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PRINCIPLESOF
NEW OWORLD CINEMA
FEBRUARY 1930
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20c
-
ANNOUNCEMENT
Experimental Cinema, published by the Cinema Crafters of
America, is the only magazine in the United States devoted to
the principles of the art of the motion picture. It believes there
is profound need at this time for a central organ to consolidate
and orient those individuals and groups scattered throughout
America, Europe and U. S. S. R. that are working to liberate the
cinema from its stereotyped symbolism. It believes the time
has come for wide critical and creative support of these isolated
movements not only from the point of view of the spectator
but also from the point of view of the creator, and it is the in-
tention to experiment with new forms and to introduce to the
spectator and creator the leading ideas and principles of the new
film world. Experimental Cinema will be a forum where the
work of directors and creators such as S. Eisenstein, W. Pudow-
kin, Dovzhenko, C. Dreyer, Konzinstoff, Trauberg, E. Pom-
mer, J. Feyder, B. Rahn, A. Cavalcanti, Mann Ray, M. Allegret,
E. Deslaw, Pabst, J. Epstein, Rene Claire, A. Room, Lubitsch,
Griffith, St-oheim, Vidor, Seastrom, Chaplin, Flaherty, von
Sternberg and others will be discussed. There will also be
criticism, analysis, and scenarios by internationally known men
such as A. Bakshy, L. Moussinac, R. Aron, H. Potamkin,
Seymour Stern, J. Lenauer, L. Bunuel, R. Desnos, R. Aldrich.
Syd S. Salt, and others. Experimental Cinema as the advance
guard of a new motion picture art believes it will be the nucleus
of a profound and vital force toward the creation of a world-
wide cinema ideology. It appeals to you to support this unique
experiment.
NAME
ADDRESS
CITY STATE
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
919 LOCUST STREET. PHILADELPHIA, PA., U. S. /,
r
THE NEW CINEMA
one of the strange paradoxes of our time
is ture camera
which in the control of man is
ITthat the nineteenth century while trying in the cinema with a subject matter as wide as the
various ways to eliminate the mysterious and universe and an understanding as great as nature,
along with it mystery itself from the universe, at and in the control of men of "genius the cinema
its close bequeathed to the twentieth, what is per- of Greed, Gold Rush, Theresa Raquin, Potemkin.
haps one of the greatest single forces that history End of St. Petersburg, New Babylon, Passion of
will record, for imbuing immense masses of people Joan, Arsenal and ihe boundless potentialities of
with that concentrated mystic fervour which the the new cinema of the future withits explorations
church was once able to inspire in its devotees into the legends and myths of the new age of the
the cinema, silent conqueror of space, time and machine. This the devotional cinema that is tra-
is
causality. In a remarkable communication con- versing with the speed of light and opening up to
cerning the machine in modern civilization written the masses, the mysteries of the new universe of
by Elva de Pue and published as an appendix by modern physics, bounded yet limitless, almost in
Waldo Frank in "The Rediscovery of America", answer to the prayer for an interpretation of man's
Miss Elva de Pue writes that "the movie alone changing relationship with man and his ultimate
which tells one people in a universal language about position in the universe that will be something
the life of other peoples, however banal its initial more than "isms" at the end of words or stultifying
stammering language, must in the end draw them mechanical noise. The New Cinema profound
closer together than even the mystery which they creator of free will and knowledge absolute
gathered of yore in magnificent cathedrals which with the power of transmuting water into wine and
pointed them away from the earth and its values, thence to bread and back again to water should
the earth which they were forced temporarily to it choose to do so. wherein the fabled mountain
deny. In a world filled with the stench of gang- to extend a metaphor, not only goes to Mahomet
rened wounds; in a world filled with the stench of but to heaven as well to bring back the ghosts of all
sewage gathering in moats; in a world filled with those slain in the name of Mohammedism; wherein
plague, that plague which eventually was a factor Narcissus slips into the pool and finds himself be-
in the loss of belief in a merciful God : no incense ing unreeled in the form of a flower that blooms
could disguise those stenches. No great bells and no to a fountain sprouting blood in streams as high
calm glory of intoning could drown the cries of as Betelgeuse with no return to earth, defying
brutalized underlings tortured by their masters, lay gravities. In Cinema
Faust has reappeared on
and clerical. In that dark world the dependence the thirteenth stroke of the clock, in new guise,
upon another life was necessary as a compensation. to perpetuate the eternal alchemy that cannot be
as salvation from despair." Today, particularly in denied to spirit; the faustian soul has drunk deep
America, at a time when there is everywhere desire of the new elixir and is appeased in cinema; for
to escape the perils and the problems of a mechanic- here is a new world of miracle wherein all is solv-
al age, at a time when it has become almost fashion- ed and sufficient: wherein every wish is granted;
able to fall back into traditional positions, beaten every hope fulfilled: wherein to conceive is to ex-
paths off the main road, without even attempt at ecute and execution
revelation. One receives in
'
analysis or positive statement of the problems of the words of a modern french cinematographer
mechanism as to their social, political or psycholog- and poet: "A trolley car on the chest. An auto in
ical elements, and in this sense, the humanism of the back. A trapdoor under foot. One has a
those who look back to New England for author- tunnel in his eyes and rises to the fifteenth floor
ity, is as far away from the actual problems of the drawn by the hair. All this while smoking a
American scene as the humanitarianism of those pipe with the hands at the faucet ... storm tears A
who look forward to U. S. S. R- for a point of out your tonsils, a cry passes thru you like the
reference. At a time like this, there is exigent shadow of an iceberg" (Cendrars) Time is no .
need of a force powerful enough to assist in the more; the temporal becomes transformed into a
I presentation of these problems, socially, politically, timeless, ageless world; an incident occurs and
psychologically, and if possible to transform them later reoccurs. at the same place and at the same
to meet the realities of the time, realities deeply moment in relation to past or future incidents.
implanted by the revelations of modern science. A smokestack falls and in an i
-
, it is resurrected
That force itself can be nothing other than a to its former position. Two irains meet on one
mechanism, a machine. Anything other than the track and fly over each otherwith the grace of
machine is impotent in the face of so much mach- gods. Man has conquered the air without wing,
inery to orient. Such a force is the motion picture in cinema; and the atom has finally given up its
machine which throws its light from one end of precious secret: of myths like these is born a great
the world to the other and back in an instant, ideal. This is the subject of cinema, as all things
"that tells one people in a universal language about are the subject of cinema; there is nothing it can-
the life of other peoples however banal its initial not transfix into a moment of beauty that no other
stammering language" may be. The motion pic- agency can match so marvelously well; there is no
It is clear that there is more than one way of has been universally recognized that the cinematic
carrying out such an organization. The sim- visual image has one fundamental characteristic
plest and most obvious way is that of arranging which distinguishes it from the visual images in
the images in an order in which their content mat- other arts. This characteristic is movement. Al-
ter is used as so many connected links in the chain though the term, particularly in its solemn guise
of representations which forms the narrative- In of "dynamic quality", has acquired a sort of mys-
this case the actual form of images plays but a tic halo, it is well to remember that it is essentially
subordinate part, being at best, as in close-up, pragmatic in its origin and represents strictly defin-
for instance, only the function of their represent- able properties of the motion picture mechanism.
ational content. The men who made movies when the art was
The motion picture as an art of story-telling new and unexplored, were not theorists. All
still
has been principally concerned with supplying they were concerned with was to give their pic-
the spectator with such visual information as would tures the semblance of life, and it took them but
ensure the desired intellectual and emotional re- a short time to discover that a motionless object
action. At first, when the plots were simple ana on the screen was as good as dead. Hence the
the technique still elementary, a straightforward orgy of recorded motion which distinguished the
stringing together of a series of scenes was all that early movies.
was considered necessary for unfolding the story. It was at a comparatively early stage, too, that
Later, the more complicated stories and the greater the necessity of movement not only in the charac-
detalization of images helped to bring into use the ters and objects, but in whole scenes in relation
flashback and the parallel action, the two devices to one another, was
realised. Two
reasons dictat-
of cutting which introduced the method of inter- ed this necessity. In the first place, there was the
mittent composition. In this way the content concentrated technique of cutting arising from the
matter of images became for the first time a formal fragmentary nature of the film record, which had
element of cinematic composition. This formal the effect not only of speeding up movement but
character of the treatment of images, be it noted, also of compressing time. In certain situations this
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
latter effectwas found to conflict rather too harsh- The important fact to be borne in mind is that
ly with the sequence of events in real time. For cinematic rhythmform of visual composition
is a
instance, a scene showing a man in front of a street which is itself charged with powerful emotional
door, followed immediately by a scene showing appeal and at the same time, while remaining in-
the same man inside the house, is likely to produce dependent of the image content, conveys and shapes
the impression of something unreal. An interval the latter's appeal as well.
of time is clearly demanded between the two The effect of rhythm
to organize sequences of
is
scenes, and this is supplied by an interpolated third visible beats and It establishes a visual
accents.
scene which may be a close up of the man, or the continuity of intermittent images as a function of
view of the room he is about to enter, or some time. It leaves untouched, however, the problem
other related Jubject. The method of parallel ac- of spacial continuity, of the spacial relationship
tion is but an extended application of the same of images to one another as elements of the visual
principle and achieves a similar effect of expanded cinematic composition. No pictures known to
time which sometimes, as in the climaxes of Grif- the writer have so far suggested a satisfactory solu-
fith's pictures, is deliberately prolonged beyond tion of this problem. And yet so long as this
even the realistic implications of the subject for a problem remains unsolved the motion picture as
specific emotional effect. a medium
of dynamic visual art will never reach
The other and perhaps even more important itscomplete maturity. The continuity of visual
I
reason for changing scenes and thus introducing form implies a dynamic composition of which the
a greater mobility of visual images, is found in the only existing illustration in other visual arts is
very character of realistic acting when it is used found in the moving composition of ballet. Just
on the screen. In real life or on the stage speech ns in the latter, the cinematic visual form has to
itself constitutes action. A conversation between be built in time, and its elements of composition
two persons may contain a series of events pregnant should be not static images but lines of forces or
with dramatic significance, although the person movements in definite directions. It goes without
speaking may engage in very little physical move- saying that movement in this sense includes not
ment. On the screen the situation is different. only moving objects, nor movement of images in
Deprived of his words, even when these are present time only, but also their movement in space over
in the form of subtitles, the screen actor can ex- the entire surface of the screen. The technical
press himself only by means of gesture and move- obstacles which still stand in the way of such
ment. Bu" ",he naturalistic convention of acting dynamic composition are likely to be removed in
excludes all but a few of these forms of expression. the near future by the various announced devices
The inevitable result is that while the stage actor for enlarged projection. In them therefore lies
who uses speech can sustain a situation without a the promise of the mature cinema whose intel-
change in the setting for the length of a whole lectual and emotional appeal will be the function
act, the screen actor finds his resources of expres- of its dynamic composition.
sion exhausted within as short a time as a minute.
It was to relieve the screen actor of this predica-
ment and a. rhc same time to give greater emphasis
and variety to the means of expression, that long
Film Problems of Soviet Russia
situations were reduced to a series of fragmentary by HARRY ALAN POTAMKIN
scenes with long and medium and
shots, close-ups
"angles" thrown in for the sake of variety and
emphasis. It is instructive to note that with the
BRYHER, assistant editor of Close Up, has just
published (under the imprint of Pool, Territ-
advent of talkies long scenes depending entirely et, Switzerland) a book entitled, "Film Pro-
on the dialogue and showing very little movement blems of Soviet Russia." The title is misleading,
made their appearance on the screen. The fact for the book is in reality a compendium of synop-
that the latest talkies indicate a return to the tech- of Soviet Films, with some critical commentary,
sis
nique of the silent picture with its short and and data anent directorial personalities, concluding
fragmentary scenes, only goes to prove that the with a chapter, from whose heading the book
handling of dialogue on the screen is still far from takes its name, on the British embargo of Russian
being efficient and that the old "dynamic" form motion pictures- The sole "problem" of the Rus-
of composition wields a superior power of emo- sian film considered here is the non-cinematic pro-
tional appeal. blem of the British antagonism. Bryher's book is
If the movement involved in the change from a plea for the recognition of the Russian cinema
one scene to another brought to the fore the im- by England. She stresses not only the artistic
mediate significance of the form of the visual im- merit of the Soviet kino, but urges that vital cinema
age, the movement resulting from a series of such upon the British intelligence as quite in accord
changes organized in a manner conforming to a ideologically with the social sentiments of the free
certain rhythmic scheme, placed the visual form in Briton. This would seem to characterize Rus-
the position of the dominant factor in the building sian ideology as reformative in its outlook, a quite
of cinematic composition. At this instance it is un- acceptable middleman's social philosophy. This
necessary to go into a description of the various sums up the Russian social attack as entirely
methods of rhythmic organization of images be- harmless. If that were so, the Russian film, in-
yond pointing to the work of Abel Gance, Leger formed by this assertive ideology, would lack the
and Murphy, Murnau, Eisenstein and Dovzhenko. essential vigor which is its physical health. But
)
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
the Russian idea is dangerous, decidedly danger- rant testifies. Eisenstein, interviewed in France,
ous, to the prevailing acceptations. The danger- has remarked with severity upon what he terms
ous idea creates the dangerous, or heroic, structure
ultimately.
the retrogression in the Russian film, the back-
step to the single personage. He adds, however,
The heroic structure, is not achieved spontan- that this is only a momentary withdrawal for an
eously from the dangerous or heroic idea. Form accumulation of strength toward a further ad-
is attained only by penetration and perseverance vance. To Eisenstein. the constructor of mass-
and discipline. By all thre and not by any of film edifices, the intellectualist and classicist of
these alone. The last two may create a style, per- the Russian film, complete objectivity is pos-
severance a manner, the three together form. Form sible. He
does not penetrate the individual and
is the conception constantly informing the struc- there question in my mind whether he has
is a
ture. To understand the problems of form in the penetrated the social inference contained in the
cinema of the USSR, we must consider the com- mass-expression. I await his rendering of the
ponents of the Russian social attitude. reflective- But to the other film makers of Rus-
sia, the individual is an experience. The prob-
The Russian social idea is composed of the fol-
lowing: the social-revolution, the criticism of the lem becomes more simplified when we ask: how
bourgeoisie, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the can the individual as an experience become the
ultimate of collectivism, the re-education of the social idea as an experience? The answer is
mass and the individual in the mass, the conquest contained in a number of films: from Pudowkin
of the egocentric mind. Each of these is identi- to Dovzhenko. In these the treatment is not con-
fied with the other. The Russian film, confront- cerned with the narrative of the individual caught
ing these social intentions, must solve its pro- pathetically in the social morass, or fate - the
blems, its construction, with these as insistences German and American evasion of the social criti-
and total experience or final "message." That cism contained in the plight of the individual (see
the Soviet kino has been preoccupied with the in- The Last Laugh and The Crowd). The in-
tegral national idea of collectivism is more than dividual in The End of St. Petersburg and Arsenal,
evident. The preoccupation has been called too in Storm over Asia and In Old Siberia, is the con-
facilely "propaganda," with its' negative connota- centration of the social force. For a moment one
tion of counter-art. But propaganda, when pro- expected such concentration in The Man from the
foundly conceived and realized structurally in the Restaurant, when the walk-out occurs, but the
form, is art. The Russian cinema, and the Swed- film disintegrates into a palpably American story
ish before it, have alone approximated form. of the rich villain and the young hero and pure
heroine.
That the approximations have not as yet been
extended into a completed structure is due to a A third problem arises from the educational
number of disturbances, vacillations in the inclus-
purpose of cinema production in Russia. How
ive idea, which induce vacillations in structure.
can this purpose be rendered cinematically? Ei-
senstein approaches this problem from the object-
These vacillations are: the concern with the ego-
centric and the deflection from the relevant me- ivity of the newsreel. A very delicate operation
thod. The latter refers to the failure to discover isinvolved, to subtilize the didactic. Nothing is
the correct conversion of a profound and inferen- impossible in the film, everything is its material.
tial social material into motographic treatment.
The problem is an intellectual one. That is where
Or to put it more simply: the Russians persist, intellectuality enters the cinema.
generally, in a method ill-suited to their material. A lesser problem, but an important one, is the
The method is the American muscular movie, criticism of the bourgeosie. Up to the present that
which served as initial instruction to the Soviet criticism has been' mostly a too Dickensian
Cinema and which has persisted, in the work of caricature of certain gross types, not a revelation
Pudowkin especially, as the Russian medium, per- of basic errors which are expressed in vicious ten-
fected beyond naive American uses. However, dencies. In other words, types have been ridiculed,
the Russians have recognized that this technique but the bourgeois ideology has not yet been
can go no further and, as Eisenstein has said, can- criticised. An attempt at organizing a critique
not satisfy the reflective processes. We begin to condemnation is the sequence of two conducts,
see the new and intrinsically Russian film in Dov- such as, men dying in battle, the exploiter indulg-
zhenko's Arsenal- In this film the early Russian ing his appetite. This is, of course, elementary,
juxtaposition of the individual and his analogy but it is necessarily so- The first criticism had tc
(the simile) become, at least in intention, a struc- be visceral. The criticism of the fundamentals is
ture of integrated symbolism with a new non-ver- a development.
bal continuity or logic. The symbol in the real- (To be continued
istic structure
a kino language
a simplism intended ultimately as
is substituted correctly by a
Experimental Cinema is published monthly by the
structure incorporating the symbolic conversion of
Cinema Crafters of America at 1629 Chestnut St.,
the realistic detail, such as the human personality. Philadelphia. Penna., U. S. A.
So is one problem of the Soviet cinema being met. All manuscripts and subscriptions should be mailed to
A vexing problem that of the individual in the
is the above address.
film, to what extent shall he be expressed? Rus-
sia is troubled by this matter, as the criticism
dealt Protozanoff's The Man from the Restau- Price $2.00 a year: 20c per copy.
,
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
upon another art-form, literature, in order to bring sphere of work is far from being
for the director
the significance of montage and its future pos- exhausted by a succession of contents or by the pre-
sibilities more clearly into focus. For the poet sentation of a time-rhythm. Montage is that
or the writer, the single word represents the raw- primary, creative moment through which, out of
material- It can have the most varied meanings, a soulless photography, (the individual film-pic-
which first become defined through the word's tures) the living, cinematographic form is created.
position in the sentence. If, however, the word It is characteristic that in the presentation of a
is dependent upon the potentialities of the com- filmic form very different types of material may
position, its strength and effect will be variable be used, which, in reality, have reference to entire-
until it is a part of the fully realized art-form. ly different appearances. Allow me to cite, as il-
lustration, an example from my last film, The End
For the film-director, each scene of the finished
of St. Petersburg.
film signifies the same as the word for the poet.
Hesitating, selecting, discarding, cross-checking, At the beginning of the reel, which is devoted
he stands before the film-pictures and only through to the war, I wished to show a tremendous dyna-
the conscious, artistic composition are the "mon- mite-explosion. In order to endow this explosion
tage-sentences'' created, out of which, step by with the completest authenticity (of effect) I had ,
step, emerges the definite art-work, the film. a great mass of dynamite buried in the earth, and
The expression, that a film "turned"*, photographed the blast. The explosion was truly
entirely false
is
extraordinary
only not in the film. On the
language. A
film is not "turned" it is screen it was a tedious, lifeless affair.
built out of the individual little picture-scenes,
Later, after long searching and testing, I mount-
which represent the raw-material of the film.
ed the explosion according to the effect I desired,
When a writer uses a word, for example, birch, it
without, however, using one single piece of the
registers, so to speak, the protocol of a definite
material first photographed. I photographed a
object, but it is void of soulful substance. Only
flammen-werter, which threw out a thick column
in relationship with other words, only within the
of smoke. In order to give the effect of the con-
frame of a more complicated form, does it receive
life and reality in art. I open a book, that lies
cussion, I mounted short shots of a magnesium-
before me, and read: "The tender green of the flame, in rhythmical change of light and dark.
birch-tree"
certainly no first-rate composition, In between, I placed a "stock" shot of a river,
but it reveals distinctly and exhaustively the dif-
which seemed to me suitable here because of its
ference between the single word and a word-struc-
particular light-effects- Thus, finally, there came
ture, in which the word "birch" has no longer a
protocol-designation, but has assumed literary into manifestation the effect I had desired. The
form. The dead word has been stimulated into bomb-explosion was now on the screen: what it
^^^H
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
/
thing at except a real explosion.
all, very important. Every art possesses its own type
Wtih this example I will say that montage is of material-formation. That naturally applies
the creator of filmic reality, and that nature re- also to the film. To work on a manuscript with-
presents only the raw material for its work. That out knowing the working-methods of the director,
is decisive for the relationship of film and actual- without knowing the methods of shooting and
cutting the film, is just as senseless as to give a
This thought leads inevitably to consideration Frenchman a German verse in literal translation.
of the actor. The individual who is photograph- In order to convey the correct impression to the
ed is only the raw material for the future com- Frenchman, one must re-form the verse with due
position of his form in the film, effected through recognition of the peculiarities of the French poetic
montage. When in my film, "The End of St. metre. In order to create a manuscript suitable
Petersburg, the task confronted me to depict an in- for filming, one must know the methods through
dustrial magnate, I sought to solve the problem which the spectator can be influenced from the
by mounting (associating) his figure with the screen.
rider-statue of Peter the First. I maintain, that Sometimes, however, the view is advocated that
the form composed with an entirely different
so the author has only to give the general, primitive
reality, takes the place of the mimic of the player, outline of the action. The entire filmic adapta-
which usually smacks of the theatre. tion (according to this view) is the concern of the
In my earlier film.. Mother, I wanted to affect director. But this view is entirely false. One
the spectator not through the psychological repre- must always bear in mind, that in no art can the
sentation of the player, but through the medium creative process (formation) be divided into isola-
of the depiction through montage. The son is ted stages, independent of one another. If one
sitting in his prison-cell. Suddenly a scrap of reflects on the theme, the final form of the film
paper is slipped into his hand, (containing infor- will certainly appear only in unclear outlines. But
mation) that he is to be set free the next day. It the manuscript-writer must have an image-con-
was now a question of how to portray his joy ception (Vorstellung) of this form; he must create
filmically. Merely to photograph the joyously material sufficiently suitable to provide the direct-
excited face would be ineffectual- So I showed the or with the possibility of creating a production of
play of the hands and a huge close-up of the lower filmically powerful effect. Usually, the result is
half of the face, of the laughing mouth. These entirely otherwise. There generally emerge out
shots I mounted together wiith entirely different of the first scenario-attempts of the author a great
material. For instance, with shots of a turbulent- deal of uninteresting, verbal, insurmountable hind-
ly flowing spring stream, with the play of sun- rances that present obstacles in the path of filmic
beams, which blended with the water, of birds, adaptation-
that played in village ponds, and finally with a It is the task of this study to offer an elementary
laughing child. Thus, the expression of the "joy knowledge of the fundamental methods of work
of the prisoner" seemed to me to have been formed. on the manuscript. A
manuscript can be built
I do not know how the spectators have taken to
as drama, and then it will be subjected to the laws
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
reason very simple.
is If a decoration (set) is Analytical Treatise on the Dreyer Film,
built, almost always develops that the scenes
it
"The Passion of Joan of Arc" with Ap-
playing within this decorative frame are scattered
throughout the manuscript. If the idea should pendix of a Constructive Critique.
occur to the director to proceed after the shot of
(Translated from the German Original by
this scene to the following scene in the manuscript,
Christel Gang of Universal Pictures Studio)
which takes place in an entirely different location,
it would be necessary from the start to build an
by WERNER KLIN GLER
extra-ordinary series of settings, which would con-
sume an inconceivable amount of space and an
equally inconceivable amount of material. Final-
MORE
inasmuch
stated, the film should be
correctly
the montage-form and the
as
ly, a whole mass of sets would stand there, but it called "The Trial Day of Joan of Arc",
would not be possible to have one or the other technique, which director Dreyer employs here,
pulled down- grow out of the embodied material and subject:
the conflict between the clergy and the primitive,
To work in that fashion is naturally impossible. but faith-exalted, individuality, Joan.
Neither the director nor the player, therefore, has
the possibility to work in continuity-form. Apart from its political significance,the col-
Through the loss of this possibility, at the same lective belief-form of the church shaken, by this
is
time, the unity, the style of the work and, with simple ecstatic girl, to its foundations.
that, its effect, are imperilled. In order, therefore, As with Bernard Shaw, it became an absolute
to assure this structural (spiritual) unity, a method necessity that Joan should suffer death. To ex-
must be found, which, despite the fragmentization press it Dostoievsky (Grand Inquisi-
in terms of
of the individual shots, will warrant a unified tor*), the returning savior would be once more
form of the whole. Above all, it is necessary to nailed to the cross.
work out the manuscript in advance in the min- Viewing it in such a light, Dreyer selected the
utest detail, and the director will only then achieve rhythmical, raw structure. He had to develop
positive results if he forms each single detail film-
the film in such a way that Joan represented the
ically, the final goal always before his eyes. In combatible almost static center-point of the im-
this preparatory work the style must be created,
age-whole, and the judging council around her
which conditions the value of the art-work. All
individual, separate placements of the (camera) had to stand out in sharp, active contrast. Slow-
apparatus
far, near, close up, above-angle, etc.
ly, but surely, the circle narrows closer and closer
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
tinct (particularly Joan) and a reciprocal mental, scenes and the burning at the stake in Joan will
as well as physical, contact takes place across the make the fastest and strongest impression. The
frame of each scene and across the intercut of the inspired, superb performance of Mile. Falconetti
scenes of the picture. is universally acknowledged.
A typical example of
conflict-contact of
this Before the first significant rhythmical highspot,
types is the English soldier
scoffing-scene: An the torture scene, the curve of action leaps several
tickles Joan with a long straw. If Dreyer had times abruptly, upward and downward. The
taken the two, that is, the soldier and Joan, and change in the curve of action occurs in those mo-
placed them into the same frame, Joan would have ments which Joan becomes increasingly help-
in
lost (suffered) (for the spectator) in formal sign- less in the face of the questions directed at her by
ificance. The director therefore keeps the two her judges, who press proportionately closer.
strictly separate, and goes so far that he does not In such scenes Dreyer diminishes the camera-
even show us the soldier's hand, but only the distance from his object, while through quickened
moving long straw as it tickles Joan's face. action and a lightning-like change of pictures, the
By this cut,physical elements
all (of the broad rhythmic structure becomes interrupted.
soldier) have been eliminated from the shot of Beast-like, the heads of the priests from out of
Joan, and only the base conduct on the one side, the depth of the picture, drive into the foreground.
and the emotional reaction of Joan, on the other A brilliant example of this montage-treatment
side, dominate the scene. That is, absolute is the following scene:
concentration on the head of Joan. Then, when CLOSE UP: The head of Joan, front view.
Dreyer cuts back to the soldier, the latter strikes
us as doubly raw in his coarseness.
To her right -
L
. .
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
this static scene is withdrawn from the eye, nev- the edges of his desk where they run together form
ertheless as forcefully the impression is held. The a triangle, facing the camera.
future proceeding in all its horror is foretold. Figuratively speaking, Dreyer also, carries the
Immovable in the foreground stands the attendant action to extremes.
of the torture instruments. Significant in his in- Quickly, facing the camera, the priest directs
significant corporality. his questions at Joan and places her at the choice
In close range, one beholds how a certain fluid between life ^nd death.
is poured through a funnel. An array of funnels He points to a grave that is being dug. She
is shown graduating in size. Next, an array of glances over, and beholds a row of flowers, as they
saws, in the same order. The arrangement in its are blown by the wind. {Moving shot to the
gradation indicates the degrees of torture (mon- flowers in opposition to the static shot of the
tage-type of association) grave)
At the sight of these instruments Joan impresses With this comparative reflection (contrast-
upon her judges that "even if she should confess montage) Joan decides to save her life by abdica-
under torture, she would later recall everything." tion, and becoming for the first time, unfaithful
And now the attendant turns one of the big to herself, she signs the document.
wheels of a kind of revolving machine. The crowd, having gathered around this scene,
From a new angle one sees the broad side of rushes back to the county-fair.
the large wheel, spiked with hundreds of nails, Taken back to her cell, Joan has to submit to
turning from the upper side of the picture towards the cutting of her hair-
the lower. Parallel with this action one sees again the
By way of a masterful montage-construction county fair, the masses in their yearning curiosity
Dreyer pulls the emotional-condition of the spec- for change, for a spectacle. Already they have
tator into a mad whirl. He cuts continuously forgotten Joan.
back and forth, from the revolving wheel to Joan; And now, in the cell upon the floor, Joan's
in each montage-picture the large wheel turns hair is being swept up by a servant, with the hair
faster and faster, simultaneously drawing closer also her selfwoven crown of cord.
and closer into the frame, until finally, covering Her kingdom being swept away thus, before
the whole screen, it reaches the point of culmina- her eyes, suddenly she realizes what she has done,
tion when Joan faints away. and she screams for revocation.
And here the filmic rhythm falls back into a Resultant verdict: Death at the Stake.
broader line. From now on, the rhythmic structure of its
In the bleeding scene that follows I would like line of motion mounts in steep ascendency towards
to point out an important moment. the highpoinc, towards the solution, towards the
With one hand the surgeon stretches the skin end.
of Joan's arm. The other, holding a knife, he All of a sudden Dreyer's camera becomes extra-
raises to cut. ordinarily mobile. The following scenic construc-
The blade-point of the knife is set tight against tion is drawn into the rhythm of the flames.
the skin, so that the spectator expects to see a cut After the preparation for the burning has
and the blood oozing, but
- the hand holding been completed, (such as carrying of stones, wood,
the knife stops short,
in order to make im- raising of pole, nailing of the parchment with
mediately another attempt. the accusation to the pole) and after the crowd
,
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
In formation a flock of doves flies up into the tion strikes the mass of people. One of them turns
sky. around and screams:
Further scenes of the burning-process in be- "YOU HAVE KILLED A SAINT !"
tween.
And that, the devil whom they wanted to
with
The formation of doves flies higher. drive out from her, turns into them, and destruc-
Further scenes of the burning-process in be-
tion revolt, chaos follow. The eternal struggle
tween.
over belief, over the Deity.
The doves fly still higher. Dreyer shows the course of the struggle in an
Further scenes of the burning-process in be- optical distortion. The eye is forced to follow
tween.
the discordant change of black and white. The
The doves are high, at a vast expanse from the thought-response of the spectator becomes difficult.
earth; they are visible merely as little specks. The scenic confusion also bewilders the spectator.
The "pure soul" is carried by the doves (de- Demonstrated graphically, the sequence at the
liverance) into infinity. Simultaneously they re- stake represents upon the screen 5 major points of
present for Joan a medium of overcoming the
motion-
agony. From the cross and the doves she receives
The pole with Joan as middle-point (5) creates
the capacity of overcoming.
(2)
The FIRE, the process of burning, re-
a vertical,which moves from the screen-center,
Joan's head, partly upward, into the irrational, the
presents the rhythmical counterpoint.
doves (1), and partly downward, towards the
The higher the doves soar, the faster the flames burning pile (2)
devour, and the whole procedure is enveloped in an The mad-house, the world, the county-fair (4)
earthiness.
and the church (3) move in the rhythm of the
Later on, wnen Joan
has disappeared from the
blazing flame (2) rotating faster and faster around
stake, when
the parchment, as if in anguish, has
the pole where Joan is bound.
burned, its ashes blown to the winds, and when This film is no doubt the most completely at-
only the bare pole with the nail remains in sight, tainable form of the "silent era.''
then all human arrogance of judgment stands A masterpiece, such as The Passion of Joan of
stripped to its basest nakedness.
Arc, has a right to be called a classic, for it pos-
The camera shows the burning stake from all sesses lasting merit.
angles. In constant repetitive back-and-forth
As the "film" represents in itself a collective art-
movements it catches the flames.
(3) and
form, and depends entirely upon technique, the
(4) _
PRIESTS and CROWD
plus FIRE (2)
"talkies" today present the antithesis.
With relentless logical necessity, however, we
form together a rhythmic collective. are stepping out of the present-day forms and
Again and again the priest is shown. The dilemma of styles into the purest and most complete
tall cross held by him towards Joan, becomes like
film-form, the filmic synthesis.
Joan, smoke-enveloped, and is smoked out. With the harmony of light (picture) and tone-
With frantic entreaty he screams his prayers value (music) we come to the
to drive out the devil that is not there.
The action here starts its development moving SYMPHONIC SOUND-FILM
into a regulated function of antithesis, (Heracl-
itus) as the crowd is itself, with the beginning of
,
APPENDIX
Constructive comment on the
critical collective
the insurrection, goaded by the devil. montage of Joan of Arc.
The brutal mass, the people, are caught here In the first part of the film, in order to break down some-
specifically, in that Dreyer continuously cuts in what, the justified monotony, the distances of close-ups from
with varied types in their reaction to Joan. Joan to the priests should have been from the very beginning
increasingly widened.
Camera movements to right, to left, upwards
Then, with the idea of advancing towards a circularly
and downwards. diminishing
(5) To all this, JOAN remains the center. lessen
enclosure, the possibility lies open to
by degrees the distances, i. e., in gradually drawing the
Everything reacts towards her- Optically to her priests closer and closer to the camera.
of a drink, which a peasant woman had extended This type of montage would permit a greater play of ten-
sion, and upon this path of the purely "optical" (not
to her on her way to the stake.
rhythmical) the monotony of the rhythm would become re-
Her trembling nostrils betray the first sign that
leased.
the stake is burning. Then the fire itself be-
comes evident. Constructive critical comment on the Individual Montage.
Her last words are: MEDIUM SHOT: Pantomimically a priest, with his
gives significance to the words:
"OUR FATHER" lifted forefinger,
TITLE: "We, the church, gather the sheep that have
(The length of this title is held at such a short lost their way."
tempo that it appears as if these words had escaped CLOSE-UP of the hand with the pointed index-finger
her mouth with her last breath) should have been cut in at this point,to symbolize the col-
10
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
the artist finds a means of stimulating rather the laws of design and movement as applied to
than of restricting his expression. With every med- painting and pictorial composition. However
ium for art expression the mechanics through which much painting may suggest movement of pattern
and line, mass and volume, it is static whereas
form is realized are inherent in the nature of the
the movie gives continuous mobility to these
medium itself. The dramatist thinks in terms
of speech,the sculptor in .erms of day elements.
composer and musician in Since filmic motion conveys thoughts by means
and marble; the
of a succession of flowing images, it has no connec-
terms of sound; the writer in terms of words;
the
tion with the medium of words.
maker of. motion pictures in terms of motion and
* * *
light. To express an idea belonging to a particular
medium through the mechanics of another medium Since the images in motion are silent, then mo-
results in the negation of both forms. To apply, tion as a medium has no connection with nor re-
let us say, sound, speech, color and text or words lation to music and the mechanical devices for the
to the medium of filmic motion subjects the me- reproduction of sound. \ Objects and images in
chanics of these various media to an arbitrary, false motion can graphically suggest sound in the mind
technic which emphasizes its limitations as weak- of the spectator as has been proved by every mo-
nesses rather than as potentialities. A
relation tion picture true to the medium, from Mack Sen-
between the thought to be conveyed and the means nett's slapstick comedies to the more sophisticated
used to express it does not exist. The result is a films like Potemkin, The End of St. Petersburg,
hybrid form. The Crowd and The Last Laugh.
For the most part producers in American studios The medium of motion has nothing in common
have been content to adapt the mechanics of other with the medium of speech nor with the conven-
arts to the films rather than to develop to the ut- tional movements of the stage in the expression
most the poss bilities of filmic motion as a medium. of human emotion.
Thus, they have borrowed from the stage, from Since motion is the only medium which tells a
literature, from music, from painting. By bor- story or conveys thought and feeling by means of
rowing from other art forms the picture makers flowing images, the conjunction of pieces in a film
have hindered the logical development of the movie, strip, the organization of sequences, and the varia-
insofar as they have consciously or unconsciously tion of their tempo, it is self-sufficient like any in-
repressed the creative impulse in the industry to- dependent art form.
wards the development of the motion picture as an A decade and a half ago the motion picture
When the medium is impeccably handled, seemed to be on the right track. At that time the
art.
whether in painting, music, the theatre or the cin- movie dealt in motion in the medium true to
ema, there is no separation between the idea ex- itself. gave small heed to the stage, particularly
It
pressed and the medium through which it is ex- to a stage out of tempo with its age; it gave no
pressed. In view of the misunderstanding that heed to literature, nor to any of the other in-
has been caused by novelties such as the talking dependent art media.
and sound films, it behooves all of us who are in # % ^
any way identified with or interested in the mo- Producers with aspirations, box-office and other-
tion picture to ask ourselves critically, "What is wise, sought to improve the screen by imitating
filmic motion as a medium?" the narrative manner of the stage play. This
Ever since the producers deserted the early man- imitation of theatre transferred the slow tempo
ifestations of motion in slapstick and old-fashioned of the stage to the movie and interrupted the
melodramatic action in the movie for the dubious logical flow of images inherent in the nature of
practice of adapting the mechanics of other media the medium of motion. On the screen, space is
to that of the motion picture, the American silent complementary to motion. Space implies depth
film has remained, artistically speaking, in a rut. and is necessay for the movement of objects and
To be sure, the picture makers naively hoped to bodies in any given direction, thereby imparting to
improve the films by reason of these literary, the- the motion picture a scope of visual appeal that
atrical and statically pictorial embellishments, but cannot be achieved by the necessarily slower tempo
they succeeded merely in increasing the difficulties and restricted movement of the stage or of the talk-
of production. Unhappily, they failed to re- ing film. The slow tempo of dialogue films and
cognize the most significant element in the films: of the stage production is due to the slow move-
The mounting of filmic motion without which ment of objects, to static patterns, and to limited
there could be no motion pictures ... no images, command of depth, pace and space for the exten-
patterns, masses or lines in motion. sion of movement. Whenever a film, as frequent-
11
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
ly happens in the case of the dialogue films, slows tion of personalities arrested the development of
down to a degree which makes it possible for the films true to their medium Motion. Scenarios
eye deliberately to take in an object or image on and photoplays were adjusted to the star, with
the screen, and when the mind is conscious of the the result that requirements of the medium re- is
passage of time in the act of optical scrunity, then ceived secondary attention. The medium was de- US(
the film is too nearly static to be a motion picture. based to enhance the player, instead of the player the
Motion does not permit the eye to focus on an being fitted to the medium and the creative de- hei
precisely happens on the stage or in the talking dium suffered neglect- the
film. This absence of motion limits the degree That Charles Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks m;
of emotional and visual appeal, for it is the never have held their own in American pictures longer fao
ending patterns in motion moving through space than other players is due chiefly to the fact that vie
on different planes, and, building up to, a totaluy they have been truer to the nature of the medium the
concept that heighten the dynamics of the silent and pursued their own course independent of pro- cha
Farsighted. prophetic directors and technicians motion, most producers and directors have utilized per
mechanics of the theatre to the tempo of our times much exhibition of their faces; the director because 1
by seeking to solve the limitations of space on the it was an escape from the difficulties of thinking met
conventional stage (which producers of dialogue in terms of motion, and building up an idea and
films have brought to the screen) only to realize through the composite effect of non-narrative A
that no theatre stage can ever be spacious enough images. With most stars as indifferent to the Am
for the depth and varies of motion necessitated medium as the producers, of course they agreed inev
by the motion picture. Several years ago, Linne- to the non-cinematic use of the close-up, and as diro
bach at the Printz Regenten Theatre in Munich is known in the industry, many stars insisted that aboi
predicted that the technique of stage production contracts specify a certain number of close-ups in mot
the movie. Thus, while the best technicians in The more close-ups there were without drama- d r
the modern European theatre seek to overcome the tic reason the greater was the neglect of motion.
spatial limitations of the stage, American producers For years, the film has been kept from function- with
of dialogue films have brought to the screen the ing in accordance with its own inherent nature un- It is
limitations of the conventional speaking stage. til audiences tired of the lazy, narrative technic and oftl
When Griffith achieved his phenomenal suc- its sentimental absurdities. They began to find
cess with The Birth of a Nation, producers seemed more drama in motion by driving cars, dancing,
as blind then to the reason for the success of this watching ball games, attending prize fights, foot- Sii
film as they are to-day to the dynamics of the ball games, horse races, aeroplane meets, than in Sffli
movie. If they had been sensitive of the drama of observing the picturization of stage scenes in front
motion as it is revealed in this Griffith epic, and of stage sets and reading the explanatory titles 10 til
which method of mounting Griffith himself has that the movies have offered. When people dis-
abandoned, they would have seen that it was the covered they could get the drama of motion else-
way in which the director had organized the se- where than in .'he movie house, the film merchant
quences of patterns, the short scenes and quick cuts thought that the public had wearied of motion
and particularly the fragments of objects and pictures. The truth is that comparatively few
images in motion, which imparted such dynamic pictures have been made which were mounted in
power to The Birth of a Nation. Producers did harmony wit.i the medium of motion. The pub- and s
not observe that the motion of the patterns and lic never tired of motion pictures because there penoe
images, their building up to an idea or concept, never has been an over-supply of such films. Ra-
rather than Mae Marsh and the Gishes, served to ther they had grown weary of pictures not true
develop the emotional appeal that the same mo- to the medium and of photographed "kitsch" de-
tamei
a pro;
tion, if enacted by other players, would have been termined by the sanctified tabooes of Will H. maker
The Birth of a Nation, remember the motion, but Instead of realizing the situation, correcting it
have forgotten the players. However, for purely by adjusting production to the demands of the
box-office reasons Mae Marsh, the Gishes and other medium, or better yet, by developing directors
players were made stars by the producers. The from the ranks of artists who think naturally in
fact is, that if Griffith had mounted The Birth of terms of images and patterns, and by encouraging
a Nation in the later narrative manner of most writers to plan scenarios in terms of motion and
conventional films, neither that picture nor the life, the producers continued to go from bad to
players in it would have created a lasting impres- worse and in their last extremity adopted the )-
sion. dialogue film.
The development of stars brought about the To attribute the spiritless quality of many mo-
exploitation of personalities
and the exploita- tion pictures to the mechanical characteristics of
12
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
used to create and distort forms as well as to take of intrusion by the mechanics of any
them realistically, and that the projector can other medium.
heighten moments of drama by increasing the Chaplin has done it. Fairbanks at times has
tempo of the images as well as the dimensions of done it. Murnau. Pabst, Dupont and others have
the screen- But these, although important factors, done it. And the Russians, Eisenstein, Dovshen-
including three dimensional effects, reflecting sur- ko and Pudowkin, with the application of their
faces, the elastic screen, flexible lens and other de,- principles of montage, are carrying the art of mo-
vices, are incidental to the one basic principle of The motion
tion further than anybody to-day.
the motion picture: Motion. brand the me-
chanics of the motion picture as limitations in the
To picture the picture based on motion and the
calculated mounting of images that command
way of its remaining a creative art is on a par with
decrying the piano because its limitations are cop-
spectator attention hasnever failed to be im-
pressive, even when built upon themes of simple
per wire and ivory keys; or painting because its content- The medium of motion as rhythmical-
tools are oil, turpentine, color, canvas and brushes ly applied to patterns, images and themes, demands
of pig bristle.
the control by artists. The necessity of the mo-
The application of thought and feeling to the tion picture is obedience to the characteristics of
mechanics of an
and degree of
art medium determines the quality
artistry in the finished product its medium,
a medium which only artists in
imagery can use with creative, stimulating effect
whether a sonata, a portrait, or a motion picture- for the enrichment of the screen and Man's im-
Among the followers of every art there are hacks, agination.
inevitably; and in the cinema it is the hacks among
directors and producers who are most vociferous
about the mixture of speech, sound and color with
motion. They are vocifereous because they have THE NEW CINEMA
shown themselves unable to cope with the magic A Preface to Film Form
of motion and have produced shadows of animat-
ed puppets instead of- real motion pictures. Shall
we confuse the limitations of the motion picture
with the incapacity of directors and producers? The Cinema, a medium capable of aesthetic
It is as if a pianist blamed the wires and ivory keys
expression, sensitive and profound as any of the
of the instrument for his inability to play like a arts, is deliberately going to waste through the
13
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Itwas not until the projection of the Soviet bile camera, pams, tilts, lense changes, cuts, dis-
film "Potemkin" that the cinema became aware solves, tempo, camera changes), TIME (speed,
of its individaality. "Potemkin" was the first interval and duration of objects, cinematic units
film to break away from the multitude of static and movements) The second coherence is
.
reproductions of lighted scenes, of idiotic facial dependent upon IMAGERY (subject matter in its
distortions, of declamatory emotions, and of un- highest organization, cinematically, psychological-
related and over-emphasized projections. Eisen- ly, compositionally) A cineplastic ensemble is
.
14
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
of that inborn artistic character which makes the *The kindness and efforts of Christel Gang, exercised through
Slav at once superior to the Anglo-Saxon, has ier sensitiveand meticulous translations of technical litera-
ture from German into English, have made it possible for
solved the problem of the creative dominance of
film-students in Hollywood and along the West Coast to
the film by one master, by one master's vision and become acquainted with a great deal of material that would
organic genius. (This, it is almost unnecessary otherwise still be inaccessible to them. Her translation of
to add, holds every bit as true of collaborative di- Pudowkin's book was made privately, for purpose of im-
rection as of direction by one man. powerful A mediate reference, but arrangements are now being completed
to publish it for the American market. Wherever material
religious social understanding welds into a single translated from the German appears in this paper, the trans-
dominant mind, such as Pudowkin's, into the fi'<n- lation, unless otherwise indicated, is Miss Gang's.
15
. .
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
gether of the film-strips in their temporal succes- "Change of placement" montage is one of the
sion," writes Pudowkin, "is naive." Many cardinal points in the construction of the Russian
times in this book Pudowkin offers definitive film-dynamic. It is a two-fold means of camera
guiding notes on the particular powers, functions, and optical attack.
utilization The conventional,
and peculiarities of montage-construction. These well-known form is simply the shift of camera in
laws and general principles, which constitute the plane, angle or general line of vision, taking the
basis of Russian film-ideology, form the very crux same action. It requires the photographing of two
and essence of the correct construction of films; or more "shots". But there is another, more
they also give us a vision of the present emergence radical, form of placement-change montage, which
Page 59
of the screen into an art of colossal power.
"Basically taken, montage is a force-
the Russians have brought to a high degree of
powerful effect. At the highest tension-points
ful steering of the thoughts of the (study the film-strip of Potemkin, Mother, Ten
spectator- If the montage is a sim- Days, etc.), they "break" the individual image-
ple, unguided binding of the different element into a number of separate placements (but
not into separate "shots"), which evidently, to
12
"Montage
pieces, it tells the spectator nothing."
is the creator of film- re- judge from sections of the film-strip I have seen,
is accomplished not by cutting (the "shot" is a
ality, and nature represents only the
raw-material of the work that makes constant: it is always the same "shot") but prob-
film-reality. This is the most de- ably by a stop-watch camera- The important
cisive point in the relationship be- consideration for this type of construction (which
is really an analysis of the single scene, within it-
tween film and actuality."
(Italics mine) self !) is that the "shot" is constantly itself, that
54
"The picture is built out of the
is, the same "s:iot", and that it runs continuously
115
DIRECTOR."
"The director organizes every single
ercises, however important from certain points of view, such
as Rien Que Les Hemes, Ballet Mechanique, A Quoi Revent
scene; he analyzes it through reduc- Les Jeunes Films, etc. The abstract film, according to my
tion (solution-analysis) into its ele- ideology, belongs outside the working-sphere proper of mass-
cinematography and can be of value only to limited groups
ments, and at the same time, he al-
of students who need cinematic "piano practice".
ready visualizes the union of these
elements in montage." **Fri$m a letter to me.
16
,
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
The new cinema that leads
foundations of the "The entire film must be proconceived in
to mind carry us to the consideration of radical anticipation of each detail I Acurve or
principles of vision (image-bases and fundaments) an angle, a close up or a fade-out, must
organization and construction. The deepening not be recognized as an isolated detail, but
connection between film-theory and film-practice as an inevitable part of an inevitable pat-
not only but actually necessitates, such
justifies, tern. The whole disciplines the detail,
and terminology as I have here
ideological structure the detail disciplines the whole. There is
built for the advancement of cinema throughout a more demanding logic than the logic of
the world. the psychology of a character at any mo-
We may see from the foregoing interesting and ment or the logic of the dramatic moment.
significant observations that the making of a film, There is the rythmic structure of the unit
after the basic underlying theme** has been decid- determining the moment. No such thing
ed upon, is not a matter of romantic intuition, of as a "shot" exists in the aesthetic sense of
helter-skelter shooting of haphazard putting-to- the cinema, whatever one may call the im-
gether, or of cutting according to impulse, but is mediate taking of a scene. Films are
rather a matter of working out the mathematics rythms that commence and proceed, in
of filmic form based on the calculation of the which ideally every moment, every
neural and psychological perception-reactions of the point, refers back to all that has preceded
audience to optical sequences which are mounted and forward to all that follows. A
stress
THE FILM IN DYNAMIC AND VI- and has striven to inaugurate. He has violently ban-
SUAL FORM. ished intuition from the creative realm and ab-
To abide by so important a philosophical eva- solutely denied it a single claim to existence in
luation of the essence of cinematography, requires, cinematography. His well-known statement, "I
as may be instantly realized, (1 a mind sensitive- ) am an engineer by training, strictly utilitarian,"
ly attuned to the tone of the image-music which, etc.. . . My
slogan is, "Down with intuitive crea-
pictorially. expresses the image-reality of cinema, tion !" is expressive of the general tendency of
and (2) a methodology of practical film-con- Bolshevist ..'inematography. Pudowkin does not
struction that follows the path already so bril- share this view. If they can achieve this long-
liantly blazed by the Bolshevist producers. Per- sought goal, if they can rid creative cinematography
haps no one has more finely sensed or more suc- of the handicap of intuitive "inspiration" and thus
cintly expressed the immense implications of the remove the film-structure from the constant danger
above point of view, in its relation to the new of the creening-in of intellectually foreign elements,
methodology of film-construction, than my friend they will have accomplished another great thing.
and confrere, H. A. Potamkin. In the first of a I cannot enter further into this phase of the mat-
series of important essays on the Phases of Cinema ter. It would take me too far into the vital mat-
Unity*,, he wrote as follows: ter of the relation of the unconscious mind to the
objective in age-reality of the film, a subject I shall
**By theme "I understand, and mean, the same thing that
Pudowkin, Potamkin, Bakshy and others of this persuasion treat separately. Let it suffice here to conclude that
.mean: i. e.. not 'story' (especially as 'story' is understood the creator of the film-reality, in order to fulfill
and obeyed in the putrid, damaging,
un-filmic tradition of these principles, must have a profound working-
Hollywood), but intrinsic subject-matter fundamental, knowledge of the mathematics of film-form. By
underlying, intellectual content
in a word, what I later in
the mathematics of film-form, I mean, specifically,
this essay name "the essential, radical, underlying image-'
idea." the analytical and synthetic treatment of the pic-
ture in its sequences and individual parts.
*Close Up, May, 19 29. In Eisenstein we find a master of the mathema-
17
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
tics of film-form, and the first to master it by an me long ago the science of human reflexes.
intensively non-intuitive
intellectual, method. "I devoted several years to the study of de-
While it has been said that Pudowkin is "tradition- terminism, of psychic states, of the theory
less", (in a sense that is outside the scope of my es- of repression, of Freud in particular and
say), it is really Eisenstein, who, in this direction of diverse manifestations of fear, anguish,
at least is traditionless- Pudowkin, while he is far sorrow and love. All that I learnt has
above the rank and wildly unconceptual intuition- actually been of great service to me in the
ism that furnishes the American, English and Ger- preparation of my actors."
man producers their sole means of ('technique", Could there be a clearer picture of the intent,
leans towards Griffuh in certain intuitional phases
seriousness and purposiveness of Soviet film-meth-
of image-construction*. But in Eisenstein, we find
ods? With this I am content to conclude my re-
the completest and most radical departure from
marks as to the factors of intuition and intellect
anything resembling these methods. The insist- montage.
in relation to the preparation of the
ent, religious reliance of Eisenstein on the general
Analysis of montage-construction leads to a di-
principles of modern science and mathematics for
vision of the entire sphere. I establish it as a mat-
every structural point, for every characterization,
for every movement.
in a word, for everything
ter of categorical expediency to attack all problems
of montage-construction on either of two paths of
in the nature of cinematic effect and montage-ex
construction: Labor on the film is labor on either
pression, is one of the wonders of the' film-culture
of U. S. S. R. This tendency may explain the
the MONTAGE OF VISUAL ELEMENTS or
accusation of a certain hardness and dis-individu-
on the MONTAGE OF DYNAMIC ELE-
MENTS. Briefly, the basic working-categories of
alized impersonality in his works, but according
montage arc dynamic montage and visual montage.
to my viewpoint all such charges are untrue, or,
There are no other divisions. There is no simpler
at best, superficial and therefore inaccurate. Eisen-
way of handling the situation of film-construction.
stein chooses to project the tragedy of the mass,
Under the montage of visual elements may be
rather than that of the individual, in whom, as a grouped the following items of artistic labor:
result of a religious belief in a strict Marxian
Photography
materialism, he does not believe. But the emo- Lighting
tional force there as much as in Pudowkin. The
is
Set construction
irony is equally savage, the bitterness equally (Scenic architecture)
vitriolic, the hatred of the Western bourgeois world
Composition
equally fierce, the will to expose the lying decadent Tonalization
peoples of the West, is equally developed and ex- Printing (laboratory)
pressive. All the elements are there, and all of Cleansing and preservation of the celluloid
them are satisfying. The result of Eisenstein's strip.
ideology is the "explosive montage", of which Ten Under the montage of dynamic elements may be
Days That Shook the World is the readiest and grouped the following items:
most significant example. Potemkin, which pro- Movement (tempo, rhythm, motion-anal-
ceeded along an image-graph of more compactly ysis, etc.)
woven texture, contains the rudiments of Eisen- Continuity (and cutting)
stein's montage in the October film- Ten Days, Camera operation.
experimentally however unfulfilled in the abstract Under this may also be classified all other forms
domain, is, by the least appraisal, a world-revela- and functions of movement on the screen.
tion in the montage of "movement-explosions" The total montage-organization of the film is
scientifically established.
the result of the harmonization of visual montage
My digression on the directorial beliefs and in- with dynan./c montage. To "mount" a film
tentions that are making for the re-formation of means, in its entire sense, to mount visual film-
the new world-cinema would be incomplete in this elements in unity (co-ordination) with dynamic
phase if I neglected to mention perhaps the most film-elements. A film may have a good (dynamic)
interesting particular of all, the method of the montage. It may be. in continuity, cutting and in
world-famed Bolshevist director, Alexander Room. individual movement-forms, a fine piece of work.
Room has himself stated his general method and But the final montage-result will be spoiled or de-
intention. stroyed if the visual elements (the lighting, photo-
"I want my camera to be like Roentgen, graphy, printing, etc. are not in harmony with
)
whose rays pierce through to the. innermost the pattern of the whole. But this condition of
of our being. I want to project on the
"harmony" (or unity) is not attained according
screen the very foundation of man in or- to the methods of the present Hollywood photo-
der that the analysis of determinate sensa- graphers who imagine they have only to flood
tions, of acts and thoughts, arc translated every scene with light and have crystal-clear print-
into luminous images. The academic pro- ing in order to make their films photographically
fessor Bescherew, who died recently, taught (optically) "appealing". On the contrary, the
scheme for the working-out of the visual montage
must be carefully planned in joint consultation of
*It is interesting to note that Pudowkin's films, which are
emotionally more violent than Eisenstein's. are the more
'director and photographer. The exact degree of
popular. They concentrate more on the individual, and hence tonalization, the general distribution of light and
are more sympathetic. shade throughout the film, (each scene envisioned
18
..
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
in relation to the whole vision) and the particular
,
composition as these are employed in the
quality of this light and shade for the particular easel painting."* (Italics are mine).
film at hand, are montage-matters of as vital con- Death to everyform that violates this law, the
cern to artistic cinematography as the problems of life-law of cinematography !
understood these laws. To realize how much they The past year has yielded a more analytical and
have understood them, witness the astonishing more conclusive statement on movement than any
work of such photographers as Tisse, Feldman, within my knowledge, by one who is perhaps Mr.
Golownia and Demutzki. Bakshy's most worshipful disciple Potamkin-
The chiefdomain, however, of a film-ideology I offer for consideration as the final essential
it
concerned with the fulfillment of form, is move- preliminary to the study of categories of dy- my
ment. The present period of world-cinemato- namic montage:
graphy, which has yielded so much of significance "Movement is not succession of motions. In
in Soviet production, marks the complete and al- cinema movement, no motion may actually
most universal establishment and recognition of take place, but an interval may occur, an
the nature of cinematography as plastic form, interval of time, between two images and
as movement, (A recognition that comes almost that is movement. In other words, move-
too late) . To us today the axiom of movement ments are two: the actual movement of a
seems a priori understood- Such an attitude, how- body, and the constructed movement at-
ever, is still actually without justification. We are tained through time and space-successions
in danger of forgetting that for fifteen years, most (in montage)
of the world has persistently failed (or refused)
to think of cinema in its native terms and that "The movement of a film is not cinematic
unless it is plastic ."
this error of judgment (which, more than any-
. .
thing, caused the premature corruption of the pro- "Dynamics is just another name for the
duction-mind and hence of the art) has been hon-
,
climacteric construction and organization of
ored with perpetuation by the long-dreamed of these various elements. It refers to the ac-
triumph of the talking-film in the most conven- cumulative forward march of the film."
tional theatrical tradition. But among the world- (Italics mine)
minority who have best understood the film, the
condition of movement and all its implications To use a filmic metaphor, the Bakshy-Potam-
are acknowledged. The whole weight and test- kin statements on movement are one and the same
imony of the radical critical tradition of the past scene photographed from different angles and join-
fifteen years apotheosizes this concept into the holi- ed in montage. If the Potamkin statement is a
est law of the film. The father of film-aesthetics, far-flung extension of the father's original, bear-
fifteen years afterhaving expressed the first princi- ing cinema closer to the distant horizon at a furi-
ple of cinematography, again develops a statement ous rate of speed, the father's words, that " (film)
on movement as an article of undying cinematic organization should be of the nature of a dynamic
faith: pattern (etc.)", are holy law, to be defied only at
the peril of demolishing the film entirely.
"The only real thing in the motion picture
is movement ... It is the failure to appraise We are only now at the point of determining
at its true value the part played in the mo- just what are the forms by and through which the
tion picture by movement that has been movements of the film (i. e., the movements of
responsible for the obsession with realistic its physical action, the movement of the film in
effects which have dominated the greater continuity-progression, the movements of its in-
number of film-directors since the early dividual, fragmented parts which constitute an in-
days of film-art. tegration of its single major movements, etc.) may
"Assuredly, the material of the motion pic- be mounted in order ( 1 ) to describe events and
ture must be organized, but its organiza- (2) to express image-ideas. The Bolshevist cin-
tion should be of the nature of a dynamic ematographers have suggested some of these mont-
pattern, in which each separate pictorial age-forms. It is my purpose to submit and to dis-
subject is balanced in relation to all other cuss new categories in the light of the present
print subjects while the component parts of each world-advancement of expressive cinematography.
ikally
remain fluid in relation to one another.
. the To enter as an element into a mobile form, *From The Road to Art in the Motion Picture by Alexander
the static picture has first of all to break Bakshy, published in The Theatre Arts Monthly of June,
ion 01
down its equilibrium. It ceases therefore 1927, an essay for every film-student in the world. The
appearance of this man twenty years ago as the first and
to be a "picture", and, with this, has no classical film-aesthetician is an early, infallible indication of
further use for the principles of design and the priority of the Russians to mastery of the film.
sioncd
19
.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
The six categories which I propose are: This (new montage-form) means that the
(1) SYNTHETIC MONTAGE* joining of the (film) -pieces will express
Ideational and give the spectator the abstract "concep-
(Individually, Sequentially, Episodically, tion" or immediate emotional state. This
Organically, Compositionally) principle also extends to the joining of
sound and visual pictures (sound pic-
(2) Montage of Static Group Combinations
tures) ."
(3) Montage of the Transition from the Static The category of synthetic montage may, in cer-
to the Dynamic (and reverse) with
tain notable aspects, be considered as identical
(4) Montage of the Continuance and the Di- the expressive montage-ideology of U. S- S. R.
rection of Movement, which includes the Under it, therefore, I group four other montage-
dynamics of the moving camera. forms, as being, although individually independent,
(5) Montage of Objectification collectively variations of the many methods of
(6) MONTAGE OF THE MOVEMENT- creating a synthetic montage. But, while all these
FORMS OF THE FILM. forms may be utilized to attain a significant ex-
pressive montage, synthetic montage, on the other
The progress of contemporary cinematography hand, implies also something distinct and specific
in the language of cinematography.
is towards a greater and greater, and deeper and
deeper expressiveness. In its march towards mind, Synthetic montage is expressive montage. But,
the film has increasing recourse to image-symbols,
deeper, synthetic montage is and basis
also the root
which are drawn from the deep well of the psy- of new structural elements that function as means
chologic image-experience of the race of man. In towards the creation of a philosophical synthetic
grinding harder its scientifically found material, imagery.
and in digging deeper into the experiential con- THE SYNTHETIC MONTAGE unites
20
.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
undergoing relative changes, according to whether (c) according to the points plane-space of
the filmis pronouncedly contrapuntal or not. The the movement.
more contrapuntal in structure the visual-motor a and b are temporal divisions, c is spatial.
graph of the film is conceived, (this means also, It must be borne in mind that I am not trying
the more violently it breaks with the stupid Hol- to construct a parallelistic metaphysic with Aris-
lywood of "story-structure"), the less
tradition totle as its starting-point. Such adherence to the
"immediate'' the progression in which the part-
is cine-metaphysics of Aristotle's* universe (governed
icular image-fragments forming a synthetic image- as it is by a motionless God, the product of the
idea occur in the "sequence" that they create. unfulfilled psycho-graphic experience of the Hel-
There can be true understanding of the two lenes), would be unjustified if only out of con-
montage-forms, synthetic and analytical, only by sideration of the wealth of analogical instruction
studying the distinctions between them and as- that a Bergson's motion-deified universe yields. I
signing to each its proper useful function in the am merely attempting to suggest the way towards
construction of the film. These distinctions are a true formulation of analytical montage-methods,
not arbitrary, but are based on analysis of the and towards film-methodology in general. It will
actual structure of film-works- It is more than be recognized that between the divisibility Aris-
expediency: it is a real aesthetic determinant that totle found in the motion of the world-stuff and
requires sharp lines to be drawn here for the guid- the divisibility of the motion of film-reality, as
ance and empowerment of the film-workers. stipulated, there exists only a temporary analogy
The
synthetic and analytical montage-forms are of identity, and the time is not far distant when
two distinct kinds. the analogy between these two divisibilities will
An analytical montage is any montage which no longer suffice as suggestions of method, for the
analyzes the continuum of a single action and emergence of cinematography into spheres of
builds it up by dividing it into its salient progres- hitherto unknown reality will extend the field,
sive points of movement. and create new possibilities, for complicated space
Though breaks up, it builds up.
it Its break- and motion analyses. But now, although the
ing-up building-up.
is its mathematical philosophers of the present time have
The analysis may or may not include inter- gone immeasurably beyond this, cinematography
mediate seems. If no other scenes cue in between develops aesthetically, despite the colossal Bolshe-
the analytical points of the action analyzed, it is vist achievement, with a wearying slowness, due
a simple, straight analytical montage. chiefly to the international effect of the damaging,
But if between the points of the
there are scenes retrogressive Hollywood influence. Without
analysis of the single action, the object committing ignoring the world-significance of Griffith's early
(or the pe/son performing) this action on the work, and particularly of the structural lessons of
screen is called, for reference and technical analysis, Intolerance, the film-revolutionary movement is
the "point of analysis". The basic object of confronted with the enormous task of combatting
analysis (that is. the particular "image-action" and vitiating this influence in every sphere of
analyzed) is the structural point of analysis, and cinematographic work
the parts (pieces of image-fragments) of the analy- On the foregoing basis, an example of a simple
sis made of this initial object, arc the functional analytical montage is the following:
points of analysis. (This terminology, of course, (From Polemkin)
is strictly utilitarian, based on method and the A sailor angrily smashes a plate which bears
stipulations of technical analysis) the words "Give Us Our Daily Bread".
Here we may avail ourselves of a useful analogy. In this action he is photographed in three
We may point remark the interesting and
at this or four quick, successive flash-cuts, each of
useful parallelism between this analysis-division
of
which shows us his hand as he raises it
a scene made in order to build up film-reality, above his head, in the 3 or 4 points in the
and
the idea of Aristotle, in that part of his Metaphys- progression of its movement:
ics which treats of the divisibility of
motion, (1) plate upraised above his head.
a suggestive analogy that will, in course of time, Flash-shot.
carry cinematography into more universal (2) plate descending, face wrathful.
territory.
Motion, according to the Greek philosopher, is Flash-shot.
divisible in two respects: (3) plate as it crashes on the table,
(a) in respect of the time it occupies sailor's face tense with anger.
(b) in respect of the separate movements Flash-shot.
of
the moving body. This is a remarkable study of the description
If we apply of the sailor's emotion its swiftly mounting
in
this primitive division of motion
to the material which at the present stages. The smashing
of the plate bearing the
time is the
major film-stuff to be dealt with, and consider traditional religious slogan, has behind it many
the scenes of an opposite state of affairs, and
relationship between the laws respectively a great
govern- many
ing each, we see that the motion of
every montage-
social overtones- The
sailor's sudden,
scene has two points of structure frenzied desire to smash, expressed in a power-
is
from which
be analyzed.
may
temporal and
be analyzed according to the tempo
spatial. A
to
scene
ful movement-analysis:
the entire action.
the analytical montage of
of
(a) the action, or
An example of an analytical montage which in-
cludes several different scenes is the following:
(b) the time-cutting, or (From Potemkin) :
21
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
In the episode of the massacre on the Odessa
steps, there is a sequence which shows the
4. The sad marine with his nose pressed
against the barrel of his gun. In the
death of a young mother. She is first time-elapse between this cut and cut no.
seen in a medium shot, standing against 3, the sad marine has turned his head for-
her baby carriage, trying to shield it from ward again and raised it.
the downcoming Cossacks. But their guns D. More "business" on deck.
find her, and a bullet pierces her stomach. 5. The sad marine with his head bent low,
The close-ups of her hands clutching at the his eyes cast down, before him-
abdomen, of her face rolling in agony, of Here we see how a movement is marked off and
her tottering form, of her sudden fall and rendered meaningful by the time-cutting. While
death, and, finally, as a consequence of the the foregoing is not a precise duplicate of the actual
fall the accidental releasing of the brake on continuity at this point (the letter-cuts for the
the baby-carriage, which starts bouncing most part consisting of several individual "shots"
down the steps, are separated in the mon- of the intermediary action) it none the less ex-
,
tage-continuity of this sequence by long emplifies the principle of the time-cutting analyt-
shots of the Cossacks and by close-ups of ical montage as Eisenstein uses it. Each time we
groups and faces in the fleeing masses. see the marine, he has performed a certain part of
The girl is the structural point of analysis. the turning of his head in its course from side to
The intercut images of the mass are the front- The letter-cuts alternate whh number-
the
functional points of the entire image- cuts as the tension of the entire sequence mounts
analysis. The girl's death-movement is to a point of exciting stillness and momentary,
not mounted as a constant, unvaried unit, foreboding cessation. When the previous hurried
but each cut back to the girl's sinking body movement-rhythm movement-sensation
stops, the
shows another section of the body. (Gemutsbeivegung) experiences an instantaneous
This is also an example of the division of move concentration, which "reflexes" in the spectator
ment according to time-cutting: an analytical (the law of reaction-contrast), and the tension-
montage in which each cut back to the girl reveals point of stillness
fat this famous tension-point
her nearer to her death, nearer to sinking com- in Potemkin the action is suddenly abandoned and
pletely on the stone steps. The last cut, follow- there flash before the spectator's eyes, "still" shots
ing flash long-shots of the Cossacks, shows her of a bugle against a sailor's hip, the flag of the
just as she has fallen to the ground. Prince Potemkin, the prow of the ship, the flap-
Another example of an analytical montage in ping of the sailcloth above the heads of the doomed
which the points of analysis are intercut by other and various other important elements that mount
scenes, and where the time-cutting of a single the image-structure here into a profoundly signi-
movement is forceful, is the following:* ficant and ominous pause)
the tension-point of
(From Potemkin) : stillness ( 1 ) checks the preceding rush of move-
THE SCENE IS: ment, and (2) prepares both the image-structure
The Marine Guard is called out on deck. and the spectator for the outburst of fury that
The marines line up in two rows, one behind descends at the crucial moment, in which all cur-
the other. rents of movement are mixed together and the
rhythm-line steps out of any previously sustained
THE ANALYTICAL TIME-CUTTING pattern whatsoever .... Thus this turning-around
GOES:
1. A marine end of the second line,
at the
of the marine's head (together with the above-
mentioned scenes that follow) is not only a true
near the lens, sad and pensive.
is
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
meaning-full image-idea. ed*. This secondary raw-material
radical, abstract,
connection between synthetic montage and
The signifies all theimages of the film as
film-symbolism is immediate, direct, axiomatic. they are mobilized in the brain of the
To resort to this figure: Synthesis is a fruit whose creator to form the new image-struc-
core is a symbol. This symbol stands in inter- ture. The new image-structure (as
mediary relation between the fruit itself (the distinguished from- the "raw" image-
and the forming principle which makes structure of the creator's brain, to
structure)
the fruit itself. What, after all, is synthesis but which, no matter how ultimately it
construction in montage to make immediately ap- may be developed, photography and the
prehensible to mind the radical, abstract image-idea, laboratory invariably add some new
which is the genetic conception of the film- work? element of tone or composition), sign-
But if the mechanics of the medium changes, if a ifies the cinematic reality, compounded
Bakshy magnified screen comes into utilization, out of the primary raw-material (ac-
if a highly complex art of orchestral counterpoint
tuality) and the secondary raw-material
emerges out of the progressive studios of U. S. S. (of the brain of the creator) Of .
R., will, then, synthesis still be possible of attain- this cinematic reality, the image-idea
ment? The answer is: Obviously, it will be forms the tertiary cinematic material,
more possible of attainment than ever before, nor but this tertiary material is not a "raw"
will itsintellectual root-character change. (Radi- material (as are the primary and sec-
cal abstract ideas are constant, however much ondary raw materials, which, unlike
mechanical instrumentation may change or in- the tertiary, are either incompletely
dustrial production multiply) Only the mon-.
formed or not formed at all) since no- ,
tage-form, and not the radical aesthetic conception, thing in the film can be metaphysically
will have to be transposed into a new formal struc- deeper or more radical than the funda-
Method will change: but synthesis, which mental image-idea.
ture.
is more than method, though less than end,
5. The image-idea is explicit in the entire
synthesis, that makes the
the construction-force structure of the film. It is implicit in
not suffer as an aesthetic concept. \ Whatever the phases, and in all its individual man-
method, whatever the mechanics, synthesis will ifestations. It is violently and pro-
still be the intermediary "station" between the nouncedly explicit in its purely sym-
abstract image-idea and the spectator (the receiving bolical manifestations. It is implicit
23
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
the final filmic expression of its meta- It is here, in this domain. (Ideational synthetic montage),
physical essence, will cause havoc with that the conditioning-process of cinematography must
real
operate. Cinema, to an extent never imposed upon any pre-
this expression and fail to communicate
vious art-form, is confronted by the task of a stupendous
its essence to the spectator. Hence, the revolutionary mass-conditioning. In the work of dises-
supreme importance of perfecting the tablishing the slave-values of Western civilization (values of
mechanical aspects of the medium and ethic, aaesthetic. human behaviour, human "ideals", etc.).
it has to draw its fighting-forces and ammunition from the
of deciding upon the legitimacy of
arsenal of Western scientific research. It must utilize the
various current forms of cinema. (For
despised and relatively neglected science-achievement of the
instance. I exclude the speech-film from West (which hitherto has been used purely for money-pur-
my aesthetic of cinematography. Ac- poses or for the advancement of the war-makers) in order ,
cording to the viewpoint of my doc- to attack and dethrone the slavery-dogmas of the West . . .
in order to form the abstract, expressive idea (significance) the Russian masses, murdered by a labor-exploiting govern-
of the sequence, is an instance of ideational synthetic mon- ment. Perhaps an explanatory title at this point, calling
tage. Eisenstein in a crude way was successful in a pre- attention to the situation. might have penetrated to the
cocious experiment with this form in the sequence of Ten bourgeois critical "brain!"
Days That Shook the World, where the figure of Kerensky **The Bolshevist creators from the beginning pronounced
mounting the stairs, the bust of Napoleon and the peacock "the new orchestral counterpoint of sight-images and sound-
spreading its tail, alternate in a time-cutting synthesis of images", "a new and enormously effective means for ex
astonishing power and emotional effect. Again, in the same pressing and solving the complex problems with which we
work, there is the episode of the rising bridge, the massacres have been troubled owing to the impossibility of solving them
in the streets, the advancing riflemen and the hanging of the by the aid of cinematography operating with visual images
horse from the drawbridge, a synthesis of scenes the in- alone." (Quoted from the Manifesto on the Sound Film
conceivable force of which is outmatched only by the stark issued by Eisenstein, Pudowkin and Alexandroff in the Fall
and terrible idea that unites them and gives them their vital of 1928). This statement must not be accepted in con-
meaning. In every case, the quality of symbolism is in- nection with the destructive and confounding use of sound
escapable.* practised in the Hollywood studios.
24
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DAVID PLATT C I N E M
LEWIS JACOBS CRAFTEF
or Am e r
1
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
PROJECTING SIGNIFICANT FILM DEVELOPMENTS
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2 O CENTS*
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o
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Edited by
DAVID PLATT and LEWIS JACOBS
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA is the only magazine in America devoted to the principles of the art of
the motion picture.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA is a forum for the discussion of the new cinematic ideas and forms of
America, Europe and U. S. S. R.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA will introduce to film students and laymen the films, criticism, theories,
stills, etc., of
CO N TE N TS
Focus and Mechanism David Piatt
CONTRIBUTORS
B. G. BRAVER-MANN LEON MOUSSINAC
has worked with Prof. Oskar Strnad, Max Reinhardt's chief is a French critic who has written several important books on
designer and one of Europe's leading film technicians; has writ- the cinema, the latest of which is "Panoramique Du Cinema",
ten articles for The Billboard. Film Spectator and other jour- recently published in France. This is his first appearance in an
nals. The Literary Digest has referred to him as a chal- American film mag-azine.
lenging csthetician of the motion picture."
LEWIS JACOBS
is a painter and designer who has been making industrial and ex-
W. L. PUDOWKIN
perimental films for the, past few /ears.
is the well known Soviet Director of "End of St. Petersburg,"
"Storm over Asia", and "Mother". His Book "Film Direction
WERNER KLINGLER and Film Manuscript", now appearing in "Experimental Cin-
ema", is one of the few important contributions to film prac-
formerly connected with Murnau s now "free-lancing" in Hol-
;
tice.
lywood pictures. He has an important role as a revolting Ger-
man soldier in "Journey's End" and he plays the second lead in
All Quiet on the Western Front." SEYMOUR STERN
JEAN LENAUER has written extensively on technical and aesthetic film -problems
for several years. He is at present studying the new mechanism
is a newspaper film critic in Paris and French correspondent for of the American film studios, in relation to the problems of the
several European film journals. new world-cinematography.
Experimental Cinema is published bv the Cinema Crafters of America at 1629 Chestnut Street. Philadelphia. Penna. Contri-
butions should be addressed to the Editors who will not assume responsibility for their safe return unless solicited. Subscrip-
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1 PHOTO
BY
BRETT
WESTON
ni e
i
Is
EXPERIMEN fAL CINEMA
as that of the Mahabharata or the Divine Comedy sounding when the sapphire delivers it from the
which would support him in a union with nature disc is no longer, whatever one may say, the simple
and the mechanization of nature, the machine and voice, the same voice". It is this new space-time
thereby lend profound purpose to all phenomena spirit that is awaiting a human synthesis. "An
within its scope. An ideology in which the machine historical reconstruction on the screen strikes out
would be incorporated integrally and vitally in for a few half hours, twenty centuries of time.
the modern scheme both as affecting the act or The instantaneous photograph has discovered
behavior as well as the thought of man within it. gestures which the eye now delivers and the hand
It cannot be stated too often that this lack of a reproduces. We notice how suddenly a face on
humanistic orientation of the modern world is the screen shows itself to be different. A wrinkle
responsible for a good deal of the unrest and appears that we failed to notice for twenty years;
weariness of our time. Indeed, social, political but from now on we shall have learned to see it."
and humane development are so far in the arrears And if "the speed realized by man has given a new
of scientific progress that it becomes more and character to civilized life", it will appear, it must
more doubtful whether the balance will ever be appear in the creative forms of today. So as it
fully adjusted one with the other, at least by ra- becomes more and more impossible to eliminate
tionalism. And to suggest a solution to the dif- or deflect the main currents of our time as they
ficulty, by deliberate evasion of these new natural are manifested in radio, television, aeronautics,
phenomena (radio, television, cinema, the ma- cinema, relativity, etc., it becomes more and more
chine) and by concentration on the traditional in- urgent that these factors if they are eventually
ner forces of man that have so long in the past to react to cur benefit and not to our havoc be
contributed to his happiness and welfare in a less controlled by an ideology nourished by and
mechanical age, is the typical escape of the spirit- through free creative contact with these realities.
ually retrogressive. As though happiness is some- And the first premise of this vision will reject the
thing that can be achieved by withdrawing so false dualism of matter and spirit that has infect-
naively and yet so desperately from pain; or ed our age so long for a spiritual monism more
chaos something that can be resolved to order in an in consonance with the temper of the time a
ivory tower; as though humanistic forces them- monism that will suggest there is more of the be-
selves are not determined largely by the naturalistic. ginnings, the foundations, of the new spirit in
The very concept of good and evil itself must ul- creative work outside the art world, than those
timately conform to a naturalistic ethos, whether within it
that the positive values of Machinery,
it is the theologic synthesis of the 13th century Bridges, Automobiles, Zeppelins, Dynamos, the
or the scientific equivalent of the 20th. This Cinema
celebrating the union of art and science
type of rationalism however defeats itself as will are of more importance for our ideology :han
be seen in a crisis, when it will always be found the literature, painting or music of the day des-
in the ranks of the most conservative or reac- perately struggling in a cul de sac and most of
tionary elements- Also to offer a solution to which exalts negative values entirely outside
the question, in blind acceptance of mechanical modern life. It will suggest that the Cinema,
science and technological progress, is to fall practi- the absolute focus of the new spirit is great
cally into the same error
a point of view that fails enough in possibilities to not only contain but to
to take into consideration the irrationality the give direction and purpose to poetry, music, paint-
creative irrationalism of nature since the days of ing, sculpture, etc. in the throes of a futile roman-
Spencerian science. If it has be proven that even na- ticism, and that it is the only major force of the
ture herself is irrationa' and imaginative in her be- day that in any way incorporates the vision of
behavior (as is now revealed) how on earth is it the new universe and the only medium in control
possible to erect systematic or rationalistic states, of the artist today that can possibly unite with
societies or philosophies, etc., without allowing for him in attempting a modern humanistic synthesis
that element of mystery. Thus the so-called hu- of the world powerful enough to give meaning
manist and the modernist arrive at the same point and reality to the new naturalistic synthesis of
without having touched the heart of the subject. science.
Neither of these views has been able to explain or David Piatt
visualize the philosophical or social-political impli-
cations of the relation of man to a world wherein
it is possible or soon will be possible for him to see In 1900 a Swede foundblock of magnetic steel which
a
an event in any part of the globe the moment it oc- retained sound and retranslated
the invisible vibrations of
them for the human ear. when demagnetized, be-
The steel,
curs. "The world for man today", wrote Jean came deaf and dumb. If matter hears and speaks, do not
Epstein, brilliant French cinematographs in objects see? Do not lines adjust themselves to one another?
A process not yet accessible to the human consciousness.
"Broom", several years ago, "is like descriptive Similarly, do not the vibrations of the cinema have speech,
geometry with its infinite planes of projection. thought, will? Scientific investigators may track down
the evidence of this life: hierog-lyphists may interprcc its
Everything possesses hundreds of apparent dia- system of logic; but is not the imagination, to b: per-
meters which never superimpose exactly. A voice mitted its faith in an arrangement of living lines which,
going beyond pretext and scenery, play the leading role?
heard naturally, then heard springing from the The art of the cinema offers us a new expression of thought.
black graphite of the telephone, then finally re
I
Etienne de Beau nont
.
h
m SENSTEIN'S DOMAIN
By Dr. ERWIN HONIG (Berlin)
{Translated by Christel Gang from the Original Article Published in Internationale Filmschau)
S. M. Eisenstein, the creator of the POTEMKIN tion may be called to the idea of "War in the Name
film, which, even if only externally, neverthless of the Lord", as it was shown in the film Ten
enriched last year's world-production, was recently Days That Shook the World (October).
in Berlin to arrange the final preparations for the
initial showing of the new film, THE GENERAL The strongest elements of montage the Russian
Line*. He expects to leave soon for America, in director has discovered in Japanese art. The
ot;der, as he humbly expresses himself, to learn- ancient Japanese theatre "Kabuki" imparted to the
horn to make camera angles. intellectual life of Moscow last year a special im-
petus (impulse) . No
one rushed with greater
The intellectual and
development of spiritual
intensity upon this stimulant than Eisenstein. The
Eisenstein is today one of the most important
joint application of picture, movement and sound
factors for the advance of the cinema. Whoever has existed since medieval times in the strictest
has had the opportunity to watch him at his tradition of this theatre.It is an established mon-
work in the Leningrad Winter Palace, in the ar- tage*. And deeper still lead Eisenstein's studies ,
to present it in so clear a form that the Russian trained in reading or in writing, is the film, the
worker and peasant can understand it. The well- montage. It is a terrible means of power that
is being fostered here.
founded montage of the Russian Revolutionary
films can today be duplicated by almost any young The cinema university has divisions for al!
man of the Moscow Cinema University (Mos- branches, for photography, developing, acting and
kauer Kino-Technikum) . But one of them for directing. A remarkable feature of Eisen-
should try to present cinematically "The Economy stein's ideas is a shooting-room partitioned accord-
cf Antitheses'" . . .Whoever would dare to do ing to a coordination-system. Every object re-'
that must possess a profound education and a per- ceives its definite geometrical posicion. Every
petual "borin t" desire for research. Tendencies dramatic action is divided into its nathematica!
towards this ntellectua! montage can already be
observed in rVe earlier films of Eisenstein; atten-
,
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
componencs. The scientific law of film-shooting comes the chamber-artist, the psychological
is being outlined here. miniature-painter, Stefan Zweig, and one of the
most popularly read authors in Soviet Russia.
But the heart of this domain is the technical And, as a final course, the. Ulysses of James Joyce.
school for young directors. Eisenstein conducts
this himself. Tonight there will be exercises on The intense enthusiasm of these young people,
Zola's works. The foundation of naturalism, a who are gathered here around an ideal task under
scene "Death in a Bakery", written by Zola with the most unfavorable living and working condi-
minutest observations, is being read and is to be tions,is one of the strongest positive forces Soviet
worked out for the following day in scenario form. Russia has to offer today. It is one of the signs
Another student
we are in a poor country, so demonstrating that even in the face of the dire need
one Zola novel is divided among three students of living quarters and the trying economic situa-
reads the famous part about the flagrant tion, spiritual-intellectual power can prevail. But
flowers in the garden of the priest Mouret. it is also a warning to the rulers of State every-
When the Zola course is finished, they move where, to grant such spiritual-intellectual elements
their necessary freedom.
on the impression, then to expressionism, and to
their mutual friend, the young Russian poet,
Babel. Description of an evening's fantastic il-
Literally, in the German, "it is an anticipatory montage"
lumination at Babel's house. After expressionism (i.e., anticipatory of modern film-montage) Trans, note.
.
