Sergei Eisenstein
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This paper is an examination of the theoretical shift which Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein made in his epistemology of film. Eisenstein focused specifically on the essential importance of montage in the syntax of art, eventually changing his views on the role and purpose that montage plays in the creation and perception of a work of art. In his earlier writings, he sees montage, the ways in which images and other elements are combined by the artist and presented to the audience, as a conflict which should be designed to provoke specific thoughts. In his later writings, he began to view montage's purpose as a means of producing harmony and emotional response, beyond the specifically political. An epistemology is concerned with a way of knowing, and Eisenstein's theories of the way in which film allows the viewer to know changed from believing principally in rationalism to arguing that knowing comes more forcefully through empirical experience. In many respects, his epistemological shift represents a maturation of understanding, as he began to embrace the broader perceptions that art makes possible, including the notion that the artist cannot exert total control but must instead include the viewer in order to complete the process. David Bordwell was one of the first film theorists to propose the existence of "a marked schism in Eisenstein's oeuvre: one autonomous theory dominates the 1923-1930 phase of his career, another dominates the 1930-1948 phase" ("Shift" 32
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His greatest concern at this stage becomes the overall theme of the work. He now sees montage as essential to illuminating the theme, and theme itself is now a more emotive concept than an intellectual idea.
Eisenstein uses a detailed passage from Leonardo da Vinci's notes, describing an elaborate painting the artist was planning of a great flood. Although the painting was never completed, Eisenstein observes that da Vinci's notes "are laid out on principles more appropriate to the arts that are extensive in time rather than space" ("Montage" 307). In other words, da Vinci's description is highly cinematic, outlining the way in which the artist intended to lead the viewer's eye through the complexities of the scene and evoke a subsequent emotional response to the dramatic vision he was intending to create.
Eisenstein describes the effect of such a montage process:
A certain image hovers in front of the author's inward eye, an image which for him is an emotional embodiment of the theme of this work. He is then faced with the task of turning that image into two or three partial depictions, which in combination and juxtaposition will evoke in the mind and emotions of their perceiver precisely that initial generalised im
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Sergei Eisenstein, David Bordwell, Bloomington Indiana, Romanticism Shift, Selected Vol, , Shift Screen, Bordwell Screen, eisenstein selected vol, Harcourt Brace, 1988-1996 4, bloomington indiana 1988-1996, bloomington indiana, earlier writings, indiana 1988-1996, selected vol, 4 vols, epistemological shift, eisenstein selected, indiana 1988-1996 4, 1988-1996 4 vols, writings eisenstein, da vinci's, earlier writings eisenstein,
Approximate Word count = 1887
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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