Eisenstein

Usually I read the assigned article before the Monday night class so I can look for things that are discussed while watching the film, but that was not the case this week. While watching Battleship Potemkin I noticed how the shots together seemed choppy, and the amount of them there were. Later, in reading the article, I understood that the movie did not have the normal flow of shots because Eisenstein looked at montage differently than classic Hollywood cinema did. The article discusses his idea of montage as shots 'in conflict.' One quote that I felt was appropriate for how the movie looked to my eye was "if montage is to be compared with something, then a phalanx of montage pieces, of shots, should be compared to the series of explosions of an internal combustion engine, driving forward its automoblie or tractor..." (134).

The article includes screenshots from the "Stairs of Odessa" scene, and this is a perfect example of how the rapid succession of varied shots creates the sense of pandemonium in the audience member as the people on the screen are feeling. There are all types of shots that are utilized: close-ups of faces, body parts, long shots, medium shots, tracking shots, all jumbled together to create a feeling of chaos. Eisenstein's montage technique is utilized throughout the whole movie, which is probably the reason that I noticed it while I was watching the movie, not knowing it was actually something he purposely set out to do because that was his idea of how montage should be.