'
i
% IJ i
( /
% iS,
ji^-^^i^_iLc'^ ;
:
1
T
the International Congress of Independent ematicwork in France since 1893 and selections
Cinematography, at Sarrez, my remarks on from French films were projected to illustrate the
the growth of cinematography from the talk at Sarrez.
dramatic point of view were to indicate the solu-
tion of some questions with which my comrades The first film I think was a release from the
and myself were occupied, questions that were the Lumiere flat in Lyons in 1894. This film was
more self-sufficient than evocative; it was fol-
purpose of the meeting.
lowed by a short period of enthusiasm. It con-
The cinema is dead.
silent Its decline provok-
cerned the arrival of people by train, and a boat
ed a so violent that we have neither compo-
crisis
moving around a dock. It carried sufficient novel-
sure, not recoil. Toward the establishment of
ty and movement to retain attention. Cinematic
an historical view of this silent phase, however,
art began with L'Arrosseur Arrose in 1900. Was
an examination of the material already allows
formulation of a certain amount of certitude, and the cinema aware of its possibilities? Was it go-
an analysis of the aesthetique. ing to interpret human emotion, the comic, life
A composite reel made up of a resume of cin- itself? Also instead of catching its true voice in
4i
.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
the beginning indicated so clearly in this film, the such a reduction of scale was a study of a vivid
year lost itself in encumbrances with theatrical struggle between a mongoose and a cobra; an ex-
tradition. Armand Callier, has shown us at the treme dimunition was that of a soap bubble which
Studio des Ursulines several very beautiful ex- burst; another of. a revolver bullet penetrating a
amples of theatre-film. How is one to forget plank, and another of the flight of a dragon-fly
Mimosa la derniere gcisetle, with Leonace Perret, these mysteries gave up their secrets in the excellent
and above all, Wert her with Andre Brule? The photography of these rhythms, movements and
year recalls also L'Assassinat Du Due de Guise, solutions-
one of the first of the "historic reconstruction" class Today most improvement in the domain of
of film that unhappily remains much in vogue
speed hardly seem to astonish us. The achieve-
among French directors. This did not at all im- ment that will again appease us will perhaps arise
pede development, for the cinema recovered itself,
in the growth of greater unification of cinematic
first with Melies who was -the author of one of
elements.
the first phantasy films.
The cue was not found alone in phantasy How much on the side of semblance of the
films, however; Fevillade turned out a little later marvelous should one try to attain in a film, The
the first comedies (the series of the Belee, for problem calls for realization that is profound. To
example) played out of doors, which one has not have reverence for life, to guard its wild freedom,
seen again and which in spite of their twenty to interpret it in an act of true reconstruction >
years seem scarcely obsolete. this is something to look forward to in the cin-, ;
ema.
The period had not completely passed away
when Louis Delluc began to work. He died It not always possible to renew data suf-
is
young, before he had arrived at a fruition of his ficiently to have actuality, nor to accept the rhythm
work. He was a theorist of the first order. Even revealed in the first unification of the picture. One
though they are incomplete, his works for the secures an alien rhythm of the flow of images
most part are beautiful specimens and they mark themselves. This is called montage. It is brought
distinctly a new transition. out by means of adjusting simple interior rhythms,
The cinema reacts definitely against the double and powerfully it accents dramatic action. Among
influence of the theatre and of letters in the growth the first beautiful examples of concordant rhythms
of the episodic, the cultural and the comic film. one may name the mounting of the machine in
A curious lacuna particularly in French produc- La Rove (Gance) and the summons to battle in
tion is the long disappearance of the comic film Le Jover d'Echecs (Bernard)
so abundantly and astonishingly developed in Reacting in its turn against certain bad usages
America. Only the films of Max Linder are ex- of montage the travel films, often of great drama-
cepted. tic power, cooperate by their naturalism to rees-
Forthwith in the appearance of masterpieces tablish the film in a form that is better balanced-
such as Judex, or in America', The Mysteries of La Croissiere Note (Poerier, Le Voyage d' Andre
New York, the intrusion of decor in its turn Gide au Congo (Allegret) in France, and Grass,
shackled the growth of the cinema from the drama- Chang, Moana and others have had a direct in-
tic point of view. How can we forget apart- fluence on film direction.
ments grander than the cathedrals and intimate In the future the cinema finds in pure photo-
affairs where one saw scores of figures?
graphy the material of its unique kind of drama.
By the side of this ostentation which tended to It exists by itself. It is neither a question of the-
bring to cinema sumptuous spectacles of the bad atre nor of literature. Dramatic structure of the
music hall, dramatic documents took on in their film, it seems to us, has arrived at a degree of purity
disturbing simplicity all the power of photographic and perfection that is difficult to surpass when the
veracity. One will never say too much of what a sound element comes into consideration. We
valuable lesson these actualities have been, one in- thought the formula already found for cinema-
dispensible in the evolution of cinematography. tography was definitive, but instead of proceeding
How could one forget the straining vision of an on a new stage of present growth as one expected,
automobile race accident in the United States? You the introduction of sound has produced on the
saw the torn form thrown into the air and fall contrary a regressive phenomenon- They do not
to the ground. In another you saw a ship that show us the equal of Train de la Ciotat and of
starts to flounder careen on the waves; the sailors Canot Contournant la Jettec etc. The opera
let her glide and escape the wreck by swimming singers and players of the saxaphone whom one
in the fatal turmoil of the engulfment. likes well enough on discs are works of filmed
These cruder devices were used for a long time. theatre, and we cannot believe such violations will
The technique achieved adequacy for the time; ob- endure. Rather we are seeking to realize in the
jectives of great works were seen. The pan- new form of cinematography the visual and
chromatic film was evolved. Then a dimunition auditory elements that will make up the develop-
of scale cinematography reached a point that would ed sound film. With sound film a new era is
have seemed formerly quite improbable. This has upon us, and cinematography should begin to
brought forth a precision that seems absolute and evolve the destiny that the addition of tone now
consonant to the rhythm of the images. One lays upon the silent drama.
it
Film Direction and Film Manuscript
by W. L. PUDOWKIN
Translated by Christ el Gang from the German of Georg and Nadja Friedland.
Edition Verlag der Licht Bild Buehne Revision according to Russian Original
we try to divide the work of the manuscript murder." That is a stuff of enormous dimen-
IFinto stages, so that we advance from the general sions and already the fact that it is extended to
to the particular, we get. roughly, the follow- "all times and peoples", necessitates an incalcuable
ing scheme: wealth of material. The exceptionally
result is
3. The cinematographic treatment of the action due to the unbroken boresomeness, was very ques-
tionable. In the second place, the excess of stuff
Naturally, such a scheme can be drafted only forced the director to work out the theme very
if the final manuscript has been thoughtfully es- generally, without going into particulars; the con-
tablished. As I have already remarked, however. sequence was a stark discrepancy between the depth
the creative process can advance in a different of the motive and the superficiality of the treat-
order: individual scenes can emerge (i. e., "come ment. Only the part which takes place in the pre-
up") during the working-process and can then sent time, where the action is more concentrated,
for the first time be incorporated in the manu- had a strong effect. Particularly, owing to the
script. It is certain, however, that the final valid wealth of subject-material, the forced superficial-
form of the work will consist of all three above ities were conspicuous. And film-art, young to
moments in their sequence. One should always this day, has other such presuppositions, which do
keep in mind that the film, owing to the peculiarity not permit her to tackle so wide a field.
of its construction, (the quick change of consecu-
requires of the spectator an extra- It is noteworthy, that good films are disting-
tive pieces)
ordinary strain of attention. The director, and uished mainly by a relatively simple theme and by
consequently also the author, lead the spectator uncomplicated action. Bela Belazs, in his "Film-
despotically in their path- The spectator sees on- Culture," "hits the nail on the head" when he says
ly that which the director shows him. To re- that the failure of many filmings of literary works
is to be traced to the fact that the author attempted
flect, doubt and to pause for criticism, there is
neither space nor time, and therefore the minutest to force too much stuff into the narrow scope of
error or slip in the clarity and definiteness of the the film.
construction will be interpreted as a disturbing The film is above all limited by the determ-
confusion or simply as a meaningless vacuum. One ined length of the film-strip. A
film over 2300
must therefore, before all else, be cautious to ob- meters quickly tires. There exists, however, the
tain the greatest simplicity and clarity in the solu-
possibility to show a film in several parts, but this
tion of every single task. For convenient elucida- method is suitable only for films of a special kind.
tion, we will examine the points of the above- Adventure films, whose content consists chiefly in
mentioned scheme separately. a series of interesting incidents in the fate of the
THE STUFF (Subject-Matter) hero, which really have little intrinsic inter-con-
nection and have mostly a self-sustaining interest
The word stuff (or subject-matter) is an inar-
(acrobatic and directorial tricks) can naturally be
Every human thought can be ul-
,
tistic concept.
presented to the spectator in serial form. The spec-
timately utilized as "stuff" ; only whether it is ef-
tator, without losing the impression, can see the
fective and purposeful, can be discussed. For a long
second part without knowledge of the first, whose
while the tendency prevailed (and partly exists to
this day) to choose such subjects as embrace mat- content he learns from the opening title. The con-
erial that stretches out extensively over time and nection between the parts is effected through a
space. As an example, take the American film simple play on the curiosity of the spectator: for
"Hate", whose stuff may be described as follows:
example, if the hero at the end of the first part
"In 3ll times and among all peoples, from the earl-
iest days unto the present, there has been hate a- falls into some kind of difficult situation, which
mong men, and only where there is hate, follows is unravelled only at the beginning of the second
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
part. The film with deeper content, however, of development by placing him in lasting relation-
whose worth lies always in its total impression, ship to the clearly formulated theme- The basic
cannot be divided in such a way into two parts. thought was conceived in a distinct, comprehen-
The influence of the circumscribed space of the sive formula: that is, it is not sufficient, to be sole-
film is still further magnified through the fact that ly a revolutionary inclined human being; in order
the film-artist, for the clear presentation of a to serve the cause, one must possess also a correctly
thought, needs considerably more place than, say, organized consciousness of actuality. In short,
the poet. the brawling, quarrelsome worker, thirsting for
Often a word contains a whole complex of dif- action, became an anarchist. His enemies accord-
ficult thoughts. Visible apearances, however, ingly stood in a definite, clear front. The impact
which are capable of presenting such a thought of the hero with them and his future friends re-
symbolically, occur very seldom, and the film- ceived definite meaning and clear significance, a
creator is thus forced to mount scenically (inzenie- whole series of superfluous burdens were dispensed
ren) an extensive image-presentation, if he does not with and the confused, intricate, manuscript was
want to renounce the effect. transformed into a lucid, convincing structure. One
I repeat, that this contention regarding the may define the above rendered thought of this sto-
limitation of theme is perhaps only a passing one, ry already as the theme, the clear formulation of i
but at the present time it is necessary to insist on which unconditionally regulates the whole work
it rigidly. and which alone can yield a clear impressive crea-
THEME and CLARITY tion. As a rule, it should be noted: Formulate the
On this account is rooted in
a stipulation, that theme clearly and exactly, otherwise the work' will
the peculiar quality of the film itself, will prob- lose is deeper significance and its unity which
ably always have to be laid down: the striving every work
of art must have. All further restric-
towards clarity. I have already mentioned above tions which influence the choice of the theme arc
the necessity of absolute clarity in the discussion connected with the working out of the action. As'
of the. individual tasks in the film. This is valid I mentioned before, the creative process never oc-
in a comprehensive sense also for the work on the curs in scheduled succession: if one takes up a
subject-matter. If the basic thought, which is to theme, one must almost instantaneously think the.
serve as the spine of the manuscript, is indefinite formation of the script.
and vague, the manuscript from the beginning is THE FORMATION OF THE SCRIPT
condemned to failure. Assuming the most care- Already in the initial stage of his work the au-
ful planning in laying down the foundations of
thor possesses a certain material which is later em-
the film in the manuscript, it is very well possible This material
bodied in the frame of the work.
to disentangle hazy suggestions and cloggings- I
through experience, observation, and
is obtained
should like to make mention of the following ex- through imagination. When the basic thought of
ample from experience: A
manuscript writer pre-
the theme, which determines the selection of
sented us with an already finished manuscript on
material, is established, the author must next at-
the life of a factory-worker of the period before
tack the problem of organization. First, the
the Russian Revolution. The manuscript is persons acting in the picture are introduced, their
based on a definite personality, a worker. In the
relationships to one another arc established, their
development of the action the worker comes into
significance in the development of the action is de-
contact with a group of persons, friends and fined and, finally, certain proportions of the divi-
enemies. The enemies do him ill. The friends sion of the total material throughout; the manu-
help him. At the beginning of the film the hero
script are drafted-
is portrayed as a crude, raw type of human being;
In that moment whenthe treatment of the ac-
at the end he becomes and honest, revolutionary
tion the author makes his first contacts
begins,
worker. The manuscript is very naturalistically with the conditions of artistic labor. Just as the
written and yields undoubtedly interesting, living
pure (raw) stuff* can be considered as an ab-
material, which testifies to the gift of observation
solutely inartistic thing**, so, in the same way,
and the knowledge of the author. In spite of that,
the work on the action is conditioned through a
it is unusuable.
whole series of regulations which are peculiar to
A series of incidents from life, a series of ac-
art.
cidental meetings and conflicts which bear no other
Let us begin with the most general: If the
connection than a correctly timed, sequential order,
writer thinks through the whole planned out work.
finally represent nothing else than an accumula-
he will always construct a series of certain "prop"
tion of episodes. The theme as a fundamental
points which are fundamental for the formation
idea, which expression to the meaning of
gives
of the stuff and which extend over the total length
these events as they are shown, is missing; con-
of the theme. These prop-points throw the
sequently the single figures in a deeper sense are
general outline into bold relief. To this belong
impersonal, the actions of the hero just as chaotic
the characterization of individuals, the particularity
and accidental as the meeting of passers-by on the
street, as* they rush past a show-window.
The writer was sensible, and on the basis of *Stuff meaning absolutely raw. unformed material.
our objections, undertook to re-construct the **In the Geiman the word is "moment", tha is, instance or
manuscript. He brought the hero into a new line state of condition.
I
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
of events which react upon these figures, often also small quarters of the chauffeur appear to the daugh-
certain detailswhich determine the meaning and ter of the capitalist like a dog's kennel. The na-
force of the upward-and-downward movement. tural desire of the chauffeur, to find, after a tiring
day's work, a home-cooked meal ready for him,
To
senseless.
think unsystematically about the subject
.(ATTENTION HOLLYWOOD!
is
meets with an insurmountable obstacle
his wife
has not the slightest idea of how to go about mak-
Trans. Note) One may not simply say that at the
ing a fire. The fire is too hot, the dishes dirty her
hero is an anarchist and then, after a series
start the
hands and the half-finished meal falls to the floor.
of mishaps, he becomes a conscious communist. When friends of the chauffeur visit him to spend
Such a scheme does not release the theme and does a gay evening, they behave, according to the spoil-
not bring us to the decisive transformation. ed lady's opinion, so raw, that she finally rushes
One must perceive not only what happens but out of the room in an hysterical crying-fit.
also how happens.
it In the work on the script
But the laundress in the house of the wealthy
the form must be already fulfilled. To propose man fares no better. Surrounded by servants she
a revolution in the world-philosophy of the hero
falls from one embarrassement into another. Her
by no means signifies a high-point in the manu- maid, who helps her dress and undress, gives her
script- Before a certain concrete form is found,
one surprise after another.In fancy dress she feels
of which the intended effect, according to the
ridiculous- Among the guests at dinner she makes
author's meaning, may influence the spectator
one faux pas after another, so that she becomes
from the screen, the bare thought of the revolution the target of ridicule, to the worry of the spouse
has no artistic worth and cannot serve as a prop-
and his relatives.
point in the building-up of the script. These
prop-points, hoicever, are necessary: they establish By accident the chauffeur and the former laun-
the solid skeleton of the script and clear away the dress meet. It turns out that under the influence
dead places, which always crop up, if such an im- of their common disappointments, the former af-
portant moment in the development of the manu- fection is re-awakened. Both couples separate and
script is thought through carelessly and unsys- find each other in a newer, happier union. The
tematically. The neglect of this moment can have laundress manages the kitchen in perfect order, and
irremediable consequences: particularly, it is easy the new wife of the capitalist wears the dress in
for elements to creep in which combat the final perfect style and dances a wonderful Charleston.
plastic treatment and thus destroy the whole struc- The manuscript is just as primitive as the theme,
ture. but nevertheless one can designate the film as ex-
ceptional in the clearly planned construction.
The writer can represent his high-points through
Every detail is in place and in immediate connec-
detailed description: the dramatist through dia-
tion with the underlying thought: At the same
logue. The manuscript-writer, however, must
time one feels even in the superficial content-sketch
think in terms of plastic (external) means; he
distinctly visible the clear, plastically worked out
must discipline his power of imagination to that
degree where he is able co present every thought in
picture-sequence. The kitchen, the guests of the
chauffeur, the elegant dress, the invited dinner
the form of a sequence of images on the screen.
guests, and again the kitchen and the dress in an-
Mor than that: he mils': learn to govern these im-
ages and, out of the mass of image-forms that flow
other form. Every essential moment in the
development of the manuscript is defined through
to him, to select the clearest and most expressive.
He must learn to master them as the writer masters distinct plastic material. As a counter example, I
shall reproduce an excerpt from one of the many
the word and the dramatist the dialogue. The
daily submitted manuscripts:
clearness and definiteness of the treatment depends
conclusively on the clear formulation of the theme. "A family has fallen into dire poverty. Neither
the fathernor the daughter can find work. Every-
Let us take, as an example, a real naive Amer-
where they are turned down- Often a friend calls
ican film of little worth, which runs under the
title"Immer fremd" (Lit.
"Always strange"). on them and tries with consoling words to cheer
up the despairful daughter, etc."
Apart from the modesty of its content, it presents
an excellent example of a clearly defined theme This is a typical example of filmic colorlcssncss
and of a simply and definitely worked out script and helplessness in the presentation. One finds
(action)- The theme is formulated somewhat here nothing except meetings and conversations.
as follows: Such expressions as "often a friend calls on them".
"Human beings of different classes of society to cheer up with consoling words", everywhere
will never be happy if they marry." turned down", etc. show the complete failure to
connect the work on the script with the filmic
The building up of the action is as follows: A form which the manuscript should finally assume.
chauffeur turns down the love of a laundress, be- Such suggestions can at best serve as stuff for titles,
cause he has fallen in love with the daughter of a
but not for film-shots, for the word "often" un-
capitalist whom he has to drive around daily in
the auto. The son of another wealthy man, who mistakably means" several times", and to show the
accidentally sees in his home the young laundress, friend entering the room four or five times would
falls in love with her. The couples marry. The even seem absurd to the writer of this manuscript.
ffi
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
The same is to be said about the notation "every- hold the spectator in constantly mounting excite-
where they were turned down." ment. But after the end of the third reel, when the
adventures of the cowboy come to an end through
It is also important that one should not draft an unexpected finale, there is a natural reaction in
in the general preparatory treatment of the manu- the spectator, and the continuation, despite the
script that which is unfilmable and inessential, but excellent direction, is seen with far less interest.
only that which one can positively accept as the And the last reel, the weakest of the whole film,
plastic, expressive "high" points of the film. As (a journey through the streets of Moscow and
prop-points in the above example could be design-, through some sort of dreary factories) finally
,
ated the character of a scene, expressing dire pover- eradicates the impression and leaves the spectator
ty, or a deed, (not words) which characterizes
, unsatisfied.
the relationship of the daughter to the friend.
.
One could reply that the work on the plastic form As an interesting example of the opposite correct
belongs already to the subsequent stages and can manipulation of the mounting of the tension-
be left up to the director. Against this, I stress moment in the action may
be cited the films of the
the point once more, that one must always keep well-known American director, Griffith." He
in mind the plastic form as the goal. Already at even created a type of film-climax designated with
the start of the work, one must know exactly his name, which is being used by m:\ny of his fol-
where one wishes to go, if one desires to avoid lowers to this day. Let us take, for instance, the
serious difficulties later. For example, I would
.
aforementioned film, Hate. The young worker, "'
draw attention to the above-mentioned entirely having been dismissed on acount of his participa-
tion in a strike, comes to New York and then falk;
ternal methods. The linking up of the dynamic machine with the methodical preparations for the
moment, in the action, the introduction of scenes, execution of an innocent human being, the con-
which render conspicuous the intensification of the stantly mounting unrest of the spectator, "will
energy of the actors: all this effects the increase of she get there or not?", all this forces a heighten-
excitement in the spectator and one must learn so ing of excitement, which through its solution in the
to form the manuscript that the progressive action finale, ends the film happily.
captures comulatively the interest of the spectator,
so hat the strongest emotional factor is ungeared The method of Griffith combines inner dramatic
through the climax. A great mass of manuscripts fullness of action with masterly exploitation of
suffer from the poor manipulation of the attention external effects. His films can be used as mas-
factor. As an example, one may cite the Russian ter examples of correctly built-up intensification.
film The Adventure of Mr. West. The first three A thoroughly worked out script, in which al!
reels are looked upon with constantly mounting
lines of action are clearly laid down, in which the
interest. The cowboy, who has arrived in Mos-
essential situations of the actors are designated, in
cow with the American visitor, Mr. West, falls
into a series of difficult
which finally, the action is skilful.y intensified
situations and gets out
of them with a cleverness that constantly builds and mounted in such a way, that solution, satisfac-
up the interer . of the audience. The first reels, tion and climax fall together: such script is the
.
thoroughly dynamic, ate "easy to look upon" and perfect "exDose" for the director who in rcf ec-
10
i
fa
-
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
tion upon the "plastic material", upon the "image presents the first phase of filmic treatment. But
reaction" (optical effect) transforms it into con-
.
it is still far from the final form of the finished
ready the particularized cinematographic treatment as for instance, "sinking in the mud", "the sad
of the subject. Up to now, the subject has re- driver' , "huddled in a soldier's cloak", "sharp
ceived no essential cinematographic designation: it wind", etc. All these descriptive particulars would
has had so to say, only an adaptation for the film not be impressed upon the spectator, if they were
based on principles. Now the phase of the used merely as "properties" (Requisiten) and if
plastically animated treatment of the picture comes the scene as a whole, were photographed just as it
to the fore. The manuscript must be divided in- is described. In order to bring these particulars into
to parts, the parts into episodes, these into scenes, effective development, the film has its own peculiar
the scenes into single placements, which correspond and effective method, thanks to which, one can
to the pieces, out of which finally the film-strip draw the spectator's attention to each single detail.
is pasted together. The reels (Akte) must not Through this method, one does not just casually
be allowed to exceed a certain length and the manu- become aware of "bad weather
two people in a
script-writer must learn to feel them. The aver- wagon", but each of the details is effectively re-
age length of a reel consists of from 300 to 400 presented. This method is called Montage.*
meter. In order to feci this length correctly, one Some manuscript writers use a somewhat similar
must take the following into consideration- The means, in that they often bring into the descrip-
projection-machine runs, at average speed, one tion of the scene, a so-called close atmospheric shot.
metre in 3 seconds. Consequently, the entire for example, "Village street", "Festival Day", "a
reel runs within 20 minutes. If one tries to peasant family centered around a lively gesticulat-
visualize the corresponding scenes, belonging to ing communist, new groups step up to them, they
each single reel as they run on the screen, and takes raise their voices loudly in protest, etc". Such
into consideration the cime which they require in insertions arc better omitted as they have nothing
running, one can then calculate the amount of in common with Montage. The terms "inser-
scenes it takes to provide the contents of one reel. tion" (Einfuegung) and "interruption" (Unter-
Amanuscript thoroughly worked out in scenes brechung) are absurd concepts, which are merely
has the following appearance: left-overs of the old misunderstanding of kino-
technical methods. All details, which belong to
1. Scene scenes of the aforementioned kind, should not be
On a country road a peasant wagon drags slow- inserted into the scene, but the scene must be built
ly along, sinking in the mud. Sad and unwilling up out of them. We shall go over to montage,
the driver urges the tired horse on. In the corner as the fundamental method of effectively influenc-
of the wagon cowers a figure and huddles itself ing the spectator from the screen, when we have
up in an old soldier's cloak, in order to get protec- given the necessary explanations regarding the
tion from the sharp wind. An approaching fundamental types and the choice of the plastic
wanderer stops curiously, the driver addresses him:
Title: >
IWWM^ W|ti
material.
*This
i
^ 2. Scene
next number of EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Peasant hut. On the bench in the corner lies The following books have been received and
an old, white-haired man, covered with rags; he will be reviewed in the next issue of "Experimental
breathes heavily. A little old mother busies her- cinema":
self around the stove and angrily clatters about
The sick man turns around "An Hour with the Movies and Talkie. 1
with pots and pans.
with difficulty and says to her: G. Seldes Lippincott, Phila., Pa.
.
11
K
.A V < A. *>
V V
'OR nine months, ever since the Hollywood Film- Miss Dolores Gorgeous, who teaches millions of
arte Theatre at 1228 North Vine Street re-open-
'
young girls the magic by- words: "Oh, don't you
understand?" and "I love you, Pierre. I love you"
ed its doors with the Dreyer film., Passion of
Joan of Arc, the American film-capital has had an
how does Gorgeous feel when she sees Emma
Zessarskaja tell a husky Russian peasant to go to
unusual opportunity to take a course in cinema art.
hell, that the old order is over and the new re-
Outstanding pictures from practically every country
The nation best represented gime of Communism is at hand? What does the
have been shown here
was, of course. Soviet Russia. What would a film-art
little grey haired actress. who plays "mother
roles" in sixty-four out of sixty-five Hollywood
theatre be without Russian films? ....
"tearjerkers", think of the real mothers in Po-
The following is a list of the Russian films shown temkin, Arsenal, New Babylon, etc., not waving
in Hollywood since September, 1929, in chrono- flags, but killing officers in defense of their young.
logical order: not gushing songs about "clouds-with-silver-lin-
ings", but risking their lives behind barricades to
POTEMKIN help their husbands and sons against the imperia-
THE VILLAGE OF SIN list rulers of the world- Hollywood's "cutters"
TWO DAYS . . .
and old. or badly mounted. Despite censorship, perspective mass-shots during the storming of the
Arsenal probably suffered less in these respects than Winter Palace-
any of the other Soviet productions brought to The
mass-scenes, both of Potemkin and Ten
Hollywood. Days, came in for a due share of astonishment zno
disbelief. Directors, assistant-directors, tech-
nicians, etc., who were questioned, were emphatic
Howdo the American movie people react to in their conviction that these scenes (specifically.
the cinema masterpieces of Soviet Russia. How the Bolshevist demonstration and' machine-gun
do famous direc: ors, who get thousands of dol- episode on Sadovaja street, in Ten Days) , were
lars a week, react to the directing of Eiscnstein
i
Dovzhenko Raismann
Trauberg not produced but were taken from news-reels.
They chose to ignore the fact that at the time oi'
Preobrajonskaja whose collective salary per these events, there was no filming at all in Russia
month in the Soviet Union amounts to less than and hardly any equipment, and that whatever
the weekly check of a single big American 'star'" equipment there was, had been sabotaged by the
And the "stars" those magnificently tailored fleeing bourgeois owners of the few small pre-
religious ido's of the American public what Revolutionary studios. Similarly, they believed
do the "stars" think of the acting in the Soviet that the character of Lenin was not played but real
films, of the dynamic close-ups of working-men news-reel shots of Lenin underground and so
peasant women, revolutionaircs. etc? How does on . . .
12
"U i^T3
positive that they could duplicate some of the the end of every showing, throughout its run.
fecenes in Ten Days That Shook the World or Ten Days That Shook the World was applaud-
Potemkin. most of them sincerely insisted that they ed thunderously throughout the film and at its
could make much better films than Two Days, In conclusion. Not only the Communists, but the
Old Siberia, Her Way of Love, etc (on some other intelligent bourgeois public, hailed it as a master-
revolution) "if they weren't 'in it' for the money." piece of directorial genius and motion picture art.
A
few individuals connected with the American The tornado scenes in Her Way of Love, unique
movie-world, also "in it for the money", were a in the films, were acclaimed by the general public
more willing every night-
bit to credit Eisenstein and the other
Soviet directors with some ability and intelligence. Potemkin. In Old Siberia, The Yellow Pass
They admired, according to their fancy, the photo- all met with the same enthusiastic reception on the
graphy here, or a mass-scene there, or the dance of part of the general public.
13
h
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
The manifest conclusion to be drawn from ciousness. These came from members of a certain
these factsis that the appreciation of artistic films notorious patriotic society known for its kindly
is on a much higher level among intelligent Amer- habit of blowing up the homes of starving foreign
ican groups than "appreciation" among technically workers. These particular important individuals
experience people connected with the American were overheard to threaten the Filmarte with "in-
movie-industry. In every instance, the latter ex- vestigation". Their country's saviours pronounc-
hibited a state of mind absolutely ignorant and ed The A etc' Babylon corruptive, subversive and
offensive as contrasted with the open-minded re- dangerous. Perhaps they would call attention to
ceptions given the Russian films by Hollywood the case at headquarters . . .
laymen.
Hollywood, however, is a zoo of many strange This encounter between the Filmarte Theatre
animals. The films of the Soviet Union did not and the saviours of the fatherland was merely the
always find the path so rosy . . . direct, open manifestation of an attitude which
That old stand-by, the militant patriot, and had been growing for months and to which less
his twin, the well-to-do jingoist, condescended to vociferous, but not less definite, expression had
visit an art-theatre, and when they got there, they already been given. not the first time a pure-
It is
were shocked to find themselves so cleverly por- ly cultural movementhas had to meet insult,
trayed by Messrs. Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Trau- abuse and even active insanity on the part of mili-
berg, Ozep, Raismann, Poznansky, etc., that it tant patriots, who see red in everything except iff
was just too hot for comfort. their own eye-balls. But in the long run, such
After all, it was alright for Sergy Eisenstein to manifestations of bigotry and bought love do nor
use a peacock as a symbol to describe that is, avail. In the present case, the overwhelming
to "express"
dictators of the engineer and sav- majority of people who attend such theatres as the
Filmarte are happy to be able to witness creative
iour variety; and it was also alright for Dovzhen-
ko's soldier-rebel to face an august military board masterpieces like the Russian films. The attend-
and calmly announce that he had decided to de- ance every time one is shown is the living proof of
mobilize himself regardless of their need of being the popular sentiment out here.
"defended"- True, America must be kept "pure"
of that sort of thing. But it had all happened in
Soviet Russia, and any breach of military, patriotic
or parlor etiquette could be expected there
To be complete, this report has only to mention
Be- . . .
that the reception of the Soviet films by profes-
sides, Ten Days That Shook the World was a
sional critics on Los Angles newspapers and mag-
famous film, Eisenstein was a famous director and
azines was in almost every case enthusiastic and in-
a great many people seemed to enjoy the spectacle
telligent. Rob Wagner in Script, Arthur Millet
of the Bolshevist Revolution too much for isolated
in the Los Angeles Times, Frank Daugherty in the
protests to be effective. Arsenal, on the other
Film Spectator and a number of reporters on
hand, although it gave birth to the suspicion in
various papers found these films to be the realiza-
some patriotic genius's head that the manager of
tion of the oldest hopes for motion picture art.
the Filmarte Theatre was trying to build up a
Their publicity partly compensated for fhe Amer-
"little Soviet", was altogether too abstruse to be
ican industry's indifference and hostility.
understood. After the first two days, when it ran
to the tune of the ridicule and wise-cracking of a
few mentally empty movie-directors, it played to
an empty house . . . But The New Babylon was This is the story of what happened when the
different. Soviet film-masterpieces came to Hollywood, the
"Capital" of the American film-industry and sup-
posedly of the entire film-world. From the time
The New Babylon got too close to home to be that Potemkin created excitement because of its
seen without squirming. Moscow Moscow, but
Paris is almost as much America
is
14
J.
. .
DECOMPOSE
yR NTIL we learn to differentiate the senti- funded cinematic details (matter and notation)
y mental and narrative values from the filmic Because- of the repetitions in time-space projection
or cineplastic qualities in a film, the latter of shots, (the nature of the film medium) this
and greater problem will be neglected. quality of Imagery creates a condition or order
called Movement. This simply means that our
Each of the arts has its individual medium and senses connect two or more shots and attribute
the forms and values which it can effect depend
a dimension to the spaces between. We imagine
upon the medium employed. The director who a line leading from one shot to the other. These
tries to blend in the film the effects appropriate
spaces between are filled in with all degrees of
to other media, injures the aesthetic ensemble of
durations, intervals and stress. When these
his own medium- Consequently a director's spaces are ordered, that is, paralleled and organized
value dependent upon his ability to project his
is
in time-space sequences they create the second of
celluloid results only in filmic terms, and without
the cineplastic homogenities called Movement.
the intervention of any agency (moral, literary
This quality Movement is conditioned by the
or pictorial) other than the specific cinematic momentum of the element Imagery and governed
means.
or controlled by the third cineplastic quality,
we find the entire cinema scene
In contrast, Time Time exhibits itself as the tempo, dura-
dominated by cither the principles of acting, plot, tion, interval and stress of Images, of cinematic
dancing, sound, color: or such mawkish items as notation and as the governing factor of Movement
dramatic scqences, divisions of climaxes, rise and and its rhythms.
fall of suspense, the psychology of spectator re- These cineplastic qualities, Imagery, Movement
actions:
tricks and formulas, and in no sense and Time are the structural means for filmic form.
Question as to which of these elements contribute
contributing to the cinema that unique quality
which distinguishes the film from other media the most to the film, is for the moment unim-
of expression; and even at best a detriment to portant. Movement is the very spirit of object
true film creation. or situation- Time is the core of Movement and
Imagery is the body and essence of the film med-
The representation of the cinematic world is
ium. Each unreels to project a living whole ex-
achieved through the modifications of a surface
actly as the various parts of a body are all seen to-
(screen) by means of the properties of the motion
gether and make up the body which consists of
picture camera and projector, (cinematic means)
and lives because of them all. These qualities
It is the manipulation of these cinematic units
have an independent appeal of their own (regard-
(the details that constitute the notation of the
less of subject matter) and form in the cinema
cinema) that objects (subject matter) are given a
can only be created by the arrangements and uni-
filmic recognition, filmic and filmic
association
fications of the differentiation of Imagery, Move-
unity, entirely different from the
recognitions,
ment, Time.
associations, and unit es that they had before. The
;
business of the director is to integrate the subject There is no limit to the multiplicity of integra-
matter and medium in a filmic synthesis, extract- tions of Imagery Movement and Time, bur their
ing the essence of an object or situation and pro- methods of compositional procedure are displayed
jecting it .anew and enriched because of that par- in the following two types:
ticular filmic unification. This is the process of First, asan unreeling of single images, one fol-
composition and is the arrangement and unifica- lowing another in a simple linear projection with
tion of subject matter and cinematic notation and
the proportion and the content of the subject mat-
not a mere literal reproduction of objects or in- ter acting as the dominating idea; and the only
dividuals.
distortions (if any) in the relation of the psy-
*
Behind every film the idea.
is This idea is chology of the subject matter itself. This is an
twofold, subject matter or theme, (this can be illustrativetype of film. Actions, scenes, char-
anything, document, nature, abstractions) and the acters,atmospheres, ideas, are evoked and the film
cinematic process. As a result of the modification is circumscribed by the logic of documentation.
of subject matter under the stress of the cinematic A two dimensional type of composition and at its
notation (long shot, close up, etc., position on the most fluent will never exceed pattern in painting,
screen and in the film as a whole, angle, tempo, melody in music, or narration in literature. Near-
duration, action, tone, etc. etc.) a quality or form ly ail films to-date are of this order.
embracing the essence of both subject matter and More complex, and as yet unknown to the com-
notation, is projected-
_
This quality, called mercial cinema is this second type of film com-
Imagery, is one of three structural elements in the positon. Such a film is projected as a rhythmic
cineplastic progression of a film. This element order with the intensifications not only of subject
of Imagery exhibits itself as the greatest composi- matter, but of imagery (which is its greatest com-
tional state (filmic and psychological) of the
positional state) and Movement and Time. As a
15
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Cineplastic form
the organization by which the
is
To recapitulate:
The idea, theme etc. must be
ssa
expressed solely in terms of Imagery, Movement and
Time. The director should not project any of the
structural terms to such an extent that they distract
from the perception of the film as a whole. No
isolated effects, either of photography, decor, acting,
cinematic angle, tone, movement etc. or overaccentua-
tion of psychological values should absorb the at-
tention of the spectator; but combine to create a
i
filmic whole which consists of and lives because of
that particular integration of Imagery, Movement and
i
Time. Strip from Pudoivhin's film "Mother", mounte<' psycho-
Lewis Jacobs logically to convey a filmic idea.
The major problem confronting the film-maker as an ideal, an inimical propounding in the pro-
of the USSR is the thorough treatment of the letarian dictatorship. The critical expression of
social theme. By thorough treatment is meant society in the USSR articulated in the Marx-
is
non-sentimental or critical treatment. It is the ian dialectics, and its conversion into the form of
social idea as against populism. The latter is the the cinema is a structural problem. The solution
concern with the popular expression as a fact in of this problem determines the degree of achieve-
itself, uncritically. We have known it in politics ment in the single instance of a film, as well as
here; we have known in the "highbrow" infla- in the entire Soviet kino.
tion of the popular idiom:
it
"movie", etc. In Russia it evinces itself in pro- its structure in the film. There is the THESIS
fessional peasant-poetry exaggerating the peasant the status quo. The ANTITHESIS a serts it-
16
h
wm ^^^
TH 4- \!i
FILM:
THEATRE AND MOTION PICTURE
by BARNET G- BRAVER-MANN
"
^HE stage and the motion picture make use of ferent means- Where the stage offers a combined
emotional and intellectual appeal through the liv-
1 the dramatic types: melodrama, farce, comedy,
tragedy and burlesque in the delineation of ing actor and human voice, the motion picture pro-
duces the same effect with its flowing dynamic im-
character and scenes, and there any likeness be-
tween the two forms begins and ends. The med- ages and patterns. The images are shadow and
wholly unlike in the light in motion; they must be dramatically and vis-
ia of film and stage are
ually significant. This dramatic and visual sig-
mounting of the completed production. Each
nificance is made apparent according to the manner
form has its own advantages, laws and character-
in which the scenes are planned in the script, then
istics, and in our time practitioners in cinema and
played, photographed, directed and their images
the theatre have demonstrated their incapacity to
utilize fully those advantages and laws. The mounted. The cutting determines length, tempo
and quality of imagery in the mounting, and after
theatre, for instance, has neglected to enter into the
that is done, pace is regulated by the projector.
tempo of our time by adhering to the picture-
Obviously the stage does none of these things be-
frame, peepshow stage, with its spatial confines for
cause the stage is not cinema.
the player and for the movement of the play, in-
stead of devising and constructing stages that
The cinema gives us visual intimacy of objects
would free the drama and the player from the li- and forms - such as closeups of anything from a
-
mitations of back wall and border lights. a pair of eyes to a mass scene containing thousands
Since the bourgeois theatre is one of the most of images. The appeal of the film is first visual,
conservative of institutions, it may take many chen emotional, and lastly intellectual. The cin-
years before its leaders realize the effect of its de- ema overcomes space and depth, save in those films
bilitating mechanics and ideology upon both the wherein the film merchants have sought deliberate-
stageand the motion picture. The theatre might ly to imitate the stage. On the screen a figure
overcome the lethargic pace on its boards by re- may become the size of a tennis ball like the man
turning to the Greek practice of continuous action, in the arena of Victor Seastrom's film version of
as has been demonstrated recently in The Trial He WhoGets Slapped and be magnified to strik-
of Mary Dugan. This method preserves not only ing proportions that make the nose and eyes fill
continuity of action, but keeps the situations intact the screen. It frees us from the physical limita-
instead of splitting them into three and four acts, tions of time by flashing back into past centuries
and utilizes movement in a manner that' is lacking and cutting forward into the future. It frees us
in the conventional modern play, with its time of actuality through such devices as dissolves, fade-
lapses suggested by the falling curtain before an ins, fade-outs and double-exposures which lend
intermission. Why
should the spectator attend a themselves to moods of fantasy, to liberties with
play with intermissions, time lapses and interrup- :he actual a^d temporal.
tions when the ->ame play can be read at home
The theatre is bound by the actualities of space
without breaks in the continuity? It would seem
and time. Occasionally, a playwright for example
that the theatre could return in many instances to
Molnar, in The Red Mill, specifies a rapid change
the classic forms with profit. For one thing, the
of scene with sliding sectional walls, that face the
stage has obviously distinctive features foreign to
audience, each section covering a scene in process
the technique of the motion picture, - - such as the
of arrangement- But The Red Mill is not pure
actual presence of the actor, the sound of actual
theatre since its technique infringes so heavily upon
living speech, rich color gradations in objects, tex-
the movie scene that its effect is wearisome. The
tures and lighting - - all mingled in a kind of in- theatre play must function on a basis of chrono-
timacy between audience and actor that is not pos- logical progression; it cannot cut back into time.
sibie in cinema. Esthetically, there is no more In a few plays the movie type of progression has
rivalry between the visual power of the best films been tried,
notably in Dear Brutus, Marco's Mil-
and the connotative speech in the best plays than lions, and The Beggar on Horseback, but the suc-
there is between an image on the screen and an ac- cess of such plays has not been attained as a con-
tor on the stage. Each form has its own place. jequence of the treatment of time, but rather be-
To say that the screen is an alternative artistically cause of other elements of appeal which neutral-
preferable to the theatre is to submit a comparison ized the effect of an undramatic handling of time.
determined by personal taste rather than by fact. Events that happen on the stage must follow one
Nevertheless, the stage and cinema, each in its own another consecutively. The last act in a drama
way/makes us feel things differently and by dif- ran not tell us what has happened during the first
IS
h
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
act and the third act cannot cut back to the first symbolic figures dashing across the sky and then
or second act, nor can the first act alternate with advancing towards the spectator.
the last act. Least of all, can the stage build up The stage cannot use inanimate objects to sug-
an idea by means of a synthesis of scenes unrelated gest mood, thoughts, character, environment, or
to each other in physical content, as appears so foreshadowing of events, as is possible in the mo-
often in Russian films; in some German and tion picture. Murnau does it in Sunrise with the
Swedish films. floating bullrushes: Eisenstein gives a most elabo-
rate and concrete example of the possibilities of
The mounts productions with scenes
theatre
meaning in inanimate objects in Ten Days That
on the stage. The screen, flat and two dimen-
Shook The World. The dramatic aspects of the
sional, flashes shadow-images that are fragmentary
The player drawbridge in Ten Days make of that mechanism
reproductions of scenes and objects.
a living thing; Kerensky pictured dreaming of
and the fragments of him on the screen form
Napoleonic power as he plays with a toy crown
images . visual fragments that show the most
. .
illusion, which directs its appeal to the emotions where situation may be built by the director: dark,
through the eye before the observer has time to sharp-edged masses in the foreground lend to the
rationalize his emotional reaction. illusion of distance on the horizon.
