Montage definition film12/1/2023 ![]() ![]() The scene definitely conveys a message and manipulates the audience in a very obvious way. 5 The famous staircase sequence from The Battleship Potemkin employs montage to create the illusion that the staircase is almost endless, and intercuts shots of a stroller rolling down the steps with close-ups of horrified faces and dying people, thus destroying the reality of the actual space and using metaphors and juxtaposition to create a specific response. Naturally he is strongly inclined against the montage techniques displayed in the films of Eisenstein. Reality has no place in this hallucinatory world of illusion, its beauty is in its dreamy detachment from the grounded, solid world outside the screen.īazin argues against any device that can be used to manipulate the audience’s perception of the scene and its potential to remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. Caligari was suddenly flooded with sound, its delicate visual poetry would have been destroyed by the harsh invasion of reality. ![]() The story is conveyed through the intricate interactions between images, lighting, composition, and movement. Bazin is right in stating that such films are an entirely separate art form. The film unfolds in an enthralling, completely artificial environment where even the movements of the actors echo the distorted angular shapes of their setting. The atmosphere and plot of the film are revealed entirely through visual means, using wildly abstract sets and dramatically exaggerated makeup. A good example of the first movement would be Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. ![]() 4 In the second instance the introduction of sound helped reveal an aspect of reality that was missing before, and actually enhanced the art of film instead of competing with it. He claims that the introduction of sound, far from destroying film as an art form, actually enhanced it as an essential element of reality.īazin makes a distinction between two different movements in silent film, one in which “montage and the plastic composition of the image are the very essence of cinema” and therefore in no need of support from sound, and another where the “image is evaluated not according to what it adds to reality but what it reveals of it”. 3 He feels that any manipulation of the image such as the suggestive editing developed by Eisenstein or the dramatic sets and lighting of German Expressionism stands in the way of releasing film’s true potential for realism. Although he admits that “it was montage that gave birth to film as an art” 2, he is apprehensive of anything that supports “the creation of a sense or meaning not proper to the images themselves but derived entirely from their juxtaposition”. In fact to Bazin, reality and everything that can support it such as sound, deep focus, and invisible editing, define what film should be. From the start he makes a distinction between “those directors who put their faith in the image and those who put their faith in reality”. In his article “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema”, he explains his theory that montage, although necessary in many cases to make a film work, can be heavily overused. Film critic Andre Bazin had very strong feelings on the subject of montage and realism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |