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Pudovkin (a Russian film director) once said: “In every art there must be first a material, and secondly, a method of composing this material specifically adapted to this art…” The true art, according to Lev Kuleshov comes from putting together the film after it has been planned and filmed. A film edited together differently will have a different result. Montage Theory And Russian Film
Russian Film School • In Moscow in1919, the government founded a film school called Moscow Film School or VGIK. It was meant to train actors and technicians for the cinema, of course. • It’s the most respected and first of its kind in the world. • The main purpose the government had in making it is to have filmmakers to make propaganda (agitprop) and newsreels or agitki.
Lev Kuleshov and the Kuleshov Effect • He helped establish the Moscow Film School and worked there. • The Kuleshov Workshop: focused on editing. In 1919 his goal was to discover the laws by which film communicates meaning to an audience. • Part of the Workshop involved using prints of the film Intolerance and watching it over and over again. They even cut up the film and re-edited it in different ways to see if there were different meanings. (They also didn’t have money for film stock.) • They figured out: 1) Shot itself has meaning 2) The meaning it acquires when combined with other shots is important • You could create metaphors and meanings through montage. http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc
DzigaVertov • DzigaVertov’s Theory: the movement between shots is most important. He mostly made documentary and other films. • He started as a cameraman and started experimenting with the way a film is put together to see if the meaning changes. • He made documentaries but he experimented with reality and did not really have stories. • His doctrine is called kino-glaz or cinema eye.
VertovContinued • Kino-glaz continued: the purpose is to reveal the truth of everyday experiences. • Can put shots together into a meaningful whole (montage: the process of organizing shots or sequences of film) • Three Phases: 1. montage evaluation-select theme by observations 2.montage synthesis-scout locations, plan shots 3. montage-editing by organizing shots with overall theme His other Theories: • Ultimately, making you uncomfortable was also good. Taking a look at things in an unfamiliar way. • Also he thought that human vision is flawed. The camera can slow down/ speed up and zoom in/out and such so he uses the term camera-eye to talk about the camera’s eye. • DzigaVertov (1929)- Vertov tried to liberate cinema from theater/literature. Comments on politics-showing poverty, industrialization- compares people with machines. He likes to be self-reflexive and have cameras in shots.
Sergei Eisenstein’s Theory • Sergei Eisenstein: Father of montage • His theory was that the content of shots was most important. They must have conflict. And there’s more conflict by putting shots together. (How is this different from Vertov?) • Eisenstein: A+B=X vs. A=B=AB Euro/U.S. • The Psychological school (of thought)- Russian films focused on emotional/psychological conflicts of characters mostly through acting style • Dialectical montage-conflict between 2 forces "the collision of independent shots” • Elliptical editing/cutting: rapid cutting has meaning so shots are brief but there are more shots
The Films • Sergei Eisenstein made: The Battleship Potemkin. He makes political movies mostly. No one main character; it’s a group film. It was made in 1925 but takes place in 1905 when sailors rebel against their officers alongside the Russian Revolution. Based on some true events. • DzigaVertov made: Man with a Movie Camera in 1929. It shows poverty, class, and life in Russia at the time. It has no story and is considered an avant-garde film. It’s a film about a film and he compares people to machines in it. • Russian film in general: they had an insistence on sad/tragic endings but they would have a happy ending if they were exporting it to another country.
