a piece of actuality with the ax of the lens. 
   Kabuki's "disintegrated" acting. Acting with an arm, or leg, breaking up the 
   unity of the actor. Cutting. Uses as an image the teaching of rifle handling 
   to an illiterate recruit by breaking down the steps as opposed to the "spongy 
   shapelessness" of naturalism.</p>
<p> "A DIALECTIC APPROACH TO FILM FORM" (1929) Art is always conflict, according 
   to its: Social mission--its task is to make manifest the contradictions of 
   being. Nature--embodying a conflict between natural existence (organic inertia) 
   and creative tendency (purposeful initiative). Hypertrophy of purpose makes 
   art to rational. Hypertrophy of naturalness dilutes art into formlessness. 
   Methodology--montage, which is the idea which arises from the collision of 
   independent shots. E. acknowledges that montage is most suitable for the expression 
   of ideological statements. Seeks a purely intellectual film freed from traditional 
   limitations. </p>
<p>"THE FILMIC FOURTH DIMENSION" (1929) Orthodox montage is montage on the dominant, 
   the foreground, the chief tendency within the frame, the central stimulus attended 
   by a whole complex of secondary stimuli. These secondary stimuli are the overtones 
   and understones. In cinema the trick is to exploit these collateral vibrations 
   to achieve the visual overtonal complex of the shot. Overtones cannot be traced 
   in the static frame, just as they cannot be traced in the musical score. Both 
   emerge only in the dynamics of the musical or cinematic process. The visual 
   and aural overtones are elements of a filmic fourth dimension which can be 
   felt.</p>
<p> "METHODS OF MONTAGE" (1929) Metric montage--fundamental criterion is the absolute 
   lengths of the film pieces. Tension obtained by shortening or lengthening the 
   pieces while preserving the original proportions of the formula. Simple relationships 
   are best because they give clarity of impression. Suitable for simple march-time 
   montages. Content is subordinated to the absolute length of the piece. Danger: 
   over-complexity to the point where perception is by measurement rather than 
   by impression. When metrical montage is forceably applied it can result in 
   montage failure. Rhythmic montage--the content within the frame is a factor 
   posssessing equal rights to the length. The practical length derives from the 
   specifics of the content and its movement within the frame. Tonal montage--movement 
   within the frame is here given a wider sense. Movement embraces all affects. 
   Montage is based on the characteristic emotional sound of the piece, its dominant, 
   the general tone. Overtonal montage--distinguished from tonal montage by the 
   collective calculation of all the piece's appeals. Intellectual montage--conflict 
   juxtaposition of intellectual affects. E. hoped thereby to build a synthesis 
   of science, art and class militancy. (See "Vertical montage in "Synchronization 
   of Senses"). These types of montage enter into conflict with one another. Transition 
   from Metric to Rhythmic because metric does not take into account the movement 
   within the frame as it relates to the length of the shot. Transition from Rhythmic 
   to tonal because of need to honor the dominant emotional tone of a piece.</p>
<p> "A COURSE IN TREATMENT" (1932) Study of cinema must proceed with the study 
   of the theater. Only by critical comparison with the more basic early forms 
   of spectacle is it possible to master critically the specific methodology of 
   the cinema. Needed for creative work: persistence over time. Nothing gets created 
   from pre-conceived methodological positions. Nothing gets created from the 
   tempestuous stream of creative energy unregulated by method. Specialists are 
   only called in to deal with specific, concrete cases. E. excoriates the short 
   film for the graduate student. Useless. E. then wonderfully describes the course 
   of thought in creating a screenplay. p. 105. This is E.'s theory of the "inner 
   monologue" and it is out of the tradition of stream of consciousness (see "Film 
   Form: New Problems").</p>
<p> "THROUGH THEATER TO CINEMA" (1934) Discusses two elements in his move from 
   theater to cinema: Photography: a system of reproduction to fix real events 
   of actuality. These fixings permit any degree of distortion and abstraction, 
   however. Because of photography's dependence on reality, the film shot is much 
   less independently workable than sounds for music or words for poetry. This 
   has placed more weight on the ways in which shots can be combined: montage. 
   Eisenstein then traces his film career beginning as a theater director and 
   experiencing the tension between the practical and the fictitious-descriptive 
   principles. He noticed that his play about a gas factory would have been stronger 
   if produced inside a gas factory. This brought him to the brink of cinema. 