Onthe stage, the resonant voice issues from a Pantomine on the stage is limited usually in
living body. Living voices are foreign to shadow- that action suggests movement but not sound.
its
images. Absence of voice puts the image into the On the motion picture screen the motion of the
category of illusion, although the motion and in- players and objects can suggest any kind of sound,
terlacing of images and patterns may suggest real- from human speech to the whirr of machinery.
ity. Motions of the fingers, of the hands, of the Alternating scenes are a rarity on the stage. In the
head may build inner states and all the moods motion picture, they are essential to show the ac-
that can be expressed by speech and voice. In the tual relation of one situation to another, of one
theatre, there is rapport between the emotions of mood to another- On the stage all the action
the audience and the emotions of the players; but takes place within the limits of set scenes. De-
the images of the screen may stir our emotions spite the efforts of Eugene O'Neill to handle the
just as deeply without this personal relationship. setting psychologically as a "stage picture" it is al-
Conversation on the str.ge directs our minds to ways fairly defined over a period of time, no mat-
past events, which are pictured by the cut-back in ter how cleverly Robert Edmund Jones may suc-
the film. Thus images on the screen function ceed in disguising the actualities of wood, canvass
similarly to words and speech on the stage. Be- and paint. Here is one of the major limitations
cause tradition has controlled the architectural of the drama .... it must conform to the condi-
form of our playhouses, spectators in different tions of the theatre. It is possible we shall never
sections of the theatre have different lines of vi- see some plays satisfactorily presented until we
sion those in the front row orchestra, center, have greater architectural variety in our playhouses.
look up at the actors; those in rear orchestra see The necessity for such variety has been proved by
them directly in a straight line; those in either the the spatial demands of plays like The Hairy Ape.
balcony or gallery look down upon the actors: The Beggar on Horseback, Lazarus Laughed and
and those on either side of the house have sharply Processional.
angular lines of vision. However definitely the
In the motion picture, action may occur any-
stage director may arrange a setting or the action
of a scene, the audience gets the effect from dif-
where
on the street, on a mountain top, in the
air, below the sea, on the walls of buildings.
ferent angles. The motion picture presents
scenes, the dimensions of whose patterns appear
and may be depicted from many angles. Lastly,
the play written for the stage is arranged to har-
the same to every spectator in the cinema house-
monize with the purposes of dialogue in conjunc-
On- the stage even the most imaginative effects tion with conventional stage movements. The
are bound by actuality. Gauze and color light- stage play is built essentially upon speech: at times
ing are combined to suggest both mood and actu- it may achieve even literary form. The photo-
ality. The motion picture, as in Rex Ingram's play is built in the language of cinematic images,
The Four Horsemen to mention only one example. and these are described in words that compose the
can ignore actuafity and with devices peculiar to continuity. It has no affinity with dialogue, al-
cinema, depict images, such as horses, chariots and though American studio practitioners are inc'ined
19
13
I.
. :
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
tion. Actual plastic forms, actual time and tion picture independent of the stage. Griffith
actual space are his materials for building up to showed that the cinema could soar beyond the
the high point in a drama. But in the cinema, architectural barriers of the theatre, that greater
the director works with filmic time, which is not emotional significance could be given objects when
subject to causality: By means of what he does they were viewed from every possible angle. In-
with the piecing together and mounting of the stead of using the totality of the theatre scene,
images on the film strip, the director gives the Griffith broke the scene into fragments of vis,ual
screen a time all its own. Filmic time is a reality suggestion. He made the camera flexible. He
produced by the film director, just as he creates used the visual impression of the moment, of the
its rhythms which have no relation to the actual fragment, as means with which to interpret deep-
rhythms of the stage. "The film", writes Pu- ly and dynamically character and situation. The
dowkin, "is a succession of visual images moving fragment, the dominant important visual element
through their own world, their own time, their of the film bears no relation to the actuality of .
own space". The film therefore, is not con- nature or of the theatre. The theatre imparts''
cerned with the reproduction of actuality as it meaning through the totality of all its forms, the
appears on the stage or in life, but with the crea- film transmits meaning through the fragment of
tion of reality through the meaning which the the totality ... .of a crowd, a man, a street, a bil-
director gives the images by his mounting in the liard table, a hand, things seen with the shifting
script, on the set, and in the film strip- His glance of the eye. In the theatre, the spectator
principle tool for forging reality is that of sug- must organize his attention.
gestion
the selective visual essence of events,
In the cinema, the
director must assume the task of organizing the
of time, of space.
attention of the spectator in the montage.
The basic element of the theatre scene is scenic
In this brief exposition of the difference be-
totality. The basic element of the film is the
tween the stage and cinema, we have sought to con-
fragment of the totality, scene, or object. This
distinction so long neglected by Hollywood and sidcr the fundamental distinctions between the two
Neubabelsberg, was made clear by Fernand Leger, in the matter of medium and of mechanics. With
the French painter, who first called attention to forms so thoroughly self-contained, wherever
this violation of cinematic principles by theatre- imitation attempted, the result
is is never satisfy-
minded film practitioners. The strongest,
clearest, deepest impressions on the mind and the
ing. The no more be cinema than
theatre can
emotions are inherent in the implication given the the cinema can be theatre. Each form has its
fragment by the directorial will. It can suggest own esthetic laws and special methods of produc-
a world of meaning by an ear, a stairway, a stat- tion; each develops its own practices, and imita-
ue's head, or part of a bottle, all depending upon
tion of one by the other reduces such production
the film director's skill in montage. The early
to a mechanical process that is neither cinema or
phase of the film merely was confined to specula-
tion about its possibilities as to was
motion. It
theatre. The motion picture of tomorrow, of
looked upon as a novelty or stunt discovery. Ex- which triumphant Soviet films are prophetic,
the
periments were limited at first to taking images on will be guided by image-minded poets, artists and
the film strip of ordinary scenes or objects, in city. philosophers., and will convey meaning only
on sea, and in country lanes. Later recruits from
through images freed from the intrusion of the
the stage began to experiment with the film. Such
scenes as were taken by them were in the stage theatre and all other non-cinematic elements.
manner and were merely photographs of player:;
going through stage business, illustrated by many
T
long titles that robbed the images of any pos- \ ote Consideration here of the differences
sible significance- The director, u r v.ally from the in the technique of the theatre and
theatre, indicated the two points between the ac- of the motion picture excludes the
tion, the entrance and the exit as in the theatre, audible film because the latter is
taking scenes in their totality, just as they might neither cinema nor theatre
20
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
and the last work* of S. M. Eiscnstein and an exclusive state of dependency, and that by way
Alexandroff. Soviet directors^ were projected in of expression it carries to its maximum this contra-
Paris during the same week. There was thus af- diction of modern societies which opposes art to
forded an opportunity to suggest a point not yet industry. The placing to a technical point, of the
brought out concerning these films representing in synchronization of sound and image has not been
some manner two poles of the silent cinema, done for disinterested objectives, but only for the
(since it is necessary to contemplate henceforth the
temporary salvage of a capitalist organization which
contribution of the "Talkmg" and the "Sonorous" had come to be saturated with sentimental stupid-
ity, with romantic or polished banality, and the
before color and relief, moreover near at hand).
and expressing the sense and character of the re- weak percentage of a public that had through the
searches of yesterday and today.
world stuck to adventure and a certain
a taste for
need of spiritual evasion, without its being a ques-
George Melics was, by first profession, a prcs- tion besides, of appreciating here the quality of this
tigitator. In adopting the camera he remained a taste nor the degree of this need.
magician. His imagination and technique led him
using all the resource of
With La Ligne generate one touches to the quick,
to play with images,
finally, gravest problems rising by the very inten-
magic that for the most part he had devised, just
tion of the photoplay inasmuch as it strives to a
as he had loved to juggle, striving to amuse, in the
dark room of the Dufaycl, children temporarily
new mode of expression. This film, powerful,
But pathetic, of a poetic intensity sometimes over-
abandoned by parents in quest of bargains.
whelming, astonishingly creating life, attacks in
it happens that these films have kept enough power
front a social problem: the industrialization of the
and fantasy to interest us today in our turn.
peasants, the collectivization of the soil of the
Ridicule and charm go neighboring there with the
movement and ingenuity which, without doubt, USSR, problem and program the more so
a
one can say that I.es quatre cents coups du diable aesthetic point of view, of a film like La Ligne
is a well executed film in that these diverse parts generate surpasses that of the highest work that
exactly answer to their object. To discuss the the cinematographic has given us since its origin,
quality of the object is another question, but one and that the Soviet cinema has offered us with
cannot fail to acknowledge in this film all its The Mother, the Armored Cruiser Potemkin and
historic, its creative value. George Melies will The End of St. Petersburg. It is a quesion of
remain the precursor.
nothing than binding intimately, thanks to
less
Since these heroic times, the photoplay, through th& photoplay, the world of sensibility and the
a thousand adventures without glory, and some world of ideas, sentiment and reason, science ard
21
k
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
art. This intimate connection, Jean Epstein, be- you work fervently in America on the construction
fore being director, bad already alluded to in his of a new cinematographic expression, we aesthetes
Lyrosophie. but without any cinematographic and other cumbersome personages discuss the value
solution, and one would find without doubt in or the non-value of the talkies.
the philosophy of Maine de Biran, the premises
of such theoretical researches. But S. M. Eisen-
But I am forgetting
talking films have been
produced in Europe but these are neither of the cin-
stein, is the first to discover in the photoplay the
ema nor of the theatre, or perhaps more Jghtly they
practical means of realizing the imposing fusion.
have taken from these two forms only what it less in-
Here is how he recently explained himself in an
teresting- In general up to now they have had only
article, VAvenir du cinema.*'*
very bad photographic theatre such as the "3
" Where then is there a difference between the
. . .
masques" or that other abominable film of a man
perfect method of a symphony and the method per-
fected in view of the acquisition of new knowledge?
in whom we were wrong to have confidence, name-
It is necessary th.:t the new art put an end to the dual- ly: E. A. Dupont, and his film "Atlantic".
ism of these two spheres that are sentiment and reason.
It is necessary to render to science its sensuality and It is true wc also had Walter Ruttman's "Melody
to its intellectual process fire and passion. of the World". Ruttman is a remarkable mind in
"It is necessary to plunge into the fire boil-
the European cinema, and if theory, perhaps, has too
ing with practical activity
the process of abstract much place in his cinematographic life, you can ex-
thought. necessary that collected and speculative
It is
formula be attached anew to the richness and opulence pect from him very beautiful films. "Melody bf
of the living and palpable form. The formal will the World" is not correctly speaking a talkie. It' is
must acquire the exactitude of ideologic formulas. a document compiled for the most part of extreme
"There is the exigency that we create, there actuality, but of which he has made the setting in a
are the exigencies that we propose to the new epoch of
very obvious way, to which he has known how to
art. What form of art is their match' Uniquely and
only, the cinematography of the intellect, synthesis of
add noises or music which astonishingly reinforce the
the film of emotion, of the documentary film and the significance of the images. Ruttman is a musician
absolute film." and that is felt. The setting is not only, as in many
S. M. Eisenstein insists: Russian films made to dazzle, but a means employed
" . cinema capable of directly uniting
. . onlv a soberly to lead us to a necessary crescendo, or to the
dialectic conflicts in growing of ideas possesses thethe
comprehension of his work, of his thought. He has
possibility of penetrating the mind of the great masses
of ideas and new perceptions.
not really created a talking film, but he gives us the
Such a cinema, alone.
will dominate by the form, the summits of modern in- assurance that he knows exactly how to make use of
dustrial technique. Finally, alone, such a cinema will image and sound, in a manner so agreeably intelligent
have the right to exist among the miracles of radio, that we are permitted to expect much from his next
television and the theory of relativity.
films.
"The old type of original cinema, as the
type of abstract film, will disappear before the new
concrete film of the intellect."
The others use sound as a toy.
still We are still
in the heroic epic where we admire the perfect coin-
There is the question of the progresses of the cidence of the movement of the lips and the sound
cinema
we mean of its destinies placed with that comes forth. I would never have suspected that
force at the same hour when it seems that the in-
Europe was so young, pardon, I mean infantile.
ternational photoplay has reached an abrupt turn
What we admitted to be the vanguard is distinctly
in its history. It is that it's a matter of saving a dying in the interval. The talkie had killed it. Wc
mode of expression of adventures, and that one in knew already some time ago that the vanguard which
the name of the mind, and not one of the most promised so much and held nothing was engaged in
powerful industrial and commercial organizations a dangerous impasse from which one cculd sec no
of the world in the name of money. issue. But the slowness of mind of certain people
From the simple play of images of George Mclies is really terrifying. To
use a camera: to seek for
to the passionate work of Eisenstein one can meas- angles; to discover extraordinary planes is not
ure with emotion a decisive stage entirely marked enough. I claim that any camera enthusiast can ob-
by these agitations of the world which will ac- tain today this result: to show a succession of images
company for a long time yet, the birth of the interesting in themselves but insignificant. The
cinema. talkie today again substantiates one idea: one does
not make a film for images, but because one has some-
"Old and New" *
-Monde. November 16, 1929.
thing to express. The talkie has proved to us tlx
impossibility of continuing in the way of the van-
guard of yesterday. A dialogue which says nothing,
aris L I which expresses no idea is more blantantly stupid
C'C
than a succession of inexpressive images-
INCE the advent of the talkies, or more exactly, Tomorrow's vanguard will no longer busy itself
since little more than a year (and before we in us anything
telling with common images. It
question the value of the talkies) we who live will, on the contrary, us much, it will tell us
tell
in France and love American films are conscious of important things with the simplicity that sincerity
being poor parents of the Cinema. We read reports demands-
of the talking films that we shall never see, and while Jean Lenaucc
29
v^^---
PROPOSED CONTINUITY FOR THE ENDING OP
"ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT."
by WERNER KLINGLER
(Copyright 1930 by WERNER KLINGLER)
"This proposed ending to "All Quiet On The Western Front" was submitted to ft considered by Univer-
sal Pictures Corp. but was finally not accepted.
23
; **
-
K
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Double-print: firing
French machine-gun and
voice of Kantorek: "YOU
ARE THE LIFE OF
THE FATHERLAND,
YOU BOYS."
QUICK LAP DISSOLVE OUT
FROM IRON CROSS INTO rain of
silvercoins.*
The coins should be generic, but
not the particular coins of any one
nation. The glittering quality
should be emphasized pTiotograph-
ically.
24
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
Voice of Kantorek:
."SWEET and FITTING
IT IS TO DIE FOR THE
FATHERLAND." This
sentence spoken by Kan-
torek covers all the scenes
up to Medium closcup of
soldier Behm- The ex-
plosion of the shells and
the yelling of Behm start
in with the last words of
Kantorek.
25
r
rB
^^^
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
20
^
Ml
I
ffe
.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
solves
into
the sound of a wireless
telegraph. --.... - - . . .
'All montage-ideas, special sound-effects, etc. of the above continuity arc fully protected by copyright of Werner K! ngler.
27
HB w^m
.8-
-
-
: .. -
, -
--
i*6Z*
trf*
i *''
*.vfes
^*<jrC--
M.:^'
v
1
:>'
"PASSION OF
JOAN OF ARC"
J
CARL DREY-R
s
,f
THE FILM SPECTATOR
Edited by
WELFORD 3EATON
frankest and ablest periodical in America dealing with the
V2>Ll3 ' <^J 'ill 3
1"h
American film.
Mencken
New York Post Single copies 35 cents One Year $3.50
H L- Welford Beaton . . . has
I read The Film Spectator hammered more sense into
with increasing interest. the heads of motion picture
Published by POOL
There is vigorous and cx- directors and producers than
:c!!ent writing in it. anv man of recent years.
Riant Chateau : Territet : Switzerland
Subscription price in United States S3. 50; Foreign $4.50
London Office: 24 Devonshire St., W. C.i
EDUCATIONAL
INDUSTRIAL
MEDICAL
rpa
NEWS
r-z'J2
R%\ ."31
u -~a
'
~^
k. ;hj L.~3
THE CREATIVE
:
-
j Mi
l j j j ilisay .. Li Lbi'-aii ii
PROCESS IN FILMS
Mill
yds
E :-
EVOLUTION OF THE
SOVIET CINEMA
I
N. KAUFMAN. r~a
EVTOI1P
tY rt/MdllUbt Ira y-J
THE FILM AS
MICROCOSMOS
METROPASTORALE
A SCENARIO
mHW
0)
La
JO
POTMEIIH yi
STRUCTURE AND
SUPERSTRUCTURE
L
D5LA BELAZS
J. LENGYEL
J. LENAUS
PUDOWKIN
r. .777 -::ri:.:zv i
... _ -_ .
. , .
ij*^iis^. ......
~IO. 3
25c
HOLLYWOOD BULLETIN
ON A THEORY OF "SOURCES" Samuel Brody
SERGEI M. EISENSTEIN, GREGOR V. ALEXANDROV and rSEVOLOD I PUDOVKIN also requires no introductj
EDUARD TISSE need no introduction in Experimental ' The list of the films he has made i.i USSR is as folio?)
Cinema. The list of their films to date is as follows:
THE CHESS PLAYER ... a two-reel experimenj
WORKERS, STRIKE! . . . Directed by Eisenstein, pho-
and cross-cutting montage, made
analytical five years V
tographed by Tisse. Not released in U. S. A.
Not released in U. S. A.
ARMORED CRUISER PRINCE POTEMKIN . . . Di MECHANICS OF THE BRAIN ... a laboratory J
rected by Eisenstein, photographed by Tisse. Scenario made by Pudovkin conjunction with Prof. Pavlo'
in
by Eisenstein and Alexandrov. Alexandrov played the the Psycho-Neurological Brain Institute in Leningi
part of a Czarist captain on board the "Potemkin." Studies in the activities of the "conditioned reflex."
important film-document has had "educational" (but>l
TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD ... Di-
popular) release in this country.
rected by Eisenstein and Alexandrov. Photographed by
Tisse. Scenario and montage by Eisenstein and Alex- MOTHER ... The powerful film of the 190? stnkesU
androv. revolution based on Gorki's novel of the same n;
OLD AND NEW (THE GENERAL LINE) ... Di- Banned in the U. S. A.
rected by Eisenstein and Alexandrov. Photographed by THE END OF ST. PETERSBURG. Produced.! . .
Tisse. Scenario and montage by Eisenstein and Alex- Mezhrabpom for the tenth anniversary of the Bolsh
androv. Revolution. Released in U. S. A. very much abrid'
The widespread interest that has manifested itself in our two earlier attempts to release the film for
intelligent contact inAmerica, encourages us to hope that with this issue, which makes clear the proletarian
basis of our organ, EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA will succeed in establishing the ideological and organ-
izational foundations of an American working-class cinema. This is particularly desirable at a time when
the current Hollywood movie boasts a banality and a stupidity that seems to wax greater in proportion to
the growth in the unsettlement and distress of American life. Two organizations, independent in operation
but united in purpose, have already been formed for this task, although much remains to be done in each
case to complete the basic direction and activity. These two groups are: THE WORKERS FILM AND
PHOTO LEAGUE OF AMERICA and THE AMERICAN PROLET-KINO. These are the first two film-
producing units of the American working-class.
Thus, the need to develop active film- machinery in the working-class to counteract this nefarious and
growing activity, maliciously organized to prepare the American masses for martial suicide in the next
war to end war becomes doubly, immeasurably urgent.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA in future issues will expose in its pages the growth of practices such as
those stated above, as well as the source of this capitalist propaganda in the film-industry, where a boycott
is now in force on all films and news reels that reveal any evidences of the class struggle.
n
Photo by
BRETT
WESTON
EISENSTEIN
pit
A.
America, the film, the one absolute and vital cultural its tempo, its duration, its interval and positior
context,
INforce of our time,
its Cii
Eisenstein, director of "Strike", Potemkin", "Ten Days the expectation roused by the rising modulation and in
That Shook The
in
World''', and "Old and New".
concentrated images expresses cinematically the social
Eisenstein
pulse, and the third is a challenge and collision,
a r<
sponse differing from its cinematic associates in a visu:
forces released by the proletarian revolution. Impelled by
way, but yet conforming in an organic precision. A strui
this upheaval, he has evolved autonomous laws of cinematic
ture is created which introduces a number of impulses an
form sharply related to the needs of the Russian masses.
counterpoints whose reconciliation is the activity of tr
The film has been transformed thru his "tonal" and "over- montage groups and their momentum: a structure whic
tonal" montage from a bourgeois opiate into an intense
piles up emotional effect by junction and multiplicatioi
experience in which the spectator becomes a participant m
cumulation and conflict. Any effort to cut or substitu
a new and orphic conception.
for an image in a sequence, or to speed or slow an imafl
The creator of cinematic prose-rhythm, Eisenstein, em- or sequence, or to juxtapose an arrangement, will indica
ploys a style which enables him to pack and combine how organic the whole is and at once injure the esthet
multiple perceptions, implications and meanings into value of the total. Here is a mighty style and a form th.
each of his images; assigning to each their manifold con- evolves and corresponds with the complexity and precisic
tent, their angle, their tone, their precise action and move' of the triumphant proletariat, the first to dominate tfl
ment, their rhythm and exact function so that there will films' organic problem and the most able to satura;
be no discrepancy between his attitude and the projected its structure with the program of the revolutionary soci
by S. M. EISENSTEIN
T is a weird and wonderful feat to have written a pamph- But let it rest in the Lord, this dear little horse, to-
let on something that in reality does not exist. gether with the other 607 remaining "sianchin" ciphers
There is not, for example, any such thing as a cinema the first depictive category of hieroglyphs.
without cinematography. The real interest begins with the second category of
And yet the author of the pamphlet in which this essay hieroglyps the "choy-ee," i.e. 'copulative'.
irstappeared has contrived to write a hook about the
1
The point is that the copulation
perhaps we had bet-
inema of a country that has no cinematography. About ter say, the
combination of two hieroglyphs of the sim-
he cinema of a country that has, in its culture, an infinite plest series is to be considered not as their sum but as their
lumber of cinematographic traits strewn everywhere with product, i.e., as a unit of another dimension, another pow-
he sole exception of its cinema. er: each, separately, corresponds to an object, to a fact,
but their combination corresponds to a concept. By the
combination of two 'depictables'' is achieved the represen-
This essay on the cinematographic traits of Japanese
is
tation of something graphically undepictable.
Japanese cinema, and is itself as
ulture, lying outside the
For example: the picture for water and the picture of
part from the pamphlet as these traits are apart from the
an eye means 'to weep';
apancse cinema.
A cinema is: so many companies, such and such turn- The picture of an ear near a drawing of a door
'to
stars,
dog and a mouth 'to bark';
Cinematography is first and foremost: montage. a
a mouth and a child
The Japanese cinema is excellently equipped with com-
a mouth and a bird
'to clamour';
i
In the 1st Century after that happy event (A. D.) transition to a further point.
laconic form of poetry.
Japan possesses the most
The "khai-kai" (which appeared
igper.
w at the beginning of the Xllth Century) and the "tanka".
catii
And,
lastly, in the year 220 Indian ink. Both are almost hieroglyphs transposed into phraseology.
A
complete upheaval. A
revolution in draughtsmanship.
iStltl
The means of production (brush and Indian ink) have This method, which in hieroglyphics provides a means of
ml
etermined the form. laconic determination of an abstract concept, gives rise
ecis
The 14 reforms have had their way. As result. when transposed into literary representation to an identi-
ite
In the fierily cavorting hieroglyph "ma" (a horse) it cal laconism of pointed imagery.
M : already impossible to recognise the features of the dear The method applied with concentration to the ascetic
50
^ ttle horse, pathetically sagging in its hind-quarters, of the combination of ciphers strikes from their conflict a dry defi-
writing style of Tzanki, ,so well-known from ancient niteness of the concepts determined.
Jhinese sculpture. The self-same method expanded into the luxury of a
" .
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
group of already formed verbal combinations, swells into mask from the semi-religious No theatre the mask Rozo
a splendour of image effect. (an old bronze).
The concept a bare formula; its adornment, expansion ". there is the same cast of countenance in the mask,
by additional material, transforms it into an image a fin- .
aho created
.
Two shining dots: rcct anatomical proportions, the proportions of the face
A cat is sitting.'''
in the
engraving are simply impossible. The distance
(Cheo-Dai) between the eyes is so enormous as to be a mockery of all
or:
sound sense. The nose in comparison with the eyes is at
"An ancient monastery, least twice as long as any normal nose can afford to be, thj
The cold moon. chin in relation to the mouth is out of all proportion; the
A wolf is howling. eyebrows, the mouth, in general every detail considered
(Hik-ko) in relation to the others, is entirely unthinkable. The sand
or:
may be observed in the faces of all the big heads of Shara-
"All is quiet in the field. ku. The possibility that the great master did not realia
A butterfly is flying. the erroneous relationship of the sizes is quite out of thf
The butterfly has gone to sleep." Question. He rejected naturalism quite consciously, ani
(Go-Sin) while every detail separately regarded is constructed oi
the principle of the most concentrated naturalism, thei:
The "tanka" is (by a pair of lines).
slightly longer combination in the general composition is subordinatec
"A
slowly walking solely to the problem of content. He took as his norma
Mountain pheasant; its tail proportions the quintessence of psychological expressive
Trails behind. "
ness. . .
Oh, night without end, (Julius Kurth. "Sharaku", pp. 79,80,81. R. Piper, Munich)
Alone can I endure it!" not the same as does the hieroglyph, combinin
Is this
(Khitomaro) the independent 'mouth' and the unrelated 'child' to forr
From our point of view these are montage phrases. A the content expression 'clamour'?
And is this not exactly what we of the cinema do i
montage plan.
time, just as he in simultaneity, when we cause a moi
The simple combination of two or three details of a
strous disproportion of the elements of a normally flowi:
material scries yielded a perfectly rounded-off representa-
event, dismembering it suddenly into 'gripping hanc
tion of another order psychological. large', 'medium shots of struggle' and 'bulging eyes, fil
Julius Kurth. Discussing the question of the influence of unceasing return to periods of establishment of absoli
sculpture on Sharaku, he draws a parallel between a por- ism.
trait of the actor Nakayama Tomisabro and an antique An exchange of the expressiveness of archaic disp:
^
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
First along the line of its purpose (the principle 'determi- kind does actually lie like an unclimbable tramcar across into
nation') into the principles of the creation of literary the possibilities of formal development. A
imagery. Such an approach predestines one not to dialectical de aph
Then along the line of its method of realisation of this velopment, but only to gradual evolutionary 'perfecting' the
purpose (the principle depiction,) into the striking methods in so far as it gives no bite into the dialectical substance muli
And, just as the two outspreading wings of a hyperbola In the last resort, such evolutionising leads either or
meet, as we say, at infinity (though no one has through refinement to decadence or, on the contrary, to In
visited so distant a region), so the principle of simple withering away from stagnation of the blood. 1!
hieroglyphics, infinitely splitting into two (in accordance And, strange as it may seem, a melodious witness tc A;
#1
with the functionalism of ciphers), suddenly from this both these cases simultaneously is Kuleshov's last film
nab
dualistic estrangement once more unites, in yet a fourth "The Gay Canary."
sphere the theatre. The shot is in no wise an element of montage.
Bu
of the drama
they are present in parallel. In a curious Just as cells in their division form a phenomenon of an
jmii
Co
dualism. other order, the organism or embryo. So, on the other side C !
'
The signification (determination) of the action is effect- of the dialectical leap from the shot, is montage.
ed by its narration by a man behind the staee the repre- By what then is montage characterised, and consequent
Coi
sentation (depiction) of the action is effected by a dumb ly its cell the shot.
\k
Co
marionette on the stage the so-called Dzeiruri. By collision. By conflict of two pieces standing in op An'
Together with a specific manner of moving, this archa- position to each other. By conflict. By collision.
It I
ism migrated also into early Kabuki. It is maintained, as In front of me lies a crumpled yellowed sheet of note' W) o
a part method, in classical repertory even to this day. paper. Clo-
(Where certain parts of the action are narrated from be- On it a mysterious note: Gra
hind the stage while the actor acts in dumb-show). "Linkage P" and "Shock E." rob,
But this too is not the kernel. This is the material trace of a hot engagement on the
Mo:t important is the fact that into the technique of subject of montage between E myself and PPudovkin Dai
acting itself the hieroglyphic (montage) method has in- (About a year ago.) The
stilled itself in the most interesting ways. This is the established order. At regular intervals he ;
Ho^.'cver, before we discuss this finally, let us allow comes to me late at night and we row, behind closec
ourselves the luxury of a digression. Let us pause at the doors, on subjects of principle.
wayside halt of the question of the shot, in order to settle Here as before. Hailing from the Kuleshov school h( Ufa
r
the question of shot-montage once and for all. heatedly defended the conception of the montage as a link
A shot. A
single piece of celluloid. age of pieces. Into a chain. Bricks.
A small rectangular frame with, somehow organised in- Bricks, by means of their rows narrating a concept.
to it, a bit of an event. I confronted him with my point of view of montage a|
One in which the understanding of a process as a whole had read during that period at the Central Cinematograp
(linkage, shot-montage) is derived merely from the extern- College.
al characteristics of its flow (a piece is stuck to a piece).
Thus it would be possible, for example,- to arrive at the -T-bus;-montag''' is conflict.
well-known conclusion that tramcars exist to be laid across The basis of every art is always conflict. A peculi
streets. "image' transubstantiation of the dialectic principle.
An entirely logical deduction, if one orientate oneself And the shot represents a montage cell. ps'ai
on the external characteristics of those functions they per- So, consequently, it aho must be considered from tr
formed, for example, in Russia in the February days of point of view of conflict.
'17. But the Materialist Conception of History interprets Intra-piece conflict
it otherwise. potential montage, in the development of its intensit
The worst of the matter is that an approach of this, shattering its quadrilateral cage and exploding its confli
10
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
montage impulses between the montage pieces.
into conflict of auditory and visual impulses in the sound cinema.
Andif montage must be compared with something, then
a phalanx of montage-pieces, 'shots', should be compared to At the moment, however, let us return to one of the
the series of explosions of an internal combu:tion engine, mo.t interesting of optical conflicts:
multiplying themselves into montage dynamics and there- The conflict between the limits of the frame and the
by serving as 'impulses' to drive along a tearing motor-car object shot.
or tractor. The shooting-angle as the materialisation of conflict
Intra-piece conflict. may
be of very various nature:
It between the organising logic of the director, and the inert
may even be a conflict in the action depicted itself. logic of the object, in collision, giving the dialectic of cin-
As in "What happened to Mary." In the course of a piece ema-viewpoint.
400 ft. long. Such conflict is clearly not subject to exami- In this respect we are still impressionistic and devoid of
nation in the light of questions of cinematographic form. principle to a point of sickness.
But 'cinematographic' are: But, in spite of this fact, a sharp degree of principle is
Conflict of graphic directions (either static lines or dy- proper to the technique of this also.
namic lines). The dry quadrilateral, plunging into the haphazard of
Conflict of scales. natural diffuseness. . . .
nto couples of antagonistic fragments. And we cram onto it, in most cases even without using
Close and long shots (C.U.'s, M.S.'s and L.S.'s, etc.) the corners (the edges are usually grease-stained with long
Graphically vari-produced pieces. Pieces solved, by sweating over it), some tedious caryatid, some vain Corin-
olume with pieces solved by area. thian capital, or a plaster Dante (not the juggler at the
Dark pieces with light pieces, etc. Moscow Ermitage, but the other one Aligheri, the com-
And, there are such unexpected conflicts as:
lastly, edy writer.)
The conflict of an object with its normal dimension, and The Japanese do the opposite.
e conflict of an event with its normal temporal na- Here's a branch of cherry-tree, or a landscape with a
urre. sailing boat.
This may sound extraordinary but both these cases are And the pupil extracts from its whole, by means of a
imiliar. square, or circle, or a rectangle, a composition unit.
fa
The first an optical distortion of the lens, the second He takes a frame!
peeding-up or slow-motion. And just by these two ways of teaching drawing are
The assembling of all properties of cinematography into characterised the two basic tendencies struggling in the
e
le formula of conflict, the grouping of all cinematograph' cinema of today.
characteristics into a dialectical series under one single
The one the expiring method of artificial spatial or-
:ad is no empty rhetorical diversion. ganisation of the event in front of the lens.
We thus seek a unified systematization of the method of From the 'direction' of a sequence, to the erection of
nematographic expressiveness that shall hold good for all a Tower of Babel in the literal sense, in front of the lens.
:
"
s elements.
And the other a 'pieking-out' by the camera, organisa-
The assembling of them to a series of common interpre- tion by its means. The hewing of a piece of actuality by
tion will iolve the problem as a whole. means of the lens.
Experience in the various separate departments of the However, now, at the present moment, when the cen-
riema varies in measure beyond compare. tre of attraction beginning, in the ideological cinema, fin-
is
Whereas we know a great deal
about montage, in the ally to be transferred from the material of the cinema as
Leory of the shot we
bubbling about between the
are still such into 'deductions and conclusions' formed by the or-
ayal Academy, the French Impressionists, and pure geo- der of its approximation, both schools lose the importance
;trisations that begin to set one's teeth on edge. of their differences and can quietly blend into a synthesis.
The regarding of the frame, however, as a particular, Some pages back we lost, like a golosh in a tramcar,
:llular' case of montage
the smashing of the dualism the question of the theatre.
iot-montage', makes possible the
direct application of Let us turn back to the question of methods of montage
in ontage experience to the question of the theory of the in the Japanese theatre.
ot. In particular, in acting.
The same with the question of lighting. The concep- The first and most striking example, of course, is the
osra
>n of this as a collision between a current of light and an purely cinematographic method 'untransitional acting'.
stack, like the impact of a gush of water from a fire- Alongside with mimic-transitions carried to the limit of
se striking an object, or of the wind Luffeting against refinement, the Japanese actor uses the exactly reverse
person, muct result in a usage of it comprehensible en- method.
;ly different from that afforded by playing around with At some moment or other of the acting he interrupts it.
and 'spots'.
luzes' The 'Black Ones' 4
obligingly conceal him from the spec-
Mil! The one available such interpretative principle is the tator. And lo
he is resurrected in a new make-up. new A
nciple of conflict: wig. Characterising another stage (degree) of his emo-
The principle of optical counterpoint. tional state.
nd, let us not now forget ""hat shortly we shall have Thus, for example, in the play "Narukami" is solved
solve another and less simple counterpoint, namely, the the transition of Sadandzi from drunkenness to madness.
10 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
By a mechanical cut to it. And a change in his collec- head. A disintegration into shots. With the shortening
tion (armoury) of coloured streaks. On
his face, empha- of the separate successive constituents at the approach to-
sizing those of them whose lot it is to fulfill a task of high- wards the . . . tragic end death.
er intensity than that allotted to those used in the first By shaking himself from the yoke of simple na-
free
irake-up. turalism, the actor enabled by this method entirely to
is
sitions of joy (confidence) and gloom (disillusionment). used either for a depiction, as 'The Submarine Kingdoir
Moreover there is a sharp emphasizing of this by light (in ("The Thief of Bagdad"), or for a dream ("Zvenigora")
A
Mil
U I
I ft
I
a K<
Ml
no wise conforming to actual light conditions). This leads Or, more often still, it is just formal spillikens and pi
to a considerable strengthening of the intensity. poseless camera hooliganism ("The Man with the Mc
"
Another remarkable characteristic of Kabuki is the Camera"). The instance I have in mind is Epstein's
principle of 'disintegrated' acting.Thus, Siozoi, the fe- Fall of the House of Usher". Normally acted emotii
male part lead of the "Kabuki" company that played in taken with a speeded-up camera gave an unsual emoticj
Moscow, in depicting a dying girl in "The Sculptor of pressure by their slowness on the screen (judging from
Masks", performed his part in pieces of acting entirely de- press reports). If it be borne in mind that the effeel
tached from one another. the acting of an actor on the public is based on its imitat
Acting with only the right arm. Acting with one leg. by the spectator, it will be easy to relate the two ex
Acting with the neck and head only. The whole process pies to one and the same causual explanation. The inte
of the general death agony was disintegrated into the solo ty of the reception increases because the imitative pro
playing through of each 'part' separately from the others: goes more easily along a disintegrated motion . . .
the parts of the leg, the parts of the arms, the part of the Training in how to handle a rifle was hammered
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 11
among and sad. In the realm of the cinema Japan similarly pur-
::::ii
re, however, is, after all, with the sound cinema, which To understand and apply her cultural peculiarities to the
lyt
:an and must learn what is basic for it from the Japanese cinema, this is the task of Japan.
1
he bringing of both visual and auditory impressions to Colleagues of Japan! Are you really going to leave it
nil
me common physiological denominator. But I consecrated to us?
a.:
i whole article in the "Zhizna Iskusstva" (1928, No. 34). 5
ditional feudal forms of what they act, the progressive 4. The Black Ones in Kabuki are persons attired completely in
black and thus relatively invisible. Besides functioning as described,
heatrical leaders of Japan fling themselves into adaptation
jf the spongy shape lessness of our own academic p^ycho-
they move furniture and carry out all manner of changes. I. M.
5. Republished in a French translation in "Monde," December,
ogical naturalistic Art Theatre. The results are tearful 1928. S. M. E.
li
A CHARACTERISTIC
of the majority of our films
intellectual sense of the composition.
feature of the filmic language
is that
By
it
that
is based on the
we mean that
sibility to solve this difficulty
ble, task.
and for the other
not only the visual appearance on the screen as such, but and brevity, justify the designation of this method as the
also the idea behind it, affects the spectator. Method of '"Associative Laconism."
A few film-people have expressed this fact in paradoxi- This conditioned expression (practically speaking, all
cal form, as follows: The essence of the film lies not in the expressions of art-theory are conditioned) offers the occa-
images, in the scenes, but between the scenes. Eisenstein sion to analyze the elements of filmic language from a par-
terms this the "fourth dimension" of the film. He means ticularly definite point of view.
that one does not just see the art-work, but feels-and-thinks Associative laconism affords, in my opinion, the possi-
it, that is, "senses" it. This principle is undoubtedly ap- the work the line of development of
bility to establish in
plicable to the film that is expressed in poetic film-terms. the theme. This method makes it possible to control time
Every film-work is actually supposed to consist of a ser- and space more effectively through a successful composi-
ies of thought-impulses, and the action to serve only as tion of the abstract meaning; it facilitates the unification
opportunity for the visualization of these thoughts. of highly varied types of visual material into a single, def-
In contrast to the so-called prosaic film with its dynamic inite thought subordinated to the whole. It reduces the
of action, stands poetic film-language with its dynamic of time of the action to a minimum. Association ultimately
thought. Instead of: "I see that he walks," it will become: corresponds completely to the principle of the intellectual
"I feel, what the artist thinks." film, in which the subject-matter is subordinate to the
The thought is realized through the action and com- intellectual reflex. If one takes into further consideratior.
prehended in its pure form, without being obscured by that poetic language, according to its own peculiar na
the events. ture, is not composed of isolated grand thoughts, but fre
The thought thus becomes the basic element of the quently consists in intimations and allusions to definite
montage. The visual unity in only an equivalent of the ideas, then it becomes very clear that just this associative
thought. The basis is therefore not the composition of laconism constitutes its technically adequate means of ex-
the action, but the composition of the thought. The most pression.
effective means for the realization of such a composition Our on the develop-
films are therefore not constructed
is the "association montage." The development and perfec- ment of the external and do not depend on the ex-
action,
tion of this method will make it possible to construct art- ternal dynamic, but are based on the continuation of an in-
works along manifold thematic highly varied ma-
lines of tellectual thought-line.
terial. To
master this method completely, means to have The explanation for this lies in the circumstance that
attained the ideal of art-creation, whose task it is, as the for us itis not possible to have a previously established
old Dutch philosopher Hemsterguy put it, "to express the continuity.
greatest number of ideas in the shortest time." The final formation of our films occurs solely in the
There no doubt that the time-limitations of the film
is montage, in the cutting.
("the shortest time") and our attempt, to give "the great- During the cutting, much very much is changed,
est number of ideas," are in accord with this teaching of thischange often even depending on the substitution of
the old Hollander. The nature of the film offers the pos- some title for a very important picture. In fact, in such
12 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
films, the placement of the titles is as important as that of We are technically still very weak and must daily seeM
the images. and invent new art-means. Our cinema, artistically as well
It is no accident that mo:t of our best directors (Eisen- as technically, is still in its childhood days. Thus, we have
stein, Dovzhenko, etc.) write their own manuscripts. The just recently started to familiarize ourselves with the tech
language of their manuscripts originates out of their ex- nique of the sound-film; but we know, we are convinced!
tensive relationship, as directors, to the material and out of that when we have once learned to master these new meth
their extensive knowledge of the film-camera. Even in the ods, we shall be able to create art-works which will deepl>
films of Pudovkin the so-called "poetic spots" are incor- move the proletarian spectators of the entire world.
porated by the director himself. It is ako no accident that (Translated from the German by Christel Gang)
these directors have found fewer followers than the direc-
tors of the old theatrical "school," of which the outstand-
The development of art has at all times been closely r&
ing representatives in Soviet Russia are Protozanov, Ozep
lated to the ideas and forms of life of the cla.s ruling at a
and Room.
given time. In all former epochs which, with but few eJ
There is no doubt, however, that the transformation of ceptions, made art the monopoly of the possessing and rul-
the theme islikewise accompanied by a revision of the ing class, those forms of art were encouraged which served
formal-styliitic disposition.
to satisfy the higher, more refined individual requirements
We must not only change the thematic contents of our of the privileged. The satisfaction of the artistic needs o:
works, but we must also seek new means of expression. Such the masses was regarded as a subsidiary matter. Art was
a necessity impels us to constant change and experimenta- doled out to them in bad mass reproductions.
tion; it permits of no stand-still, and it prevents us from
Things are different in the Soviet Union. There the
creating still further art-works according to the old banal
masses are considered first. Consequently those arts which
methods. in themselves, can benefit the masses, receive special en
Our main task was to show the development of our couragement. In the present stage of development these
country from a complete technical backwardness and lack are the cinema and the wireless. They have long been reo
of culture to our present-day colossal advancement, at the
ognized as extremely effective means for influencing the
threshold of which we now stand. Our country is today
masses and giving them an artistic education KURELLA
seized with the enthusiasm of construction. The building
of the Turkestan-Siberian Railroad is only one manifesta-
The Five- Year-Plan and The Cultural Revolution.
tion of this gigantic labor.
