Introduction
In the presented essay I will compare the style of work of selected artists in the montage of the film. I will try to point out some general regularities and features of Soviet cinema. At the same time I will try to capture especially what is common in their systems and similar or conversely what differ. For my analysis, I will draw on the feature films of the Soviet avantgarde, namely these are the movies - The Battleship Potemkin (S. Eisenstein, 1925), Mother (V. Pudovkin, 1926) and The Man with a movie camera (D. Vertov, 1929).
The School of montage
Most of the films that they were created in the Soviet Union, outside the school of montage, use topics of sitcoms and to a various literary adaptations. Conversely directors
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However his films are softer and more lyrical as Eisenstein, heroes are individualized and becomes an important element of narrative. Right from the start Pudovkin went his innovator's way and element of montage used to express continuity, not as Eisenstein for remittance conflict.
Pudovkin is dubbed as "singer in the movie" especially for the predominance of emotional elements of intellectual. This doesn’t mean that his revolutionary epopees are important only in terms of itself topics. In his work wasn’t overlooking the central idea that the montage is the essence of aesthetics of film.
Different connections of contrasts (that were typical of the Eisenstein) by Pudovkin appear rarely. Instead of these contrasts he used montage of analogies. For example, a second shot rarely used for intensifying an impression from a first image. On the contrary, a director’s effort is visible when a main story line he tried to enrich it with new elements.
Mutually connected and unrelated images of outside the design concepts of director served to reveal to inner state of the hero, as for example in the figure of the Mother.
Eisenstein's opinion was inclined to intellectual film, which lacked a fabulation and the main character. Pudovkin understood a film as a relationship to the narrative.
Montage of the film Mother radiates peacefully from the story, from a particular environment, from the heroes and it reaches metaphorical dimension. As we can see in the
David Bordwell wrote his article ‘The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film’ in an effort to convey the main idea that “art cinema” can be considered as a distinct mode of film practice, through its definite historical existence alongside other cinematic modes, set of formal conventions, and implicit viewing procedures. Rather than searching for the source of the art, or what drives the art in film, Bordwell compares art cinema to the classical narrative cinema, and highlights the differences in narrative structure. Bordwell makes the assumption that it defined itself against the classical narrative mode; especially with the way it deals with space, time, and the cause and effect link of events.
Through studying and analyzing ‘Maestro’ ,written by Peter Goldsworthy, and by viewing and analyzing the film ‘Edward Scissorhands’ directed by Tim Burton, it is evident that the composers of these texts allow the audience to see distinctive experiences with our eyes as well as with our minds through distinctively visual. The many visual, written and literary techniques have the ability to create a significant and impacting visual.
Many composers use various techniques in which they communicate the distinctly visual. John Misto’s ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonata’ and Alexander Kimel’s ‘The Action in the Ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942’ represent significant issues in our world by using various literary and dramatic techniques. Through using these techniques it is evident that the composers of these texts allow the audience to ‘see’ with our eyes as well as with our minds. The many literary and dramatic techniques have the ability to create a visual that
The use of distinctively visual images allows an audience to perceive and distinguish the composer’s specific representation. From these distinctive visuals, the audience’s perceptions force them to respond in a particular way. In ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, Ang Lee utilises a range of film techniques to position his audience through a combination of quiet, dramatic scenes and choreographed action sequences. In his painting, ‘Third of May, 1808’ Fransisco Goya conveys meaning exclusively with distinctively visual techniques. Both the composers are able to effectively convey their message and
Being one of the world’s most popular art forms, it was inevitable that these archetypes would find their way into film as well. In this essay I will argue that the
The mother begins to rebel against tradition by taking an active role in educating and freeing herself. Through her radio, telephone and trips out with her sons she develops her own opinions about the world, the war, and the domination and seclusion of woman. She loses her innocence as a result to her new knowledge and experience.
Soviet Montage is a movement driven by “Marxist [politics]” and an “economic philosophy” developed in Soviet Russia at the time of revolution. Lenin himself considered film, as an art form as the “most influential of all arts” as it not only entertained but could be used to “[mould] and reinforce values.”( Mast, G. & Kawin, B. F.) Sergei Eisenstein, himself a Marxist, is no exception to this and not only are his films are full of political propaganda, but he is also considered “the greatest master of montage.” .”( Mast, G. & Kawin, B. F.) His film October, called Ten Days That Shook The World in the Western world at the time and butchered due to its content, has always been considered problematic for audiences and critics alike and the standard critique of the film soon became “The Film as a whole is difficult and incoherent.” (Sperbur) Although if analysed properly, you can see that it has powerful political and social messages to convey and comprises of film form that Eisenstein himself called “intellectual film.”
Theorist Vsevolod Pudovkin claims that narrative films are mainly a “product of construction” and cautious compilations of “selections of images that have been shot” (Renée).
Filmmakers want to use contrast in film because they want viewers to get a sense of “the other,” which is a term used to describe the alternative side to a scenario or story. “The Fall of Berlin” is Soviet propaganda and contrast helped display a certain image to create a certain feeling. This was popular during Stalin’s reign, since he needed to keep his cult of personality alive. The cult of personality was developed through the press and showed Stalin as wise, genius and
Vertov and Eisenstein are each convinced that their own vision of cinema is correct. Both are extremists in their own ways. How do their visions differ? What do they have in common? How are both of their visions of cinema "revolutionary?"
In service of this argument, the essay unfolds in three parts. The first section sketches an appropriate framework for understanding how cinema marshals and moves viewers by engaging them in a fully embodied experience.4 The second section offers a brief overview of the film's plot before turning to an analysis of its triptych narrative and affective development. The third and final section considers the methodological, critical, and theoretical implications suggested by the preceding analysis.
This paper will focus on the film techniques used by Cameron in his three most known movies, Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009), and Terminator series. Mise-en-scene according to John Gibbs is used in film studies in the discussion of visual style. Translated literally it means “To put on stage”, but for the purpose of students, it is defined as the contents of the frame and the way they are organized (p 5). In addition, a director’s style can be identified only through the arrangement and orchestrations of the film’s mise-en-scene (Nelmes, 425).The films Titanic, Avatar, and Terminator series were successful
brief student at The Kuleshov Workshop, which was a class run by Soviet filmmaker, Lev Kuleshov at the
Montage, a name synonymous with Editing, is an original film style with different techniques used by the Soviet filmmakers between 1924 and 1930 to construct a film narrative. Montage is the connection between one shot and the other, a continuous or discontinuous relationship between shots. According to David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (2012: 478), Soviet directors maintained that, “through editing, two shots give birth to a feeling or idea not present in either one”. This ‘feeling’ or ‘idea’ then guides a viewer into understanding or making a “conceptual connection” of the narrative (Bordwell 1972: 10). Strike (1925) and Mother (1926), directed by Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin respectively, are films made in the Soviet Montage era that show a juxtaposition between shots across the film. This essay discusses the different techniques used in these films that show the functions and effects of Montage.
According to film theorist Thomas Schatz, “a genre approach (to film) provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating the Hollywood cinema (Schatz vii).” His approach to film is strongly supported by theorist Edward Branigan’s and the narrative representation of character interaction (Branigan), and André Bazin’s arguments that the objective reality pressed against audience interpretation.