Academic literature on the topic 'Soviet montage'

This is a study of Soviet montage cinema and the British documentary movement of the 1930s which brings together two usually divergent methodologies: postcolonial theory and "new" film history. The first chapter develops new insights into Eisenstein's October and Vertov's The Man With the Movie Camera, The second analyses two less well-known Vertov films, One Sixth of the Earth and Three Songs of Lenin, from the perspective of postcolonial theory, The third considers Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia and traces its reception in both the Soviet Union and England. The fourth and fifth chapters expand general issues and themes raised by the first two, and pursue specific questions raised by the third. These final chapters resituate the work of the British documentary movement in relation to the culture of British imperialism. This shift of focus entails the analysis of the production and contemporary critical reception of a number of films which have been marginalised in most retrospective historical accounts of the movement. By recontextualising these two groups of films, this study attempts to demonstrate how their various representations of the non-Western world are intertwined with and necessarily involve considering other issues, such as: periodisation within film history; the "influence" of Soviet montage on the British documentary movement; the construction of authorship; the division between "high" and "low" culture; the relationship between politics and film aesthetics; the postcolonial challenge to Marxism; cinematic internationalism. The first two chapters also integrate an ongoing critique of certain trends within post-1968 film theory and criticism, which developed in close association with a retrieval and revaluation of Soviet montage cinema and Soviet avant-garde culture of the 1920s, One of the aims of this thesis is to question some of the assumptions of this work, whilst at the same time demonstrating that historical research, even as it attempts to reconstruct former contexts, need not consign its objects of study to the past, but can be used instead to raise questions relevant to the present. In this respect, the thesis tries to remain closer to the spirit of post-1968 than does much of the more recent, "new" historical research into Soviet cinema and the British documentary movement, to which it is nevertheless greatly indebted.

Cette thèse étudie le statut du dessin dans l'œuvre de Sergueï M. Eisenstein, à partir de l’étude des rapports entre dessin et montage, entre dessin et mise en scène et de l’examen de la nature intermédiale de l’œuvre d’Eisenstein. Dans le système de ce réalisateur le dessin est au cœur de son processus créatif et devient un milieu-médium à l’intérieur duquel des transferts, passages, transportations de formes, d’images et d’idées sont possibles. Eisenstein s’intéresse au dessin, à la fois, comme processus et comme méthode visuelle universelle de la créativité.On constate l’analogie entre la structure globale du film Ivan le Terrible et les axes essentiels de sa réflexion théorique, en particulier les principes de sa méthode créatrice (la pars pro toto, le MLB, la plasmaticité et le montage). Subordonnée à une architectonique spatio-temporelle rigoureuse, la structure du film est en même temps une structure ouverte, vivante en évolution perpétuelle, et cela tant à l’étape de sa conception qu’au niveau de sa perception et de sa post-analyse.Les analyses conduites dans cette thèse sur la production graphique d’Eisenstein, et à partir de celles-ci sur l’ensemble de ces travaux et de ces concepts, démontrent clairement la corrélation entre la structure de l’œuvre d’Eisenstein, en particulier pour celle du film Ivan le Terrible, et le fondement de son processus de pensée créative, processus qui traduit son propre rythme intérieur et la structure de sa conscience, les deux donnant l’impulsion à son expression artistique. Le dessin devient pour Eisenstein le milieu de réflexion sur lequel il s’appuie pour exposer la problématique du médium, mais aussi celle de l’histoire du cinéma en son lien avec l’histoire des médiums expressifs. Les dessins préparatoires constituent le médium visuel d’élaboration, de vérification et de mise en pratique de ses concepts théoriques dans une situation réelle de création de film.Eisenstein a ainsi constitué, à travers ce projet transversal et intermédial du film, un dispositif sphérique d’écriture de la méthode et de l’histoire générale du cinéma, en réalisant ainsi un modèle du « livre sphérique »<br>This thesis studies the status of drawing in the work of Sergei M. Eisenstein, based on the study of the relationship between drawing and montage, between drawing and staging and the examination of the intermedial nature of Eisenstein’s work. In the system of this film director, the drawing is at the heart of his creative process and becomes an environment-medium in which transfers, passages, transportations of shapes, images and ideas are made possible. Eisenstein is interested in drawing, both as a process and as a universal visual method of creativity. An analogy exists between the overall structure of the film Ivan the Terrible and the essential axes of his theoretical reflection, in particular the principles of his creative method (pars pro toto, MLB, plasmaticity and montage). Subordinated to a rigorous spatial and temporal architectonics, the structure of the film is at the same time an open, living structure, in perpetual evolution, this as much at the stage of its conception as at the level of its perception and its post-analysis.The analyzes led in this thesis on the graphic production of Eisenstein, and from them on all his works and concepts, clearly demonstrate the correlation between the structure of the work of Eisenstein, and in particular that of the film Ivan the Terrible, and the foundation of his creative thought process, a process that reflects his own inner rhythm and the structure of his consciousness, both giving an impetus to his artistic expression. Drawing becomes for Eisenstein the medium of reflection on which he relies to develop the problematic of the medium, but also the one of history of cinema in its connection with the history of expressive mediums. The preparatory drawings constitute the visual medium of elaboration, verification and putting into practice of his theoretical concepts in a real situation of film creation.Eisenstein thus constituted, through this transversal and intermedial film project, a spherical system of writing of the method and the general history of the cinema, thus realizing the model of the "spherical book"

