Towards a Theory of Montage

Sergei Eisenstein Selected Works, Volume 2 by Sergei M. Eisenstein

By Sergei Eisenstein

1992

First Published

4.12

Average Rating

438

Number of Pages

13H22M

Audio Length

I.B.Tauris is delighted to announce the reissue in paperback in three volumes of the definitive, most comprehensive edition, in the finest translations and fully annotated, of the writings of this great filmmaker, theorist and teacher of film - and one of the most original aesthetic thinkers of the twentieth century. The name of Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) is synonymous with the idea of montage, as exemplified in his silent classics such as "The Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and "October" (1927). In the 1930s his style changed, partly to accommodate the arrival of sound, and his ideas on audio-visual counterpoint developed. Between 1937 and 1940 he elaborated his ideas on montage in a series of essays, most of which remained unpublished until after his death and which are published in English for the first time in this volume. They present the essence of Eisenstein's thinking on cinema and aesthetics more generally and reveal him as one of the most significant philosophers of art of the twentieth century.

Avg Rating

4.12

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

36%

4 STARS

44%

3 STARS

16%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Sergei Eisenstein

Author · 8 books

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a Soviet film director and film theorist, a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1928), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). In its 2012 decennial poll, the magazine Sight & Sound named his Battleship Potemkin the 11th greatest movie of all time. Eisenstein was among the earliest film theorists. He believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. He developed what he called "methods of montage": 1) Metric 2) Rhythmic 3) Tonal 4) Overtonal 5) Intellectual Eisenstein's articles and books—particularly Film Form and The Film Sense—explain the significance of montage in detail. His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers.