Russian formalism and Pierrot le fou
In this essay I will apply the ideas of Sergei Eisenstein to Jean-Luc Godard's film, Pierrot le fou: one of the first road movies. Both are two filmmakers who seek to create transcendental movies through a methodical use of editing and offering a political and controversial vision of the time in history to which they belonged. One is linked to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the other one is a contemporary of May 68, two of the most important events in human history. We can find strong similarities between their works and this essay will show how related they were in the field of montage and the use of sound.
Eisenstein thought that montage had a great potential: it served as a base during the process of creating messages. He understood cinema as a discourse in which all parts and their meanings are important: he promulgates the value of all. Exactly what made communism. Hence, his films have been often considered a pamphlet of the regime. He proposed both in theory and in practice the idea that the juxtaposition of shots and frames goes beyond the simple sum of images. This may seem complex, but he meant that the images are not isolated, they …show more content…
During the 30s, he rebuilt his concept of editing as head of an organizational unit. His interest in synesthesia and its desire to include sound in this theory led him to develop the technique of vertical montage. The basic premise of his method was based on the Marxist concept of dialectics. Therefore, the equation was simple: thesis + antithesis = synthesis. Subsequently, the Russian filmmaker suggested four vertical editing styles in his work "The Film Sense" (1942). In order to produce emotional, thematic and visual resonances: the metric, rhythmic, melodic and tonal montage . I will mainly focus on the latter and in the intellectual editing because they best apply to Pierrot le
In this essay I will apply the ideas of Sergei Eisenstein to Jean-Luc Godard's film, Pierrot le fou: one of the first road movies. Both are two filmmakers who seek to create transcendental movies through a methodical use of editing and offering a political and controversial vision of the time in history to which they belonged. One is linked to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the other one is a contemporary of May 68, two of the most important events in human history. We can find strong similarities between their works and this essay will show how related they were in the field of montage and the use of sound.
Eisenstein thought that montage had a great potential: it served as a base during the process of creating messages. He understood cinema as a discourse in which all parts and their meanings are important: he promulgates the value of all. Exactly what made communism. Hence, his films have been often considered a pamphlet of the regime. He proposed both in theory and in practice the idea that the juxtaposition of shots and frames goes beyond the simple sum of images. This may seem complex, but he meant that the images are not isolated, they …show more content…
During the 30s, he rebuilt his concept of editing as head of an organizational unit. His interest in synesthesia and its desire to include sound in this theory led him to develop the technique of vertical montage. The basic premise of his method was based on the Marxist concept of dialectics. Therefore, the equation was simple: thesis + antithesis = synthesis. Subsequently, the Russian filmmaker suggested four vertical editing styles in his work "The Film Sense" (1942). In order to produce emotional, thematic and visual resonances: the metric, rhythmic, melodic and tonal montage . I will mainly focus on the latter and in the intellectual editing because they best apply to Pierrot le