MONTAGE EISENSTEIN Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION AND DIFFERENCE General Editor: Teresa de Lauretis Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - llln- I II • MONTAGE EISENSTEIN Jacques :bumont TRANSLATED ev-- Lee Hildreth, Constance Penley, and Andrew Ross - BF! Publishing, London INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington and Indianapolis Google Original from Oigib,ed "' UNIVERSITI OF MICHIGAN First published in the United States of America by Indiana University Press 10th and Morton Streets Bloomington, Indiana and Published in Great Britain by The British Film Institute 127 Charing Cross Road London WC2H OEA Copyright o 1979 Editions Albatros Copyright o 1987 by Indiana University Press All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses' Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. Manufactured in the United States of America This translation was made possible by a publication subvention grant from the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aumont, J. (Jacques) Montage Eisenstein. Translation of: Montage Eisenstein. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Eisenstein, Sergei, 1898-1948. I. Title. PN I 998.A3E5334 I 3 1985 791.43'0233'0924 85-45074 ISBN 0-253-33874-3 ISBN 0-253-20366-X (pbk.) 1 2 3 4 5 90 89 88 87 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Aumont, Jacques Montage Eisenstein. I. Elzenshtein, Sergei I. Title 791.43'0233'0924 PN l 998.A3ES/ ISBN 0-85170-187-6 (pbk.) Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN G L , - ~, I1I · ,·.-·-·I -•) \ ;,, ' 11,--., _,, . , CONTENTS Preface •• Vll - ] - Notes Towards a Biography 1 - 2 - Eisensteinian Concepts 26 - 3 - Eisenstein Taken at His Word 73 - 4 - Montage in Question 145 Notes 200 Bibliography 223 Index 236 Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN To Bertrand Augst Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PREFACE Appearances to the contrary, writing on Eisenstein is not an easy task. No other film director has been studied so exhaustively. Dozens of books have been devoted to almost every conceivable aspect of the Eisenstein "case," and few other filmmakers have achieved anything like the same kind of notoriety both during their lifetime and after. Indeed, there is no one else in film history who has so intricately combined filmmaking, film teaching, and film theorizing; no other director has written as much, has commented on his own work at such length, or has so obviously thought of himself as an aesthetician, a journalist, a philosopher, a semiotician, and a draughtsman (even if others have exhibited the same penchant for "mastery"). Far from facilitating the critic's task, this array of knowledge pre sents him or her with an awesome burden-the cloying impression that everything has already been said. While I certainly cannot claim to •h ave read all that has been written in every language on "the greatest filmmaker of all time," I am acquainted with practically all the books of any importance-and a significant number of articles-on Eisenstein in English, French, German, Italian, and Russian, and I hope I will not sound too immodest if I say that this book is indebted to none of them. In fact, what I found in most, even the better ones, tended to obscure rather than illuminate my understanding of Eisenstein's work. Indeed, all these books and articles are more or less subtle illustrations of a given thesis about Eisenstein: to Marxist critics, Eisenstein can only be seen as the epitome of dialectical materialism as applied to film and film theory; to Bazinians, he is the malignant architect of a conception of cinema as montage which shatters the reflected order of a transparent world; to his established biographers, he is the true Leo nardo of the twentieth century (pathologies and all); to film historians, he is a forbidding monument that cannot, however, be ignored. To each of them, he is a myth. I wrote this book between 1976 and 1978, at a time when I was actively engaged in translating and editing Eisenstein's writings which had been discovered (o r, in part, rediscovered) some five to ten years Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN vu, Preface before. The more I familiarized myself with these writings (or, rather, the more I immersed myself in them), the more certain I grew that the Eisensteinian myth, like all myths, was a grave misrepresentation of the originality of Eisenstein's figure as a thinker. For I remain con vinced that, in spite of the obvious aporias of his work, he is one of the great philosophers of art of our century. Within its limitations (if only of size), this book attempts therefore to renovate the literature on Eisenstein in at least two respects. First, I have striven to be as thorough as possible in my knowledge of Ei senstein's work, notably his written and theoretical work; as far as I know, this is the first (and to date, still the only) book that is informed by a reading of all the available writings of Eisenstein: namely the six volumes of Collected Works published in Moscow in 1965-70, plus a few articles here and there. If I were to rewrite it now, I would, of course, have to take into consideration a few important texts that have been exhumed since 1978, most notably the