Friday, March 18, 2011







We'll uncover what the Soviet Montage film-makers created shortly. Before we do that, we need to remind ourselves what it was they were rebelling against.

It's probably untrue to say they were rebelling... they were simply DEFYING the practices of conventional cinema, looking to create meaning in new, different and powerful ways.

What the Soviet Montage movement created was an alternative to the techniques of CONTINUITY EDITING (or the classical Hollywood style). CONTINUITY EDITING always strives to make the editing invisible - smooth, seamless, not consciously noticeable by the viewer. A typical feature of most Hollywood movies, audience members find themselves drawn into the narrative, barely aware of camera movement or cuts. Executed well, a viewer will almost forget that what he/she is watching is just 'make believe'.

Some of the rules that constitute Continuity Editing...

establishing shot
2-shot
single
shot / reverse shot (over the shoulder)
eyeline match
matching on action
shot / counter shot
the cutaway
cross-cutting
the 180 degree rule

Montage, on the other hand, relies on the strategic craft that is EDITING to construct meaning. The effect, thus, isn’t only in the shots; it’s in the ORDER of the shots. That's to say that by placing a particular shot after another shot, this juxtaposition will generate a particular meaning. Sure, each shot alone carries its own literal meaning, but the combination of a series of shots will derive an altogether new and often powerful, emotional or symbolic meaning.


We'll come back to this shortly. For now, a bit of background to Soviet history.

 Soviet Montage

The origin of the word - Montage - is from the French, meaning ‘to build’ or ‘arrange’. However, the Soviets came to view montage as, foremost, a COLLISION of images.

The Soviet Montage movement began in 1924/25 and ended in 1930. During this era, perhaps fewer than 30 films were made in the style. But the films that were made were very influential - 'Strike', 'October' and 'Battleship Potemkin' to name just three.

By 1917, there had been two revolutions in Russia. The February Revolution eliminated the Tsar's government. The second revolution took place in October. Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the revolution and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was created. The agency known as Narkompros, founded in 1918, controlled the Russian film industry.

Narkompros established the State Film School in 1919. A year later Lev Kuleshov joined the State Film School and began to run editing workshops. Very much a thinker and an innovator, Kuleshov experimented with new ideas that challenged the established ways of cinema and demonstrated how important the editing process was. 

 It's all about the arrangement.

It was his pioneering methods that developed the central idea to Montage theory. His theory was that the viewer's response to a piece of cinema was less dependent on the individual shot than on the editing, or the arrangement, of those shots. Lenin saw advantage in this - cinema could be a strategic art, very much an effective medium for propaganda and education (ie: indoctrination).

Another direct result of totalitarian control is that many Soviet directors had large budgets to work with; the government was happy to help fund what it saw as a very powerful educational (or, probably more accurately, propagandistic) medium. This meant, for example, that massive crowd scenes are fairly common in these films. These crowd scenes also help emphasise the only theme that early Soviet directors were allowed to work with; the triumph of the masses over the greedy bourgeoisie.

A key element of Soviet Montage films was the move away from the idea of having an individual character as the centre of attention. Obviously, single characters are shown, but typically as members of different social classes or representing a general type or class. In Sergei Eisenstein's film 'Strike', only one character is ever specifically named in the entire film. Another component favoured by Soviet Montage film-makers was basically the themes they explored... their films centred on confrontation, strike action, rebellion, contest, defiance, the idea of 'clash'.


 Different Types of MONTAGE

 1. Metric Montage - 
...the most SIMPLISTIC, functional method of editing, based on whatever the editor believes the viewer needs to see next, so that new visual information can continue to advance the sequence (ie: shot durations will be as long as they need to be). 


2. Rhythmic Montage - 

…can be considered to be the 'Metric method' but developed just a stage further, whereby the visual composition of shots becomes important in generating a PHYSICAL kind of energy or rhythm (ie: depends on varying lengths of shots + the strategic actions that are visible in shot).

View the following examples and describe the rhythmic effect each sequence achieves. 
A. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Western)


C. Chicago (Hollywood musical) 

D. Hot Fuzz sequence (action comedy)

E. Battleship Potemkin


3. Tonal Montage - 

…extending a step further, this method of editing juxtaposes particular shots that exploit aspects of lighting or texture or colour or sound that generate a deliberate EMOTIONAL response from the audience, one that registers a particular tone or mood. For example, a shot of a sleeping baby would evoke calmness and innocence. The debris left strewn across the lawn after a wild teenage party suggests destruction and the chaos of youth.

View the following examples and record what you think is the mood / tone / emotional response. 
A. Submarine / stopwatch sequence 

B. Gallipoli sequence (the end)

C. Cape Fear sequence (Max Cady leaves jail) 

D. Full metal jacket opening sequence (head shaving) 

E. Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin

4. Intellectual Montage - 

…the most anti-classical method of editing that attempts to juxtapose shots in a way that generates a significant, often metaphoric meaning, one with impact that goes beyond merely the literal meaning of the individual shots themselves. It may be meaning that is highly thematic, symbolic, strikingly political that does not exist in the individual shots, but only arises when those shots come together in collision. 

A. the Naked Gun (parody of intellectual montage)

B. The Godfather (the baptism murders)

Student attempts at Intellectual Montage (some are of dubious quality)

Applying for University Acceptance

Toilet cubicle debacle

Elevator ride

Collision. Non-diegetic imagery.
Now, a couple of new terms that will be important for you to know…

Overlapping Effect

But editing was the central aspect of what defined Soviet Montage. The 'cut' should stimulate the viewer. In stark contrast to Continuity Editing, Montage cutting can create an overlapping time effect. What this means is that subsequent shots in a sequence repeat part of, or all of, the action from previous shots. Through this kind of repetition, the time that this action takes to occur on screen expands.

 Elliptical Effect

Another feature of Montage cutting is what's called an elliptical effect - this type of cutting creates the opposite effect to overlapping. With elliptical editing, part of an action is left out, so the event takes less time than it would in reality. Elliptical editing was often used in the form of the jump cut.

As an example, in the film 'Strike', Sergei Eisenstein cuts suddenly from a police officer (caught up in a worker's riot) to a butcher (who is shown slaughtering an animal). Obviously, the butcher is not part of the literal story, but the shot itself is designed to make the viewer think about the connection (between the role of police in society and what butchers do for a living) and therefore come to a conclusion... such as: the workers were slaughtered like animals.
Diegetic & Non-diegetic

The 'butcher' is a non-diegetic element. Anything that is part of the film story world is diegetic. A non-diegetic element exists outside the story world. There is no actual connection between the slaughter of the animal. The use of such non-diegetic shots was central to Eisenstein's theory on "intellectual montage". Intellectual montage creates its effects through conflict such as the juxtaposing of shots that have no direct connection.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)