Written Assignment 2: Sergei Eisenstein: Formalism and Collision

Montage

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Wheeler

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C.J

REQUIREMENTS

“FILM ART DOESN’T CONSIST OF A REPRODUCTION OF REALITY, BUT A TRANSLATION OF OBSERVED CHARACTERISTICS INTO THE FORMS OF THE MEDIUM…FORMALISTS ARE ALWAYS CONCERNED

WITH PATTERNS, METHODS OF RESTRUCTURING REALITY INTO AESTHETICALLY APPEALING DESIGNS” (GIANETTI, 2005: 483, 487)

DICUSS THE ABOVE STATEMENT WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO SERGEI EISENSTEIN AND HIS THEORIES OF ART AND FILM FORM IN GENERAL, AND OF COLLISION MONTAGE IN PARTICULAR. USE THE

“ODESSA STEPS” SEQUENCE FROM BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN TO SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENT.

15/ 05 / 2006

Phyllis Dannhauser

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2 2. Formalism 2

3. Sergie Eisenstein: Theories and analysis 3

3.1 Battleship Potemkin 4

3.2 Eisenstein and the Mounting of shots 5

4. “Odessa Steps” and the Eisenstein’s Theories: An analysis 5

5. Conclusion 9

6. Bibliography 11

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1. Introduction

Since the beginnings of film there have been two major directions in terms of production: realism and

formalism. In 1895 the Lumiere brothers established revolutionary moving images with their primitive

documentary of “The Arrival of a Train”(1895), only seven years later George Melies changed the oral and

written tradition into a visual narrative with “A Trip to the Moon” (1902) that would establish film into the

complex and highly cohesive medium that it is today. Therefore, “In many respects, the Lumieres can be

regarded as the founders of the realist tradition of cinema, and Melies of the formalist tradition”(Giannetti,

2005:2). Over the past hundred years of film the term “realism” has remained relatively true to what was

established in 1895 by the Lumiere brothers, it is however the development of the formalist approach that

has captured the imagination of the filmmakers and theorists. Giannetti describes formalism as follows:

“Film art doesn’t consist of a reproduction of reality, but a translation of observed characteristics into forms of the medium…Formalists are always concerned with patterns, methods of reconstructing reality into aesthetically appealing designs.”(Giannetti, 2005: 483, 487)

From Italian neo-realism to German expressionism, filmmakers of the world have shaped and manipulated

the form and function of film in order to satisfy the demand on the medium at that time. With the

introduction of editing to film art, a new dimension to the creation and compilation of narrative was born.

Sergei Eisenstein was part of the Soviet cinema era and was a true formalist with his theories of art and film

form, and of collision montage in particular. This essay will discuss the above quotation (from Giannetti)

regarding formalism and support the outlined elements of formalism with Eisenstein’s theories and film

form in general. In addition to this, Eisenstein’s “Odessa Steps” sequence from Battleship Potemkin (Soviet

Union, 1925) will be used in support of his formalist theories of collision montage.

2. Formalism

The term “formalism” is often used in the same breath as expressionism, but as Fourie (2001: 197) explains

the important difference between the two can be found in that although both are…

“Capable of interpreting reality or an aspect thereof in specific ways…Formalism is more exact and pronounced in its description(s)…it gives a more concrete and “scientific” description of film’s codes (techniques) enabling film to be a unique form of expression.”(Fourie, 2001:197).

The formalist approach adopts the view that the form of a film is in symbiosis with the medium, hence

deliberate stylising and distortion is considered tools of the trade. With an accurate reproduction of reality

left to the realists, formalist like Sergie Eisenstein are more concerned with how through the use of

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cinematic elements (e.g. editing, composition, sound, perspective, etc.) the meaning of the film can be

embedded within the very shape of the production with dramatic flair and style. In other words the form is

favoured over the content with regards to the meaning of the film, therefore formalist value the canvas film

offers and utilises this as a means to communicate a perspective of reality rather than reality its self. As

Giannetti (2005) and Fourie (2001) indicate, formalism differs from expressionism in that formalist are

more structured in their expression of thematic elements, and are therefore concerned with creating a sense

of consistency with regards to form unique to the subjective interpretation of experience. These

interpretations are at the forefront of achieving a visual matrix containing appealing designs that enhance

(and for propaganda – distort) the content of the message communicated.