major collection published (in French translation only) under the title Cinematisme: a collection that is highly representative oft he art essayist in Eisenstein, and which, if it had been available to me then, would undoubtedly have helped to improve the balance of this book. Second, I have tried to engage one of the main difficulties in deal ing with Eisenstein, namely the extreme diversity ofh is work, his many different interests and talents, and above all, the ceaseless transfor mation of his conceptual system: in short, everything that might lead (and has often led) to the legitimate conclusion that there are several Eisensteins. One of the most basic assumptions of this book is that it is impossible to describe and evaluate Eisenstein's achievements-both in the domain of filmmaking and of theory-without taking into con sideration the imbrication of his life (itself mediated by his autobio graphical texts) with his cinematic production (including the innu merable unrealized projects, scripts, his drawings, his writings) and the less tangible space where theoretical production and elaboration takes place. Aside from a regrettable neglect of Eisenstein's drawings (which would deserve a study in its own right), the very structure of this book demonstrates, I hope, my concern for the complexities and the idiosyncrasies of the Eisensteinian opus. My research began as a doctoral dissertation on "The Evolution of the Eisensteinian Concept of Montage," and so Eisenstein the theo retician remains central to the finished book. However, one of the results of my research was the recognition that there is no unitary "concept of montage" that comes to theoretical fruition over the course Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Preface ,x of his career-at least, not in the limited, rationally defined, and con stant form by which one could characterize a true concept. Neverthe less, the principle of montage plays a crucial part in his writing as well as in his films, and occupies a central place in his philosophical and aesthetic system. Accordingly, I did not feel that I could expound my thesis without first probing and testing its consistency; that is why this book concludes with a chapter on montage, while the two preceding chapters attempt respectively to analyze the work of montage in Ei senstein's films (in two very different film sequences), and to describe the status of montage in the overall theoretical system elaborated by him (of which I have tried to provide a sketchy account). Finally, I had to account for the fact that Eisenstein's career as a filmmaker and as a thinker is absolutely inseparable from biographical (political, psy chological) determinations: hence a first chapter that is entirely devoted to a few fragmentary reflections on Eisenstein's "character." Written in deliberate intellectual isolation, this book, like any other, is a particular product of a personal history. Unlike most intellectuals of my generation, I discovered cinema rather late in life, and the period of this discovery was the true origin of this book. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that I owe most of its inspiration-not so much the knowledge as the passion-to my friends in Cahiers du cinema around 1970; daily screenings and discussions were our unchanging diet, and I benefited more than words could say from years of work and friendship with Pierre Baudry, Pascal Bonitzer, Jean-Louis Com olli, Serge Daney, Pascal Kane, Jean Narboni, Bernard Eisenschitz, Jean-Pierre Oudart, Jacques Rivette, not to forget Sylvie Pierre, who was absolutely quintessential to my education in film. During the later period of actual research and writing, help and encouragement came from other friends, colleagues, and students; I have been greatly stimulated by the cordial support of Michel Marie, Dominique Noguez, and Peter Schofer; Raymond Bellour was officially my advisor, but his role has been far more vital, intellectually and psychologically, than this official title indicates; with characteristic gen erosity, Christian Metz did much to hasten and facilitate the original publication of this book. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the enormous debt I owe to Anne Faisandier for help, comfort, and the example she set. Among my American colleagues, I owe special thanks to Rick Altman, Dudley Andrew, David Bordwell, Edwin Jahiel, Constance Penley, and Kristin Thompson, not only for what they did, directly Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN x Preface and indirectly, to facilitate the publication of this translation, but also for the pleasure of their continued friendship. In preparing this English edition, Lee Hildreth, Constance Penley, and Andrew Ross have been ideal translators; indeed, they have man aged to substantially improve the book's style, without ever betraying its impulse. Lee Hildreth's translation of Part II of "Eisenstein Taken at His Word" and "Eisensteinian Concepts" appeared originally in Discourse. I am grateful to the editors for allowing it to be reprinted here. I did not need to think twice about the dedication of this English version of my book: to anyone who knows Bertrand Augst, it will . come as no surpnse. Paris, April 1985 Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN