Sergei Diaghilev

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…

Soviet Montage was a bold new theory of editing invented by Sergei Eisenstein. This new theory of montage allowed Eisenstein to make the audience think whatever he wanted them to think by arranging striking juxtapositions of individuals shots to suggest an idea that goes further than using a single shot to portray a message. It is an idea that ‘derives from the collision between two [or more] shots that are independent of one another’. (Taylor, Powell, pg 163) These montage sequences create…

and a joyful adult, yet the first shot was always the same” ( Ken Dancyger, The technique of film and video editing, the silent period, chapter 1). This is what I mentioned earlier about the audience being able to draw conclusions about the story. SERGEI EISENSTEIN was another soviet filmmaker and lived the same time that Pudovkin lived. Eisenstein was the first to theorize film editing as a clash of images and ideas. His theory was called the theory of montages and had 5 components namely…

Amidst a sea of political propaganda in Russia, arose a man who would forever revolutionize film editing, a man named Sergei Eisenstein. Eisenstein recognized five unique styles of editing, and named them the Metric Montage, Rhythmic Montage, Tonal Montage, Overtonal Montage, and Intellectual Montage. To this day, he has inspired many filmmakers with his montage theories, especially those of the early music video industry. One music video in particular, Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes…

German Expressionism’s goal was to express feelings in the most extreme and straightforward fashion and used distortion to show an emotion rather then a facial appearance. Soviet Dialecticism used film “montage” to show collisions of different elements. The Dialecticism goal was to convey characteristics and sensations in the most direct fashion. German Expressionism’s narrative structure was formed from legends and the actions of the supernatural, while Soviet Dialecticism’s narrative…

“Battleship Potemkin is a 1925 silent film that was directed by Sergei Eisenstein and produced by Mosfilm.” The film is composed of five different acts, each portraying different concepts and meanings. Act IV: “Odessa Steps Sequence” is one of the most admired scenes of the film. “It has been described as one of the most influential scenes in the history of cinema because the concepts of film editing and montage were introduced to cinema.” Sergei Eisenstein believed that creating ideas together…

According to Tyler, “cinema was the ideal propaganda weapon for the second quarter of the twentieth century.” With the spread of communism in USSR in the 1920s, Soviet films- especially soviet montage was influenced by it. This essay will be exploring the ways in which Soviet montage film form or aesthetics have been affected by state ideology. In 1905, there was a turmoil and social unrest in Russia. Russian citizens, especially working class, who were outraged at their government began to…

Introduction Movies are entertainment and they tell stories about characters going through experiences. But what exactly is the content of the film? To find richer meaning in film, a variety of theories are developed to analyze films in order to understand how they created responses in viewers and just what they might mean. Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) is presented by its non-linear narrative structure. It provides the viewer with the ‘clues’ necessary to decode the film and help them to…

Battleship Potemkin Battleship Potemkin is a revolutionary film that was shot in 1925 with a political purpose as well as protecting the blacks from the Abortive Revolution. Potemkin film is paramount in watching since it gives an experience that transcends on its landmark and its milestone status. Its dazzling technique makes it unique, and the revolutionary service gives a lot experience to the viewers. In this case, the filmmaker was trying to inform us how the massacre on the Odessa steps…

December Composer of the Week Borodin Borodin was born on October 31, 1833, in St. Petersburg Russia. Borodin grew up in comfortable circumstances, as his father was a Georgian prince and his Mother a army doctor’s wife. He was a child prodigy who was able to play piano, flute, cello, and compose music. From 1850 to 1856 Borodin studied at Medico-Surgical Academy, specializing in chemistry. From 1859 to 1862 he studied in Western Europe before returning to Russia. In Russia he became a…