The criticism that formalist have with regards to the realist approach is that even though realists attempt to

imitate reality as closely as possible, this approach is fundamentally flawed due to the subject nature of

experience, and denying or approximating this fact is too undermine cinema as a medium. According to the

developmental psychologist David R. Shaffer, there are two processes at work when attempting to

understand “reality”: Perception and Sensation. Sensations are generally universal, but sensations alone will

not allow an understanding of reality, we need to categorize and interpret these sensory inputs. The

enrichment theory specifies “we must add to sensory stimulation by drawing on stored knowledge in order

to perceive a meaningful world” (Shaffer, 2002:181). Because each individual’s ability to exact information

from sensory stimulation (e.g. any given film) differs as a result of experience, the realist tradition is by no

means a “pure” approach, rather a loose term to approximate reality as objectively as possible. The formalist

approach abandons such approximations and instead embraces the conventions of film as a means of

projecting ideas, thoughts, and meanings to their viewers. The resultant production is consequently re-

interpreted by the viewers and a new meaning is then created, therefore formalists deliberate stylising and

distortion of their raw materials is justified in order to ensure the communicated message is received and

understood in general terms.

3. Sergie Eisenstein: Theories and analysis

Sergie Eisenstein was an intrinsic part of the soviet cinema era along with Vsevolod Pudovkin and

Alexander Dovzhenko. Eisenstein’s work was influenced by the avant-garde film experiments at the time

and that were accompanied by theoretical text that added to the complex and metaphorical meanings behind

the visual array of juxtaposed images. Eisenstein’s work from the 1920’s to the mid-1940’s illustrated

Eisenstein’s creative film theories and ability to manipulated time and space through the collision of pre-

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planned images in order for the viewer to arrive at a new intellectual conclusion brought about by the

juxtaposed images, rather than as a result of the images simply being paired together. Giannetti (2005:167)

describes Eisenstein’s approach to editing in that it “{editing}…ought to be dialectical: The conflict of two

shots (thesis and antithesis) produce a wholly new idea (synthesis)”. The process of contrasting two shot to

arrive at a sense of synthesis is one example of how Eisenstein used the philosophical notion of constant

change and the transference of energy to create the intellectual montage that could be used to portray

meaningful messages with style and fluidity without being overtly perceived and questioned by the general

public. Because of the emotional impact such an approach holds with regards to the ability of Eisenstein’s

theories to induce “psychological guidance of the spectator”(Monaco, 2000:401), the Central Committee of

the Communist party commissioned Eisenstein to produce the propagandistic film Potemkin (Soviet Union,

1925).

3.1 Battleship Potemkin

The propagandist film was originally called “Year 1905” and involved the mass murder of Soviet citizens

by the Cossacks, it was based on the unsuccessful revolution of 1905 and was titled “Potemkin” because of

the mutiny on the battleship (Potemkin) that was a resultant factor in the many deaths that followed. The

film is comprised of five acts: “Men and Maggots”, “Drama on the Quaterdeck”, “an Appeal from the

Dead”, “The Odessa Steps” and “Meeting the Squadron”(Turning points in history: 73). The fourth act

(“Odessa Steps”) is the famous montage of soviet civilians awaiting Potemkin, who are then trapped by

Cossack soldiers marching down the stairs firing in unison and mounted Cossack soldiers whipping and

beating civilians at the bottom of the steps at will. With Cossack soldiers approaching from above and

below the steps served as a mass graveyard of innocent victims. Eisenstein’s reproduction of this event

comes after only two-decades form the original happenings, therefore the events that unfolded were still

fresh in the hearts and minds of soviet citizens, hence the pragmatic value of a stylised reproduction to the

Communist party is evident.

Despite the source of the commission and the small passage of time from the original event, Eisenstein

remained true to his theories of film by emphasising and engaging his “{its}…audience in a dialectical

process instead of overpowering them with a calculated emotional experience”(Monaco, 2000:403).

Battleship Potemkin is a stylised reproduction of the revolution and is truly a formalist film in that the

reality of the portrayed events is heavily distorted and manipulated in order to project a response that is

above the predictable emotional responses. Eisenstein makes the audience draw on their visual cognition to

interpret the events in such a way as to involve the viewer, not to the extent that audience would envision

themselves at the battle but through the nature of causality and the resultant dialectical meaning. As

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mentioned, Eisenstein presents his audience with a perspective that revolved around an emotional overtone

that need little emphasis in order to capture the multi-dimensional way humans perceive the world.

