Montage (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Montage is a French word, translated as a verb, to edit, or a masculine noun, assembly. Its English etymology is from the French verb monter, translated in English as to mount'.[1]
In the context of film studies and production, montage may refer to:
- the basic process of editing film
- a "montage sequence", a segment which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information (e.g., the passing of the seasons or a long training regimen)
- a style of editing propounded by Soviet filmmakers in the 1920s
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[edit] Soviet montage theory
Among Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and others, Sergei Eisenstein is today the best-known of the Soviet montage theorists of the 1920s. He described five varieties of montage in his introductory essay "Word and Image". These varieties of montage build one upon the other so the "higher" forms also include the approaches of the "simpler" varieties. In addition, the "lower" types of montage are limited to the complexity of meaning which they can communicate, and as the montage rises in complexity, so will the meaning it is able to communicate (primal emotions to intellectual ideals). It is easiest to understand these as part of a spectrum where, at one end, the image content matters very little, while at the other it determines everything about the choices and combinations of the edited film.
Metric - where the editing follows a specific number of frames (based purely on the physical nature of time), cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image. This montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional of reactions in the audience.
Rhythmic - includes cutting based on time, but using the visual composition of the shots -- along with a change in the speed of the metric cuts -- to induce more complex meanings than what is possible with metric montage. Once sound was introduced, rhythmic montage also included audial elements (music, dialogue, sounds).
Tonal - a tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots -- not just manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics -- to elicit a reaction from the audience even more complex than from the metric or rhythmic montage. For example, a sleeping baby would emote calmness and relaxation.
Overtonal/Associational - the overtonal montage is the cumulation of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage to synergize its affect on the audience for an even more abstract and complicated effect.
Intellectual - uses shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual meaning.[2] For example, a shot of striking workers being attacked cut with a shot of a bull being slaughtered (in Eisenstein's Strike) creates a film metaphor suggesting that the workers are being treated like cattle. This meaning does not exist in the individual shots; it only arises when they are juxtaposed.
Eisenstein's montage theories are based on the idea that montage originates in the "collision" between different shots in an illustration of the idea of thesis and antithesis. This basis allowed him to argue that montage is inherently dialectical, thus it should be considered a demonstration of Marxism and Hegelian philosophy. His collisions of shots were based on conflicts of scale, volume, rhythm, motion (speed, as well as direction of movement within the frame), as well as more conceptual values such as class.
[edit] Examples
- Metric example from Eisenstein's October.
- Rhythmic example from Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo where the protagonist and the two antagonists face off in a three-way duel, or another Rhythmic example from The Battleship Potemkin's Odessa steps sequence.
- Tonal example from the Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin. This is the clip following the death of the revolutionary sailor Vakulinchuk, the who was the sailors' and workers' martyr.
- Overtonal example from Pudovkin's Mother. In this clip, the men are workers walking towards a confrontation at their factory, and later in the movie, the protagonist uses ice as a means of escape.[3].
- Intellectual example from Eisenstein's Strike. The first group of people are the workers, the second is the military.
[edit] Counter theories
The editing of motion pictures has been a focus for various theories of cinematic realism, where editing is usually rejected as manipulative and propagandistic. In place of editing, critics such as André Bazin have argued in favor of the long take where the action plays out without continuity editing or the manipulations of Soviet montage.
[edit] Meta-references
- In the South Park episode, "Asspen", and in Team America: World Police, a puppetry action/drama musical, there is a song about the use of montage sequences in motion pictures.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense trans. Jay Leyda, Harcort, Brace and Company, 1942, 1947.
- Sergei Eisenstein, Film Form trans. Jay Leyda, Harcort, Brace and Company, 1949.
- Greg M. Smith, "Moving Explosions: Metaphors of Emotion in Sergei Eisenstein's Writings," Quarterly Review of Film and Video 21.4 (October-November 2004) 303-315. Available online.
