Montage Class I

Mise en scene Putting in the shot

Montage Putting together the shots (from the verb 'monter' to build or edit)

The issue is whether to talk about mise en scene first or montage first

Historically the theoretical emphasis on mise en scene comes later than that of montage the
seemingly opposite positions of Eisenstein and Andre Bazin

The interdependence of mise en scene and montage

Reference: 'Montage: My Fine Care' in 'Godard on Godard' by Jean-Luc Godard (p. 39 41)

Montage: Film-historical sense

In the linear notion of film history 'montage' is mostly associated with post-revolution Russian
school(s) and is differentiated and contrasted from continuity-based editing, i.e. 'decoupage'.
The difference is more of ideological in nature, and shaped by the immediate nature of relationship
with the films with their respective spheres of audience in America and Russia

Montage: General sense

Editing in general, various approaches to put together shots highlighting the relationship among
the shots
A process in which a number of short shots are woven together to communicate a great deal of
information in a short time
A dialectical process that creates a third meaning out of the original two meanings of the
adjacent shots (ref. How to Read A Film James Monaco, ed. 2000, p.216)

American Montage Cutting down the 'extra', the 'unnecessary' parts, similar to the view of sculpture
Continuity montage
Parallel montage
Accelerated montage
Flashback
Involuted montage

To look at Russian montage against American continuity, Bordwell and Thompson talks about
'discontinuity' editing. Spatial, temporal, conceptual relations are built to be interpreted while the
smooth flow of narrative is sacrificed. (Ref. Film Art Discontinuity editing in October, p. 257
261)
October (dir. Eisenstein 01:30 08:26)

Russian Montage Building through the juxtaposition of shots

Based on 'relation' (Pudovkin)
Poetic montage (Dovzhenko)
Conflict, contrast, opposition thesis antithesis - sysnthesis structure (Eisenstein)
Merging and colliding human and mechanical perceptions (Dziga Vertov)
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Pudovkin: 'As an instrument of impression ' Relational editing mostly as a psychological guide to
the audience for the better comprehension of the narrative and as tool for the scenarist (ref. Film
Technique and Film Acting, p. 75 78)
Contrast (ideational, already implicit, to make it explicit)
Parallelism (temporal but not necessarily linked to one another, but one hinting the other)
Symbolism (conceptual, qualifying in nature, outside the scope of the narrative, Strike by
Eisenstein 01:22:38 01:33:23)
Simultaneity (temporal, one causing the other)
Leitmotif (thematic pronouncement by reiteration)

For Pudovkin the list is not exhaustive but just few possible examples of relation in constructional
editing

... the combination of various in one or pieces in one or another order is not sufficient. It is necessary
to be able to control and manipulate the length of these pieces because the combination of pieces of
varying length, Is effective in the same way as the combination of sounds of various length in music,
by creating the rhythm of the film and by means of their varying effect on the audience. Quick short
pieces rouse excitement, while long pieces have a soothing effect.

To be able to find the order of shots or requisite pieces, and the rhythm necessary for their
combination that is the chief task of the director's art. This art we call constructive editing or montage.
It is with the help of montage that I am able to only solve the problems of such complexity as work on
the artist's acting. Film Technique, Pudovkin

Mother (dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin, 1926) 00:02:53 00:07:27

Deleuze Pudovkin has shown montage involving dialectics of quantitative progression and qualitative
leap for example the specific looks in certain shots in the film Mother shows qualitative shift in
internal realization and consciousness while the other shots map the narrative environment
(ref. Cinema 1 Gilles Deleuze, chapter on 'montage')

Dovzhenko
Arsenal (1928) 00:35 09:51
Earth (1930) 00:54 09:42

Ref. Andrei Tarkovsky: Elements of Cinema p.15

In the best works of early Soviet cinema, such as Pudovkin's Mother (1926) and Dovzhenko's early
films Arsenal (1929) and Earth (1930), critic Adrian Piotrovsky saw the rise of an 'emotional cinema'
and a 'lyrical' cinema, dominated by the close-up and long take. Perhaps more important than any
particular technique, however, is the way that these films shifted the centre of the film's meaningfulness
from the story to the viewer's creative reconstruction of it. Alexander Bakshy saw poetic cinema as
rejecting the model of representation and revealing instead the modes in which we present the world to
each other.''In general', Shklovsky agreed, 'the point is not the structure of the montage, bur the method
of the artist's attitude towards nature, in the type of attention which he teaches the viewer.'
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 Montage Class II