3.2 Eisenstein and the Mounting of shots

Eisenstein’s coined the term “montage” (“mounting of shots”) and in his theoretical essay “Methods of

Montage” he concludes that there are five types of montage. The following table is taken from “Turning

points in History” (p.g.72) on Eisenstein’s five types of Montage:

Eisenstein believed that conflict and contrast is created in two ways: Conflict montage within a single

shot and Conflict montage between different shots. When conflicts with a frame and juxtaposed with

another shot that also has conflict within the frame, the resultant idea created is the aim of the

Intellectual/attraction montage. Fourie (2001:203) highlights such a montage in Eisenstein’s “Strike”

(Soviet union, 1925): “…the images of strikers who are pursued and shot down by soldiers…are

alternated with images of oxen being slaughtered at an abattoir”, the resultant idea of such juxtaposing is

that the workers are being slaughtered like animals. Fourie questions Eisenstein’s labelling of the

“intellectual” Montage because he believes that the “conflict between two images which form an

emotional rather than an intellectual association {that} gives rise to new meaning” (Fourie, 2001:203),

however it is in the emotional content and conflict with the juxtaposed frames that when paired with a

seemingly unrelated shot that one can then draw a (intellectual) conclusion. Despite the variety of terms,

juxtaposing conflict shots in order to arrive at a new meaning is generally referred to as a collision

montage or intellectual montage. Such techniques are a vivid example of how formalist distort and

manipulated film as a medium “to create visually appealing designs”(Giannetti, 2005: 483, 487) that

enhance the filmmakers ideas within any given shot or sequence. Fourie summarises Eisenstein’s

approach to montage as follows…

“Eisenstein…used montage techniques to ‘edit’ reality in a premeditated way. Apart from dialectical philosophy, the basis of his montage theory may be traced to the view that realism effects an artistic experience which lulls the recipients: they can feel like heroes…without actually doing anything about it…Eisenstein sought to analyse and fully control the power that art exercises over the beholder, so as to harness art (images) in the advancement of a cause” (Fourie, 2001:203)

Metric Montage Determined solely by the lengths of shots.Rhythmic Montage The cutting rate was based upon the rhythm of movement that occurs within the shot.Tonal Montage Cutting determined by the emotional tone of the shots.Overtonal Montage A combination of Metric, Rhythmic and Tonal montage.Intellectual Montage Determined by the conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual affects.

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4. “Odessa Steps” and the Eisenstein’s Theories: An analysis

The montage sequence of the “Odessa Steps” is the most significant example of a montage in Potemkin,

in which Eisenstein makes use of his collision montage in which he “replaced the conventional logic of

dramatic action by images arbitrarily chosen to create the maximum psychological impact on the

audience” (Turning points in History: 75). Eisenstein also uses montage in this sequence to expand and

compress time with dramatic results.

The beginning of the sequence is marked by the civilians cheering the mutinous sailors, soon after which

the massacre begins. In figure 1.1 a women stands with her dead son in her arms while the Cossack

soldiers approach from the top of the stairs. The position of the women is centre screen with the

Cossacks dominating the upper third, while murdered bodies litter the stairs between the two. This

foreground, middle ground and background composition reveals what has happened (murdered bodies –

middle ground), who is responsible (Cossack soldiers – background) and who might be next (women –

foreground), this is referred to as conflict of planes (Fourie, 2001:202). The streak of light that emerges

between the women and the soldiers separates the two sides of dead bodies (conflict of lighting) and

create a sense of understanding between the women and her antagonist. The bodies that scatter the

staircase represent a graphic contrast in that the horizontal lines created by the stairs and being “broken”

by the lifeless figures that now lie there. This graphic conflict de-emphasise the stairs as a whole and

singles out the path between the women and the approaching soldiers, again this creates a strong visual

link between foreground and background. Through the elements described this shot creates a sense of

hope as the women pleads with the soldiers to stop the bloodshed, while at the same time it still

maintains a sense of inevitability about the women’s fate.

Figure 1.1.