Reprenant le concept de « choc » que Benjamin élabore sous influence freudienne, nous observons de quelle façon il affleure dans la littérature du XIXe siècle qui rend compte par lui de l’apparition des masses dans la grande ville moderne (Baudelaire, Nerval, Gogol, Zola, Huysmans, etc.). Au cours de ces réflexions nous le considérons toujours en lien avec son pendant qu’est l’aura, et observons la dialectique qui sans cesse se rejoue au cours du siècle entre ces deux pôles. C’est par ce biais que nous abordons le cinéma comme art du choc, observant les lignes généalogiques qui le rattachent à cette figure esthétique de la modernité, véritable « beauté moderne » (Baudelaire, Benjamin) ou « nouvelle inclinaison de l’aura » (Didi-Huberman). Dans ce contexte nous analysons en détail l’influence de La Baraque de foire d’Alexandre Blok, œuvre selon nous emblématique de la dialectique du choc et de l’aura, ainsi que celle des débats qui l’ont accompagnée – impliquant en premier lieu le cinématographe (Biély) –, sur la génération des pionniers soviétiques du cinéma, et plus particulièrement sur Eisenstein et sa construction du célèbre concept d’« attraction ». Enfin nous observons chez Gilles Deleuze la façon dont le « choc », conçu en partie à la suite d’Eisenstein et de son « attraction », qui devait favoriser la naissance d’un nouvel art et d’une nouvelle pensée, a été dévoyé dans la guerre. Nous nous nourrissons alors de l’apparente hésitation du philosophe entre taxinomie et histoire dans son diptyque sur le cinéma pour nous interroger sur le devenir de la figure du choc à l’épreuve de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, comme sur ce qui subsiste des espoirs quant au cinéma en tant qu’art des masses et nouvelle pensée après cet événement traumatique mondial<br>Using the concept of “shock” that Benjamin develops under a Freudian influence, we observe how it emerges in nineteenth century’s literature which demonstrates the appearance of masses in the large modern city (Baudelaire, Nerval, Gogol, Zola, Huysmans, etc.). During this reflexion we always consider it in relation with its counterpart that is the aura, and we observe the dialectic which constantly re-enacts itself during the century between these two poles. It is through this channel that we approach the cinema as the art of shock, observing the genealogical lines which relate it to this aesthetic figure of modernity, true “modern beauty” (Baudelaire, Benjamin) or “new aura inclination” (Didi-Huberman). In this context, we analyse in detail the influence of The Fairground Booth of Alexander Blok, which is according to us, an emblematic work of the dialectic of shock and aura, as well as the influence of the debates which accompanied it – firstly involving the cinematograph (Bely) –, on the generation of Soviet pioneers in cinema, and more specifically on Eisenstein and his construction of the famous concept of “attraction”. Finally, we observe in Gilles Deleuze’s work the way the “shock”, partly conceived following Eisenstein and his “attraction”, which was meant to promote the birth of a new art and a new Thought, has been led astray by the war. We then use the philosopher’s apparent hesitation between taxonomy and history in his diptych on cinema to question the future of the figure of shock put to the test by the Second World War and we also question what remains of the hopes set on cinema as an art of the masses and a new Thought after this worldwide traumatic event

<p>This essay is a product of the author’s interest in silent films from Soviet, especially, documentary films. Before the 1920’s documentary filmmaking had mostly been limited to newsreels and short scenes. Only occasional feature-length documentaries had been made. During the 1920s, documentary film achieved new status, not only because of its use as propaganda; it was also identified as artistic cinema. Discussions how to use this genre were taking place all over Europe, and in the US. In France, many different journals on cinema were started. In Soviet the discussions later became politicised. It was a good climate for groundbreaking cinema, and Esfir Shub was one of the film pioneers in Soviet. The ambition with the essay is to give Esfir Shub theoretical approach to non-fiction film a greater acknowledgement. The thesis is how Esfir Shub combines titles and pictures with cutting in The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927) and to theorise the film with Shub’s own conceptual ideas. The method is close reading of the film and the articles written by Shub. The conclusions made by the author, is that Shub uses titles and pictures, in a dynamic cross-cutting between the oppressor and the oppressed. She is faithful to her own theories. She is only using authentically material and not played scenes; otherwise she would distort historical facts. The montage is built in two different ways. Firstly Shub use an ironic tone in the titles when she introduces the oppressors from the old regime, and comment these images widely. Secondly she uses pictures of typical symbols of capitalism and does not need to comment in such matter as earlier, because the film material she had captured speaks for itself.</p>

IN ENGLISH The primary concern of this thesis is to explore the instances of incorporation of media-specific elements extracted and translated from radio and cinema into Samuel Beckett's late prose. The analysis of the texts forming Beckett's Nohow On trilogy is based on the investigation of the two modes of perception - the aural and the visual - and is realised through the close reading of Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, and Wostward Ho in the context of media and film theory and practice. The chief premise is that the formal translations among the print and non-print media in Beckett's work are conditioned by the author's interest in, and theoretical and practical familiarity with, radio, television, and cinematography. The discussion is thus supported by biographical and bibliographical framework, and Beckett's familiarity with the specificities of broadcast media and cinema is considered in their direct relation to the progressive 'technologisation' of his fiction of the 1980s. The thesis outlines the origins and transformations of the motif of voice as one of Beckett's chief fictional concerns, and explores the texts' practical and notional borrowings from the field of cinematography to elucidate the way in which they are designed to simulate perceptual experiences. In doing so, the individual...