Not a single art-work that has its origin in the Soviet
EDWARD WESTON
r DWARD WESTON
is an example of how America ignores Ins work is a permanent message to future proletarian technicians,
*-* first more than fifteen years since Weston pro-
rate artists. It is both of the still and of the film camera, against the bourgeois
duced the first of his enormous volume of photographs, the majority "technique" of American photography that is even today, in spite
of which have carried his name and the technique associated with his of Soviet camera'accomplishments, a befuddled standard to a great
method, far around the world. But in the United States he is part of the world. Here, in this man's work, the product of an
still known to an extremely limited number of people, chiefly, we honest eye, is no unhealthy artificialism of design, no back-lighting
believe, because the fundamental idea behind his conceptions and or cross-lighting, a complete absence of conventional technical
the unsweetened vitality of his results are too bold, and creatively sentimentalism, etc. . .
too profound, for the type of American "mind" that "likes pho- Edward Weston's work represents the high-point of photography
1
STATEMENT
BY
EDWARD WESTON
Todayphotography with capacity to meet new demands, ready to record instantaneously shutter
co-ordinating with the vision of interest impulse
one's intuitive recognition of life, to record if desiired,
a thousand impressions in a thousand seconds, to stop a bullet's flight, or to slowly, surely, decisively expose
for the very essence of the thing before the lens.
Recording the objective, the physical facts of things, through photography, does not preclude the com-
munication in the finished work, of the primal, subjective motive. ABSTRACT IDEA CAN BE
AN
CONVEYED THROUGH
EXACT REPRODUCTION: photography can be used as a means.
Authentic photography in no way imitates nor supplants paintings: but has its own approach and tech-
nical tradition.
Photography must be, Photographic. Only then has it intrinsic value, only then can its
unique qualities be isolated, become important. Within bounds the medium is adequate, fresh, vital: with-
out, it is imitative and ridiculous!
This the approach: one must prevision and feel, BEFORE EXPOSURE, the finished print complete
is
in all its values, in every detail
when focusing upon the camera ground-glass. Then the shutter's release
times for all time this image, this conception, never to be changed by after-thought, by subsequent mani-
pulation. The creative force is released coincident with the shutter's release. There is no substitute for
amazement felt, significance realized, at the TIME of EXPOSURE.
Developing and printing become but a careful carrying on of the original conception, so that the first
print from a negative should be as fine as it will yield.
Life is a coherent whole: rocks, clouds, trees, sh ells, torsos, smokestacks, peppers are interrelated, inter-
dependent parts of the whole. Rhythms from one, be come symbols of all. The creative force in man feels
and records these rhythms, these forms, with the medium most suitable to him the individuual sensing
the cause, the life within, the quintessence revealed directly without the subterfuge of impressionism, be-
yond the range of human consciousness, apart from the psychologically tangible.
Not the mys'tery of fog nor the vagueness from smoked glasses, but the greater wonder of revealment,
seeing more clearly than the eyes see, so that a tree becomes more than an obvious tree.
Not fanciful interpretation, the noting of super ficial phase or transitory mood: but direct presentation
of THINGS in THEMSELVES.
TECHNICAL REMARKS
These photographs, excepting portraits are contact prints from direct 8x10 negatives, made with a rectilinear lens
costing #5.00,
this mentioned because of previous remarks and questions. The porlraits are enlarged from 3%x4^4
Edward Weston, Carmel, Cal.
Graflex negatives, the camera usually held in hands.
EDWARD WESTON is an internationally known
photographer who lives and carries on his main
work in Carmel, California. After several years
spent in Mexico, where he contacted his contemporaries
in the field of painting, Orozco and Diego Rivera, Wes-
ton returned to the United States and produced a mass
of photographs which have had revolutionary conse-
quences in expanding the powers and developing the
dynamic of the still-camera. Reproductions of four of
his prints appear in the present issue. Weston's most
noted work is in his groups of peppers, tree-roots and
early industrial subjects.
KELP
- i
16 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
dovkin himself makes clear in the course of this essay, the or technical plan of work for shooting. In such case;
ideas formulated in his book, which was first published in everything must be read between the lines.
the U.S.S.R. four years ago, are now obsolete when con-
sidered in relation to the rapid growth of Soviet film- 1. Paul's face.
technique. Its appearance was "unfortunate," to use Pudov- 2. Fist.
kin's own word, in view of the radical advances and 3. Ivan's face.
changes that Pudovkin himself has made in his entire 4. pounding
Fist table.
method. There seems, therefore, to the editors of Experi- 5. Table collapses.
mental Cinema, no valid reason for continuing this out- 6. Ivan's face, etc.
moded work at the present stage of the evolution of the
Soviet cinema. What about Ivan's face, what is this pounding fist, wha
happens to Ivan? Nothing is indicated Everything
THE EDITORS . . .
means of the word that they must convey to the direc- iable and the film loses all its value. In Rjechevsky, how, l
tor the complex whole of their ideas and sensations which, ever, we have an interesting example of scenarios pre
on the other hand, the screen must convey to the spec- foundly elaborated in their content. For instance:
tator. The
co-operation of the scenarist and director is
Extract from "The 26 Communists of Baku:" I
then on completely out of touch with actual production the inseparable wall of maddened machine-gun; r*
and grew indignant against the director who often distort- crackling.
ed his work. The lack of coincidence of scenario and film
can often be ascribed to the incompetence of a director, but
Covered with blood a soldier of the red arm
meditates at length; at last he finds . . .
scenario as a simple series of frames, has given unsatisfact- He writes it down on plunge
paper. Then he
ory results. Four years ago I, unfortunately, took part in back into his long meditations; several time
this campaign of "the idea thru the picture". It must a vague motion with his hand to better deter
be said that then scenarists were exclusively preoccupied mine the specific weight of the first word wit
with montage. The content of the film, its idea, its in- which he wishes to begin his speech. Myste:
tentions, were all united in the theme. The director limit- iously, he smiles, motions hopelessly with h
ed himself to taking care of the simplest descriptive mon- hand and writes at last in best penmanshij
tages: a departing train, a well mounted fire, were consid- large upon the paper. . .
The whites fall, one after another, in the ranks; the clouds are heavy, the wind tears, and here
thru the holes in their chutes, could be seen is the endless water, a great river or the blue
before one's self a stretch where the shells of s>ea, perhaps; here a man stands, congealed.
the Reds were bursting; a tank, leaning on its The wind, the wind, the wind that blows across
side, in distress, called for help like a sema- God's whole world . . .
ea
Knocking like mad, the Red machine-guns pre- his hands cupped around his mouth that his
pare the attack; in close-up, an agonizing man voice may carry
Jar
rb
lies, breathing with difficulty. Our soldier looks a man who weeps, hiccoughs and
speaks . . .
\m
at him; he thinks, very moved; tears in his eyes, he the man, desperately
shouts,
he continues his message to the whiter . . .
he howls . . .
ht
My land swells, and my heart, too, swells. . .
from an edge of the precipice
to
In close-up, Red trenches and the Red chief above the immense water
ceit
howling on the parapet. the other shore
to
ia
Fear, dread Over the parapet appear first the
. . .
and horsemen rush forward.
here, in close-up, . .
ai
bayonets; then, congealed, heads, only the forth
dat,h . . .
faces of Red soldiers, somber and lifeless, which then away ride . . .
stare straight ahead of them. And them the man slowly spoke, wept
to . . .
ef
perhaps blue sea great shells bursting succes- tions;he howls, enthused and indignant
"You'll remain here!" . . .
sively . . .
vould indeed only confuse the director by imposing upon Here the power of the words does not serve to indicate
dm fixed visual contours instead of indicating sensations how, where and what is to be photographed; the word
;
o be expressed, the sense of the work. serves only to convey the emotion which will be felt by
the spectator before the future montage. Rjechevsky who
Extracts from a Scenario possesses the Verb, does not abandon his director to the
Beginning. free play and hazard of the camera's findings. What he says
A naked and majestic precipice. Upon this over the work of the director. All
in the scenario presides
precipice, some pine or other of remarkable the technical work of the director,
all the ingenuity of the
beauty. Nearby, (you know how they are) a man who handles camera, film and scissors, must be di-
Russian izba. Near the izba, over the precipice, rected towards preserving the general tendency and inte-
1
18 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
erality of the work, beginning with the very moment the of other scenarists who, to define their characters and con-
latter passes from the word into purely cinematic compo- vey abstract notions, create complicated entanglements Oi
sition. which distort the cinegraphic realization of the film. In-
deed, in order to define a character by placing his destiny
Rjechevsky does not concern himself with foreshorten- HI
in conflict with that of others and in order to do so in a
ings, lengths, close-ups, or background; and, nevertheless, T
naturalistic manner with the help of multiple occurrences
in reading, one feels the rhythm of the film. Forms, fore-
in a chronological order, it is generally necessary to em
shortenings, lights, character and movements of the actors,
ploy an enormous quantity of descriptive material. This
all this, without direct indication, is contained in
the
surplus burden (surcharge) forcibly makes the director's
oi
.-in
T:
cinegraphic composition. must be clear as might be that of a French patriot at the
b
Here, in the scenario of the "26 Communists of Baku", sight of Napoleon's hat and gray coat.
lib-
ping open the fire hoses and killing and wounding the his exterior whole, bound to the interior picture, incarnate M
firemen; the shells howl, but the people stubbornly
ex-
in the mind of the spectator a well defined type. Alexan- ;
::
tinguish' the conflagration. Thus Rjechevsky does not der Rjechevsky is therefore one of our best scenarists. He Si
show us the trenches, the two opposing sides; he does not has completely integrated himself in our epoch. His works
the bursting
limit himself to showing, as is the custom, have a very clear tendency which, refracted upon the
shelland its ravages. He sets down, point blank, a sharp creative level, transforms itself into a broad and profound
picture; the strained struggle of the people,
the same as sensation of our Soviet reality (actualite). His emphasis
those who outside the city in the trenches, and he
are is not banal propaganda but true, moving greatness; it is,
rains downthe enemies' shells upon them. The water m my opinion, the image of the first splendid elan which
sprouting out of the punctured hoses grips the mind like swept our country in the days of civil war.
blood that would flow from the torn veins of a sol-
the
dier. The people ever again dashing amid the flames to
save the victims
certain than
is a spectacle of a power sharper and more
any desperate attack imaginable.
TO those of our readers who have been waiting months
for the appearance of the third issue of Experimental
Cinema, we
desire to emphasize that Experimental
The composition of the scenarist is interesting. In his Cinema continue to be published. In this respect,
will
latest works: The Sixteenth, It is Said in
the Mountains
we must state, that, contrary to our earlier advertising
and The 26, there is no composition of the theme in
the
and cover-announcement, Experimental Cinema will not
ordinary sense of the word. His films do not aim to chron-
appear under the classification of a monthly magazine,
ologically describe the fate of the characters. The
scenario
episodic pictures connected only but will be published BY NUMBER. This, however,
is divided into a series of
than by the dram- will in no way affect subscriptions, past, present, or fu-
by the march of the central idea rather
development of situations.
ture. Subscribers will receive TWELVE
issues of the
atic
magazine, exactly as if it were being published at twelve
With Rjechevsky, very often, a character appears only are em- We
regular intervals in the course of a year.
toprovoke the spectators and then to disappear forever. phatic to state that this "number" policy is due chiefly
At times, he is incorporated in the construction of an epi- to our great financial difficulties. We cannot appear with
sode to underline emotion. any regularity and at the same time put out the type of
In The 26 the Soviet votes for the intervention of the issue which we have taken as our standard, under the
British. The bloody head of a Red soldier is seen rising present severely strained and limited status of our
in the smoke of a crackling machine-gun and shouting
to
finances.
his dying comrade: Ifour readers in this country and abroad will cooper-
We are being betrayed somewhere, Petka! ate with us to the extent of helping us build our sus-
In "Life is Beautiful" there is a story and characters taining fund, we shall be able to appear with greater
whose fates interests the author. His stones are character- regularity.
those
ized by the fact that they are not complicated like
t
One Hour with Gilbert Seldes Is Too Much
stinj
in THEword
clever
he
sentimentality of Seldes
writes. He is
is patent in every
heart of a thing and leaving the shell for the reader to screen and becomes as important as life. How much su-
play with, is manifest in every sentence of the book be perior is a film of this kind to the cinematically compe-
fore me on the Cinema, a book, which as an expression of
1
tent but socially decadent film, "Patriot" of Ernst Lubitsch.
the Cinema year 1929 (which unreeled the work of Eisen- But by his own admission Mr. Seldes has never ex-
stein, Vertov, Pudovkin, Dovjenko) leaves about as pow- perienced the spiritual conversion of the Russian masses.
erful an impression on the reader as a feather floating down Implicit in this admission is the feeling that he has never
'
1
ra
the sides of a skyscraper on a cloudy day. undergone much of any conversion, otherwise his pen
efld
Thus, Seldes, in his casual approach to the Soviet film, would have absorbed the power such a conviction would
:thi
takes care to exaggerate the mast obvious defects of the lend it. Undoubtedly "Ten Days That Shook the World"
films,
the hammer-vendome-palace episode from "New is a pretty strong dose of medicine for the child who is
Babylon," or the omission of Trotzky from "Ten Days "puzzled by the question where the light goes when it
that Shook the World," etc., in order to substantiate in his goes out" and who wonders "whether a tree falling in the
own confused mind, the paltry notion that cinematic prin- depth of a forest makes a noise when there is no one by to
ciple is one thing and social concept another. As though hear." The emptiness of Seldes is not only uncontained; it
it is possible to experience the one without the other. As is cumulative as well.
though it is faintly possible for even the most exacting He objects to the propaganda of the Soviet film on the
cinematic competence to produce a film without involving basis that it is crude and bitter and naive. In New Babylon
some definite social point of view. "the action is accelerated during the triumph of the Com-
Seldes, however, is only interested in the cake and "dis- munards, so that sewing machines run faster and the whole
dains the dough that bakes it." While the Soviet film world grows suddenly lighthearted and happy." In "Mo-
appears to content him emotionally, he cannot let go of ther" he quotes the prison-guard insect sequence. Both of
his crusty individualism long enough to accept the intel- these episodes to this reader are emotionally exhilarating to
lectual or social basis of the Soviet film, a separation that a high degree and logically developed in the film. Propa-
makes for compromise, cowardice and dishonesty. ganda when it becomes exquisitely fused in the spirit, the
It is neither expected nor desired that Mr. Seldes ac- tone of the film, is its own justification. And to say that
cept the social basis of the Soviet film but it certainly is the omission of Trotzky from "Ten Days" cancels a good
expected and desired of him that he make clear what social deal of the character of the ii'lm is as baseless as citing
basis he does accept in the Hollywood film. And his in- the elimination of John Brown trom "The Birth of a Na-
ability to clarify his ideas as to why he finds the Soviet tion" as an instance of silly American propaganda. The
film so emotionally satisfying and yet so intellectually dis- reality of the film is there.
satisfying, as well as his refusal to expose the hollowness If it is true, as Mr. Seldes suggests, that great men and
of the American "social" film, betrays not only his blind- great art can evolve out of Fascism as well as out of any
ness as a film critic but clearly reveals his deep social fas- other ism, where then, are the signs, the portents of great-
cism as well. ness, or of immanent greatness in Fascism? We
would like
Seldes deprecates the brutality while admiring the in- to experience the moral fervor of a fascist film or the
genuity of the drawbridge episode in "Ten Days," one of warmth of fascist fellowship. Where can one find such
the most powerful incidents in the film. "As a symbol, he ecstasy? In "The Crowd," in the Italian film "Kiff Tebi?"
writes, "it was brutal and overworked and ineffective; as Where the root is dead you cannot expect fulfillment of
an image of the confusion, the terror, the emotional ca- the flower.
tastrophe of the ten revolutionary days, it was equally bru- To superpose "montage" on the American or European
tal and overworked, but it did not lack effect." It is ob- film today without a corresponding change in the social
vious that the effect of the symbol was lost on the insipid basis of the film will not make films any better or any
Seldes. These were "Ten Days that Shook the World." worse than they already are. It is like giving the sun-cure
What did Mr. Seldes expect, a milkshake? all this Why to an incurable consumptive in order to give his body some
distrust and fear of "background" become foreground so semblance to the flush of life.
characteristic of intellectuals of the calibre of Gilbert Seldes's book ends as though Eisenstein, Pudovkin, or
Seldes. What then are the problems of the day, if not the Dovjenko had never existed. Only Chaplin, the quicksand
problems of the working masses, and in what films, in what in which Seldes is continually refreshing his sense of won-
19
20 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
der and escape, emerges out of the thin air, a winged, tragic no wonder then since he has apparently
is embraced so-
figure. cial-facism, that he has failed to penetrate the Soviet film
"The moving picture is an illusion,'* writes Seldcs and he in both its cinematic and social implications. One hour
bases his entire esthetic of the film on the potentialities of
this statement. It is no wonder then that he has failed to
with Mr. Seldes is too much much too much.
understand the meaning or realize the possibilities of 'mon- 1. "An Hour with the Movies aid Talkies" Gilbert Seldc.
him it is merely a trick, an illusion. And it
tage'" since to
Lippincott, Philadelphia $1.00.
DAVID PLATT.
"Fragment of
an Empire"
reason lies much deeper. Even in capitalist countries, rail' passion and a natural integrity that gives it the value of
roads, giant ships, airplanes and gigantic works are being a deed, or a revolutionary occasion, of the present day.
built. But that alone is not a satisfactory reason for drama- Then follows a group narrow in its historical subject-
tizing them, for art demands the motivation of it. Art
matter but great in its true-to-life quality representing
when it shows the bloody nudity of birth must also show the life of the individual. Problems arose from the new
the cause. A strategic railroad which is constructed in order of things, problems which are still in discussion since
one of the capitalist countries for the purpose of transport- the great Revolution of 1917. The film "Bed and Sofa"
ing human beings like cattle, or a railroad which is built (sometimes known as "Three In a Basement") by Alex-
in a capitalistcountry to squeeze out from the sweat of the ander Room, and a number of other films, which unfortu-
workers fat dividends for the stockholders is, when one nately were not shown in Germany attacked the problems
shows it through the camera lens, a bloody miscarriage which arise when out of the ruins of the older order of
of a despised and murderous system. But human great- things a new life is in the course of creation.
ness gives to the machine-epos, "Turk-Sib", the necessary The next step is "Turk-Sib". A
forerunner of "Turk-
purpose and goal of this colossal work. Its greatness
Sib" was Eisenstein's "Old and New", which had for a
lies in the fact that to the question "Why?" What Pur- theme socialist construction in the field of agriculture.
pose?" the answer is given: "Here is socialist construction However, this film does not sustain itself without artifi-
in practice." The socialist construction is the creative- cialism. Other predecessors of "Turk-Sib" were the films
moral factor, of which this deed, the construction of the "Pamir", "Afghanistan", "descriptive" films such as "A
railroad, imparts to established reality, the sense, the Trip through the Soviet Union" and the culture films in
strength and the enthusiasm of the film. general. These educational films are all closer related
The picture reminds us that the world-bourgeoisie rea- to "Turk-Sib" than the kino-eye films of Vertov, where
lize with bitterness that they are being confronted with a there is a very strong sense of being but a very meager
territory where they have nothing more to say. It is the sense of self-consciousness.
territory of the world's first socialist construction, evi- New problems always arise in individual life. The
denced in the will of man and machine welded
together growth of socialist society offers such manifold problems
in the act of creating a new world. the Rus-
In this case, that art can never cease creating. Inasmuch as these prob-
sians' own version of one of the important manifestations lems were a part of the reality of their time, they will
of the 5 -Year Plan in the world-scheme of things, was remain works of art for the future. Let us recall "Potem-
called TURK-SIB. . . .
kin". An artistic, deeply felt reality here connects with
"Turk-Sib 1931! Turk-Sib 31' Turk-Sib 31" Accord- . . . strong roots into the life of the individual. The role of a
ing to the Five- Year Plan, "Turk-Sib must be completed work of art is not ended when a new work of art of the
in the summer of 1931". But by the time it reached the time appears. When there are close ties established with
German screen, it was called "Turk-Sib 1930". For Turk- the basic social structure of life, the work of art remains
Sib has been finished in 1930, and not only, as we for a and outlives new art-works when the new are untrue and
short time believed, in the Fall, but already in May of this unreal.
past year. What lies between Turk-Sib 31 and Turk-Sib The director of the film "Turk-Sib" is Victor Turin.
30 is called "socialist competition", which must not be If we mention him only now after we have just asserted
confused with cut-throat, capitalist competition. What we that the directing in "Turk-Sib" was the work of the
see with ecstatic eyes is the unchecked, increasing speed of spirit of socialist construction, we believe that in this way
the Soviet working-mass, which is leading humanity, to use we do honor Turin in the highest degree. By this he
to
the words of Friedrich Engels, "out of the realm of neces- is "promoted" from being the director of a great film to
sity into the realm of freedom." the status of an important member of a great deed, and he
The film-art of the Soviet Union has traveled only one is considered on a level with the workers who in the icy
way, the way in which the reality of Communist accomp- cold of Siberia and in the torrid heat of Turkestan are oc-
lishment was reflected. In spite of the short span of time, cupied with the greatest human deeds in the world today.
many important periods have been traversed, the enumera- "Turk-Sib" flashes on the screens of the world. But al-
tion of which does not seem superfluous to us. ready film-technique has taken a step forward. The talk-
The first period "Polikuschka" and "Aelita." Two films, ing,sound and colored film of America is a technical ad-
outwardly fundamentally different, and still not without in- vancement. However, in the Soviet Union, the first very
ner connection. "Polikuschka", which was based on a promising attempts are already being made. Technical
novel by Tolstoi, deals with a poor, good muzhik with improvements cannot be a hindrance to an advancing social
trembling soul. Here one looks backward, deeply, into class in spite of the fact that the technical facilities are
the past, into the Russia that is rapidly disappearing, body still numerically greater in the hands of the opponent.
and soul. In "Aelita", a Utopian film, one deals with men Very soon the sound film will signify a further gain for
and inhabitants of Mars. Films of this cate-
of the future the Soviet kino. The civilization of the bourgeoisie has
gory look forward to the fantastic future, amusing but still some of its plundered riches to show. But withered,
not scientific or ideologically founded. weak and demoralized as it is, it has nothing to say. Wait
The second period yielded unforgettable creations. It until the Soviet sound film shall sound! That will be the
begins with "The Armored Cruiser Prince Potemkin." To real beginning of the new, valuable, world-important
this group belong also the remarkable films "Ten Days sound film! The time is not far off now; one can await
That Shook the World" and "The End of St. Petersburg", it with patience. The Soviet sound film will keep the
and also "Mother" and the anti-imperialist film "Storm promise which the Soviet silent film made. Time and
. . .
Over Asia." Here, historical reality was reconstructed. fate are working for the advancing proletariat.
The reflected reality of these film-creations possesses a (Translated by Eleonore Erb)
HOLLYWOOD BULLETIN
FOUR MORE SOVIET FILMS IN HOLLYWOOD EISENSTEIN IN MEXICO
OUTSIDE of increased unemployment, a large number It will be better to pass over the hectic "career" of
of starvation-suicides and an $8,000,000 bank-robbery, Eisenstein in Hollywood. Wehad originally planned, and
the only events of genuine significance that have occurred had advertised to that effect, to give our readers a detailed
in the American film-capital since the last issue of Experi- account of what Eisenstein's life was like in the American
mental Cinema (June, 1930) are the successive, although film-capital. We
wanted to print a graphic description
widely separated, showings of four Soviet films. These of his reception here, his "home-life," as the American
four productions: Old and New, Turk-Sib, A
Fragment of bourgeoisie always say, his troubles, the endless "stalling,"
an Empire and China Express, were enthusaistically re- the rejection of story after story, either by himself or by
ceived. As in the case of the preceding eight Soviet the company, each taking it a turn at this game. We
wanted
showings in Hollywood (see Hollywood Bulletin in E. C. to have a good laugh with our readers at the hypocrisy and
of June, 1930), the most whole-hearted and intelligent sycophancy of certain trade journals which adulated the
reception came from the lay public; the most confused, man to the heavens during the initial period of his ^ion-
bavi
befuddled and downright stupid reactions from the film- ization" but which suddenly changed their tone into one
industry that ia, from the so-called "professionals" and of cheap sneering and domestic whitewashing as soon as
"technicians," the job-holders. Old and New, because it Eisenstein was definitey dropped from the company that
had been publicized and talked about for a long time pre- had engaged him ... It is best, however, not to touch
vious (under the former title of The General Line), and these sores. We must, for various reasons, modestly con-
also because its screening at the Filmarte coincided with tent ourselves with a half-hearted desire to be a bit merci'
the heralded arrival of Eisenstein in Hollywood, drew the ful to the industry that could find no place for the Rus-
largest crowds of any of these four pictures, but it was sian's genius and not one dollar out of its millions for a
by no means the most popular nor the best understood. picture under his direction. The picture that Eisenstein
Judging by the personal reactions of individuals con- brings with him from Mexico will no doubt make history
tacted, we should say that Fragment of an Empire was the enough for our Hollywood-ridden Western hemisphere.
most extensively admired and that China Express was next. Shortly after his severance with the company, Eisenstein
Turk-Sib elicited applause mainly from the type of native was privately financed by individuals who had previously
boobery that sees "propaganda" the moment a capitalist admired his work. His backers are in no way connected
is portrayed as a rattlesnake or a death's-head. Turk-Sib with the film-industry. Eisenstein is in Mexico now, work-
had none of the sheer communist ecstasy of Old and New, ing in the third or fourth month on an original project.
none of the passion and bitterness of Ermler's Fragment The film Eisenstein is making in Mexico is non-political.
and certainly none of the violence of the younger Trau- He is producing a film on the life of an old Mexican tribe.
berg's melodrama, China Express. This last picture aroused The recent "trouble" he encountered there while "shoot-
the most vehement bursts of applause (except for a single ing" some Mexican peasants' hovels was more complicated
sequence in Fragment, which surpassed it in this respect) than, but not half so drastic as, the outside world believed.
of any Filmarte picture since the showing of Ten Days There have been whispers from individuals who are "m"
many months ago. Turk-Sib is what is always taken as on the project about a "mysterious" telegram from a cer-
a "purely cultural" film, i.e., a film which, important tain official headquarter in Hollywood. You can judge
enough in itself, makes no indictment of slavery-systems for yourself whose slimy hands have been spoiling the
and modestly contents itself with landscapes, railroad engi- pie. But meantime Eisenstein, Alexandrov and Tisse con-
neering and triumphs over Nature. Turk-Sib is culture, tinue to make their film. This production out of the
but Old and New, incorporating a reel or two on the heart of Mexico will have sound. It will be the first im- For
ruthkssness and greed of the kulaks, is not "culture," and portant film to come from that wonderful land to the Du-l
as to Fragment of an Empire
had a sequence in which
it
South.
a bewildered peasant demanded know who was running
to
Certain Americans have found Mexico a good place for
the new society of Russia and the answer given was a
oil-wells, but have never thought of it for films, except
panorama of the workers and peasants of the Communist
of a luridly slanderous type. Eisenstein, on the other hand,
Republic, a sure indication that Ermler's picture was not
finds much down there that is important and magnificent.
"culture" but "propaganda." Nevertheless, it was this
By all the indications, his film should be equally as im-
picture that made the greatest impression in Hollywood
portant.
and on the largest number of individuals. "It's propa-
ganda," they said, "but marvelous stuff anyway." Even
the cameramen this time forgot to insist that they had FLAHERTY GOES TO RUSSIA
"done this sort of thing ten years ago." It was surprising Ten years of waiting. Eight years of polite "stalling"
to find as many as two photographers who voluntarily
from the Rockefeller Institute interested, oh so interested
stated that the battle-field scenes in Fragment of an m the "advancement" of "culture" (culture officially in-
Empire, which, you may remember, were taken in solid terpreted, of course). Years and years of crushed efforts
darkness broken only by a long searchlight following a m Hollywood. Trying to speak the language of barbarians
fleeing soldier across the screen, should have been thought and not succeeding. Five years of wasted energy trying
of in connection with a certain recent war-picture. This to rais $25,000 to film the culture and customs of a fast
was an almost "revolutionary" advance over the arrogance dying tribe of American Indians. And now Robert Fla
and inferiority kick-up that characterized the film-colony's herty, the director of Nanook of the North (financed by
reactions to the earlier Soviet films shown here. a fur-company because of its advertising value) and of
22
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 25
v
On a Theory of "Sources
by SAMUEL BRODY
presented us with a useful term when I might begin by asking Mr. Potamkin since when he
ELIE FAURF has learned to dispense with sociology in his cinema, when
he invented the word "cinernetaphysics." In recent
years there have arisen enterprising young cinema enthu- only a few months ago, in an article published in Monde
siasts in a number of countries to whose writings and activi' entitled "Cinema Americain," he wrote.
ties Faure's learned term applies to perfection. All these
"De tous les films americains, e'est le film comi-
groups and individuals may be designated as "cinemeta-
que qui a eu le Ce phe-
plus grand development.
physicians," the word meaning those who, having emerg-
nomene est du surtout a l'impulsion donnee par
ed from some field usually the literary wherein they un etranger, Charles Chaplin. La contribution de
have failed to capture laurels, seek to heap upon the com- Chariot aux films americains a ete de deux ordres:
paratively virgin field of the movie a sort of high-sounding
l'expressionou stylisation controlee, et la reference
witchcraft with awes the uninitiated and nauseates the
wise.
sociale ou satire." (Emphasis mine S.B.)
Think of it! The "social reference" is here considered
It the belief that Mr. Potamkin has taken his place
is
asone of the two main factors in the films of Chaplin, who
in the ranks of this tendency that prompts me to write
Potamkin believes is largely responsible for the "tremendous
this article.
development" of the American comedy.
For well over a year he has consistently expounded in Further in the same article, its author recommends as
Close-Up a theory of "sources," which has so far remained a "source" for the present-day American cinema, Sidney
unchallenged. The deeply fallacious implications of this Drew, an early comedian "who introduced the satire of
theory, or method, the originality of which its author servants of the petty-bourgeoisie into the American mov-
is so proud, became alarmingly apparent when, comment- ies."* And again: " 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's
ing upon Vidor's Hallelujah in an article entitled "The Court,' a broad and marvelous satire on the high American
Aframerican Cinema," he developed the thesis that a study bourgeoisie. Potamkin points out in that same article
. .(!)"
of African origins is indispensable for a correct filmic por- that in order to perfect the "essence of its themes" the
trayal of the American Negro. American cinema must refer back to its early history which
he claims is replete with sociologically significant subjects.
. want one (a Negro) as rich as the
. . I (What are "sociologically significant subjects," Mr. Po-
Negroes documents of Africa. I am
in Poirier's tamkin?)
not interested primarily in verbal humor, in clown- Even if the source theory be conceded, why this ardent
est* ing nor in(Emphasis mine S.B.) I
sociology. clamor for reference to the sociological film as an American
y Iff want cinema and I want cinema at its source. source and at the same time the assertion "I am not inter-
:: rti To be at its source, cinema must get at the source ested primarily in . . . soriology," when possible sources
of its contents. The Negro is plastically interest- for Negro cinema are considered? Am I to accept this as
ing when he is most negroid.
In films he will be a new brand of discrimination?
'
only when the makers of the
plastically interesting want Potamkin to inform me how he would go about
I
tfl* films know thoroughly the treatment of the Ne- the matter of making a film on the American Negro with-
ed bj gro structure in the African plastic, when they out consideration for the socio-political motive that under-
know of the treatment of his movements in the lies every phase of Negro life in the United States. Mind
ritual dances, like the dance of the circumcision, you, I am not asking for a thesis, but consider the work
the Gan-a. . .
of the Russians whose praise he has sung so loudly. There
J
24 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
If it is Negro plastic he is after, and that only, to guide him thru the slums of Harlem where black babes
(are you not diving headlong into the polluted waters of die by the score
in pest-mfe5ted tenements. I want to
"art-for-art's-sake," Potamkin?) then Potamkin is deeply show him the twelve million that King Vidor will never
mistaken when he asks for a study of "Negro structure in dare to approach. Let him then speak to me of "sources,"
the African plastic " Capitalist America has created
. . . and the '"dance of the circumcision" . . .
a new Negro who in virtue of his position in the American The whole recent discovery of the
in art bears Negro
social structure is as far removed from his African origin the imprint of Potamkin's "source" ideology. The discov-
as his so-called "white-nordic superiors" are from theirs. ery was made by respectable whites who do not understand
Read Reuter's essay on the subject, and you will
Prof. the modern American Negro and who beneath their wor-
learn that even in the sphere of plastic we have noth- ship of spirituals, jaw and African sculpture, hide a deeply
ing to find at the African source. No, Mr. Potamkin, traditional class contempt for him.
we "are" not "always what we were;" this is a vulgar and Van Vechtenin literature, Covarrubias in art, and now
unscientific concept. The Negro of 1930 is not (even Vidor in the film! Never mind the yaller girl. Let us
physiologically, take note!) what he was in 1870. In even forget the cast recruited in cabarets to interpret South-
sixty years the black population of the United States has ern cotton-pickers, and the "Negro" songs composed by
become so transformed that official figures place one third Irving Berlin. Has not Vidor told us about "the remark-
of its mulatto group. The ratio of this trans-
total in the able emotional nature of the Negro?" What is this atav-
formation is at the present time so great that within fifty isticcolor that permeates the entire film, if not a vulgar
years Potamkin's "Wooly, tall, broad-nosed and deep- "source" philosophy? Remember tor a moment the fraud-
voiced" Negro may be somewhat of a rarity in America. The ulent baptismal scene, the stagey and exaggerated revival
assimilative process goes on despite the fact that the Amer- meeting, the emphasis on the hysterical and the primitive
ican ruling-class is segregating the Negro worker and pitting
in every move of the characters.
his white class brother against him. The inescapable fact
Hallelujah! is bad cinema because
its director attempted
that a white bourgeoisie exploits both the Negro and white
to substitute white bourgeois lie about the Negro's
the
worker is the determinant.** The class issue governs above
mystico-religious and hysterical nature for the proletarian
everything else.
reality of the Negro as a doubly exploited member of the
The almost complete metamorphosis of the Negro on American working-class. Neither the most thoro study
American soil in a comparatively short historical period is of Poirier's films ncr the closest scrutiny of African prim-
the most instructive and essential feature to consider in
itive art forms could have helped Mr. Vidor to give us
any approach of the problem. While an investigation
a better document than what he has offered us in Halle-
of origins can have great value both historically and in
lujah! The result might have been a more pretentious but
this case also anthropologically, cannot, in the instance it
hardly a better film.
of the American Negro, bring us one
step closer to the
Sociological implications can never be avoided, no mat-
revelation of the laws that govern the history of the black
man in capitalist America. "Aframeriean" is obviously a ter how esthetically disinterested cither a novel, a play or
fallacy.
a film may be. Viewed
in this light Hallelujah! is as j
The
conception of "sources" in this case can only lead
with purely abstract forms, this cannot be escaped. The
us back to the O'Nellian philosophy so slickly expounded
construction of any concrete theme in art in which human I
in The Emperor Jones that even Potamkin, by his own
material is involved strictly implies the drawing up of
admission, was able to swallow it whole. "We are always
!
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 25
the modern Jew is even further from his sources than can detect more sincerity in Seldes's "technical trick"
the American Negro. The Jew-type that you have m formulation.
mind is vanishing from the earth even faster than the I'll wait and see . . .
"wooly, broad-nosed Negro" is disappearing from the Am- Paris, March 1930.
every Yiddish film ever produced. Every gone-and-for- the bourgeoisie require of film-creators than the humor of Will
Rogers is like the humor of a cartoon in the "Daily Worker." It is
gotten attempt is brought up to find its place in the scheme
affectations of this nature that make Potamkin's writings sterile,
of the investigation. Not a single word is mentioned about sophisticated to the point of nauseous glibness He is so anxious . . .
the film, which, its technical shortcomings notwithstand- to show that he knows every Tom, Dick and Harry that ever ap-
ing, is in every respect the greatest one on the Jew ever peared before a camera or that ever ground out a six-reel piece of
made. I have in mind the Soviet production entitled kitsch, that he mi.sses the vital essence of his material."
Seeds of Freedom. It is a film m which is portrayed the ** Thi.s does not mean, of course, that the Negro is not faced
struggle of the \ ounger Russian-Jewish generation against with special problems within the working class problems which
the conservative background of Yiddish orthodoxy. It is necessitate new means of combat as part of the proletariat's broader
revolutionary struggle. Lynching, for instance, is obviously a part
a dramatisation of the birth of a new Jew who is begin- of the oppression of Negroes as a race.
ning to shed the fetters of "sources" to merge with
all his There is a bourgeois school of thot that denies the ex'ste ice of
his advanced (revolutionary) class surroundings. In Hirsch a "Negro problem" on the ground that assimilation will event-
Lekkert, the hero, we see symbolized the emergence of the ually eliminate the Negro from the American social scene. This
is reactionary evasion of a sore in the capitalist system.
a
Jewish worker who is being remade by his social milieu.
The fact that the Negro is changing thru assimilation does not
And I know that Potamkin has seen Seeds of Freedom. . .
mean that he is not now the most exploited member of the Ameri-
can working class.
The consideration of cinematic plastic by no means be- Both the "source" theory and that of "eve itual assimilation" arc
comes a minor one simply because a prototype at the therefore reactionary.
"source" cannot serve our purpose. On the contrary, new The object of this article is to show that in dealing with the
structures, new gestures, new atmospheres, new forms Negro as subject-matter for the film, Potamkin has merely re-
versed an old bourgeois "idea" into another just as counter-revo-
beckon the real artist.
lutionary. Instead of evading the issue by claiming a "natural"
Unlike Mr. McPherson, editor of Close-Up, I am oi solution in some distant future, he has escaped to Africa. Be-
the opinion that the cinema needs more and not less theory. tween these two theories, the oppressed American Negro worker
remains suspended in mid-air between his past and his future.
But let us learn to distinguish between correct theory and
the eclectic humbug which results from attempts to be ***New Masses New York, December 1929.
original at all costs. Excluding isolated and individual
contributions of value to the theory and esthetics of the
cinema, we may safely say that only the Russians have
"What renders the influence of the motion picture ex-
created a scientific system in theory which has fully proven
traordinarily powerful is the fact that it acts on, and thru,
its value in practice. This theory mu;t be deepened and
one's feelings; in other words, in order to he in the right,
enriched with our further investigations and experiences
the film needs no reasoning. A
story with nothing in it,
in the cinematic field, but the creator of misleading theo-
provided it causes deep emotion, will succeed in modifying
retical concepts is as criminal as "the geographer who
the conception of life as seen by a young girl or the man
would draw up false maps for navigators." The mental
m the street, much more effectively than a very solid ar-
gymnastics of the French bourgeois cinema esthetes gall me
gument might eucceed in doing.
as much as pragmatic America's contempt for all theory.
"Realizing this power of the cinema as a means of per-
More clarity and less confusion! Less phrase^, and more
science!
suasion, the Church could not regard the cinema as a negli-
gible quantity. Being responsible for faith and morals, the
In the last year there has become noticeable a
Church owed it to its mission to direct attention to this
change of heart in their former attitude towards the Rus-
new invention, just as it had given its attention to printing
sian film on the part of many bourgeois intellectual cinema
from its first appearance. It cannot remain indifferent to
circles throughout the world. Some are complaining of anything that acts upon conscience. Catholics must, there-
"too much theory." A
French bourgeois critic, formerly
fore, in so far as they are worthy of this name, turn their
friendly to Russian films, recently wrote about his weari-
attention and their activities to the problem of the cinema,
ness of the Soviet kino. Another French cineaste has
and at once.
spoken of his disgust while emphasizing what he terms
"So important is the part that the cinema already plays
"the falsehood of the Russians." (Rene Clair). The
French cinema world actively boycotted Eisenstein during
m our society that further delay in dealing with it would
be fraught with serious consequences."
hi. stay in Paris. And, in America
Potamkin has already said: "I do not think the Rus-
CANON JOSEPH REYMOND
sian kino has as yet found a method that suits its profound (Director of the International Catholic
material ... the Russian films had better find a new Office of the Cinema.)
method. "***
. .
Page Father Edmund Walsh, of Georgetown University,
This was said by one who
only a short time ago devoted who, before one of the Fish meetings, for the first time
whole articles in prai;e of the "old method." And take revealed to a horrified world that the Soviet Union made
note of the almost threatening "had better." I think I use of the film for propaganda purposes!
VIDOR and EVASION
by B. G. BRAVER-MANN
FROM the point of view of King Vidor the functions of thals and his men fought yellow fever during the con-
a film director are analagous to those of a journalist struction of the Panama Canal. A provision was made in
in that both report what they see, the difference between the scenario script to show the close-up of an innoculation-
them being that the film director reports what he sees needle being thrust into a man's arm. Vidor objected to
by means of camera lenses and the film strip. However, this close-up on the score of a purely personal dislike for
like the reporter, what the film director reveals depends the scene. This is typical of his attitude towards funda-
upon how as well as upon what he sees. His perceptions mental facts.
may be so limited that he never sees what is significant. Let Visually and structurally, the well-built motion picture
us see how Vidor has applied his theory in practice. is the intensive objectification of subjective experience.
Vidor sought to deal with the late imperialist war in Moreover, it must be that if it is to succeed as cinema. In
The Big Parade because he thought no one had properly any form of imaginative art the ultimate expression must
reported it. He followed this film by efforts to report in be a union of the inner experience of the artist with out-
The Crowd
:
the experience of a white collar robot in an ward reality. This is axiomatic particularly of the cine-
American metropolis, and in Hallelujah the life of the ma, the most direct of the arts. If a director is timorous
Southern negro. Billy the Kid offered an unusual oppor- about facts or does not know how to approach his subject
tunity for interpreting thelife of the frontier. Each one matter so that the spectator will feel the subjective phase
of these films in construction and ideology shows that of action and experience, his detached attitude towards his ...