Dziga Vertov
Man with a Movie Camera 00:06:57 16:45

Camera-truth (Kino-Pravda) through camera-eye (Kino-Eye)

The independence and mobility of camera-vision even beyond the limit of human subjectivity

Reading ref. 'The Birth of Kino-Eye' by Dziga Vertov in 'Kino-eye: The Writings of Dziga
Vertov', Pluto Press, 1984 p. 40 42

The issue of montage in sound era Pudovkin's response to treat a sequence in Mother through sound
montage

Eisenstein: montage of conflict, collision, shock

Idea of 'Montage of Attractions' from theater shock, surprise to shape the audience psyche for social
task
Details of Eisenstein's theater production of 'The Wiseman' by Alexander Ostrovsky in 1923 in 'The
Cinema of Eisenstein' by David Bordwell
Eisenstein incorporated clownish acts, acrobatics, low comedy and splintered the three-act play by
Ostrovsky.
Expression of emotion through flamboyant physical stunts like expressing anger at a caricature by
hurling through a portrait and rolling into a somersault
Abrupt shift of action, very oblique representation of situation the plot-line had to be read in advance
for comprehension
Theater stage resembling circus arena, one actor walking on tightrope over the audience, firecrackers
exploding under the audience seats can all these be compared to some extent with the idea of 'theater
of cruelty' by Antonin Artaud?

Eisenstein refined his ideas of Montage from 1923 to 1938 and beyond.
Ref. 'Montage in 1938' in 'Problems of Film Direction' by Eisenstein

His reference of Japanese theater, Maupassant story as elaborations of his ideas of montage

For Eisenstein the montage should be connected to the central thematic of the film

In the later years Eisenstein duly considered montage as an important mode to comprehend reality
Eisenstein lessons in montage (09:37 17:52)

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Eisenstein talks about his famous five kinds of montage in 'Film Form'
Metric (length parameter of shots)
Rhythmic (the consideration graphical and movement elements in determining the lengths of
shots)
Tonal (from tone of visual space, picture, painting) (Battleship Potemkin 32:05 34:42)
Overtonal (from overtones of sound and music) (Old and New 34:10 40:07)
Intellectual (creation of a generalized concept beyond the scope of individual images)
(October 25:29 31:50)

Is pure metric montage possible? We always comprehend the images with its visual quality and
content. Though the length of the shots are arithmetically determined, our temporal response and
appropriation would vary depending on the contents and characteristics of the shots

It is possible that intellectual montage would work better it is arranged metrically.

Eisenstein's liberal use of non-diegetic images in intellectual montage

Overtonal montage is the most sophisticated one by Eisenstein opening up possibilities in

explorations of duration (ref. 'Filmic Fourth Dimension' Eisenstein)
'Methods of Montage' Eisenstein
'The Montage of Attractions' Eisenstein
'The Montage of Film Attractions' Eisenstein

Andre Bazin's selective critique of montage as it always leads to an inferential space which is not
present inherently within the images
Bazin's foregrounding of pro-filmic nature as key quality to cinema things happening in front of
camera at a given point of time
Time of mise en scene concrete, temporal, indexical mark spatial relations are directly perceivable
Time of montage abstract within the conceptual realm, beyond the indexicality spatial relations are
inferred
Ref. 'The Virtues and Limitations of Montage' in 'What is Cinema Vol. 1' (p. 41 52)

Godard's theoretical assimilation of mise en scene and montage

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1964)
21:05 29:05

In Kumar Shanai's Kasba the integration of mise en scene and montage

40:18 45:10
Ref. 'The Relevance of Montage Today' Kumar Shahani

Contemporary examples of montage practices:

Hawamahal 46:58 49:28
Chitrasutram 56:37 59:43

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