MONTAGE … AGAIN

PUDOVKIN / KULESHOV / VERTOV

VSEVELOD ILLARIONOVICH PUDOVKIN

• (1893-1953)

• educated in chemistry at Moscow University

• three-hear internment in a Pomerianian prisoner-of-war camp

• back in Moscow in 1918, he entered the State Cinema School,

mentor, Lev Kuleshov.

• Pudovkin argued that individual shots should be conjoined more

in the manner of linkage rather than Eisensteinian collision.

• He believed that the practice of montage, of alternating long shots with

close-ups, cutaways, and flashbacks was analogous to the way the human

mind and the eye conspire to perceive and process information about the

real world.

• “The film technician, in order to secure the greatest clarity, emphasis, and

vividness,” he wrote, “shoots the scene in separate pieces and, joining them

and showing them, directs the attention of the spectator to the separate

elements, compelling him to see as the attentive observer saw. . . . The

sequence of the pieces must not be uncontrolled, but must correspond to the

natural transference of attention of an imaginary observer.”

• He rejected those methods, standard at the time, of exactly coinciding the

image with its sound source. Used in that way, he argued, “sound will

destroy the art of montage.” Rather, “only the use of sound as counterpoint

to visual montage offers new possibilities of developing and perfecting

montage..” In sum, sound is neither more nor less important than the image,

but should be considered as “a new element of montage,” insuring the artistic

future of the film medium.

• Never lost sight of the individual face and humanity behind the formal

experiments and the ideologies of his stories. 1:20

“For myself,” he wrote, “I define montage as an all inclusive discovery and

explanation of the interrelationships of the phenomena of real life. . . .”

LEV KULESHOV

• 1899-1970

• Studied Painting after 1910 in Moscow

• Began designing sets for movies in 1916.

• Studied American montage ("short shot" construction)

• Conceived of the "creative geography/anatomy" approach to editing

Earlier Work:

• "Filmness" of cinema--cinema quintessentially the ordering of strips of film

• Assembly of shots more important than their subject

• “Film is built brick by brick”

• Actors as "manniquins" and "models” typage

• THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF MR. WEST (1924)

• "The Mozhukin Experiment"

NEW DIRECTIONS

• More importance laced on making meaning reality filmed, actors directed, personal influence of director

• Editing is NEEDED, but is not sole aspect of film as art, not origin of cinematic specificity

• Editing creates overall concept/feel/message CNN / FOX News / MSNBC

• Trailers Catfish, Documentaries

• Kulsehov became concerned with UNDERSTANDING success with audiences

• Which scenes elicit a reaction / which reaction / building blocks analyzed

• US, European and Russian Film Why Montage emerged as main specificity

• Consoling Art

• Montage creates meaning by creating ‘sentences’, “semantic comprehension” for audiences

INTRA-SHOT MONTAGE, MONTAGE & IDEOLOGY

• (The) Shining

DZIGA VERTOV

Born Denis Kaufman (1864-1954)

Proponent of the Marxist Cinema

Founder of KINO-EYE

”Revolutionary Capacity of Cinema”

Most renowned essay is: “”Film Directors: A

Revolution” and with this essay greatly

influenced Jean Luc Goddard and Chris Maker

Films have the possibility to revolutionize the World

INFLUENCES:

• His work was mostly influenced by the Avant-gardes – leading to problems in the 1930’s

when Soviet “socialist Realism” became more popular and Vertov’s experimental work

was considered artistic elitism and alienating to the population;

• He emphasizes in his cinema work: MACHINES/ CITIES/ SPEED

• Like Kuleshov had originally done, Vertov places the utmost importance on editing as a

constructionist’s tool of creation

• He sought to use the camera to DECODE that which is invisible to the naked eye for the

visible world

• Just like Epstein, Vertov considered Hollywood’s narrative style a shackle for the camera

and its artistic possibilities

• He considered Sound as important to the dialectic power of cinema

“FILM DIRECTORS: A REVOLUTION” (1923)

1. As of 1919 films do not work towards an “emancipation of the film camera” – camera

remains enslaved to the human eye

1. Sciences on the sidelines

2. Has to capture the “visual phenomena, which evoke spatial dimension”

3. Wrong-Cranking: Accidents yet apparent irregularities which probe and organize

phenomena

4. Until now The better the Copy the better… shackling the cinematographer and the

camera

2. CAMERA SHOULD NOT BE IN POSITION OF THE SPECTATOR

1. Spectators all see something different – Camera CANNOT allow for that

2. Instead it drags the eye to specified point on screen

CONT’D

3. One Scene’s location can be created from various locations the cinematographer

constructs the world we see.

4. Freed from human immobility the camera needs to embrace PERPETUAL MOTION

5. Cinema embraces the DIVISION OF FUNCTIONS sound and vision are not one!

Asynchronous Sound

CINEMA PROVIDES AN ESCAPE, SO WHY CREATE A COUNTERFEIT VERSION OF THAT

WHICH WE LIVE IN ALREADY?

For Vertov, highly skilled Montage-Editors are key to cinema fulfilling its promise

Cinema has no need for: DRAMAS, LITERARY ADAPTATIONS, THEATRICAL

PRODUCTIONS Vertov seeks the VISUAL NEWSREEL

ROBOCOP - 1987

Paul Verhoeven