Eisenstein

Sergi, oh Sergi.

The great master of the juxtaposition.

Fun times ahead.

Sergi was a revolutionary.  He was a film artist I believe.

Artist in the sense of the word that he had a vision, and whether or not that vision worked with the mainstream fare of cinema at the time was of less concern than seeing his vision through to its natural conclusion.

His most famous films are Battleship Potemkin, Strike and October (the Revolution Trilogy)

It's impossible to separate Sergi from the communist state.  The communists, under Lenin, wanted to use film as a propaganda tool.  They weren't evil, everyone was at it, once they realised the long reach of cinema to be watched by millions and yet still be an intensely personal experience.

Sergi's work in his early films reflected strongly the values of Soviet Russia but this doesn't detract from its power.

His main preoccupation, and the central theme of his poetic theory of editing was that all, yes, ALL, cinema should be concerned with MONTAGE.

Montage was the positioning or 'collision' of two shots to create a reaction with the audience.

Back to, her anger burned like the sun, I drank some water and watched the wind.

Hmm.  Dunno about that one.

Anyway.  Eisenstein moved the ball along with his approach.  He showed that you could employ metaphorical techniques to cinema with some interesting and often startling results.

The one always wheeled out to exemplify this point is in Strike! where he juxtaposes a strike by factory workers, and their violent slaughter, with images of cattle being slaughtered.

The music is added by the way, it was a silent film and much better watched that way. Turn the noise of and try and feel what the editor was getting at.



Charlie Chaplin did something similar with sheep (and the black sheep) at the start of Modern Times.

Go to 1.10 to see what I'm talking about.