Vidor fails to see his subject matter in relation to ex- material will result in a film incomplete or spurious in
perience. structure, scenes, implausible in meaning, and image-pat-
Perhaps mental attitude towards reality and nature
his terns inexpressive of visual and plastic values. This is the
26
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 21
not only reveals a feeble eoneeption of experienee in his technical virtue in The Big Parade was its powerful visual
films but also one that shows an unawareness of the vis' percussion in the movement of men, men, men, and trucks,
ual and plastie values of an aetion, of an object, beeause trucks, trucks, and the tension in which this movement
of his inability to relate internal and external experience broke at the parting of the two lovers. Otherwise, it was
In a world grappling with the problems of unemployment, entirely negligible as a film.
hunger and capitalist exploitation, the American cinema of- The Crowd is Vidor's best effort.. And what a poor
fers films like Hallelujah and Billy the Kid. It is to Vidor"s thing it is in the final analysis! If Vidor were more of
credit, however, that unlike other directors in the Ameri- the artist and analytical thinker in matters involving social
can cinema, he sought to apply certain structural methods and personal relationships, this film might well have be-
that would have helped him if his philosophy of life were come a challenge to our cheer leaders and to tho_e of Hol-
different. By using the structural devices best suited to in- lywood's production minds whose ideas of subject matter
tensify the emotional content of an idea through concen- for the films are limited to the presentation of false sex
tration upon the plastic and visual values of an object, emotion, prize fights, underworld life and comedy relief.
Vidor only succeeds in increasing the flabbiness of an al- The failure of The Crowd is Vidor's failure to analyze
ready flabby approach to his material. In Billy the Kid
and visualize reality. It supplies producers with the argu-
he misused the detail-close-up
the most intensive visual
ment that the artistic film cannot succeed, whereas The
expression of the film
by filling the screen with the hand Crowd did not succeed because it dealt unconvincingly
of an unimportant character holding a hand-puzzle to sug-
with experience.
gest comedy relief, when he might have used a detail-
close-up of Mrs. MeSween's eyes revealing her anger at the
In The Crowd Vidor had a great theme about an aver-
age unskilled white collar slave, wishfully believing in the
rebuff she received from Col. Dudley. It explains why
certainty of the lucky break, his marriage on the win-
Vidor and many American directors do not know when to
nings of a prize won in an advertising contest, the two
use the close-up, and accounts for much of the general dis-
children resulting from this helter-skelter union, the pit-
approval of meaningless close-ups, as employed in Holly-
tance of his weekly wage, the loss of his job, the animosity
wood film practice, on the part of critics and spectators.
of a wife's lower middle class brothers, the stylized move-
Since Vidor's approach to his material is one of evading
ment of the white collar robots in a large office. Although
experience and of rendering incomplete statement it is
Vidor demonstrated an adept use of the moving camera,
clear why he uses the methods of a groper when directing
the film visualized none of the social commentaries that
his players on the set, why he depends upon trial-and-error
would have made this a great crowd picture. The Crowd
methods, and leans entirely upon the reactions of his
lacked the structural treatment to make it significant as
players rather than to elicit from them an expression that
cinema. If he had possessed a greater appreciation of the
is consistent with the emotional content required by a scene
plastic and visual basis of the cinema, Vidor might have
or an image.
given to the image-content of his scenes some of the ec-
Vidor's idea of reporting the late war seemed to center static quality of film-poetry born of deep social convic-
upon introducing a French girl in The Big Parade as a tions. Everything in The Crowd dealt with externals al-
symbol of sex appeal winding its way in and out of a long ready obvious and familiar to every film spectator. Ex-
line of motor trucks loaded with men to bid adieu to her re- ternals predominated because Vidor is, after all, a groping,
parting Yankee lover. Vidor reported the war so well in shallow-minded reporter instead of an artkt, a film-poet, an
The Big Parade that the notion prevailed in Europe that interpreter of experience. That is why he gave us only
Americans believe they alone had fought and won the war; the surface aspects of the crowd in its Coney Island mood,
that they alone had not known the experience of defeat; its shopping expeditions, its gulping of sandwiches and pop,
that only they had battled their way throueh the Ger- its deadly uniformity. Vidor neglected to show to the
man trenches. Compare the comedy relief scenes of spectator in the film-house that a& a mass the crowd might
Americans about in Paris cafes and jesting
larking exercise the collective will to shape its own destiny. The
in the trenches, with the stark scenes m The End Crowd the spectator in the film house resigned to the
left
of St. Petersburg and in the German film Behind the Ger- acceptance of defeat and futility. It offered no catharsis
man Lines, whose titles were changed so as to glorify the no emotional release to the spectator in terms of experi-
war before the film would be shown in American film ence.
houses. Vidor did not feel intensely about war as did Bar-
Hallelujah revealed the conventional viewpoint about
busse the Frenchman; Latzko, the Hungarian and Pudovkin,
the Southern negro, picturing him according to the lowest
the Russian. Many Americans who saw service behind estimate held him by the white man, a singer of spirit-
the trenches looked upon The Big Parade as a vkual pre-
uals, a patron of cheap dives, a petty gambler, a fanatical
sentation reminiscent of the good times they had in Paris.
revivalist. A
film artist with a penetrative social outlook
It The Big Parade had been a report of the
accord- war would have built from this material a great motion pic-
ing to Vidor's assumptions, it would have sent spectators ture based upon the aspirations of the negro worker to
home with a hatred of militarism and of the forces that cope with his environment does Vidor
in the South. Why
inveigled us into the war. But Vidor centered his comment insist on constructing films that pretend to deal with vital
upon the war in an absurd love affair between a French social themes when his own social viewpoint and under-
peasant and an American doughboy while men were be-
girl standing of reality are so utterly bourgeois and so extreme-
ing blown He omitted entirely any refernce to the
to bits. ly limited? Granted that he may wish to avoid the puerili-
financiers and dollar-ayear men who were amassing for- ties of Hollywood, he is like a man setting out on a jour-
tunes. The Big Parade followed the beat of drums, and ney to an unknown destination and after traveling for a
wove a halo around flag- waving and woman-hunting instead brief distance decides he can reach his goal by running
of breeding a great hatred of war and a profound pity for around in circles. Vidor must know that structurally there
the millions of war's victims. No wonder that Eisenstein isnothing significant about Hallelujah. At best it is glorified
pronounced The Big Parade as war propaganda. The chief vaudeville, with the addition of a few silent scenes.
28 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
In Billy the Kid Vidor
is at his feeblest. It is not to be struments for the director, but in this film, Vidor,like the
wondered at, thatproducers needed the assistance of
its rest of his fellow practitioners in Hollywood, makes no
seventynine year old Thomas Edison's name to ballyhoo use of the film's structural elements to build up that bit-
the film. It was heralded as the first wide-screen film. ing characterization which could make this period in Amer-
More novelty. If the wide-screen proves anything at all, ican history live for the spectator. There is no emphasis
it proves that novelty cannot take the place of well-organ- upon Murphy and McSween, on the drama in the econom-
ized film structure nor of expressive images that fill the rec- ic and social aspects of their conflict; and the important
tangle of the screen, regardless of whether the screen be character of Col. Dudley is omitted. Yet, any film pur-
standard, double or triple standard in size, round or any porting to deal historically and truthfully with the early
other shape. Some theorists have indulged in much-ado West must show the amazing activities of the officers of
about the wide screen. Inexpressive images in the wide the army in those days. If American film producers and
screen simply mean that they are several times the size directors insist upon evasion in the treatment of historical
they would be on the standard screen. Consequently they facts, we need never expect to have any authentic historical
are several times worse as images. Some years ago, Karl films.
Grune made a German film called Waterloo. It was built In Billy the Kid it is clear that if Vidor knew how to in-
around the life of Bluecher and the defeat of Napoleon. tensively objectify subjective experience through the visual,
In this film there were a number of sequences in which plastic and structural means of the film, he might have built
the standard screen was split into upper and lower rec- a remarkable motion picture. But one cannot interpret the
tangles, upper and lower triangles and in oblong areas subjective without relating it to outward experience. The
side by side. In each of these areas were simultaneously evasion of experience on one hand and the inability to
and effectively shown the parallel actions of scenes of wide- cope with the structural demands of the motion picture
ly separated locales. The material in Billy the Kid was re- on the other, has made Hollywood the laughing stock Se
plete with possibilities for a similar powerful montage of of the world among those who understand the film's possi
parallel action of images appearing at the same time, in hilities and necessities. Evasion of experience, combined
divisions of the screen. But Vidor had not the necessary with limitations in creative ability explain the insipidity of
creative vision to perceive this. the American film and the reasons for its diminishing hold
Excellent opportunities were missed to develop sound upon the film-going public in America and in Europe. In R'
images 1
in counterpoint to visualize images of scenes in view of the facts, it's just a swell joke that Vidor and other
parallel action. For instance, when Kid Mrs. Mc-
in Billy the Hollywood film "regisseurs" continue to be called our W1K
Sween returned from with Co. Dud-
a fruitless interview "first" directors!
ley, she sat down at her piano while the shooting and the Had Vidor ever deserved the rank of a "first" director,
flames raged about her. The flames were reflected in the he would not have issued this condescending statement on
surfaces of the piano as she played "The Star Spangled the little film theatres of France.
Banner" and the strains wafted over the town. Alongside "The foreign producers are more courageous and
the scene of Mrs. McSween playing, there could have are making more headway than in the past. This
been a scene of the town as it lay in the canyon. Then, progress, however, has not been from a solid founda
following, another scene taken from a different angle tion of sound production methods as was the devel
could have shown Mrs. McSween playing the anthem and opment of the film industry in America There . . .
in the area alongside that scene, flashes of the townsmen are any number of "little theater" movements to be
and of their frightened faces as they sat in their homes encountered, and it is in these houses that the unique
datini
listening to the sounds of the music and of the shooting; productions being made abroad are to be found. ]
flashes of the faces of the hired gunmen in the Murphy saw one in which the entire story was told in close
camp, of Col. Dudley in his tent, his men and cannon. By ups,-'a daring experiment that is admirable in effort,
this montage on a split screen, a powerful tension could hut scarcely to be considered anything more than
have been built up all the time that "The Star Spangled a very well done novelty These pioneering steps
. . .
Banner" was being played. That, however, would have are laudable and hold much promise. They are inter'
been too much within the realm of vital experience. esting and worthy of attempt but as earnest com'
As subject matter the Saga of Billy the Kid, if treated petition to American films they are woefully lack-
without evasion, should have made an epic film of the ing . They are more intent it seems, upon a cine-
. .
Southwest during its transition period from the pioneer matic fishing expedition that might net them some-
stage to the beginnings of centralized control in the cattle thing worthwhile, but in all probability will be quite
business. Its material and characters were admirably adapt- unproductive."
ed to the scope of an analytical, image-minded director, for Instead of using his name to give publicity to the ef-i
the real drama was built around two strong characters, and experimenters in the European-
forts of the trail blazers
Murphy and McSween, who staged one of the bloodiest film movement, so that American audiences and producers!
cattle wars of the Southwest. There is irony, too, in the might develop a strong impetus in this direction, Vidor
circumstance that Murphy had studied for the priesthood did precisely what other American practitioners have done
and McSween for the minutry. In this bitter conflict, i.e., he dwelt upon the "superiority" of American films. II
which is known to have dominated life in Lincoln County, directors whose names may mean something to the film
New Mexico, during the seventies, Billy the Kid was public fail to use their influence with that public toward^
merely an incident, just one more among the numerous the establishment of a film-art, how can the spectator, un
desperadoes in the most lawless section of the Southwest. aided, arrive at these conclusions himself? Had Vidoi
land
Historical and social values of the material were eliminated looked upon the work of the film experimenters of Eu
to feature a conscienceless young gunman an evasion of rope with the eyes of an analyst and an artist, he woulc
r
time
Ik.
experience that made the Kid incredible as a character and have discerned that they are intent upon relegating al
mere a comic opera outlaw. Players should always be in- film practices smacking of the conventional film, that th<
fitf
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 29
th
efforts of European as well as of American film experi' fishing expeditions" of proletarian film groups in Europe
-
o| menters are certain to doom the false film practices of and America will inevitably produce a film revolution that
Hollywood. Had the production methods of American film will force American producers to return to the cloak and
m studios been as sound as Vidor claimed, he would not suit business whence they came.
w have been among the few American directors in 1928 who 1 There was no need for sound irr this film. None of the scenes
nod
publicly criticised the panicky flight to dialog films. With were helped by sound or dialogue. Reference to sound images is
rtart
all the millions at their disposal American producers and di- made here only because sound happened to be used.
2 Ostensibly. Vidor had in mind Dreyer's Joan of Arc, the sharp-
pur
rectors can point to but a few accidental pictures that con-
ness of whose patterns he tried to emulate in several scenes in
earl;
tain at the most touches of intrinsic merit in film struc- Billy the Kid. The statement quoted appeared in Closeup, Oct.
ture. However, they may live to learn that the "cinematic
ISO
1928.
-
am
orid
ona
to in
.1811
Principles of the New World-Cinema
ettl
PU!
by SEYMOUR STERN
Section stressing the cinema as a new instrument of mensions, of all previous, world-historical struggles of the
human consciousness. As the form of that consciousness exploited class against the power-class, and to present these
itself. perspectives and dimensions in montage of film time and
film-space, a microcosmos-concentration of world dialectics.
REVOLUTIONARY film doctrine emphasizes the cine-
Such is the significance of the cinema as microcosmos!
ma instrument of perception and domination
as the
of labor-philosophy and world-meaning: as an instrument
By power of montage!
which has the power to hammer incessantly on certain By power of time-and-space concentrations and associa-
dominants.- In the psychological sphere (analyzing forms, tions!
manifestations, motivations, reflexes, etc. of behavior), it Take the cinema Leninistically as the microcosmos of
recti
has the power to expose the subtle overtones and nuances world-dialectics. To use an image: It can best be character-
enti
of outstanding types of a class
for example, the dinosaur, ized as an inexhaustible field of action- energy, in which
the millionaire, the "virtuous,"' self righteous middle-class the montage-dynamic operates like a tractor ploughing the
is if
girl, the "humanist" liberal, the American business-man, field of a Russian "collective," an inexhaustible field of
I
etc. ... In respect of these qualities, the cinema, to the effects and of changes (dynamics, motion- variations, etc.)
nunc
spectator, has the character and function of a scalpel. But . . . Montage-philosophy is the dialectic of this cinematic
k\
the film-creator simply and scientifically accepts it as the action-energy.
The
instrument of selecting, organizing, (co-ordinating, asso- Synthetic montage is the central "switching station" of
itol
ciating, etc.) the dominant psychic qualities and external the "mechanism of domination" The possibilities of
. . .
uni
characteristics and significant overtones (singly and as in- cinematic plasticity and relativity are endless . . .
md
terpenetrating image-complexes) of the individual, both as The character of the film as microcosmos
the most is
an individual and as the manifestation of an entire type important creative-esthetic consideration of the present
e tin
or group. century. A
wholly new, radical approach to creativeness
Indisputably, the nature of the cinema is microcosmos. is being based in Soviet Russia on this dominant considera-
g ste
This term is advanced unreservedly. I bring to the atten- tion. It is a deeper and more startling challenge to Western
: inte
tion and consideration of the American prolet-kino Lenin's bourgeois civilization (to its philosophies, its notions of
t col
vigorously defined conception of the cinema as "the micro- behavior, its misconceptions of human relationships, etc.)
cosmos of proletarian reality." That is why Lenin repeated- than even the most violently antagonistic doctrines of
ly urged the "natural or non-fictive film"
an injunction Marxist-Leninist economics. With its advancement, all
out of which later developed the wonderful Soviet news- bourgeois conceptions of esthetics and creativity are being
reel and Vertov's films of the "kino-cye". They were forever swept away . . .
From ARSENAL
in dialectic materialism, in a fully apprehended mater- action-energy that characterises the cinema. Already w
ialistic interpretation of life, history and humanity. have films geared up to a high degree of emotional inten
The character of the film as microcosmos forces a con- aty: Poiemkin (particularly in the massacre-episode), Th
sideration of the relativity-association of dominant images End of St. Petersburg, (particularly where the worker
as the technique for the establishment of radical, dominant hero, in a frenzy of rage, hurls Lebedoff, the munitions
image-ideas,which in themselves hold the key to the phil- capitalist, to the floor), China Express, Storm Over Asu
osophy of the film. This consideration may be non-cate- The New Babylon, the explosive Ten Days That Shook Th
gorically stated: Out of the conjunction of two images, the World and the bitterly vehement Arsenal. The film c
third image, THE RADICAL IMAGE-IDEA (mental), vehemence depends on the skillful manipulation of at
emerges. Out of the conjunction (in montage) of many gressive, penetrating montage-methods to achieve the max
image-elements, is created the synthesis of which the final- mum 'possible intensification and release of emotion?
definitive radical image is the essence. energy in the spectator. The part played here by the prir
The art of defining and creating image-ideas, the art of ciples of the conditioned reflex, as an instrument of em(
hammering image-ideas into the mentality of the specta- tional agitation, is of course colossal. One the purely e.
tor by the persistent ingenious manipulation of aggressive, thetic side, the simplest and most striking time and spac
violently emotional montage-forms, can be said to be large- and movement forms have proved useful (through th
ly dependent on the genius of creating synthetic images aid of photographers such as Titse, Golovnia, etc.) t
which embrace the cardinal philosophical points of the heighten the excitement of the content and the cutting. I
underlying image-idea. these respects, the Russian films, from Eisenstein's Stril
Before going into the question of synthetic imagery, I to Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia, which are based on dee]
would like to stress one important, if somewhat incidental ly thought-out principles of agitation and visceral- mote
point. For the eventual success of this type of cinematog- excitation, are not a consummation, but only a beginnin
raphy the cinema based on entirely revolutionized radi- The film of passion is the only film which has a right I
cal conceptions of esthetics and structure, that not only suc- be considered a social film; that is, a passionate expressic
cessfully defies the bourgeois weaknesses of all past esthet- of the dialectics of historical world-processes. It is the on
ics and all "classically enshrined" notions of art, but even type of film than can adequately meet the demands of ma
indicates how absurd these notions are in their relation to emotional necessities of the present century.
absurd forms of society for this cinema, it is absolutely es- At the opposite end is the sickly-sweet emasculation ar
sential to have films of passion. The passionate film, that degenerate sentimentalism of the Hollywood "entertai|:
is to say, the film of overcharged emotional intensity, vio- ment" film (including, perhaps more than anything, the s
lent, incisive, psychologically surprising and sustained, can called "dramatic" films of Hollywood), based on a grol
alone give adequate expression to the peculiar form of and perverted falsification of the vital facts of human exu
L
. ;
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 31
ence. But the anti-social tendencies of the Hollywood film resultant of thesum total of the overtonal cumulations
exemplify a complete antithesis to what the vehement film of all the images of the film, as well as it is the pro-
of visceral-motor excitation should try to achieve. duct of the image-ideas of the sequences, episodes,
etc.
Even the subtle film, complicated so-
that deals with
cial conditions without the revolution-dominant as a basis
4. Every image of the film has the possibility
of realizing its significance in the total image-struc-
of its imagery, even this film can possess a kind of inten-
sive vehemence, mounted in the overtonal implications ol ture in three ways:
gross social and economic inequalities. Passion, as the final (a) As a purely descriptive agent, llluotrat-
degree of intensity of montage-violence, of explosiveness, ing an event. In other words, as a unit in the
should be the standard "temperature" of the social film. development of a continuity of action (of any
With regard to its seriousness, the "temperature" of the happening whatsoever, actual or imaginary)
social film,
its "heat" and the vehemence of its expres-
(b) As the symbol of the deeper image-
sion of the underlying image-idea
should be a constant idea that is expressed by the descriptive action,
of which this particular image is a part (the
irradiation, a constant discharge of the kinetic energy of
its fast- moving images. And the films enjoyed by the "es- symbol). Or, in conjunction with this same
capists" and esthetes" of the Western world, films of "re- possibility, the image may be used (recurrently)
lease" and "escape", praised to the skies by such people as the symbol of any other action whatsoever
as J. G. Fletcher, G. Seldes, Rotha cj? Co. and other intel- to which its relationship is purely and definitely
lectual hoodlums, have of course no place whatever in the symbolical and not a continuity-relationship in
mass-cinema of the Proletarian Revolution .
the sense of immediate joining to preceding and
As regards the philosophical end or "purpose" of the succeeding montage-pieces.
image-play of radical-revolutionary cinematography, this (c) Because of its duel employment, both as
end, the image-philosophy of the image-whole, is expressed description and as symbol, each image has the
in the outstanding synthetic images themselves. The mon- possibility of being, bes'des the symbol of an
tage-methods of analysis (differentiation and objectifica- image-idea, the fundamental root-image of this
tion) and of synthesis (integration, association, etc) are idea.
likewise the methods used in the construction of such syn- Obviously, in the most advanced types of cinema, the
thetic images to endow them with the broadest variations majority of images operate simultaneously in both a des-
and possibilities, as key-words of film language. criptive and a symbolical capacity. This is the richest,
fullest and moct startling method of expression now at the
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS TO disposal of cinematography.
SYNTHETIC IMAGERY In connection with the above resume of the possibilities
of the ways in which images can be utilised, consider the
A number of elementary considerations must be ad- following fragment of an original continuity, which illus-
vanced prior to discussing synthetic imagery. Several of
these were already stated in categorical form (see Princi-
trates many of the points of this essay:
Agitators on soap-boxes.
The montage (Part
definition of I, Principles of Cossack police on proud horse.
the New COMPLETION
World-Cinema) as "THE Workers with banners, slogans, etc., etc.
OF THE IMAGE-IDEA THROUGH THE FILM Hired thugs, plainclothesmen, etc., paired off
In VISUAL AND DYNAMIC FORM," is valid
with foot-cops.
(Focus-timing here in accord with finally work- He stands stock-still, frozen with horror!
ed-out montage-tempo.)
CAMERA PANS DOWN FROM TOP OF 17. ANGLE SHOT (extreme perspective)]
OF TAKEN FROM BELOW
police-horse,
SKYSCRAPER TO ORIGINAL ANGLE ON (the woman's viewpoint), rising on the two
CHIEF OF POLICE. hind-legs . . .
TITLE: "Kill the damned Reds, Mike!" 23. PARALLEL CAMERA MOVEMENT -
12. FLASH CLOSE-UP OF a woman, scream- 26. CLOSE UP OF the brutal face of one
ing. policeman.
13. FLASH CLOSE-UP OF the woman, hurled 27. MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT OF the scuffle.
to the gutter. Suddenly with move, one of the a quick, clever
cops, stepping back and "ducking" low, trips
14. FLASH CLOSE-UP OF the hoofs of a the fighting worker, who starts to sprawl and
police-horse, prancing on the fallen woman's topple backward. The worker's loss of balance
body. is completed and his fall to the pavement is
;
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA 33
cent methods?"
faster ....
29. FLASH CLOSE UP OF the indignant (f) Water flooding into a street sewer.
face of the liberal.
46. CLOSE-UP OF the motorman's foot,
30. The worker sinks in a heap before the stamping the bell . . .
A
. .
36. SHARP CLOSE-UP. A mob-stick crush- 52. ANGLE SHOT OF motorman. (Taken
es another worker's head. CUT ON THE from fender, looking up).
MOVEMENT. He excitedly with his gloved hand,
gestures
and the dead worker to get himself
yells to
37. FLASH CLOSE-UP OF fare-register. An- off the fender.
en from opposite side), bearing the dead work- or attraction-stimulants," and in the same example names the
er. artificially constructed "stimulation-provokers" which create the
"overtonal complex" around the dominant,
in this case, items
60.FROM BEHIND THE MOTORMAN'S such as the material of the heroine's dress, the degree of light and
WINDOW: shade used in photographing, polished finger-nails, etc., etc. . . .
Yelling, threatening, angry workers rush in a These form the "overtonal complex." To which could also be
huge mass up the track, and from all sides and added, almost endlessly, for the benefit of revolutionary cinema-
streets in the near distance, in an increasing tography, which analyzes and exposes all such overtonal artifices
throng, into the advancing street-car. of the bourgeoisie, stimulation-provokers like the conscious, delib-
erate pose of innocent virtue of the American middle-class girl and
61. FROM TRACK-LEVEL: (At a distance) the whole stock of attraction-effects which constitute the complex
The advancing street-car with the dead body. the Americans call "appearance": shrewdly calculated manner of
Like a gigantic Machine-Moloch. bearing, tailoring of all kinds (of this it can actually be said there
is a definite "Anglo" appearance-complex!), "suave" mannerism,
62. CLOSE-UP OF the motorman's switch, "twinkling" eyes, "loving" gestures, parlor-cultivated voice, "cute-
being pushed to the "full" pole. ness," the entire battery of effects of American "propaganda-pos-
ing" (of the women, especially in American military films), "sweet-
63. Squadron of mounted police marching ness and light" (Seventh Heaven formula) and so on.
horse horizontally, in a flank movement into
In using the expressions "overtone" and "overtonal cumulation"
the mass of advancing workers . . .
in this article, I mean, specifically, the overtones (of a single
dominant) and the overtonal cumulations (through a complete
64. A street-cleaner pushing his shovel along
series of images) of just these "additional appeals" which exhibit
the curb. psychological traits and notions of a social class and which con-
stitute a "complex" around a "central stimulation" or nucleus.
65. CLOSE-UP OF street-cleaner's shovel.
Reference here is not made to the overtone-montage method as a
CAMERA MOVING PARALLEL. systematic device of construction. That consideration will be dealt
with in a later section.
66. CLOSE-UP OF street-car fender with dead
worker.
the "full" pole. by Potamkin. This was considered all the more urgent as Potamkin
at the time consistently persisted in asserting the correctness of the
"source" idea. The editors of Cose Up refused to print the letter, stating
70. CLOSE-UP OF street-car fender, faster . .. that to print an attack on an "accredited foreign correspondent is not in
accord with English journalistic ethics." A
copy of the article was then
71.
72. 73. Acceleration, image-
etc . . .
sent to the editors of Experimental Cinema who submitted it to Potam-
kin with a request for a reply to be printed in the magazine as a discus-
exaggeration, etc. of the foregoing, reinforced sion. He refused. This refusal appeared at the time to have no bearing
by timed recurrence of the dominant root- whatsoever on Potamkin's relations with Experimental Cinema nor was
there the least intimation that it would affect his status as the magazine's
i.mages, etc., until the total montage-structure New York correspondent.
reaches its synthetic static point, namely: About seven months later Close Up printed a slanderous attack on our
PERSPECTIVE-COMPOSITION IMAGE OF group by Potamkin which for unprovoked, savage vituperation has no
the City Hall tower, with the figure of the Po- equal. "Novices," "mystified mystics," "truncated boobs." were but
a few of the select terms used to describe us. Our Hollywood corre-
lice Chief standing small and solitary on the spondent, Seymour Stern, was "frenzied." Braver-Mann was called down
steps. The shadow of the cross overspreads for having changed the spelling of his name and for having dared to
the tower "wasteiully repeat" certain sound ideas expounded by Munsterberg twelve
. . .
ted. Montage students can clearly recognize the possibil- The question is: What are Potamkin's intentions and where is he
travelling to? How, for instance, are we to explain a recent attack by
and position of sound-image counterpoint
ities in such a him on none other than comrade Leon Moussinac, the greatest figure in
the international workers film movement? "Leon Moussinac has not
dynamic conception as the foregoing. realized his full value to the social understanding of the cinema by neg-
The second half of Part II of Principles of the New lecting to scrutinize his attitude for a set of values." To those who have
followed the writings and activities of Moussinac for many years such
World-Cinema willbe published in the fourth number of statements will seem fantastically malicious. No less malicious, in fact
than his puerile castigatior. of Experimental Cinema and those of us who
Experimental Cinema. Following it, in the fifth number, are straining every tendon to create a theoretical and practical basis for
will appear Part III, which deals with The Bases of Reflexes a workers film movement in America. What a-e we to make of the fact"
that Potamkin refuses to repudiate or answer "On ATheory of 'Sources'
and Associations. in our columns when we have invited him to do so? Why the intrigue,
the slander, the venom?
*Entire contents copyright by Seymour Stern, 1931. Experimental Cinema will live and grow stronger. It will grow with
1 Further investigation and analysis of the film as microcosmos the strengthening of the revolutionary labor movement in America with
will be made in later papers especially devoted to this revolutionary
which its lot has been cast. We will correct the errors of inexperience
in our struggle against the reactionary film and for workers' movies in
phase of cine-dialectics. America. We are pledged to work hand in hand with those who see in
2 "Dominants" and "overtones," Eisenstein terms, used by the cinema a class weapon which must be exposed and employed by the
working class. The foundation for the carrying out of our program has
him in The Fourth Dimensions in the Kino, April 1930 of Close- already been laid. The present stage of the class struggle calls for an
Up, as well as in articles on *"he same phase in German periodicals. unequivocal stand on the field of battle. It is daily becoming more and
item
The Position of the Soviet Cinema
lit
Ml
by LEON MOUSSINAC
'
The Economic Duel of The Cinema dustnal and cultural achievements, was soon to resuit
in the springing up in many places of new motion pic-
i
situation.
omy of the Soviet Union required an absolute concentra-
tion of the "leviers de commande."
The absolute independence of the Soviet cinema from
the great electrical trusts is due to the fact that the So- Competition being non-existent in the Soviet Union (at
cialist state possesses its own economic life, completely de-
least as conceived in capitalist countries), it became neces-
tached (insofar as the re ations of international exchang.--;
1 sary for budgetary purposes, to avoid the danger of possi-
will permit) ficm the process of industrial and commer- ble duplication and overlapping of functions. Moreover,
cial development In this connection
in capitalist countries. the same Five- Year-Plan that created new cinema cen-
it is necessary to recall that the cinema of th; world
(with ters is centralizing these same centers in the hands of
the exception of the Soviet cinema) finds itself more and SOVKINO.
more in the hands of a few giant combines. Not so long Here, in the official decree's own terms, is the extent
utlei
ago there were some fifteen of these trusts. Today RCA of this centralization:
Photophone, Western Electric, Allgemeine Electrizitats "As a result of the new centralizing reorganiza-
i Gesellschaft,and the Siemens Company have in princi- tion of the Soviet cinema industry, the optico-me-
ple divided among themselves th? motion picture hege- chanical trust (camera factories), the photo-chemical
mony of the capitalist world. This division is at best tem- trust (film, plate and sensitized paper factories), and
porary. There is already talk of new mergers. the new trust for general production, distribution
If the present negotiations are successful we shall wit- and exhibition of films shall be grouped into a single
ness a striking verification, a typical illustration of the organism."
marxist theory of the concentration of capital in the hands The centralization of the production and distribution of
of a handful of people. At the same time, the motion pic- negative film and cameras will permit the development of
ture is of all industries the one which most strikingly serves all branches of the industry on a larger scale than hereto-
what we might call the imperialism of thought. fore. It will also make for a broader and better satisfac-
tion of the needs of distant populations in the great locali-
There are two great stages to be noted in the evolu- ties.
tion of the Soviet cinema. Firstly, in 1925, the founding A particularly important fact in the matter of the gen-
of SOVKINO. eral qualitative level of production is the creation of "ar-
Pom
At the conclusion of the Russo-Polish war in 1923, the tktico-political Soviets in establishments of cinematographic
toti(
Soviet Union undertook the production of films aiming
production."
to carry the revolutionary idea to the four corners of the
The main tasks of these artistic Soviets are: The exami-
vast empire by means of a living and striking representa-
nation and appreciation of production programs and the
tion of the met essential oppositions in the struggle of
control of the work; criticism of finished films or of those
two classes. Both the art of the motion picture and the
with the Press; pre-
in the process of production; relations
theatrehad received special attention from the Soviet gov-
paration of reports to the central Soviet on the artistic as
ernment in the early days of the revolutionary struggles.
well as political aspects of films', etc., etc.
Those were the days when the great Meyerhold covered
The Soviet state monopoly of the film has often been
Russia with his "theatrical shock troops," which were of-
attacked by outsiders.
ten substitutes for the revolutionary newspapers, then in-
Here is an example, and, I think, a decisive proof of its
accessible to the illiterate peasantry.
efficacy for a country on the road to socialization.
IfitH
The founding of SOVKINO was the first important I have in mind the introduction of the sound film in
Potau
step in the direction of the concentration and centraliza-
ieNfi Europe. The great electrical trusts mentioned above have
tt tion of the cinema
in the hands of the Soviet state. The
li
a
However, the Five Year Plan, gigantic program of in- In the USSR the role of the cinema is, above all, to por-
lot
35
-
36 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
tray life, or to defend, to exhalt or to criticize an ideolo- symbol of his own stability, will find it difficult to grasp
gy. It is impossible, unless perhaps as an exception, to find this.
in the Soviet Union so'called "pure" or abstract cinema, But for Russian communist the form of the cinema,
a
in which the picture has been created for the picture. like the politicalform, is not definitive. It will reflect its
This type of film no longer leaves the secrecy of the labora- transitory requirements and its substance will be primary
tory. and govern its form until such time as the Revolution shall
The
cinema, in the Soviet Union, is a concept of reali' have achieved its fundamental tasks.
ty. Reality is richer and more feverish there than anywhere. * * *
The Revolution is a permanent and inexhaustible source of Marxist doctrine teaches that science can indicate the
inspiration. It will remain so until socialism shall have authentic tendencies of the future. In the light of this I
triumphed definitely and its aims been fully realized. say: that the silent cinema is incomplete, that the sound
In Russia, therefore, there is more social lyricism than film is incomplete, and likewise the talking and stereo-
elswhere, a new idea, more constant than in the capitalist scopic films.All these cinematographic forms have nothing
cinema and than in the American cinema in particular. definitive. Their role is to be stages in the progress of
One of the great privileges of the Soviet cinema is the ab- science towards one of the first perhaps definitive formu-
sence of all diplomacy, in the expression of the revo'ution- las of the cinema: television and consequently telecinema.
the same time a merciless struggle of two opposed ideolo- omic opportunity: Too much capital has been invested in
gies, of two basically different art principles. sound apparatus; almost every movie house in the world
has been "wired."
"Scenes of Future Life" George Duhamel has
In his
spoken in terms of lyrical despair but with somewhat ro- Not before money have brought its
so invested shall
mantic sentimentality of his disgust with the American owners lOOCKr in returns can there be reason to figure on
cinema. His alarm is, however, only too well justified a sufficiently large number of television stations being
in the presence of the formidably organized besottedness
built by Americans and Germans, who alone at the pres-
ent time dispose of the material means to do so.
of the current cinema, and that not only in the United
States. Ah! If the Soviet Union possessed the technical equip-
In periods of decadence art becomes purely formal, ment and especially the indispensable financial resources
emaciated. Its radiation, its prolongation into the mind of necessary, television would be an accomplished fact. Sci-
the masses becomes nil. Production, even refined and in- ence has solved the problem, and the question of an econ-
teresting in certain aspects an interest of details and omic opportunity for eventual fruitful speculation does
purely relative testifies as a whole to an absence of any not exist in the
cinema depends on the
USSR. Unfortunately, the future of
interests of business, or
tele-
of the
real direction. Art is not truly mastered; at every step
it finds itself arrested by contingencies of various orders. gigantic American trusts.
Nor is it master. That is the case today in the cinema The Five-Year-Plan, conceived and adopted at a time
of capitalist countries. when it was not possible to foresee the realization, evident-
In the same connection it may be said that the judge- ly precocious, of cinema from great distances, has assigned
ments (good or bad) of Occidental critics of the Soviet (the word is not exaggerated) formidables sums of money
cinema have no value whatever. Whether they praise or to assure cinematographic circuits everywhere on the vast
attack,they express a viewpoint exclusively esthetic or territory of the Union. All actual indications point to the
which impregnates it which must interest one in the Sov- pleted, the perfection of television and telecinema shall have
iet fims. That is logical. been accomplished. Thus considerable and draining finan-
cial sacrifices will perhaps have been out of proportion to
We can, if necessary, easily find in the USSR twenty
directors whose pure esthetic value,
leaving out of con-
their final result.
sideration all questions of a political order is equal, if not At any telecinema is an invention of which it may
rate,
on the level of a country like the USSR
superior to most of the Occidental directors. Moreover, be said that it is
it is undeniable that there are in Russia as elsewhere, For its absolute cohesion,
a requirement sine qua non
stere
the work of these photographers was not so popular. Their methods
saye, a bourgeois film historian. An artificial dream-world had been studied and their knowledge made use of, but the social
to supply workers with the necessary cultural minimum and life and cultural demands of the masses in a country building
socialism, demanded something more.
at the same time build up one of capitalism's most pros-
formii
perous industries. And at number 1 1 were born the The events and facts of the Revolution provided Soviet pho-
tography with new, fascinating and rich documental material.
"stars," indispensable cogs in the machine: Griffith, Pick- Social-economic conditions and cultural-political circumstanes and
ford, Sennett, the Gishes, Sweet, etc. the extraordinary effective value of this material stimulated pho-
man]
alma
1930 A group of class-conscious workers organise the tographic thought to the mastery of this new subject matter, hence
he search for new forms determined by the new theme.
Workers Film and Photo League only two doors away from
The styles of the old masters the portrait, lyrical landscape,
the old Biograph brownstone house. It is 7 East Four-
tainment." It is no longer Fourteenth Street. It is now The picture or individual studio painting underwent utter
easel
catastrophe the revolution, losing many of its best repre-
after
:k r.
Hollywood and Long Island. No longer the timid flicker sentatives to photography and the cinema, because of its inade-
are
of the silent film. Sound. Talk. Color. Grandeur. Stereos- quacy to satisfy modern demands. The static nature of art pho-
toiil
copy. tography, aping the art of painting, the calm balance of the
: pre
But there has been a proletarian revolution in Russia. elements of composition, soft tonal transference, lyrical diffused
contours and misty light and shade, the stereotyped "picturesque,"
The Soviet Union has created a cinema that has taught us
static perspectives and construction all
this was not in accord
the fraud and the vulgarity of film productions in our with the new world outlook. Lite brought new material and
aire! country. The Soviet cinema is the cinema of a class that dictated a new form. The tempestuous new life drew the art
t 5q has achieved its historical task in conquering power. Its photographer also in its whirlpool, away from mannered exhibition
studies, narrow, studio work. Soviet actuality itself provided the
American film is that of a
films are class films, just as the
i dod class in
power a reactionary class doomed to destruction.
themes in infinite variety, for Soviet photography.
The Revolution heiped photography to emancipate itself from
iftel The American workers are learning from their Soviet the art of painting earlier and more thoroughly in the Soviet
of thi brothers that the film must be used as a weapon in the Union,, than in other countries and photography i.n the USSR no
class struggle. Their own misery and oppression is driv- longer depends slavishly upon the emulation of art, but has
ing them away from a screen that offers "Love Parades'" already found its own methods as an independent art.
and "Movietone Follies" while their children stand in The dynamics and pace of modern life in capitalist countries
have already created, formally, an artistic revolution in the sphere
breadlines and their wages are cut.
isignfl
of photography in other countries too. The legitimate cannons for
mono The movie must become our weapon. It must spread painting have already been rejected by many of the most prom-
k vast the message of struggle against unemployment, starvation inent European photographers, but the isolation of the individual
1
artist in Western Europe leads him to merely formal investigations
to tn and police clubbings. It must reflect the workers lives and
and abstract photography.
E problems.
The richness, the exuberance of Soviet social life provide the
This task has been assumed by the Workers Film and Soviet photographer with vital subjects and in working upon the
H Photo League, the first organization of its kind in America. subject matter, struggling to attain the utmost expressiveness, he
It summarizes its program as follows: photographer is stimulated towards the search for new, adequate
To struggle against and expose the reactionary film. forms and solutions for these problems. Thus documentary or
"chronicle" photography is at the present stage of photographic
it ma
To produce documentary films reflecting the lives and evolution in the USSR, the most characteristic form in which
L'SSR
struggles of theAmerican workers. vital social experience and penetrating photographic experiment
:
a not
To
spread and popularize the great artistic and revolu- meet.
i
m tionary Soviet productions. MOSCOW, U.S.S.R. G. BOLTIANSKY.
irapetf
tele-
repffl
artiitic
trani
ist
r
38 EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
The LEFT
LA REVUE A Quarterly Review of Radical
J. BOUISSOUNOUSE
- Assistant Editor
Single Copies: French Francs, 7.50 (monthly) the LEFT sets itself in vigorous opposition to the
fake guilds, cults, humanisms, etc. which are vi-
PARIS tiating american art.
Foreign Films from all Nations will include an article by V. F. Calverton: THE
of outstanding artistic value. NEED FOR REVOLUTIONARY CRITICISM IN
AMERICA TODAY and prose, poetry, reviews etc.
Our policy is to present by John Herrmann, Seymour Stern, NormanMacleod,
Sherry Mangan, etc. etc.
THE INTELLIGENT FILM PATRONS OF
HOLLYWOOD AND THE PEOPLE OF THE
MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY LEFT-wing writers and artists are urged to subscribe
with the BEST FILMS of and to contribute..
SOVIET RUSSIA,
ENGLAND Editor: JAY DU VON
CONTINENTAL EUROPE Associate GEORGE REDFIELD, LEWIS
Editors:
THE ORIENT JACOBS, MARVIN KLEIN, R. C. LORENZ, W.
both SILENT and TALKING K. JORDAN, SEYMOUR STERN, V. F. CAL-
THE FILMARTE THEATRE, now in the VERTON, NORMAN MACLEOD, JOSEPH
SECOND YEAR of its successful, enthusiastically KALAR, JOHN HERRMANN.
supported is located on Vine
activity, Street between
Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards. Subscription $2.00 a Year, 5oc the Copy
Address: the LEFT, 222 W. 3rd St., Davenport, Iowa.
Phone: GLadstone 6131
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
For Workers Films! Against reactionary movies!
Your support will help build the first Workers Film Movement
in America.