As the people of Odessa gather to hail the rebellious soldiers on Potemkin, soldiers appear. The crowd runs down the steps in horror as the soldiers fire. A young boy is killed; his mother picks him up and turns to face the soldiers at the top of the steps.

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In contrast, Figure 1.2 the women’s face is revealed only to be shadowed by the approach oppressors.

Eisenstein placed emphasis on the off-screen presents of the soldiers as part of the wholeness captured in

the shot. The women now stands alone in the frame with her dead son and the high camera angle

emphasis her vulnerability and innocents as she passively stands her ground, hoping for the unlikely

(they will spare her) and realising the probable (they will kill her). The graphic conflict of figure 1.1 now

gives way to the smooth continuous shadows of the Cossacks, impeded only by the women and

subsequently her will to represent the dead that have already fallen. When figure 1.1 and 1.2 are

juxtaposes the dominating omnipresent Cossacks in the upper half of the frame (in figure 1.1) give way

to more murdered bodies at the top of figure 1.2. At the same time in the first shot the women is

surrounded by her fallen friends and family and in the second she is “surrounded” by the Cossack’s

shadows. This contrast of positioning and closure suggest to the audience that despite the dramatic way

in which the women is portrayed, her fate is part of a collective carnage and the use of an emotional plea

is powerless against the unified oppressors.

Figure 1.2

As she advances, pleading with them,

they prepared to fire. The officer

lowers his sabre and a volley is fired,

cutting down the mother and child.

To fully appreciate Eisenstein’s collision montage, one needs to understand why the shots were

juxtaposed in such a fashion. Hypothetically, if figure 1.2 was placed first and then followed by figure

1.1 the viewer would arrive at a different emotional and intellectual conclusion. By showing Figure 1.2

first we would lose the slither of hope felt with figure 1.1. Even though by reversing the shot sequence

the continuity of the shots would be better in terms of the presence of the Cossacks (shadow then

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soldiers). Eisenstein has placed the shots as they stand to create the tertiary idea of oppression, this is

because the first shot represents innocence, hope, victimisation and sets up the confrontation, while

through the eye-level camera the viewer is force to believe that there may be a chance that they will

spare her for two reasons: firstly the eye-level camera associates the viewer with the women and hence

we would want her (and our widow to the story) to survive, secondly the women is the only civilian in

the frame who is alive and the pressing army that approaches seem overly powerful and unnecessary for

dealing with a childless mother, hence the audience lingers with the thought of her survival. Because of

the sense of hope and the empathetic camera of figure 1.1 and the omnipresent soldiers and intimidating

unsympathetic camera in figure 1.2, the result causality of the two shots is known before the viewer is

shown the women’s murder. When the shot of the women dying is shown the audience has already

judged the emotional affect of the soldiers behaviour and instead the shot of the women being murdered

is used simply for closure and continuity rather than to show the viewer what happened next. This

editing style is the reason Pokemtin is a propagandist film and hence the above formalist elements are

justified in enhancing the psychological pathway Eisenstein wants the audience to travel down.

Throughout the sequence innocents is portrayed in a variety of forms. Most of the close-ups are of

women and their suffering (i.e. crying women with their hands holding there faces, etc), mothers are

divorced from the very life they gave, children’s lives are taken prematurely, and the elderly are put to

sleep without dignity. These are part of the propaganda process designed to induce a sense of unjustified

slaughter by the Cossacks. In one sequence a mother is shot while tending to her baby in a carriage, the

mother’s uncontrollable limp body pushes over the edge, causing it to roll uncontrollable down the

massive flight of stairs. The baby travels from being with its mother, past the dead bodies that litter the

staircase, to eventually colliding with a fallen elderly man. This movement down the steps highlights the

idea that the oppressors have stolen life from the masses. Eisenstein paired this image of the child rolling

down the stairs (innocents) with close-ups of the suffering experienced by the civilians, in doing so

Eisenstein has juxtaposed images of the beginning of life (the baby), the middle-aged (dying civilians)

and ultimately the elderly (the dead man’s body) in an attempt to create the notion that within the context

of the chaos a child was “accelerated” through life and ultimately to death. “Formalist are concerned

with patterns and methods of reconstructing reality” (Gainnetti, 2005:483), in the given example there is

a clear pattern of progression and interrupted innocents between the individual shots and the ones that

follow. As the child plummets down the staircase, the strong horizontal vectors of the staircase are

broken as the wheels of the carriage roll over each step, when the carriage turns over there is no need to

show the baby dead. Unlike the mother holding her dead child, the babies death would take the entire

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sequence into emotional territory that would distract from the impact the sequence as a whole, Eisenstein

has already suggested the babies death from the carriage rolling down the stairs paired with the dying

civilians, and in addition earlier in the sequence the audience was shown people getting trampled on –

the chance of an infant surviving has already been indicated.