   Discussed typage--the method of least interference with the natural course 
   of events. It is the modern development of the Commedia del arte with its seven 
   stock figures. The modern film use of typage is based on the wish to delineate 
   a character so sharply that upon entrance the audience will "place" him as 
   a known element. Typage concerns, therefore, the creation of immediate conventions. 
   Montage--discusses his direction of "The Wise Man" and his use of taking a 
   fragment of dialogue from one scene and leaping with it into the next scene, 
   and also his making the diary film to be projected. Cites Flaubert's cross 
   cutting of dialogues in "Madame Bovary". Believes that a director should be 
   well grounded in theatrical construction and the art of mise-en-scene (the 
   first two years of the directing course in the State Cinema Institute emphasized 
   this). A director must master the techniques of film diction, the theory of 
   montage, the technique of the frame, and the traditions and methodology of 
   literature.</p>
<p> "FILM LANGUAGE" (1934) E. stresses how each shot is dependent upon the others. 
   Shots which call attention to themselves as composition force the film into 
   a disconnected assemblace of lovely phases, "a shopwindow full of pretty but 
   unrelated products." E. uses the term "film culture". E. then gives a full 
   analysis of the yawls resupplying the battleship sequence in "Potemkin". E. 
   makes it clear that this analysis was not thought out beforehand, and that 
   the sequence could actually be re-edited in almost any way to further the plot, 
   BUT an alternate sequencing would destroy the compositional movement through 
   the pieces.</p>
<p> "FILM FORM: NEW PROBLEMS" (1935) E. seems to rationalize the loss of the formal 
   brilliance of early Soviet films because Soviet filmmakers are now absorbed 
   in "deepening and broadening the thematic and ideological formulation of questions 
   and problems...." (Note: this was the time E. was filming "Bezhin Meadow". 
   E. questions his prior formulation of Intellectual montage which had as its 
   task "restoring emotional fullness to the intellectual process." E. now feels 
   that intellectual montage represented a hypertrophy of the montage concept. 
   The specific content of intellectual montage--the movement of thoughts as the 
   substitute for story (an exhaustive replacement of content) does not justify 
   itself. The theory of the inner monologue now replaces the theory of intellectual 
   montage--sensual-image thought processes, embodied thinking, are the base of 
   creation of form. (For an example of what E. means by "inner monologue", see 
   p. 105 of "A Course in Treatment". The inner monologue is within the tradition 
   of "steam of consciousness".) E. then looks at synecdoche (the substitution 
   of a part for a whole and uses as his example the doctor's pince- nez in "Potemkin".) 
   The effectiveness of a work of art is built on a dual unity: the penetration 
   of sensual thinking into consciousness by means of the structure of the form. 
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>THE FILM SENSE </p>
<p>&quot;WORD AND IMAGE" (originally published as "MONTAGE IN 1938") (1938) E. 
   reviews his thinking on montage. Portmanteau words as the unity of two objects 
   into a concept. Montage as a creation which is qualitatively different from 
   each of the shots separately. E. realizises that he needs to stress the unifying 
   principle behind montage. Each montage unit is a particular representation 
   of a general theme that in equal measure penetrates all shot-pieces. Looks 
   at psychological habit of looking at terminal states of a process so that only 
   the beginning or the end is perceived (Piaget). The separate representations 
   are built up into an image. E. looks for montage in the preparation of an actor. 
   Actors take suggestions or details from reality in order to build up their 
   characterizations. The characterization is the juxtaposition of determining 
   close-ups. Studies Leonardo's shooting script for "The Deluge". The creative 
   process: "before the perception of the creator hovers a given image, emotionally 
   embodying his theme. The taks that confronts him is to transform this image 
   into a few basic partial representations which in their combination and juxtaposition, 
   shall evoke in the consciousness and feelings of the spectator, reader, or 
   auditor, that same initial general image which originally hovered before the 
   creative artist." p. 31. This process stresses dynamism and includes the creative 
   role of the spectator. Talks about affadavit-exposition as the opposite of 
   montage. The affadavit method conveys bare documentary information not raised 
   to art by creating emotional effect. Cites examples from Pushkin, Keats, Milton, 
   Mayakovsky. </p>
<p>"SYNCHRONIZATION OF SENSES" In principle there is no difference in montage 
   between silent and sound films. Examines "Alexander Nevsky" for his use of 
   a new kind of montage: vertical montage, which is Polyphonic montage--the simultaneous 
   advance of a multiple series of parallel lines, each maintaining an independant 
   compositional course but aligning vertically into chords. "COLOR AND MEANING" 
   Cites many examples maintaining that there is an absolute relation between 
   particular colors and particular emotions. States that purely physical relations 
   exist between sound and color. "But it can also be said, just as categorically, 
   that art has extremely little to do with such categorical relationships." p. 
