Sergei Eisenstein: The man who pioneered montage
The montage is perhaps the most recognisable editing technique in cinema, appearing in anything from a war epic to a teen comedy. Montages often condense necessary information into an easily digestible chunk, giving audiences vital context without drawing out the film’s runtime. While montages are used so frequently, and often frivolously, in modern cinema, it’s easy to forget the technique’s political and revolutionary roots.
One of the most prominent advocates for montage was Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, who used the editing technique in his early silent films, such as Battleship Potemkin and Strike. The filmmaker began his career in the theatre, taking inspiration from Japanese kabuki theatre. Soon, he transitioned to cinema, bringing the meaning of his work to life with innovative editing techniques.
Soviet Montage Theory emerged when Lev Kuleshov proposed that by editing contrasting images together, different emotions could be evoked each time. For example, a close-up of a man’s face followed by a bowl of food could suggest hunger, while the same image of the man followed by a beautiful woman could evoke desire. The Kuleshov effect is a widely used technique which became a springboard for theorists and filmmakers like Eisenstein, whose movies were defined by editing.
Eisenstein’s first feature, Strike, released in 1925, chronicles the suppression of striking workers in 1903. To convey the oppressive nature of the government, police and army, Eisenstein used extremely fast-paced editing, with each shot lasting about 2.5 seconds. This gave the movie a punchy intensity, conveying the chaos of the proletariat’s subjugation.
However, the film is best known for its use of montage, with Eisenstein editing images of slaughtered animals in between the striking workers. Here, he compares the government’s treatment of workers as inhuman and as senseless as the murder of innocent animals. Moreover, images of cows with their throats slit will undoubtedly unsettle viewers, inspiring a greater physical reaction to the events presented on screen.
The filmmaker believed that “montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots” where “each sequential element is perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other”. The political landscape of Russia during the 1910s and 1920s was vital to developing these cinematic techniques, with Eisenstein’s movies acting as propaganda, utilising editing to evoke emotion and stir a sense of power and uprising in his audience.
Eisenstein’s attempt to make a “poetic film language” that could be understood by all revolutionised the potential of cinema as a political and social vessel. He believed there were several types of montage: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal and intellectual; the latter is best exemplified in the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin.
While Eisenstein wrote at great length on the theory of montage, at its core, the editing technique allows filmmakers to say more than their initial images suggest. Editing allows for the manipulation of raw material, with new meanings made out of contrasts and conflicts. Since Soviet filmmakers like Eisenstein pioneered montage, it has become one of the most essential techniques, yet it’s important to remember the initial revolutionary aims behind its creation.