The sequence is also a continuous comparison between the unified and emotional uninvolved Cossacks

and the dispersed widespread panic of the civilians. The shots of the Cossack army is always shot from a

distance and the odd occasion of a close-up is of the soldiers marching boots or aimed rifles, the camera

perspective is clearly positioned to emotionally involve the viewer in the civilians struggle and not the

war campaign of the Cossacks. Eisenstein cuts between these close-ups of the soldiers (boots or guns)

and the extreme long shots of them invading the screen to create the idea of being trapped or enclosed,

all that is left between these extreme jumps in camera distance is the dying and dead.

Eisenstein also makes use of metaphors, near the end of the sequence there are three shots of a stone

lion: one asleep, one awaking and one ready to pounce. These shots are in quick succession and

Eisenstein considered the sequence an embodiment of a metaphor: “The very stones roar.” (Giannetti,

2005:170). Eisenstein manipulates time and space in order to bring the inanimate stone statue to life,

again the shots of the lion itself and the resulted sequence are combined to symbolise the inhuman events

that are taking place, the lion statue is almost like a guardian of the people that realised to late that its

people are dead. This manipulation of time and space is fundamentally a formalist technique and is used

to great affect with this famous “lion awakening” sequence

5. Conclusion

The technical advancements (e.g. sound, wide screen, HDTV) have given rise to many new challenges

and obstacles to film production; these advancements have dramatically increased the number of

cinematic possibilities and enhanced the viewing experience as a whole. Audiences want to be moved

and challenged to think about what they are being exposed to and the tools filmmakers use to

communicate their message has a dramatic influence in how theses messages are portrayed and

constructed. Realists would argue that to embrace such conventions (e.g. CGI) would be to undermine

the role of the audience as an active participant in communication process. In other words, the audience

is merely exposed to the ideology of the production and is not given the “freedom” of interpretation that

comes with realist methods of constructing films. The hypodermic needle theory would support the

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persuasive nature of the formalist approach, in that subjective interpretations are hindered by specific

messages that result from the manipulation of form and function in cinema and other forms of visual

media. As a result of this manipulation, propaganda has surfaced in film as a powerful and influential

political tool for embedding desired emotions and ideologies into a mass audience.

Editing, and the montage in particular, have allowed filmmakers to manipulate time and space with

dramatic effect. In doing so, filmmakers like Sergie Eisenstein can create a visual array of meaningful

spectacles that strongly suggest a specific emotion or idea (e.g. frequent or rapid cutting suggest a

heightened sense of tension and action). Filmmakers of the world have shaped and manipulated the form

and function of film in order to satisfy the demand on the medium at that time and Eisenstein’s Potemkin

is no exception. Potemkin is a milestone in cinematic history, and with it Eisenstein has illustrated that

his theories of montage are effective as a formalist convention of manipulation. As Giannetti (2005: 483,

487) suggests, formalist like Eisenstein have reconstructed reality (i.e. the events of the soviet revolution

in 1905) in such a way as to emphasize the resultant/suggested ideas that arise when a specific patterns

(e.g. Eisenstein’s collision montage) are presented to the audience. Therefore film art is a purposeful and

intentional means of expression, rather than an objective approach of reproducing reality that is filled

with an infinite number of interpretations.

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6. Bibliography

ANONOMYS. Turning Points In History, 71-76.

FOURIE, P. 2001. Media Studies Vol. 2: Content, Audience and Production, 1st ed. South Africa:

Juta, 196-204.

GIANNETTI, L. 2005. Understanding Movies, 10th ed. Case Western Reserve University:

Pearson Education, 2-487.

MONACO, J. 2000. How To Read A Film, 3rd ed. USA: Oxford University Press, 401-403.

SHAFFER, D. 2002. Developmental Psychology, 6th ed. USA: Wadsworth, 180-182.

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