   150. "In art it is not the absolute relationships that are decisive, but those 
   arbitrary relationships within a system of images dictates by the particular 
   work of art". p. 150. The emotional intelligibility of a color comes from within 
   the work. </p>
<p>"FORM AND CONTENT: PRACTICE" Exhaustively examines his and Prokovief's method 
   for building audio-visual correspondences in "Alexander Nevsky". Speaks against 
   narrowly representational uses of music within film. Argues for sensing the 
   inner movements of a scene which are the correspondences between the music 
   compositional and formal structural elements in music and a scene. Brief mention 
   of "typage" again. E. argues for a complete correspondence between the movement 
   of the music and the movement of the eye over the lines of the plastic composition. 
   THE SHORT FICTION SCENARIO 1941 lecture Montage is micro-dramaturgy. Combining 
   three pieces in a montage phrase is the same as joining three scenes or acts 
   in a play. Through montage we trace the same laws which are repeated in the 
   compositional structure of a feature or serial film. Shooting in long take 
   is almost always neutral and passive. Dectective literature structured on gradual 
   accumulation of evidence and on the thifting of suspicion. The principles of 
   constructing a plot and the principles of montage construction are identical: 
   the breaking of inertia and the ability to mentally reconstruct a whole from 
   a part. E. then looks at both principles in the art of Daumier, Michelangelo. 
   Examines shooting from character's vs. author's pov. Argues for understatement, 
   the accumulation of "untrue" association (talking about tea as a pretext for 
   an old man to avoid talking about what is really important). Advises beginning 
   the shot breakdowns as a director with they key scne of the film. </p>
<p>CRITICAL ESSAY TITLES AND DATES:<br>
   THE UNEXPECTED 1928 A STATEMENT 1928 THE CINEMATIC PRINCIPLE AND THE IDEOGRAM 
   1929 A DIALECTIC APPROACH TO FILM FORM 1929 THE FILMIC FOURTH DIMENSION 1929 
   METHODS OF MONTAGE 1929 A COURSE IN TREATMENT 1932 FILM LANGUAGE 1934 THROUGH 
   THEATER TO CINEMA 1934 FILM FORM: NEW PROBLEMS 1935 WORD AND IMAGE--MONTAGE 
   IN 1938 SYNCHRONIZATION OF SENSES COLOR AND MEANING FORM AND CONTENT: PRACTICE 
   THE SHORT FICTION SCENARIO 1941 </p>
<p>CRITICAL WORKS ON EISENSTEIN AND HIS THEORIES: <br>
   Stan Brakhage, "Eisenstein", in THE BRAKHAGE LECTURES, Chicago, Goodlion Press, 
   1972. Roland Barthes, "The Third Meaning: Notes on Some of Eisenstein's Stills", 
   in ARTFORUM, JANUARY, 1973. pp. 46-50. Noel Carroll, "For God and Country", 
   in ARTFORUM, JANUARY, 1973. pp. 56- 60. Sergei Eisenstein, FILM FORM: ESSAYS 
   IN FILM THEORY, NY, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1949. Sergei Eisenstein, THE 
   FILM SENSE, NY, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1947. Sergei Eisenstein, THE SHORT 
   FICTION SCENARIO (ON THE COMPOSITION OF....) London, Metheun, 1988. Rosalind 
   Krauss, "Montage 'October': Dialectic of the Shot", in ARTFORUM, JANUARY, 1973. 
   pp. 61-65. Jay Leyda, KINO, NY, 1960. Jay Leyda and Zina Voynow, EISENSTEIN 
   AT WORK, NY, Pantheon Books & Museum of Modern Art, 1982. Christian Metz, "The 
   Cinema: Language or Language System?", in FILM LANGUAGE, New York, Oxford University 
   Press, 1974. pp. 31-91. Annette Michelson, "Camera Lucida, Camera Obscura", 
   in ARTFORUM, JANUARY, 1973. pp. 30-37. Annette Michelson, "Screen/Surface: 
   The Politics of Illusionism", ARTFORUM, September 1972. Marie Seton, SERGEI 
   M. EISENSTEIN, London, 1952. Robert Warshaw, THE IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE, NY, 
   1970. </p>