NAME
ADDRESS
CITY STATE
-
PAGANY ANNOUNCEMENT
A NATIVE QUARTERLY During 1931, CLOSE UP will be issued as
a quarterly, in
WINTER 193 1
MARCH JUNE
LIONEL ABEL EUGENE ATGET MARY SEPTEMBER DECEMBER
BUTTS -- ERSKINE CALDWELL EDWARD The
format.
size will be very much increased, in respect of contents and
DAHLBERG HORACE GREGORY MAUR- There will be abundant illustrations throughout, with captions in
AMKINO CORPORATION
Representing
CIN
>.'.;
fai.'"
lb |*
O
'"-. W Kg||. If
X
<
>
>
O >
HH|
NUMBER
A
^9
1^3 H^^Bl
CONTENTS
Editorial Statement 1 Bulletin io. 1 of the Mexican Cine Club .... 34
A Statement by Theodore Dreiser 3 llya Zacharovitch Trauberg 37
Eisenstein's Film on Mexico 5 A Letter from Moscow 38
The Principles of Film Form 7 Highway 66 40
"Que Viva Mexico!" 13 The Production of Working Class Films 42
Let'sOrganize an Experimental Studio for Sound Films! 1 7 London Cinema Notes 42
Hollywood: Sales Agent of American Imperialism .18 . The Development of Sound in U. S. S. R 43
Cine- Analysis 21 Paris Letter 44
A Few Remarks on the Elements of Cine-Language . 24 Hollywood and Montage 47
Hollywood Films and the Working Class .... 27 Hollywood Bulletin 54
Toward a Workers' Cinema in England 28 Hollywood Sees "The Road to Life" 60
Technical Brilliance or Ideology? 29 Notes from Moscow 61
Ozep's Film, "The Murderer Karamazov" .... 30 The New Soviet Film Program 61
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
AGUSTIN ARAGON LEIVA, J. M. V ALDES-RODRIGU EZ, GEORGE W. LIGHTONisa
a native Mexican by more than 400 years of a young Cuban, has written a number of essays young American born and brought up in Ken-
descent, was Eisenstein's Mexican assistant on the economy and politics of Cuba. Some of tucky. Last year, when Eisenstein was in Holly-
throughout the production of Que Viva Mexico! these essays have appeared in various issues of wood, he bummed across the country for the
He served as interpreter for Eisenstein among the foremost Cuban intellectual journal, La sole purpose of meeting him. Has just re-
the various tribes of Mexican-Indians, as guide Re vista de la Habana. He has also made sev- turned from a trip to the Harlan-Bell coal fields
into the innermost corners of the land, and as and books by John
eral translations of stories in Eastern Kentucky, where, he writes, 10,000
adviser on Mexican folklore and history. He is Reed. Valdes-Rodriguez is now studying the striking miners are fighting against capitalist
General Secretary of the Mexican Cine Club and cinema and is General Secretary of the Cine slavery.
has recently published in the leading Mexican
magazine, Contemporaneos, translations of
Club of Cuba.
WERNER KLINGLER,a film-
ing no connection with the Mexican, Soviet or the famous "Czar's Prison" in Akatui, on the working on the montage of a feature-length
American film-industries. It was privately border of Manchuria; studied in Italy and the documentary film for The Workers' Film and
financed by a group of California liberals who Paris Sorbonne; edited Russian dailies in U.S.A.; Photo League. Made two short experimental
admire Eisenstein's work. lately has been devoting himself to studies in films in 1930.
the field of musical theory; author of Frag-
MORRIS H E L P R N , a young writer
I
ments from the Russian Suite. While instructing RALPH BOND is one of the organizers
and film-student, went to Mexico several months S. M. Eisenstein and G. V. Alexandrov in the of a proletarian film-group in London. He pro-
ago for the purpose of observing Eisenstein at theory of music, became interested in the prob- duced, for this group, a celebrated documentary-
work. Previously connected with the publicity lems of the cinema; beginning with this issue film called 1931. The picture was shown
department of United Artists Studios in Holly- on the editorial board of Experimental Cinema. throughout England and was acclaimed by the
wood. workers as a vivid depiction of their misery
SOMERSET LOGAN, writer living
and struggle.
BELA BALAZS, an internationally in Hollywood, has contributed frequently to VICTOR P. SMIRNOVisthe new
known Hungarian film-theorist and scenarist, is The New Republic, The Nation, etc. head of the Amkino Office in New York City.
the author of a book originally published in
German, Der Stchtbare Mensch (The Invisible
Man), a treatise on the general esthetics of the
MICHAEL ROSE ROBERTS, G. L. GEORGE, French newspaper
a
formerly of the Merseyside Workers' Film So- man, is a contributor to Du Cinema, La Revue
cinema. He recently published another book, ciety, is now in Liverpool producing a docu- des Vivants, La Courte Paille, and other Euro-
The Spirit of the Film, and is now working in mentary film of the dock-workers' condition in pean magazines. Recognized in Europe as one
the U.S.S.R. on sound-films. that city. of the foremost authorities on Soviet cinema.
All manuscripts and letters of inquiry regarding the film- All checks, subscriptions, money orders, advertisements, etc.,
movement should be addressed to the Editors at 1625 N. Vine St., should be addressed to the Business Manager at 407 East Pico,
Hollywood, California, U. S. A. Los Angeles, California, U. S. A.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
$2.00 per year (four numbers) in U. S. A.; $2.50 per year foreign. 50 cents per copy.
BACK COPIES of Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are sold at premium prices. There are very few copies of these issues left.
E. C. No. 1: $2.00 per copy; E. C. No. 2: $1.50 per copy; E. C. No. 3: $1.00 per copy.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
I
EDITORIAL STATEMENT
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA is an advanced Ameri- 2. To encourage and stimulate the proletarian
can film magazine established to counteract the reac- film-movement throughout the Western
tionary political, psychological and conventional formal- hemisphere
istic tendencies of the capitalist film industry.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA covers all the basic forms and purpose of capitalist films
of the most powerful ideological weapons in the struggle 4. To render accessible to film-students lmpou-
for the emancipation of the working classes and op- tant theoretical and technical writings on
pressed nationalities. film-problems, with special emphasis on the
i. Against the existing monopoly of film-art by Union and independent groups of cinema-
general.
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA will endeavor:
production of artistic films that will reveal EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA hopes by its example to
the American scene as it is, without disguis- stimulate a new spirit in the American theatre and all
ing, as the case may be, its brutalities, in- allied arts as part of the general international movement
equalities and sharp class-division against capitalist ideology and commercialized esthetics.
EDITED BY: Seymour Stern, Lewis Jacobs, Alexander Brailovsky, David Piatt, Barnet G. Braver-Mann.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Neil Brant, Sam Brody, Harry Carlisle, Christel Gang, A. C. Jensen, Werner Klingler, Agustin Aragon
Leiva, George W. Lighton, Somerset Logan, Phil Mason, L. Moussinac, Lou Sackin, Karel Santar, Conrad Seiler, J. M. Valdes-
Rodriguez.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS: USSR.: N. Solew, P. Attasheva; PARIS: G. L. George; BERLIN: Simon Koster; CZECHO-
SLOVAKIA: Karel Santar; ENGLAND: Ralph Bond, Michael Rose Roberts; LATIN AMERICA: Agustin Aragon Leiva, J. M.
Valdes-Rodriguez.
I thoroughly believe in the policy of ism, which runs Hollywood, will never do
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA to encourage anything for the worker.
movies on the labor movement to be shown
Furthermore, Hollywood enjoys the sup-
specifically to an audience desiring them.
port of the United States government in the
One of the paramount needs is the special-
making of military films to further a capital-
ized motion picture for particular audiences.
ism which takes all it can from the laborer.
As it is today, mass-production in the
Great pictures of the class struggle de-
movies, as in other industries, is lowering the
serve encouragement. Americans should
standards. Every person must be dragged
witness them and hence understand the idea
down to witness the same inane, common-
of class vs. class. But no, this is not allowed
place, and totally inartistic pictures.
in the United States. Instead, boycott!
I believe that independent efforts such "Mother," the film from Gorki's master-
as this should be made to further movies piece, a novel by the same name, has already
dealing with the great historical struggle of been banned here, and such film-master-
labor, its dramatic developments recently in pieces as "Storm Over Asia" and "The End
Russia, and with its reaction on the ideas of of St. Petersburg," by Pudovkin, have been
world labor at large. The man who fights only partially released, or abridged. Such
for labor should be portrayed as just to his boycotts and bans should be resisted and
fellow-workers and hence striving for the any law prohibiting the showing of these
common good. If an interested group which films should be protested in the one way
has the laborer's welfare at heart does not people have of showing their disfavor of a
pursue this, it will not be accomplished. certain statute by breaking it. These great
Certainly Big Business Hollywood, with its labor movements must reach the laborer by
frenzy for money and sex, or even capital- way of the films.
THEODORE DREISER
A Film by S. M. Eisenstein, G. V. Alexandrov and Eduard Tisse, produced in
Mexico 1931-32. S. M. Eisenstein Collective Productions.
with all our historical and prehistorical periods, colonial Spanish at the periods corresponding to
with our main geographical sections that have three hundred years . .
J
this can be verified by anyone at Tehuantepec, for cannot find these in contemporary art. Primitive men-
instance. tality, primitive life, call our attention to these col-
And just after this delightful impression he shows lective expressions. Because in the corresponding art,
the contrast of the hard life of the high plateaus, so every trace, each detail, conveys a transcendental col-
near to theskies, where beauty endures, but there is lective meaning. Subjective art, or so-called "art," imi-
no abundance and pain dominates. tates this achievement only in external appearances.
We are sad, tragedy beats our emotion; we are suf- But nothing is left for the fetishistic significance that
fering. Then, just like in Beethoven's symphonies, the is transmissable and understandable for everybody.
scherzo comes.
Eisenstein has realized this in a starding way and
There is joy, and external overadorned beauty,
we must look through his whole picture for this inner
gayety, fiesta, celebrations, love.
significance. I think that only a few will get it. Because
We are happy, we feel adoration toward the
symbolism of this kind is not detectable at first sight.
magnificence of life.
For instance, there is a sharp connection between the
Then . . humor . . irony . . sarcasm . . and we get
thing portrayed in the maguey episode and the shape
back to reality
of this plant. Both relate to the predominance of men
Tragedy stills .
in the corresponding society group. And the whole
Revolution is on the wheel .
composition follows the indications of this shape.
Here, the Greek conception of the theatrical,
This is why Eisenstein sometimes looks to me as if
but the chorus are desert steppes, calcinated mountains,
We he were thousands of years old I
the sound of machine-guns. get to despair.
Finale The suffering of men upon Earth is not
. .
And
without an aim or a positive result. return to hap- We I think that Eisenstein has brought bad luck to my
piness, an ideal happiness, that and that we wish for country. We Mexicans are going to live eternally
maybe we shall never see. But it exists. The Mexican ashamed of our sins against ourselves. We had not
revolution has to lead Mexicans to a place where they realized how great and profound is our tradition, our
life, our beauty. We were looking for cheap importa-
can rest in peace, working and fighting for the new
order. tions of the exotic. Despite the fact that we had a legion
We see that in this film Eisenstein displays every of heroes of our own discovery. But they were Mexi-
kind of emotion: the religious, the mystic, the solemn, cans and got immersed in the whole panorama and
the dramatic and the melodramatic, the frivolous, the at the same time sank into oblivion. Now Eisenstein has
tragic, the humorous and the ironical, the sarcastic. signaled a road, but we feel too poor, feeble and dis-
But all is shaped in lyrical moulds. The sensual ap- couraged to follow his steps. For many years the Mex-
peal of his film is astonishingly great. ican land shall be dominated by intellectual sterility.
profound significances that involve some parts of the For he has practically stolen all the beauty of our
film. country!
Eisenstein looks for collective expression and we Mexico City, November 7, 1931.
S. M. EISENSTEIN
conflicts of the Existing. By the awakening of in so far as can be comprehended as an Art: thus,
it
conflicts in the observer. The emotional forging for example, Logical Thought also, considered as an
of a correct intellectual concept by the dynamic Art, shows the same dynamic mechanics:
collision of the contrasted passions. "Theintellectual life of a Plato or a Dante becomes
The formation thus of correct perception. in high degree conditioned and nourished by his pleas-
2. In accordance with its substance ure in the simple beauty of the rhythmic relation
For: between rule and and example, between kind and in-
In its substance it consists of a conflict between dividual." (G. Wallas, "The Great Society.")
Natural Existence and Creative Impulse. Between So also in other fields. E.g., in speech, where the
Organic Inertia and Purposive Initiative. sap liveliness and dynamism arise from the irregularity
Hypertrophy of the purposive impulse the principle of the detail in relation to the rule of the system as a
of rational logic causes the Art to freeze to a mathe- whole.
matical technicalism. In contrast is the sterility of expression of the artifi-
(Alandscape becomes a blue-print, Saint Sebas- cial, altogether regular languages, as, for example,
tian becomes an anatomical map.) Esperanto.
Hypertrophy of organic naturalism organic logic From the same principle is derived the whole charm
drowns the Art in formlessness. of poetry, the rhythm of which arises as a conflict be-
(Malevitch becomes Kaulbach tween the metric measure and the distribution of ac-
Archipenko a waxworks show.) cents, confusing this measure.
The determination of a given object solely in accord- tion of two not identical two-dimensionalities
ance with the nature of its external flow; the valuation results in stereoscopic three-dimensionality.
of the mechanical sticking-together process as a prin- In another field:
ciple. A concrete word (a designation) set by the
We must not describe such a length-relationship as side of a concrete word yields an abstract con-
rhythm. cept.
From it there results a measure as opposite to As in Japanese, (see above), when a material
rhythm, properly considered, as the mechanical-metric ideogram set in juxtaposition to a material
Mensendiek system is opposite to the organic rhythmic ideogram connotes a transcendental result (a
Bode school in matters of bodily expression. concept).
According to this definition, shared as a theoretician The contoural incongruence of the first pic-
even by Pudovkin, Montage is the means of unrolling ture, already penetrated into consciousness,
an idea on the shot separate pieces (The Epic Prin- and the now actually being accepted second
ciple). picture the conflict of the two engenders
According to my opinion, however, not Montage is the movement-feeling, the percept of the flow
an idea recounted by pieces following each other, but of a movement.
an idea that arises in the collision of two pieces inde- The degree of incongruence conditions the
pendent of one another. (The Dynamic Principle.) impression-intensity, conditions the tension,
("Epic" and "Dynamic" in the sense of methodology which, in conjunction with that following,
of form, not of content or action.) becomes the real element of the peculiar
As in Japanese hieroglyphics, where two independ- rhythm.
ent ideographical signs ("Shots"), placed in juxtaposi- Here we have, temporally, what we see arise spacially
tion, explode to a new concept. on a graphic or painted surface.
Thus: Eye -f- Ear = To weep In what consists the dynamic effect of a painting?
Door -f- Ear = To eavesdrop The
eye follows the direction of an element. Re-
Child -j- Mouth = To cry ceives an impression, which then collides with that
Mouth -j- Dog = To bark derived from following the direction of a second ele-
Mouth -j- Birds = To sing ment. The conflict of these directions builds the dyna-
Knife -j- Heart = Sorrow mic effect in the apprehension of the whole.
(Abel Rmusat: "Recherches sur l'origine de la I. It may be purely linear: Fernand Leger.
formation de l'ecriture chinoise.") Suprematism.
8
Martin Hernandez, 21-year-old Mexican-Indian peasant, native of Apam, the principal
character in the second story of "Que Viva Mexico!", episode entitled "Maguey."
Photo >>v Jimenez. Courtesy S.M. Eisenstein Collective Productions.
Mexican women mourning over the coffin of the dead boy. From th" "Maguey" episode.
II. It may be "anectdotal." The secret of the Hence we have only to make a step from visual
marvelous mobility of the figures of Daumier and Lau- vibrations to acoustic and we stand in the field of
trec resides in the fact that the various anatomical parts Music.
of the body are represented in spacial circumstances From the domain of the spacial-visual.
(positions) temporally various. To the domain of the temporal-visual.
(see, e. g., Lautrec's "Miss Cecy Loftus.") Here the same law obtains. For counterpoint is,
Logically developing the position A of the in Music, not only the composition-form, but para-
foot, one builds a body position A correspond- moundy the factor basic for every possibility of tone
ing to it. But the body is represented from perception and differentiation.
knee up already in position A -)- a. A cine- It may almost be said that here, in every case we
matic effect is here already provided for the have cited, we have seen in force the same Principle
motionless picture. From hips to shoulders of Comparison, making possible for us, always and in
is already A -f- a +
a. The figure seems alive
every field, definition and perception.
and kicking.)
In the fluid image (the Film) we have, so to
III. Between I and II lies primitive Italian Futur- speak, the synthesis of these two counterpoints. From
ism. the image the spacial and from music the temporal.
"The Man with Six Legs in 6 Positions." (Be- In the Film, and characterising it, occurs what we may
tween I and II. For II obtains its effects with describe as:
retention of natural unity and anatomical inte- VISUAL COUNTERPOINT
grity. I, on the other hand, with pure elementary
The application of this expression to the film
elements, but III, although repudiating natural-
opens up several straight lines to the problem, indica-
ism, has not yet pressed forward to the abstract.)
tive of a sort of Film-Grammar.
IV. It may also be of ideographic kind. Thus In fact, a syntax of Film externals, in w4iich the
the pregnant characterisation of a Sharaku (Japan visual counterpoint conditions a whole new system of
1 8th Century). The secret of his utmostly raf- external forms. And for all this:
fine' strength of expression lies in the anatomical As Basic Preliminaries:
and spacial disproportion of the parts. (II might The Shot is not an Element of Montage. ..
be termed temporal disproportion). This is dis-
The Shot is a Montage Cell (or Molecule)
cussed by Julius Kurth ("Sharaku"). He de- In this sentence is the leap of the dualistic division in
scribes the portrait of an actor, comparing it with analysis:
a mask: From: Tide and Shot
" While the mask has been constructed And: Shot and Montage.
according to fairly accurate anatomical pro- Instead of this they should be considered dialect-
portions, the proportions of the portrait are ically as three various form phases of one single ex-
simply impossible. The space between the pressive tas\.
eyes comprises a width that makes mock of With single characteristics, conditioning the sin-
all good sense. The nose is almost twice the gleness of their construction laws.
as long, in relation to the eyes, as any normal Interdependence of the three:
nose would dare to be, the chin stands in no A conflict within a thesis (abstract idea)
mouth
sort of relation to the
1. formulates itself in the dialectics of the
"The same observation may be made in all
Tide.
the large heads of Sharaku. That the master 2. projects itself spacially in the interior con-
was unaware that all these proportions are
flict of the Shot.
false is, of course, out of the question. He has
3. explodes with increasing intensity in the
repudiated normality with full awareness,
inter-shot Conflict-Montage.
and, while the drawing of the separate parts
In full analogy, once more, to human-psychological
depends on severely concentrated naturalism,
expression.
their proportions have been subordinated to
considerations purely ideal." (Pp. 80, 81.)
This is Conflict of Motive. Comprehensible equally
in three phases:
The spacial extension of the relative size of one de- 1. Pure verbal utterance. Without intonation.
tail correspondence with another, and the conse-
in
Speech expression.
quent collision between the proportions designed by
the artist for that purpose result in the characterisa-
2. Gesticulatory (mimic-intonational) expres-
11
Herein lies the basis for an entirely new comprehen- 8. Conflict between a Material and its Spac-
sion of the problem. ial Nature (attained by optical distortion
Film-form. As example of Conflicts one may instance: through the lens).
i. Graphic Conflict 9. Conflict between a Process and its Tem-
12
MORRIS HELPRIN
"QUE VIVA MEXICO!
Eisenstein in Mexico
"Que Viva Mexico!" the glass covering, lay on purple silk in the open
It is the first film made in the Western hemisphere courtyard, while the populace of Los Remedios gather-
to assume the mantle of maturity. The furthest step
ed in appropriate awe awe and reverence in spite of
yet from the idiocies of corn-fed Hollywood. It turns the boy who ordinarily pulled the bell ropes in the
its tail up at the banal; thumbs its nose at the benign. steeple, but who now insisted on passing wind against
It is pictorial rhetoric of such vital force that it thun- a nearby tombstone and who mingled his derisive
ders and roars. Yet it contains every aspect of the laughter with the reverberations of his gaseous intes-
popular cinema. tine.
"QUE VIVA MEXICO!" And the padre, inducing a member of his flock to
That day at Los Remedios, when we walked over shed a pearly tear on the statue as the camera ground
the hills in search of a suitable location, served as an on. And the two litde girls who sold votive candles
indication of Eisenstein's preciseness, his exciting de- who were recruited for the scene but who fled at the
mands that his subject be even in quality. All Mexico last minute, showing up later on the roof, beshawled
around us was "beautiful enough to swoon in." Here and still timid before this Frankenstein monster.
was no prettiness of the postcardy cinema, none of "Perhaps," says the padre, "we could have some
your oak-panelled pictures that need but sprinklings enlarged pictures of this for the members of my par-
them into revolting chro-
of chemical brilliants to turn ish?"
mos. The top of a mountain and an ancient aqueduct And Eisenstein assenting a too-ready "yes."
jutting at a seven-thousand foot height into a stilled No food for us during the day's work except a bot-
canopy of swan-white clouds. You could set your tle of warm beer that was as quickly spat out at the
camera down at almost any spot and grind. And have flies.
a beautiful scenic. No rest while Eisenstein sees light in the skies. After
But the Russian, followed hastily by Tisse, his elevenmonths of it he is as active in his picture-
cameraman; Aragon, a young Mexican intellectual making as during the first days. What significance
who serves as a guide, interpreter and go-between, a fatigue, when this will be the first film made on the
camera boy and myself, trailed by five peons who American Continent worth preserving for its sociolo-
were the day's actors at a peso each, led a frantic gical import? What are the dangers of jungle, moun-
chase to find THE spot. Following which were at tain, or sea, when you coincidentally explore human
least a dozen of THE spots. nature?
Eisenstein Mexico by his Mexi-
was introduced to How can men like Carleton Chase
Beales, Stuart
can friend, the film-student, Agustin Aragon Leiva, and the like, live and months,
travel in a country for
whose forebears took root 400 years ago and whose love years, without sensing what the Russian grasped in
for his country is as intense as Eisenstein's love for the so short a while? How can writers who have lived
cinema. Through this young Mexican and other friends decades in Mexico publish learned and boring works
of the Russian, Mexico was thrown practically into on the country without so much as nodding in the
Eisenstein's lap. There is hardly anything in the coun- direction of certain Mexican fundamentals? Chase re-
try not at his disposal. gurgitates a literary catalogue that tells about an iso-
Toiling in the sun from early in the morning, through lated community, hardly representative of Mexico,
the noon that is characteristically Mexican with its which, because its bandstand is like a bandstand of
burning heat, until the landscape began to cool, we another township, is labelled the "Middletown" of
dragged Christ from the church to lie, pathetically Mexico. He wonders naively about silk stockings,
unaware of Eisenstein, staring at the blue bowl that radios and autos. Beales' connection with Mexican
is Heaven, while a machine recorded its image on officialdom would never permit an undistorted view
revolving celluloid. Poor Father who art not in Eisen- of conditions as they exist.
stein's heaven, hallowed be thy name now, for who Yet Eisenstein walks in and senses the basic force
knows how you will be used eventually in this record that motivatesMexican life and that will eventually
of living Mexico! be the prompting means of securing freedom. He has
A fine Christ the largest statue was. Brought from recognized the part that woman plays in the social
Spain with blood painted beautifully down his sides and economic life of the country and around this has
and a slot, like openings into which one inserts nickels, constructed his film.
carefully chiselled in the thinnish chest. And the beard, As an admirer of the work of Rivera, the Diego
Grecian combing with
fine pictorially, stylized into a Rivera who is now accepting fabulous sums for paint-
decorative loops. The whole, sprinkled with the dusts ing frescoes in America, his cinematic work was first
of decades that have filtered beneath the crevices of influenced by that painter's representations. The fiesta,
13
J
I
the flowers, the color and the action were of prime curs on a farm which in virility of landscape is in
importance in the early stages of filmization, but one complete contrast with that of the preceding chapter.
wonders, after hearing of the change, whether or not Here a phallic symbolism is engaged to emphasize
Eisenstein's film will not more closely resemble the the complete masculinity of the terrain. He accents
lower-keyed work of Orozco whose sympathies are the stem of the maguey, the upright stripes of the
more clearly defined, less prettified with paint, and peon's zarape (the shawl-overcoat-blankct of the na-
hardly sentimental journeys in line. tive), the unmistakable masculine strength of the land
is fighting, bringing up the rear with consolation and is a sort of liqueur. You take it or leave it. You can
In Tehuantepec the woman is absolute, not only as to permit any form of life and existence and, taking
ruling, but doing the heavy work as well, while the full advantage, the Russian runs the gamut. Mexico
husband dozes at home, happy for the first time to be harbors romance and glamor, and cruelty and priva-
unleashed from the fetters of responsibility. tion. There are tropics, mountains, deserts, jungles,
With importance in mind and the
the female's The director has traversed it from one section to an-
physical beauty of the country to consider on the other. All this is in the picture, pieced together, as
other hand, a beauty bewildering in its variety, rang- only Eisenstein can do it.
ing from tropical to frigid country, Eisenstein had to This with two others, one of whom grinds a
man
combine the elements into a whole that would appeal simple camera, has completely thrown off the fetters
in subject matter as well as pictorial beauty. Eisen- of the Hollywood system of picture-making, and has
stein's secret is his universality his appeal to the man exploited Mexico thoroughly in a manner never done
in the street as well as the man of letters. before, having been aided on all sides because this
time the exploitation is all to Mexico's advantage.
He therefore divided his picture into five irregular
parts. The fifth and last episode will also serve as an Comparative working costs are interesting to note.
epilogue. There is a prologue as well. All this will be The day's work at Los Remedios cost but very few
included in a single film of 9 or 10 reels. dollars. His equipment consisted of a 400-foot load
ant fields, and easy living, that woman is absolute. She rent rate). Transportation cost a few more pesos. Add
tills the fields, barters in the market place and rules to this the incidental developing, printing and negative
the home. Her husband is a procreative force and no costs together with the cutting and final duplication,
together with her beauty of form, due to the heavy for scenes and the costs soar accordingly, but for the
objects she has carried on her head for generations, most part the expenses are negligible.
is a pictorial poem in itself. A supple body with strong In Hollywood the same business would have en-
conical breasts and a straightness of limb ascribed only tailed transportation for the stars and directors; two
to the ancients. Such characters pervade the reels. or three cameras, artificial illumination if necessary,
The
second episode is "Maguey." In it Eisenstein has overhead at the studio that covers a multitude of such
stressedman's supremacy, but indicated his reliance sins as publicity, props, advertising, costumes, etc., etc.
upon his female counterpart. The entire sequence oc- Somebody's system is basically at fault.
14
5. M. Eisenstein and G. V. Alexandrov on the
ruins of Chichenita, in Yucatan, Mexico. (1931)
at dawn.
Eisenstein says that the cinema is the representative high, broad forehead sees beyond its technical limita-
art of today as painting was of yesterday. He has al- tions into a meaning that may exploit or advance life,
ready buried painting. He explains the growth in at- the living, the helpless. Directing a scene, turning a
tendance at art exhibits as a result of publicity and crank, cutting a film, he considers but the cog in a
additional newspapers devoting more space to them, huge wheel that is beginning to turn with tremendous
and not as a manifestation of a naturally stimulated speed.
life. He says he knows how to do nothing but work Eisenstein may return to the Soviet Union next
at motion pictures. month (March) with his comrades, Alexandrov and
But he forgets for the moment the monastic seclu- Tisse, to film a document in celebration of the fifteenth
sion into which he retires on occasion to work on his Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
volume of esthetics which will devote a sufficient Que Viva Mexico! may or may not stir an eddy
amount of space to the heretofore sorrowfully neglect- of interest. Because of the flooded book marts that
ed cinema. sag with volumes on tourist Mexico, there is a tre-
He mathematics (that day
also forgets his interest in mendous curiosity about the country. Even now every-
as Los Remedios when he had minutes for
to wait ten one there is planning for the influx of Americans tired
something, he drew out of his pocket a paper-backed of the transatlantic crossing. Because of a universal un-
Russian volume on higher mathematics and in a mo- dercurrent of unrest, the message of the film may stir a
ment was lost in its intricacies, while perched in the reaction. Because of its pictorial beauty it will be some-
cabin of a truck). He forgets the papers he writes thing to look at. Because of its mature outlook it will
tirelessly for every advanced journal on the cinema, merit serious consideration. Who knows what it may do
mostly free. The cinema may be his profession, but his for Mexico?
BELA BELAZS
Translated for "Experimental Cinema" from the
Soviet Newspaper/ Kino",by Alexander Brailovsky
LET'S ORGANIZE AN
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIO FOR SOUND FILMS!
To produce a sound film it is necessary to study in tion a suddenly interrupted sound in connection with
a systematic manner all the new forms and possibili- the increased action on the screen.
ties of the dynamic
effect of the sound film on the
3. Parallel or syncopated movement in the rhythm
audience, and to put to practical use all such possibili- of the picture and the rhythm of the sound. The mus-
ties as basic material for the production of a concrete ical rhythm as a preliminary allusion to the incipient
dramatic picture. intrinsic movement. The dramatic accent of a rest
Every experimental film of this kind (100-150 meters) (pause) and silence.
should have for its purpose to employ fully all varia- 4. Correlation between the character of an image
tions and possibilities of a given effect and to apply
and the tonality Is it possible to perceive the subject
all laws of correlation between the sound and the image of a picture by its musical accompaniment? The em-
in connection with the story written specifically with ploying, as the picture goes on, of all possible sound
this purpose in view. variations.
"What do you hear now?" (The identifi-
Such a short-reel film should bear "play-film" tide, cation of the sound with its source). (The world of
and only in a sub-title should its technical purpose be near-sighted and blind people.)
indicated (e.g., the testing of some definite sound 5. The unity of a sound picture. Association of def-
9. Sound synchronization
as musical shaping of noises.
of silent pictures.
* Translator's note:By "play-film," in contradistinction to 10. Thesimultaneous perception by the audience
"documentary film," in Soviet Cinematography, is under- of the image on the screen and of sounds and the text,
stood a film made from an especially prepared scenario, ac-
as though it is spoken from behind the stage.
cording to the story written for it, and played by actors,
instead of being shot from real life-events (as Vertov's
11. Fantastic and grotesque sound. The distortion
group is doing). of real sound in memory and in imagination.
17
J. M.VALDES-RODRIGUEZ
"We have given Cuba industry, but are the Cubans tradiction." (Hegel, Science of Logic). So, the Cuban
free?" Leland H. fen\s, bourgeoisie failed to realize its historical role.
OUR CUBAN COLONY However, rebel "colonos" that were not entirely
defeated, managed to get from Spain, in the famous
"In Monroe's time the only way to take a part of South
known
pact as the "Zanjon Pact," the promise of put-
America was to take the land. Now finance has new
ting into effect some reforms and concessions.
ways of its own." Walter Hinez Page
Then began a long period of intermittent "pour-
Of those "new ways" which American finance capi- parlers" between Spain and the U. S. A. One day the
tal has now, Hollywood and its pictures are of great U. S. A. wanted buy the island, and the next day
to
help by their power to form in the American people they did not. One President seemed to be a good
a wrong idea of the countries down by the Rio Grande friend of Cuba, the next one raised a high tariff against
as well as a perfect misconception of life among the Cuban products, most of which go to that nautral
peoples of Hispano-America. market. So the U. S. A. made the Cuban bourgeoisie
exponent of those "new ways" and the people of Cuba understand that their lives
The best is the
so-called Republic of Cuba and I think that a brief
were in the hands of the U. S. A.
historical digression, an exposition of the factors, the
They realized this at last, but in the wrong way.
They thought that once they were free and not a
components of the Cuban social aggregate, politico-
economic source, is necessary to clarify the present colony of Spain, the North American Republic would
change its policies. So they started a new war against
state of things and to emphasize the supremacy of Hol-
Spain in 1895. In 1898 the Maine was blown up in
lywood's pernicious influence on the social develop
ment of Cuba with particular reference to the peasants "la Bahia de la Habana." The Americans, and when
I say "the Americans" I mean the political and finan-
and proletarians.
In accordance with John Quincy Adams, the Amer-
cial captains,
found their chance! The American
Congress passed a joint resolution claiming that "the
ican statesmen have believed that Cuba "gravitates to
people of Cuba are and of right ought to be independ-
the United States as an apple severed by the tempest
ent" and that "the United States disclaims any dis-
gravitates to the ground." So, for 75 years they have
position or intention to exercise sovereignity, jurisdic-
looked for the chance of acquiring the island in one ."
tion or control over said Island of Cuba . .
way or another.
This time the Cuban bourgeoisie completely failed
The Cubans fought their way to liberty from 1850 to accomplish its nationalistic role, in accordance with
to 1898. The first serious attempt was made from 1868 the laws of historical determinism.
to 1878 in the Ten Years' War (Guerra de los Diez Thus, the United States entered into its second im-
Anos). A strong class (Cuban bourgeoisie) formed by perialistic war, disguised
as in 1916 and 1918 under
rural and sugar-mill owners (haciendados), rich law- the famous words: "justice," "humanity," "the right
yers, tobacco planters, farmers, realized at that time of the little countries," etc.
the
middle of the Nineteenth century the necessity of Three months later Spain was defeated and Amer-
setting free the productive forces developed in the ica acquired new territories. Porto Rico, the Philip-
womb of the colonial-political structure by breaking pine Islands and Cuba. In 1902, after three years
. . .
through this structure. In the dialectic process that of intervention, they obliged the Cubans to sign the
class was the negation struggling against the positive, Piatt Amendment and a commercial treaty adjunct to
the affirmative, impersonated in the colony taxes, laws, it and placed the government of the Island in the
slavery, preponderance of the Church, etc., etc. hands of the first president of the Republic of Cuba.
Owing to various factors, the attempt failed, thus What a marvelous scheme! The finest, the wittiest
according with Hegel's postulate: "When the power ever imagined by an imperialistic government! A
to develop the contradiction and bring it to a head is colony disguised as a Republic! Instead of Spain, it
lacking, the thing or the being is shattered in the con- was now the United States who ruled. During the
18
past 30 years, American Capital, safeguarded by the Such pictures are vulgar and grotesque, dull but
Piatt Amendment and under the privileges of the full of the so-called "color" which so greatly pleases
Commercial Treaty, has acquired. the Great War and the "100 percent American,"
what a stupid, untrue
the 1920 crash accelerated the process, the railroads, designation, this expression, 100 percent American!
all public utilities, the banking and financial institu- For that type of man (hundred-percenter), all Spanish-
tions, big mining enterprises, 80 percent of the sugar
American countries, as well as Spain, I think, are
crop, 75 percent of the fertile soil, and very important full of venal, lazy men and women of low mentality.
So we have become an economic-political dependent tion and Other Stories. It is entitled Mac-American."
of the United States, but we have a President of the Hollywood, a docile and well-learned "servidor" of
Republic, a Senate, a House of Representatives which the American imperialists, reinforces those ideas by
has diplomatic and consular representation all over means of which the marines and soldiers will fight
the world and a beautiful banner, a big red, white
. . .
blindly against men they have never seen before and
and blue triangle with a great white star in it, waving against whom they do not have any hatred, just as
in the ocean breeze, shining in the sun, under a high they had none in the Great War.
tropical sky These are the phrases which both the
. . .
The moving picture business could not be an excep- already been translated, should be immediately, in
it
tion in Cuba's economy, as it is in the hands of Holly- if it has not already been translated, it should be trans-
wood producing companies who have representatives lated immediately in order to make the American peo-
here. Some of them have their own theatres for the ple understand for what purpose and in what manner
projection of their films. It can be said that a moving the Nicaraguans really died at the bottom of the deep,
picture trust has beenformed in Cuba by the Ameri- green, beautiful valleys and on the craggy rocks of
can picture companies, which fixes the prices of the "la sierra."
tickets, the size of advertisements in the newspapers, The Cuban social aggregate cannot be considered
and which, in one way or another, boycotts the Euro- as other than that of a colony. There is the proletariat
pean and Soviet films. class, which is not great, notwithstanding the intense
rationalization of the sugar industry, mining and
So Cuba's population cannot see pictures other than
tobacco manufacture. This proletariat is far from hav-
the American and is therefore under the exclusive in-
ing reached maturity and, with the exception of the
fluence of Hollywood. Hollywood plays a great and
few members of the clandestine Communist Party, the
two-edged part in the imperialistic scheme. By means
class-consciousness of the workers is weak, most of
of its pictures, Hollywood infects all other countries
them ignoring the very reason, the material source,
with the philistine, hypocritical, rotten American life-
of their misery and terrible exploitation. As a conse-
conception. At the same time, to the American masses,
quence of this weakness on the part of the proletariat
Hollywood presents the Latin American people as the
and because of the intensive white terror, the class-
lowest, most repulsive scoundrels on earth. A Latin,
struggle is obscurely defined.
or Latin American, is always a traitor, a villain. Years
ago, there was not a picture that was without a Spanish Two transition (or intermediary) classes, the guaji-
or Spanish-American villain. In Strangers May Kiss, ros (peasants) and the
form the very nerve of
artisans
they present a little Mexican town: the owner of the the Cuban population. The former
are very numerous,
old "posada" (inn) is a drunkard and the "mozo" working mostly in the American latifundio, planting,
(servant, waiter) is a similar character; the streets with cultivating, cutting and hauling the sugar, in the to-
three feet of mud; countless beggars; licentious girls. bacco factories and in the cultivation of the minor
fruits. Few of these peasants are what we call "colo-
remember, Under the Texas Moon,
I too, the picture,
openly offensive to Mexican women, the projection of
nos," a kind of independent planter, but, in any
case, they are the slaves of the foreign entrepreneurs,
which in a movie-house in the Latin section of New
working themselves to death, their families steeped in
York City provoked a terrible tumult. The tumult was
misery and poverty, for the benefit of the shareholders
caused by the enraged protest of a few Mexican and
and boards of directors in New York and London.
Cuban students, in which one of the former by the
name of Gonzales was killed, and the Cubans, Gabriel The degree of illiteracy in those two classes as well
Barcelo and Carlos Martinez, were sent to the Tombs. as in the proletariat is very high. In that class and in
the two sub-classes are great numbers of Negroes, to
In many cases these depictions are due to the ency-
whom I shall make special reference later.
clopedic ignorance of most of the film-directors of Hol-
lywood. Such is the case with The Cuban Love Song, Numerous, too, is the middle class or petit-bour-
a stupid and absurd picture that will soon be finished geoisie,
bank clerks, sugar, mining, tobacco, public
in Hollywood, according to what Mr. Ernesto Lecu- utilities, real estate, railroad employees, as well as the
ona has told a friend of mine. (Mr. Lecuona is a famous State, the provincial government and the municipality
Cuban musician who went to Hollywood under con- officers. At the top isan ambitious bourgeoisie, now
tract to M-G-M to play in that picture.) ruined as a result of the drop in the price of sugar, but
19
in very friendly disposition toward and in close rela- men," the men who have always accomplished great
tionship with the American entrepreneurs, from whom success by themselves, as if in society (especially in a
they expect to receive high emoluments, advantages, society so highly interrelated as modern capitalist so-
privileges and business participations. To them, Amer- ciety) things were like that. .
new art movement all over the world. Romantic in In this connection, I refer the reader to Waldo Frank's
their sentiments, they are likewise romantic in their book The Re-Discovery of America, Chap XI, pp. 138
artistic concepts and, as a consequence, they are highly and 139. For different reasons, without question,
conservative, suspecting in every artistic innovation a both Charles Chaplin and the average American di-
masked attack against the status quo in which, as ex- rector do the same thing: evade the social problem.
ploiters, they are so comfortably entrenched.
What does Hollywood show to Cuban peasants and
To the girls and boys of the Cuban bourgeoisie,
proletarians ?
there is nothing so worthy of imitation as the boys and
In the American film there is always a perfect
girls they see in the American films, and they want to
understanding between Capital and Labor, between
shape their lives in conformity to the lives of motion
patron and worker, between master and wage-slave,
picture heroes and heroines. From all this there arises
the former (Capital) as well as the State (ema-
the contradiction between a society that was almost
nated from God) being like a tender, comprehending
patriarchal sixteen years ago and the new customs
father. No mistake in this: if you are obedient and
which the younger set, and even the adults, are trying
laborious, they (the bosses) will recognize it some day
to impose in matters of love, family relationships, etc.
Then follow wild parties, "necking" orgies, licentious-
and "raise" you with a gracious gesture. If there is
ness, miscomprehension of what "free love" really some cruelty or injustice in this "best of all possible
It is the beginning of that disintegrating process conditions, with a low salary and high living costs,
passing in its final stages as a perishing class. convictions, let alone the natural human right to exist,
poisoned with the slogans and lies of the American
An what the dominant class wants it to be,
art is
films, just as his brothers in the past were degraded
because an art involves "men." An art consists of the
artists by whom it is accomplished or performed, and
by the Roman conformity and humility dogma, is sup-
posed to hope that some day his country, under the
artists are what the productive relations make them
capitalistic system, will be as "civilized" as the great
under the pressure of those who possess the money
North American Republic. And even more: the Cuban
and the power.
worker is supposed to feel gratitude to that Anglo-
So, cinema art, like every other art in society,
Saxon race, so "pure," "strong" and "clean," helping
is a class matter based on the class struggle. The film
this ill-disciplined and sometimes revolutionary little
is, therefore, a weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie
nation to acquire honest political institutions, good
in its struggle against the proletariat for the conserva-
.{Tell it to the Nicaraguans, to the
finances, etc., etc. .
20
M. KAUFMAN
Translated by Alexander Brailovsky from the
Russian Original in "Proletarskoya Kino"
CINE-ANALYSIS
As a basis formy work on a "cine-piece," I apply the The last condition neutralizes the impossibility to
analytical method which, as a result of the analysis pre-estimate the concrete material and to provide one-
of my experience, has gradually crystallized into an ever self with it in a definite way. The obtaining of mater-
clearer and more distinctly outlined method of film- ialout of which a cine-piece will be constructed, and
treatment.
the very work of construction this, I consider as
The orientation towards the "cine-language," as the primary analysis, secondary analysis, plus synthesis.
richest, the most rational and the most comprehensible In other words, I consider the analytical investiga-
means of expression is unconditionally correct. My tion as the fundamental, basic work.
conviction in this has been strengthened and confirmed I use my own eyes for preliminary orientation ("pre-
by my latest work on the film, Spring. shooting"); then I introduce a camera, as an appara-
This film, expressed entirely in the pure cine-idiom, tus of more perfect vision, possessing the faculty of
without resorting to the aid of literary explanations fixation.
