Sergei Eisenstein and Montage
Introduction
Early American cinema was driven by the spatial and temporal relationships of continuity editing to achieve a natural flow of action on the screen. Soviet filmmakers were more experimental and explored the deep structures of the form. Lev Kuleshov, for example, demonstrated how the arrangement of shots into a sequence could influence the emotions of the audience.
Sergei Eisenstein argued shots were more like cells – the smallest living units that form the larger organism. In the same way cells divide and evolve, shots are charged with energy and their “collision” produces meanings.
Montages, therefore, are organic processes of growth and conflict – not a sequence of static fragments. Eisenstein identified five distinct methods of montage: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, and intellectual.
We are going to explore Eisenstein’s framework with examples form Rocky (1976) which won Best Film Editing at the Academy Awards.
The Kuleshov Workshop
In our introduction to the Kuleshov effect, we described how the interpretation of a shot is influenced by its connection to other shots in the sequence. For example, the juxtaposition of a bowl of soup and an actor’s face suggests he is hungry:
If the first shot is replaced by a girl reposing on a chair, it now appears the actor is longing for his lover. By contrast, an image of a dead child in a coffin would suggest the actor is experiencing grief. Lev Kuleshov taught his students in the Moscow Film School that ideas were “expressed and built up from shot-signs” and compared shots to “bricks” – they only make sense when the wall is complete.
A cinematographer captures the semiotic raw material on film, but it is the editor who assembles the footage into a message.
However, Eisenstein dismissed “the old school of filmmaking” that defined “montage as a series of fragments”. He argued the juxtaposition of two different shots could create ideas and feelings that were greater than the sum of its parts. Perhaps the combination of the actor and soup could be interpreted figuratively as a criticism of the capitalist system.
The Five Methods of Montage
The production of meaning in a montage can come from the quality of the editing process. The series of shot-signs was merely one possible way editors could create meaning. Eisenstein offered five different methods.
Metric Montage
The most basic sequence is the metric montage with cutting determined by “the absolute length of the shots” rather than what is happening in the scene.
Editors can create tension by shortening the duration of the shots as the sequence progresses, so the audience feels a sense of acceleration even when the content remains the same. Longer and evenly paced shots could establish a calm and meditative tone. If the filmmaker wanted an oppressive tone, they could make the shots last even longer until the audience feels uncomfortable.
The “pulse-beat” of the sequence can be measured with mathematical precision like a waltz or a march. Or the consistent and natural flow of a boxer’s movement. Watch the iconic training montage from Rocky (1976):
The opening shot of the protagonist jogging through the trainyard lasts fifteen seconds. This is followed by a tracking shot through the street. Although there is a cut from a long shot to medium shot after five seconds, the beat lasts fifteen seconds. The image of Rocky running by the river and then speed bagging both last ten seconds. The athletic push ups last an impressive fifteen seconds.
The sprint along the shipyard lasts twenty seconds and the “Rocky Steps” lasts twenty-five seconds. The underdog is getting stronger.
This relentless regularity in beats of five helps encode the intensity of the training regime and the character’s determination to succeed. The audience are not conscious of the temporal relationship between the shots, but the metric montage helps “the organisation of our feeling”.
Rhythmic Montage
In this form of montage, the duration of the shot is derived from the “specific quality of the shot” and in “accordance with signs within the shot”. In other words, the length of the shot is equivalent to the movement on the screen.
The movement could be actual objects “within the scope of a shot”. A sequence featuring characters having a leisurely stroll through a park will be paced differently compared to a thrilling car chase. The fight between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed will help illustrate this method of montage.
The resolution to the narrative is incredibly dramatic. Importantly, the physical and psychological battle determines the rhythm of the cuts.
The shots are longer when the boxers are probing and feinting to find their ranges and feel out their opponents. They are also longer during the clinching. When the speed, intensity and accuracy of the punches increase, the cutting is faster to create a more visceral connection between the characters and the audience.
It is also worth mentioning the use of wipes and dissolves to hurry the film from round three to the later rounds. The audience has paid their money to watch to a film and not a boxing contest!
Eisenstein said the movement in the shot does not have to be physical because the “guiding lines of an immobile object” could also create a sense of motion. If a shot features a road leading into the distance, our eyes will naturally follow that line.
Look again at the fight between Rocky and Apollo. The use of ropes in the shots helps the audience make sense of the distance and depth between the characters by guiding our eyes. When the ropes stretch and shake under their weight, we have a greater appreciation of the action.
Tonal Montage
This form of montage is “built exclusively on the emotional resonance of the individual shots”. Instead of following specific lengths or rhythms, the shots are spliced together to evoke an emotional response from the audience.
The classification of montages is not easy. Even Eisenstein struggled. Consider the following shots from the opening of the ‘Mourning for Vakulinchuk’ sequence in his Battleship Potemkin (1925):
- the scarcely perceptible ripple on the water
- the slight bobbing of vessels at anchor
- the slowly swirling mist
- the seagulls landing slowly on the water
The arrangement of these shots might follow the slow and soft rhythmic vibrations of the elements, but Eisenstein was trying to combine the images “according to their emotional resonances” – the tonal order.
You might argue the training sequence in Rocky is a tonal montage because we are inspired by the images of the protagonist training in the gym and running through Philadelphia. It’s no surprise that visitors to the city try to copy the shot of Rocky sprinting up all seventy-two steps to the Museum of Art while listening to Gonna Fly Now.
However, this view ignores the metric precision of the editing. Boxing is more than ferocious aggression and endurance. Boxers need to have sharp timing as well and that is reflected in the editing process.
Eisenstein described how the tone of the montage can be measured by the variation of light, such as moving from the dark greys of night to the misty white of dawn, shifts between shallow and deep focus, the use of sound in the sequence, or contrasts in shapes.
Therefore, a better example of tonal montage from Rocky is the sequence which takes place the night before the fight. Drawn out by the long takes, the collision of the protagonist in the vast space of the empty arena emphasises his fear and vulnerability.
The emotional structure of the montage is established through the relationship between the medium shots of Rocky and the wide shots of the arena’s interior. The individual in the ring versus the crowd signified by the empty seats.
The whirring silence of the sequence is unsettling. You feel nervous for the character and hope that he can go the distance against the undefeated champion.
Overtonal Montage
This form of montage “distinguishes itself by taking account of all the stimulants in the shot”. Instead of relying on timing, movement or emotional vibrations, the overtonal montage synthesises all three to produce a more complex and immersive cinematic experience.
The ringing of the bell signifies the end of the fight between Rocky and Apollo. The music begins to swell and the narrative enters the last beat of the grand syntagma.
The pace of the cuts is slower than the frantic final round but then quickens as Adrian fights her way through the crowd and into the ring. This acceleration quickens our own pulse-beat, and we feel the energy of the characters. It is a metric montage.
The rhythm of the montage is determined by the chaos in the arena. The sequence features shots of Rocky surrounded by reporters, Adrian in the crowd, the announcer delivering the scores of the judges, Apollo celebrating his victory, Paulie being accosted by a security guard, and then the final embrace.
The tonal form is measured by the drained and broken face of Rocky contrasting with his love for Adrian. The sequence shifts from medium shots of the two characters surrounded by people to a close-up of the lovers occupying the entire frame.
The final sequence can be classified as an overtonal montage because of this deliberate pacing of the shots which also takes account of the movement in the scene and the emotional relationships.
Another way of looking at this form of montage is to think about it in terms of signification. The “quantitative” denotation of Rocky and Adrian embracing makes a “dialectal jump” to arrive at a “new qualitative” meaning. Put simply, Rocky’s true victory was proving his worth and finding love.
Intellectual Montage
The final order of montage moves beyond the emotional vibrations and physiological resonances of the overtonal montage and to evoke a “reaction in the tissues of the higher nervous system of the thought apparatus”. In other words, the intellectual montage makes us think critically about the world. We are now at the level of ideology.
Perhaps the intellectual montage is best illustrated by the opening shot of Rocky:
The image of Jesus Christ on a mural inside the dimly lit boxing gym introduces the working-class setting of the narrative. It also establishes the film’s themes of faith and redemption. As the camera moves to reveal Rocky, the audience are being asked to think about the protagonist in terms of suffering, resilience and personal salvation.
It is also possible to take an intellectual reading of the training montage. When Rocky runs through industrial areas, past factories, and alongside workers, the film is linking his journey to the struggles of the working class trying to succeed in difficult environments. The image of the protagonist reaching the top of the steps and then looking across the city of Philadelphia symbolises personal triumph and social mobility.
Great montages should have these explosions of meaning.
The Collision of Shots
Eisenstein argued montage was more than “a mechanical process of sticking pieces together” and “unrolling an idea through single shots”. He argued montages were characterised by “collision” and meanings were produced by the “conflict between two neighbouring fragments” that “explode into a concept”.
When we are watching a film, our eyes follow the lines of an object moving across the frame and then we follow the direction of a second element in the next shot. There is a collision between these two impressions. As we have already seen in our analysis of the five methods of montage, the conflict could be between shot levels, framing, spaces, volumes, colours, lighting, tempos, movement in the frames, and sounds.
In my view montage is not an idea composed of successive shots stuck together but an idea that DERIVES from the collision between two shots that are independent of one another.
The Marxist Dialectic
Eisenstein believed conflict was the essential basic principle of the existence of every work of art and every form. Although this ideology comes from the Marxist dialectic, it might be easier to start with Georg Hegel, a German philosopher, who argued the development of ideas was achieved through a process of contradiction and resolution:
- Thesis – the initial idea or condition
- Antithesis – a contradictory idea or condition that challenges the thesis
- Synthesis – the resolution of the conflict between these two ideas.
In terms of montage, think back to the opening image in Rocky. The representation of Jesus establishes the thesis of faith and redemption. The audience then applies this idea to the antithesis – the shot of Rocky fighting in the ring. The collision of these contradictory conditions explodes into a new concept that now sees Rocky’s journey as one of suffering, resilience and salvation.
The training montage is another good example of this thought process. The shots of Rocky running through the streets (thesis) are concluded with his triumphant climb to the top of the steps (antithesis). The audience recognises the contradiction between struggle and success, but then appreciate the tremendous effort it takes to win (synthesis).
Marx applied Hegel’s dialectic to economic and social contexts.
- Material Conditions – the basis of society is its economic structure, which influences all other aspects of life
- Class Struggle – the conflict between the bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and the proletariat (working class)
- Revolution – the resolution of class struggle through revolutionary change, leading to a new social order
Art is always conflict because it reveals the contradictions of society. Perhaps Eisenstein would have appreciated the collision between the representations of the working-class areas in the training sequence and the bourgeoisie art gallery at the end. Rocky is a story about class struggle.
Hieroglyphs
Eisenstein suggested cinema should be compared to systems of language. In the same way words acquire meaning when they form part of sentence, each shot has no reality until meanings are derived from the relationships to other shots in the sequence. It is really interesting to consider the principle of montage to the representational cultures of hieroglyphs.
First, the means of production determines the form of the signifier. For example, early depictions of horses in cave paintings were naturalistic. When the Chinese calligrapher, Ts’ang Chieh, used a stylus on a strip of bamboo in 2650 BC, the representation became slightly formalised. The hieroglyph then took on its present form after the inventions of brushes, paper and ink.
Forming a meaningful sentence from hieroglyphs is similar to cinematography and the interplay of signs, or shots, into a sequence. The technology is just more advanced.
Eisenstein also argued the “collision” of independent signifiers creates a new “concept” that is more than the total of their original meanings: the image of an ear next to a door means to listen and the juxtaposition of water and an eye can signify crying or sadness.
Consider the following haika from Japanese literature:
Ancient monastery.
Cold moon.
Wolf howling.
The three details produce a figurative mode that goes beyond the basic denotations of the words. A filmmaker could evoke a similar sort of psychological reaction with a combination of a long shot of the monastery, a time-lapse of the cold moon rising, and a close-up of a wolf howling.
The shot always remains an “ambiguous hieroglyph” and can only be understood in context.
Final Thoughts
A shot is “a tiny rectangle with some fragment of an event organised within it”. They are often described as the basic building blocks of cinema because you simply arrange the action into a sequence to create a narrative.
However, Sergei Eisenstein argued shots were more than static bricks and the editing process should be considered a form of artistic expression. His five methods of montage help explain how the editing process could evoke specific responses from the audience and express new meanings through the collision of shots.
You should watch the critically acclaimed Battleship Potemkin (1925) to see how the director put his framework into practice. It is an amazing piece of cinema.