(tides)
proved to be one easily understood by the Thesecond stage of the primary analysis is "the
masses. shooting," i.e., the attack with the camera upon the
What does "cine-language" mean? settings, selected by "pre-shooting," for the purpose
What does "cine-A B. C" mean? of their further analysis and fixation. Thus, the pre-
Leaving aside the existing literary alphabet, what liminary analysis has two stages of work; pre-shooting
must be considered as a single "cine-letter," "cine- and shooting.
word," "cine-sentence," "cine-piece"?
Pre-shooting serves first, for the selection from the en-
To answer this it is necessary first of all to investi- tire sum of phenomena of those necessary for the given
gate whether it is possible to draw a parallel between case; secondly, for the decomposition of phenomena
the language of literature and the language of the into basic ones, derivative ones, etc.
cinema.
Phenomena, analyzed in such a way, provide al-
A letter, a word, a sentence, as the elements of liter-
ready the material for the last stage of the work of
ary expression, are conventionally accepted conceptions
and, therefore, they are comprehensible to a literate
shooting, the fixation. The path of fixation is deter-
mined firstly, by the purpose for which the analysis
person only, while every frame of a film speaks in
the most concrete way, giving the reproduction of the
has been made and the results of the analysis the
characteristics of the phenomena subject to fixation,
life-phenomena among which an individual is being
the milieu, in which they take their place and their
brought up. Thus the elements of cine-expression are
individual features.
understood even by an illiterate.
A cine-clement gives at once both the definition By "milieu"mean: conditions of illumination,
I
and the object; it speaks at one and the same time the general background, the separate
phenomena which
about the form, the quality, the dynamic and the form the background, the influence and the action of
whole series of other categories, which in literature the surrounding phenomena upon the phenomenon-
would require an extensive narrative. subject to be fixed.
It is possible to draw partially a parallel between The individual qualities of the phenomena are: the
"cine-language" and the "language of music (provided structure, color, character of surface, size, the "usual-
it is possible to speak at all of the 'language" of music) ness" or "rareness" of phenomena, if its nature is ani-
as far as, for instance, rhythm and tempo are concerned. mate or inanimate, dynamic or static, its adaptability
The closest analogy to the work on the creation of or unadaptability to the action of the camera. The first
a "cine-piece" is afforded by the work of an engineer stage of primary analysis, the "pre-shooting," deter-
or a chemist. mines the group to which the phenomenon belongs.
The only difference is that an engineer or a chemist The moment one introduces the camera into a definite
knows beforehand the material which he will use in
milieu one has to be fully prepared in order to fix the
his constructions. An
engineer can estimate exactly maximum quantity of moments necessary for the snap-
the necessary building material and can forsee its
ping of the given subject, even those moments which
qualities and functions. A chemist can in advance take have been somehow overlooked in the pre-shooting.
into account the elements necessary for the composi- By shooting we carry the dissection of the pheno-
tion of this or that body. mena further into its composite elements and we fix
But in obtaining the material for a "cine-piece,"
them in one way or another, according to the them-
the elements which will be used as its building mater- atic orientation or the organization of material decided
ial can be pre-estimated only in a very limited way. upon previously.
In other words, the presence of concrete elements can In order to show in a clearer manner how theoretical
not be guaranteed. Instead, there is a very extensive principles are applied in practice, I am going to give
choice of elements of cine-expressions, which can be a few instances from my film, Spring.
used functionally for a single given case. Commemoration for the dead at the cemetery.
21
(Ceremonial dinner traditionally given in old Russia phenomenon by means of mechanically assisted vision,
by the relatives of the dead right after the funeral. as a microscope discloses to us phenomena unseen by
Trans. Note.) the unaided eye.
The pre-shooting gives: In this synoptical exposidon I have pointed out only
i. The priests prowling about the cemetery. the most outstanding methods, which give an idea
of
2. One of them is hired for the funeral services. the analytical approach to the use of camera-possibili-
The funeral service. ties: rapid shooting, assisting our eye for the analysis
3.
Paying the priest. of fast-moving phenomena; shooting from points in-
4.
5. Passing the botde (booze). accessible or accessiblewith difficulty to the unaided
5. Having a bite to eat after. eye; the dissection of the general appearance of the
1. The shooting is necessarily done from a position As a result, we have on our montage shelves the
of hiding as the phenomenon is suitable for camera material for the future film, still not entirely dis-
treatment. sected into its elements, still with predomination of
the complexed phenomena, subject to further analysis.
2. The "prowling priest" must be perceived by the
audience as a fast-moving, dynamic phenomenon. One should not forget that "an element" is not a
construcdve quantity or conception.
3. The taking should be done against the most
striking background, or against the background which Our estimation of a given portion of the material,
would aid most in the "theme-feeling." as an element of a film, depends upon our thematic
The first problem is solved by the long shot purpose and the form of cine-expression which we
from the hiding-place. The second by the pan-shot pre-establish.
with the fixation of the passing-by priest always at Thus, we come to the secondary analysis, i.e., the
the center of the frame. analysis of the material obtained. Properly speaking,
This way of using the long-focussed optic gives the the process of analysis goeson uninterruptedly. I make
best illusion of the shooting of the movement, i.e.,
a distinction between the primary and the secondary
phenomenon analysis only, according to the character of working
gives the best angle of observation of the
processes. It would, therefore, be erroneous to think
in motion. The same method solves in this particular
case the third problem to outline sharply the observ- that the work of discovery of cine-language
by the primary analysis only.
is limited
ed phenomenon upon the ever narrowing background,
and it even creates the stereoscopic illusion. In fact, by the primary analysis we obtained only
"The funeral service." raw material
half-manufactured stuff, but there is
A considerably extensive observation of the pheno- contained in this raw material the maximum of ele-
menon has led me to the conclusion that it has a finish- ments needed by us.
ed scheme from the beginning to the end. Now, what does the element of the secondary ana-
This scheme is not perceived by us because its sep-
lysis mean?
arate moments are scattered in time farther from each What was considered an element in the primary
other than could be grasped by our visual memory. analysis only raw material in the secondary one.
is
For the very same reason we do not see the move- Thus the study of life-phenomena becomes a planned,
ment of the hand of the clock on the dial, nor the slow ever-deepening research. Now, what is the depth, what
processes of destruction, e.g., the gradual disruption are the limits of the secondary analysis?
of rocks by the action of the winds, landslides, etc. Everything is clear and comprehensible in the pri-
The slowed-down shooting reduces distance between mary analysis, both in pre-shooting and in the shoot-
separate moments of the slow-moving process and thus ing: out of the total sum of phenomena we select
discloses its dynamic scheme and even deciphers its those which are thematically necessary; we study their
laws. details; we dissect them into the elements they are
In modern city andlaws
street-planning, the made of, as far as possibilities of tele-, macro-, and
governing the movement of liquids are being taken micro-shooting permit.
into account. In narrow passages, at the maximum What further analysis could be possible, then?
aggregation of pedestrians and vehicles current de- seems as though it is possible to speak only of the
creases; at the outlets
the current increases.
It
In this case the camera helped to investigate a life- analysis in this case has fixed a dynamic phenomenon
22
,
and the very dissimilarity of the separate frames deter- One of the elements obtained by the primary ana-
mines the cinematic nature of Section B. lysis:
in the primary analysis, gives a series of new elements shooting, rapid shooting, macro- and micro-shooting.
in the secondary analysis. I have applied this method for the first time in the
We do similar work on a piece of group 2. We ob- film, Moscow, to the theme: Moscow taking a rest."
tain: At the climax of merrymaking I use the culmination-
A man runs toward the ball frame as an element; by the multiplication of a single
Strikes the ball frame as an element; by the multiplication of a single
The inertia of the player point.
Let us suppose that for our purpose, a study of foot- The film, Spring, contains many moments built
ball needs no further analysis of these two groups. upon such a multiplication of a frame. At the end
Now we take up group 3 the men's faces reacting of part 5, I give the extract of laughter, through cul-
to the game. mination-frames I obtain the montage of a cine-laugh,
In every piece of this group we find a series of ele- "cine-guffaw."
ments which are functionally different. Some of them One would think that having come to a single
correspond to the reaction to the hitting of the goal frame, we have reached the most simple element of
by the ball, some react to the foul hit, some express cine-language. But analyzing the frame itself, study-
anxiety, some tensity of waiting, etc. ing its constituent elements, we often find elements
When we consider the elements obtained, we shall necessary for the building of a given cine-sentence.
have still shorter slices, i.e., pieces consisting of a very How are such elements obtained? Mostly by the exten-
small number of frames, but, in recompense, more sive use in photography of the enlarging from the nega-
saturated. tive of part of a shot.
In the montage of the film, Spring, I carried the By the same means, in the secondary analysis we
still further, and obtained a cul-
analysis of these slices can decompose a single frame into constituent ele-
mination point a frame yielding the maximum the for ments.
characterization of a given reaction. By multiplication
Thus after having investigated the material by the
of the frame, I obtain in maximum of dyna-
statics a primary analysis, after having decomposed it into ele-
mics. ments by the secondary analysis, we can take up the
In the other part of the same film I show the Easter synthesis:
holidays as a feast of gluttony and boozing. the construction of a cine-piece.
//
THE NEW REPUBLIC" ON "THE ROAD TO LIFE //
and half a dozen others, I would rather see
"... in spite of these faults,
this picture than the slickest society drama that ever came out of Holly-
wood. The Russian films take you somewhere; they rouse your anger or
enthusiasm ; they get something done."
Malcolm Cowley in The New Republic
of February 10, 1932.
23
ALEXANDER BRAILOVSKY
A FEW REMARKS ON
THE ELEMENTS OF CINE-LANGUAGE
Experimental Cinema has asked me to clarify certain ideas
and terminology propounded in M. Kaufman's article. While
images let us call them"Taking up
a cine-sentence.
agreeing
the foregoing example: To
word a single literary
to do this, I wish to emphasize that I take full respon-
sibility for the interpretation of M. Kaufman's ideas and if my
"War" on the screen would correspond to a whole
interpretation is wrong the fault is entirely mine. A. B. "cine-sentence."
"words, words, words" .), their disposition in a sen-
. .
tence
they rhythmical flow
their recurrence or vice-
eral symbol. It is left to your imagination to decide what we call a literary manner, or style, (chool, etc.).
upon a whole series of qualifications of a "horse." It The analogical choice, disposition, rhythmical outline,
might be a big horse, small, harness, race, young, old, manipulation of elementary single visual images, "cine-
with a fluffy tail, or tail-less, Arab stallion or French words" (or mechanically speaking, certain sets of
percheron, or a Russian, half-starved peasant "seevka." frames or, as Kaufman suggests, even parts of a frame)
Now, when you see the horse on the screen, all these is the montage, (or mechanically speaking, "cut-
gests to us the idea of a "war." problem passionately discussed in present Soviet film-
literature. In the Soviet Union it is not a problem of pure
So "cine-language" has its own nature, different
from literary language. Now to continue. theory. The Soviet cinematographers are trying to dis-
cover the constituent elements of a proletarian style in
2. the art of the film. The treatment of the problem in this
sense is outside the purely technical article of Kaufman.
What is a single "cine-letter"? Again we resort to
the analogy with the written letter. I write a single Kaufman's article discusses only visual "silent"
letter "m." It hardly has any meaning by itself. Taken films. The advent of sound, or spoken word, brings,
of course, additional elements to the problem.
by only a mere phonetic symbol. It acquires
itself, it is
childhood
cally the following literary sentence: "Ivan's an immensely enrichening reinforcement of our visual
passed in a family of a poor shoemaker, with a drunk- imagery. They open a new world of "cine-letters" and
ard father, while his mother was a timid, God-fearing "cine-words." They enable us to "shoot" what is go-
woman." The series of correspondent concrete visual ing on on the summit of a mountain, to "shoot" from
84
In the country of the magueys
of Tehuantepec
m^m
Two production-stills showing Eisenstein, Alex-
andvov and Tisse at woi\ on "Qle Viva Mexico!"
The upper still shows Eisenstein looking into the
finder to gauge an angle close-up of a Mexican
woman. The lower still shows the S. M. Eisen-
stein Collective Production company at woi\.
Eisenstein, in the mackjnaw jacket, is directing.
Next to him, with hand upraised, is Agustin
Aragon Leiva, special Mexican assistant to Eisen- m
stein, translating into Spanish instructions given
by Eisenstein in French and English. Tisse is the
"gypsy" at the camera. Alexandrov can be seen
Angle close-up
l{iifcling beside him. The man with the big hat is
from the sequence
the Mexican charro, Melesio Abelar, who, when
of the bull-fight in
he is not holding reflectors, plays the "bad man"
the episode called
of the episode. Under the fire-wor\s bull is Martin
Hernandez. No artificial lighting was used in any
"Romance."
of the scenes of "Que Viva Mexico!" Photo by
ylexandrov.
SOMERSET LOGAN
HOLLYWOOD FILMS
AND THE WORKING CLASS
Millions of workers in the United States go to the stance of life. There is no romanticising, no glossing
picture theatres every week. The films shown at these over the facts of daily existence. The cinema industry
theatres are turned out by half a dozen gigantic indus- of the Soviet Union is owned and controlled by the
tries which are owned and controlled by the bourgeois workers themselves, as are all other enterprises of the
class. This class sees to it that American films reflect country. The looked upon as a powerful
Soviet film is
only capitalist "ideals" ideals of business, of imperial- medium for culture and progress. It deals with the
and national superiority.
ism, of morality, of racial vital problems of the toiling masses, with science,
Although the workers and their families constitute hygiene, collectivization, the housing problem, the
almost nine-tenths of the audiences at the picture Five- Year Plan, with the Revolution, the class-war.
theatres, the American cinema does not concern itself In the Soviet Union films are not used as a soporific
with their life and problems. Economic exploitation, to dull the workers' minds, but rather to stimulate
unemployment, the class war all subjects of vital im- them to renewed effort and achievement, for the pur-
portance to the intelligent worker are rigorously ex- pose of raising their own standard of life. They are
cluded from the American screen. In this country, films shown in factories, on farms, in schools and theatres,
are made to lull the working class into a state of mental wherever workers or their children gather.
vacuity, to take their minds from the dreary realities The cultural film of Soviet Russia is totally different
of every-day life. For a worker whose thoughts are from the purely commercial film of America. The Rus-
occupied with the screen amours of Greta Garbo, or sian workers, who control the film output, are tre-
with the fascinating dramatic intricacies of Should mendously interested in creadng and disseminating
Wives Tell? or Where's Your Husband? or Girls De- things worthwhile, because they know that they them-
mand Excitement such a worker is not likely to be- selves will immediately benefit therefrom. Nothing is
come a victim of radical propaganda, or a militant too good for them. In addition to satisfying their eco-
fighter for a new civilization. nomic requirements, they want the best in art, litera-
What does the American worker see when he goes ture, the drama and the cinema. Bolshevik Russia is
to a picture show? The sex revels of the "upper" class; the only country on earth that has an artistic censorship.
anatomical details of leading ladies; palatial dwellings And it is the literate worker himself who is his own
inhabited by parasites who never work; gigolos, pimps, censor. Moscow is the only city which has a film uni-
prostitutes; animated fashion-plates, both male and versity, where students must study for several years
female; gangster warfare, with the goodlooking gang- every possible aspect of cinematographic production
ster ultimately reforming by becoming a respectable before they are permitted to engage in any important
business man and marrying his employer's daughter; film activity, such as photography, writing or directing.
the life and adventures of a young widow who is left
In America the artistic quality of a picture,
a million dollars, and who is bored with everything
mere secondary
until she meets the right man and so on, to the point
its fidelity to life, is a
tion, if, indeed, it is any consideration at all. The
considera-
of driveling imbecility.
commercial nature of the American film is only
In connection with the feature picture, the worker
too obvious from the moment the scenario is written
also sees news-reels of the Pride of the Navy, the lat-
and accepted to the moment the finished product is
estarmy equipment, commercialized sports, and the released for universal consumption. Artisdc integrity
sweet face of some notorious political crook. He never
means nothing to the average American director. It
sees a bread-line, or a strike. He never sees a whole
is merely a question of box-office. In fact, the over-
family of starved working people thrown into the
whelming majority of American directors, whose
streets. He never sees the merciless exploitation of the
pathetic duty it is to turn out Hollywood masterpieces,
masses of workers and farmers. He never sees the
are altogether unaware of the almost limitless poten-
lynching of a Negro worker. He never sees a militant
tialities own medium. Many of them are es-
of their
demonstration of his class and the sickening brutality
sentially illiterate men, who have been elevated to their
of capitalism's cossacks the police. If such films are
positions because of kinship or "pull" and not because
ever made, they are never released.
they have shown any genuine aptitude for their pro-
The ruling class of ancient Rome, when their power fession. They have not the slightest conception of
was threatened by proletarian uprisings, appeased rhythm, montage, photographic and dramatic values,
them with free bread and cir-
their slaves by providing or of any of the basic ingredients of good film-tech-
cuses panem et circenses. The American ruling class nique. And behind the directors stand the supervisors
provide their wage-slaves with the mediocrity and and general managers ci-devant pants-pressers and
filth that emanate from Hollywood. But there is this nickelodeon proprietors, who are profoundly moved
difference: our modern slaves pay for their own debase- by only one thing: the acquisition of sizeable fortunes.
ment. And then behind the supervisors and general man-
The Russian film is a glorious contrast. Russia is agers, stands the sinister power of entrenched privilege
the only country where films are made of the very sub- the bankers, the financiers, the successful racketeers
27
ings at Birkenhead, a film called A Journey to Soviet regulations, no film-shows are allowed. And since
Russia. The film was banned on some pretext by the normally the only buildings which do so comply are
local authorities and it was never shown. But the teach- commercial movie-houses, our Society must hire one.
ers called their friends and neighbors and out of their But the only day on which a cinema is free for private
protest grew the Merseyside Workers' Film Society. use is a Sunday, and here the law steps in with a
Only those who have some knowledge of the hostil- Seventeenth Century act and forbids Sunday perform-
ity on the part of the English authorities to films, to ances! Apart from fire-regulations, authorities have
Russia, and to workers, can realize what difficulties little control over films, but these regulations are suffi-
the Society struggles against and with what pride it cient to enable a political censorship to be exercised.
now points to its achievements over the past two sea- Merseyside has been lucky. Liverpool possesses
sons. These include the gathering together of a mem- two halls which but are not
satisfy the fire-brigade,
bership of some 500 people, the holding of 15 perform- licensed cinemas. Here is a loop-hole, and here the
ances at monthly intervals at a charge of ten shillings for films have been shown, badly and uncomfortably it is
a season's membership, and the showing of all the great true, with a single projector with its waits between
Soviet films, whether banned or not, with the exception reels, with a screen which gets itself into pleats, with
of Ten Days That ShooJ{ the World.
hard seats on a level floor but what odds a few draw-
It is only quite recently that Soviet films have been backs ?
finding their way into England and getting past the
The adventures of the early days are worth recall-
Censorship, and even yet Potemfyn remains banned
and has never been publicly shown. It was a great tri-
ing. After two shows an avalanche descended the
films had been Two Days and Tur^-Sib. The hall
umph for Merseyside when our first banned film run by the University Setdement refused
New Babylon ran through the projector and when
a theatre
permission for further performances; the press conduct-
Potemhjn itself was put on in a crowded hall.
ed a campaign against what they called the subversive
Russian films, German films, any films of intel-
character of the society, and the secretary was forced
ligence have extreme difficulty in getting through to
to resign by his employers. Then came a show in a
the public in England. If they negotiate the Censor
cinema closed for a few days while talkies were in-
successfully they have still to face the neglect of the
stalled, and then an application to the magistrates for
renters. So that for the ordinary person there is posi-
tively no chance of seeing such masterpieces as Earth,
Sunday performances refused, of course. Permission
to use a hall belonging to the city was sought and re-
The General Line, Storm Over Asia, except in the pri-
vate societies. And private societies especially when
fused, but at last fortune, in the shape of the local
Co-operative Society, smiled and produced the uncom-
they included the word "workers" in their
name are
fortable but fire proof hall in which present shows
faced with almost insurmountable difficulties.
are given. But even they are limited in number by
In England, power over film-shows rests with the certain obscure local by-laws.
The Censor has no official standing,
local authorities.
So, to be an intelligent worker cinema-goer in En-
chough in practice his word is law. But local authori-
gland is not easy. A bourgeois film-society in London
ties mayoverride his decisions and private societies
with expensive rates and a high-sounding committee
can sometimes persuade their local magistrates to sanc-
gets privileges the workers' societies are denied. But,
tion a private performance. But here the chief of the
nevertheless, the work goes on.
of our modern world, who dictate all ultimate policies. The future holds prospects of further difficulties.
The Soviet film is frankly "propaganda" propa- Talkies impose a financial strain almost unbearable,
while the standard of production is definitely too low,
ganda against ignorance and superstition, against capi-
talism and wage-slavery, propaganda for the better life, and Russia, the home of worker-art, has still to send
for Communism. The American film is also "propa- us the results of her latest experiments. But the art
ganda" propaganda for ignorance and superstition,
of the silent screen is not yet exhausted, while En-
28
GEORGE W. LIGHTON
selves in the slough of musical comedy, while the the impersonal detachment with which the grim march
French cannot free themselves from slavish imitation of the beggars is presented indicates a fatalistic accept-
ofAmerican commercial methods. Das Maedel von der ance of diseased social conditions. Here is no insistent
Reeperbahn, hailed as a masterpiece of the continent, dialectics of an Eisenstein, no lyrical perspective of a
failed to find a synthesis of the traditional intimate Pudovkin, no poetic vision of a Dovzhenko, but the
film and the new operetta style despite its remarkable masochistic clairvoyance of a man who feels the death-
contrast of two types of woman. ratde in the throat of capitalistic society. The revenge-
Among the most recent of European importations ful king of the beggars incites the blind plodding mass-
are Rene Clair's Le Million and G. W. Pabst's Die es to a rebellious march that disperses the dummy
Drei Groschenoper. In both films one can see the di- superiority of royalty, but as the sullen protest-
rector feeling his way from situation to situation with ants disappear down
empty streets their revolt be-
the
no sure hand, drawing from his fund of resources with comes a mere gesture. For now the true rulers are
almost no sense of unity of style or dynamic structure. revealed, secure in their power, as the racketeer and
Yet both are brilliant for what they are intended to the chief of police. Together with the beggar king,
be, even though that accomplishment is a violation of whose feint has been successful, they plan the future
the true dialectics of the film. exploitation of the frustrated masses. There is no way
Clair's film does not pretend to be anything more out, this thing must go on forever as long as he lives.
than an entertainment along the lines of the director's Such is the ideology of Die Drei Groschenoper.
peculiar talent
a penchant for satiric wit. It follows How this can be misconstrued as Communist pro-
the conventional "chase" pattern immortalized by paganda is hard to see. True, Pabst is merciless in
Mack Sennett's cop comedies and, indeed, shows no drawing the rapacious character of his racketeers and
great advance over them in the realization of cinematic unhesitant in depicting the bloody corruption of the
values. Its constant straining after grows in-
effect police, but instead of using the true working-class as
creasingly irritating as one becomes aware that the his foils, he holds up the grotesque mirror of its slum
things Clair is ridiculing are so very easily disposed proletariat who in turn lives on
the economic misfit
of, ifnot taken for granted and pushed off to one side the parasitic capitalist. There is something diabolically
to make room for greater problems. Then, too, it is cruel about the baroque spirit which pervades the film,
all only good-natured spoofing, never far from pathos and yet it is successful in capturing the baffling aspect
that is inherent in the loving care with which each that contemporary life must have for a bourgeois in-
type is characterized. Purely bourgeois in its appeal, tellectual disgusted with the world.
Le Million often approaches infantile humor when it Unfortunately, the film's unity suffers from the
is supposed to be witty. Technically, it is a concession taint of operetta interpolations and often Pabst is com-
to popular taste, deserting many of the mounting pelled to forsake his devotion to the filmic representa-
achievements of the same director's Sous les Toits de tion of mind and motivation in order to convey the
Paris. In seeking to shift emphasis the director often sentiment of actional incident.
loses himself in the contemplation of documentary Just how much the society within which the creators
material. The dialogue and action sequences are not of these two films worked is responsible for their lack
well spaced, and the alternate use of descriptive sound of social conscience is hard to say. But satire should
with lip-moving pantomine (influence of Mickey at least contain some dialectic analysis of existing con-
Mouse Cartoons here) and scenes full of recorded ditions and it is doubtful if the unscrupulousness of
phrases, breaks up the tonal rythm, for the effect is Pabst not invidious in its suggestion and false empha-
is
invariably that certain stretches of sound track have sis. What is lacking is the purposeful intent of the
been "dubbed." The scenario-construction is very poor. Soviet film which does not need to protect itself, but
If Clair's film can be excused as just a fantastic only to improve society.
comedy with music, Die Drei Groschenoper cannot be
passed off so lighdy, for it presents itself potentially as "a *Editor Note: As this goes to press, word comes from the Soviet
Union of the immense success of the two new sound films: The
film for the revolutionary." There have even been
Road to Life and the Kozintstov-Trauberg production, Alone.
rumors that it was accepted in Berlin as a piece of These two films are said to have started the long-awaited revolu-
Communist propaganda masking as a modernization tion in the use of sound.
29
t
WERNER KLINGLER
Translated by Christel Gang from German Original
OZEP'S FILM,
"THE MURDERER KARAMAZOV"
That which by way of filmic concept
this picture, a man of great skill who has conquered the A-B-C
offered exceptional values, had no effect on the broad of montage and permeated it with his own genius
masses, is in all probability due to the fact that in the and creative power.
filmic-dramatic treatment a compromise was made: its Not once are we conscious in this film of a deliber-
theme was vested with unfinished, half-solved psycho- ately placed design; never are we aware of the move-
logical prblems. ment of the camera, nor do we feel that the racing,
On the one hand, the expansive Dostoievskian ideo- staccato cuts of the carriage-ride, for example, are
logy was compressed into a general formula of appeal, merely a display of acquired knowledge. Throughout
and on the other hand, as a result of this procedure, the picture, the harmony of image-values is consum-
all deeper contact with the psychological development ated in a perfect symphony. The camera is ever the
of the theme was lost. For this reason the bare, crys- experiencing eye of the spectator, or the piercing vision
tallized action of the film, a murder affair, touched of the protagonist himself. At all times the complete
on the original idea only in its high spots and made collectivism of the filmic apparatus is under the domi-
various longer or shorter cross-cuts through the straight nant control of the director.
line of concept, as well as through the physical action, With sweeping brush-strokes the opening sequence
of the novel itself. is depicted.
Of course, this rationalization of the material for First various placements of a locomotive in deep
purposes of filmic adaptation was unavoidable a hy- night atmosphere. Smoking funnel, wheels, the engine
pothetical necessity. This immediately raises the ques- (boiler), then the moving semaphores. In each image,
tion of how far it is possible to present filmically, that steam and smoke in action. These image-values blend
is, to do filmic justice to a literary work of such Then we see and hear
together in organic sequence.
scope as The Brothers Karamazov. Regardless of the an accordion, rhythm replacing the previous metric
its
philosophical power of its dialectical comment, this musical accompaniment which accentuated the pre-
dimensional structure of Dostoievsky's novel demands ceding scenes.
its definite mode of action for the many episodes, Without seeing the railroad station or the train in
cross-cuts of narrative and various interruptive tales totality, nor the leading into some landscape, by
rails
are the trunks and branches of the tree, and these re- this means of analytical montage-forms we are fami-
expansion which, in the final analysis,
sult in that vast liarized with the whole location and atmosphere.
isexperienced as a pleasant release, even though it Special emphasis is placed particularly on the loco-
may not be felt as a necessity compellingly bound to motive. It is a symbol of power. It takes on an over-
the structure. tonal significance, creating a thought-association with
That Fedor Ozep, the creator of this film, was fully the action that follows (Dmitri's farewell to Katha-
aware of the enormous difficulties confronting him in rina).
the filmic presentation of this powerful material is The scant dialogue, which serves to explain the
clearly evident in the fact that his film does not bear
the The Brothers Karamazov, but
reason of Dmitri's departure
gain consent to
marry Katharina and thus
(a trip to his father to
secure 3000
title of the novel,
instead is called The Murderer Karamazov. Further- rubles)
is strengthened by these specific image-values
more, in the credit-title the picture is announced as a of the locomotive. Panting, boiling, spouting steam,
"Treatment of the Novel of Dostoievsky"; and, fin- the locomotive represses its power until the conduc-
ally, Ozep borrowed only such themes from the ori- tor's signal designates the starting-time.
ginal as contained purely motoric and dynamic ele- The semaphores begin to move, and again we see,
ments. This forced a change of values and established in detail, the specific parts of the locomotive. More
a new ideology in short, a film which had little, smoke and steam come into view, and as the locomo-
if anything, in common with its literary antecedent, tive gradually moves out of the picture, we quickly
or better, which dared not have such a relationship. switch to the action. Dmitri hurriedly, as his train
Thus, the frequently undertaken experiment to pre- startsslowly in motion, grabs a huge bouquet of
sent literary works in their completeness on the screen, flowers from a little flower-girl standing in the fore-
must again be accepted negatively. However, if this ground. He gives these flowers to Katharina, embraces
film is reviewed critically in the light of its purely and kisses her, and jumps on the platform of the train,
cinematic content and considered on the basis of its which, speeding up in tempo, pulls out of the screen.
elementary filmic legitimacy, which is essential to cine- Motionless, arms limp at her side, Katharina stands
ma-art, the results immediately become positive. there, with her back to the camera. (This static pos-
Recognizing Ozep as a product of the strictly scien- ture and demeanor of Katharina is maintained through
tific Soviet film-school, we have in him a film director the whole film.) And as the last coach with its tail-
of highly individual mold. We are dealing here with light disappears into the distance and in the back-
30
ground reigns complete darkness, the flower-girl is clearly manifested by Smerdyakov and Ivan. After
standing on the right side of the picture-frame steps a short passage of dialogue, Dmitri walks toward the
up to Katharina and draws here attention to the fact door of his father's room. The door opens and the
that "the lieutenant forgot to pay for the flowers." old fellow stands radiantly on the threshold. He recog-
Katharina gives her the amount. And with this the nizes his son Dmitri. His joyous mood suddenly
firstsequence closes. changes. His features become distorted into a reaction
Dmitri's trip serves the purpose of sustaining, or of disappointment and rage. Dmitri unsuspectingly
conveying, the tension through the lap dissolve into takes the glass of champagne out
of the old man's
the next sequence. hand and empties it in one draught. Result: mutual
Location: His father's estate. Introduction of Ivan, misunderstanding produces short circuit and explosion
the servant Smerdyakov, and the old man, awaiting within the elder Karamazov.
the visit of Gruschenka. This filmically plastic creation The discussion that now follows between father and
of the old Karamazov is superb. His crude directness son occurs behind locked doors. We become aware of
establishes him as the strongest figure and as the the conflict from the reactions of Smerdyakov and Ivan,
center of the action. The old man is an autocrat of who are listening in the big hallway.
licentiousness, a monarch whose unbroken nature
Without ever being able to understand a single word,
knows no Deeply convinced of the utility
partiality.
we hear in this long shot the quarrel between the old
of immorality, he drinks in life like a draught of cog-
fellow and Dmitri. The tempo of this incomprehen-
nac. Only the most expressive elements are used and
sible dialogue rises rhythmically to a crescendo, skill
effectively sketched in the portrayal of his character.
fully interrupted by significant pauses. It reaches a
In contrast to the long shot of the vast entrance-hall,
raging furioso when the door opens abrupdy and
shown at full range, in the old man's room only single Dmitri emerges in excited agitation. Through the
objects are touched upon. The room in its totality is
half-open door he screams at the old fellow, whom we
never shown. A table with tid-bits is painstakingly
cannot see, that he (Dmitri) "will force a change in
arranged (seen from above, downward) and becomes
existing conditions. Just wait and see"; he "will go
the visual center of the scene. A set table and antici-
direcdy to Gruschenka." On the word "Gruschenka"
pation. An ikon, characterizing splendidly the vitality
the scene lap dissolves into her home. Dmitri asks
and the shrewd religiosity of the old fellow. The
to be admitted.
flame of ilfe still flickers.(And how it flickers!) A lace
With the fade-out from the Karamazov mansion,
ornamented bed-cover has been drawn back and the
the cardinal point of the tragedy is established.
silken bedding lies open, pointing to the sexual con-
The types in their various characteristics are reveal-
templations of the old libertine. In various placements,
ed one after another, in sequential orde,r and their
we see him resdessly pacing the floor. He is full of
temporary relations to each other unfold the carefully
eager expectation. His hands move nervously about
constructed framework behind the dramatic action.
the table, making a few quick adjustments.
Here, dramaturgically speaking, the motive of the
Now the action changes to exteriors on the street.
"deed" is for the first time defined. (Smerdyakov's
A pouring rain is indicated in a few specific medium
words: "He will yet murder him.")
closeups. Rain on the front porch, rain from the water-
spout, rain in the gutter. The mood of rain assumes
The
leading motive of the plot has been sketched.
Itproves of extraordinary advantage in the linking up
a dramatic significance. Then, in medium shot, we
and the dramatic evaluation of the plot, that the bro-
see the entrance to the mansion. A carriage (focus,
thers Karamazov were formerly separated and meet
side-view) drives up. This placement shows merely
here, for the first time, in the stifling atmosphere of
the lower parts of the carriage. The horses' legs,
the father's home. Later the old man's conduct leads
wheels and carriage-step, Dmitri's legs, as they step
them to an open utterance of their views.
from the carriage, come into the field of vision. Then
cut, seen from above, across the driver's back, toward The
role of the third son in the novel is dispensed
Dmitri. He pays the driver his fee, and the carriage with in the filmic adaptation, but is pardy substituted
drives out of scene. Dmitri walks up to the entrance by Smerdyakov. He alone is made a confident to old
and pulls the bell-strap. Cut to closeup of the bell in Karamazov and serves as mediator between Dmitri
the interior of the hallway, as it rings. Reaction of and Ivan, two antagonistic elements, and between
Karamazov. the hostile women, Katharina and Gruschenka, who
The huge, massive door of the interior, securely in the later course of events widen the gap between
locked and bolted with a heavy iron rod, serves as a the brothers.
symbol of the greed and avarice of the elder Karama- Dmitri at Gruschenka's house. At the entrance-door,
zov. In great excitement, with trembling hands, he the maid-servant tries to explain to Dmitri that it is
pours a glass of champagne. He thinks: "Who can impossible for Gruschenka to see him as she has visi-
this be? It must be Gruschenka, of course!" tors and is on the point of leaving. But Dmitri is obsti-
Then, in the spacious hallway, Smerdyakov comes nate and refuses to be turned away. The servant re-
walking stealthily toward the door. He steps out of ports to her mistress.
frame. The movement is repeated in medium closeup In medium shot we see Gruschenka surrounded by
as he reappears immediately in front of the enrance her friends as they prepare to leave. Indignant, she
door. He opens the big lock and lifts the heavy iron commands the servant not to admit this man under
bolt, not, however, before he has taken one last, criti- any conditions.
cally vain glance at himself in the mirror. (Gruschenka.) Suddenly she stops in the midst of her speech and
Dmitri enters through the open doorway and steps sees: Cut to medium close shot: Dmitri in the frame
into the interior of the house. Disappointed surprise of the door.
31
Cut to close shot: Gruschenka as seen from Dmitri's In totality shot, Dmitri cleanses himself of the night;
point of view. Cut back to Dmitri: his eyes drop slowly he wanders out into the fresh morning air, prepared
as they "size up" his opposite. for the day.
This radical cut from Gruschenka and the surround- The gripping effect of these scenes is by no means
ing group to the closeup of Dmitri arouses in the evoked by the esthetic value of these nature-images,
spectator a sensation of Dmitri having been hurled but is produced by use of "overtonal montage," which
into the room and the anticipation of an explosion to emerges as a living symbol between the image-values,
follow. However, nothing happens. Instead, Dmitri that is, within the picture-cut.
accepts, with the meekness of a lamb, Gruscbenka's A symbol is vital, significant, when it presents the
mocking challenge to await her return to the apart- best chosen, highest possible expression of the antici-
ment. Gayly, she tosses the remark at him: "If you pated vision, of facts not known, or but vaguely known,
want to wait?
but it may be very late!" to the spectator. Under these conditions, the symbol
This wide-treatment of "waiting" is symbolized by effects"unconscious" participation. It formulates an
a bronze mantel-clock with a ball-shaped pendulum act of "unconsciousness." The more general this act
that moves in rotation. The rotating pendulum is later becomes, the more general, the broader, becomes its
repeated in closeup. sphere of reaction, for it touches in everyone a fami-
The dramaturgical is organ-
structure of this scene liar note.
time the depths of her nature. moves increasingly into a gigantic mass of conflicts,
and the prescribed length of a commercial film does
Noteworthy in this scene is the direct (radical) cut
not permit it to do full justice to these conflicts by
to a closeup of an angora was not
cat. Its existence
developing them along the line of a strictly Dostoi-
established beforehand. The cat serves as first-class
evskian interpretation, from now on the film loses
plastic material to express the catlike nature of Grus-
somewhat its power of impression and it does not in-
chenka. Both values are mutually equivalent.
tensify itself again until it comes to the sequence of
The dramatic interpretation of Anna Sten, who with
the "night of the murder."
her art embodies the colorful character of Gruschenka
However, if we wish to split up these manifold se-
to perfection, cannot be valued highly enough. It is
quences, it is possible to describe superficially this in-
fascinating to observe how she makes use of a picture
creasingly powerful flow of action as the phases of:
of Katharina, which has dropped from Dmitri's pocket,
and lets it serve as a means of practising her wiles on 4. Murder
him. She is all winning smiles, promises and softest 5. Court-trial
allurement one minute ,and the mewing, striking, pri- 6. Gruschenka Dmitri
mitive, cat-nature the next. Moving-camera shots have become a fad in Holly-
As she leaps on the chair, we reach the climax wood. With very few exceptions, the camera is at all
the kiss. This struggle for the kiss most provocatively
is times in motion: it turns, lifts, lowers, etc. Very rarely,
and effectively handled by means of a series of flash- however, have these Hollywood camera-movements
cuts in medium shot. any organic connection with the content of the scene.
The constant pattering of the night rain as it rattles They are a form of cheap exhibitionism, not used of
against the window-panes serves as a visual counter- necessity, but because of a craving for vulgar, gaudy
point to the erotically laden atmosphere of the interior. showing-off. Static placements connected by direct cuts
The strongest and most expressive moment of the would be far more plausible than these contortioned
film is Dmitri's departure at early dawn. methods, which merely weaken the desired impres-
Ozep works here with overtones and uses the play sion.
of nature's elements for the structure of Dmitri's mood this, when Ozep sets his camera
In contrast to
and his emotional reactions. in motion in Kaiamazov, he has good reason for do-
Exterior: Entrance to Gruschenka's house. Medium ing so. His camera-movements are in the highest de-
close shot on Dmitri. Behind him the door swings gree organically related to the content. The results
shut. He takes a step forward. Lost in thought, he obtained by Ozep in the instances where his camera
removes his cap. His dazed eyes glance up. moves are results that could not be so simply achieved
Cut to open sky. Cut back to Dmitri. Cut to morn- by static placements (direct cuts). His movements
ing landscape. Nature breathes. The night's rain still dovetail and melt into the scene. Ozep permits his
lingers in the trees. Cut back to Dmitri. He takes a camera to step into action only when through its move-
deep breath. His glance goes heavenward. Again the ment, the rhythmic line of the filmic whole is advanced
sky and passing clouds. Then a bush. In its branches and the harmonious building-up of the complete struc-
drops of water that glisten like diamonds. Close shot ture is thereby guaranteed.
on the drops of water. They fall to the ground. Cut An example of an Ozep camera-movement:
back to Dmitri in medium closeup. He becomes aware With a fade-in, we see in closeup, in a mirror, a
of the waterspout as a small stream dribbles down from contortioned reflection of someone's head. The camera
the roof. He stretches out his hand. Lets it fill up and moves backwards. We become aware that the surface
thoughtfully cools his brow. of the mirror is the glistening roundness of a samovar.
32
The camera moves on. The back of a waiter steps into symbol of Dmitri's inner tur-
ing; in short, a perfect
frame; we recognize his head as the one reflected in moil and his yearning to get to Gruschenka, speedily,
the mirrored surface of the samovar. With childish immediately.
vanity, he examines his hair-comb. With his right hand His arrival at the pleasure-house and his search for
he adjust the line of the part. With the left hand he Gruschenka are magnificendy solved by means of
holds a service-tray. In waiter-fashion, he pulls it up image-technique. The camera follows his every step
high. A
few glasses, filled to the brim, come into through the various rooms and delicately accentuates
frame. He skilfully balances the tray above his shoul- his nervous impatience. The erotic atmosphere violent-
ders and walks with hasty steps toward the farthest ly increases its pressure until Karamazov finally dis-
end of the picture. At closeup range, the camera fol- covers Gruschenka on the upper floor, side by side
lows behind the waiter, throughout the room. In the with her former lover.
composition of the frame we see the waiter's head, Then lightning strikes as Dmitri's chambre-separee
shoulders and the tray. In the distant background, blissfulness is abruptly cut short by a harsh knock from
through a doorway, we see the interior of a billiard- the police.
room. The waiter enters this room. The camera fol-
Ozep's exceptional filmic insight proclaims itself
lows him and then stops, as the waiter steps up to
also in the extremely clever weighing of the image and
Dmitri and serves him a drink.
sound values. The image-conception always comes
Samovar vanity of waiter drinks spaciousness first. The dialogue is reduced to a minimum, and
of
room guests in a word, the entire scenic atmo- sound and music are artfully applied as an accentua-
sphere is effectively compressed into one single place- tion of the visualization-process. (Cf. sound-treatment
ment and the nervous restlessness of Dmitri, by means of kettle-drum and bells in the long carriage-ride.)
of this camera-obj edification, is illustrated for the
It should, however, be mentioned that the hellish
spectator.
tempo of the carriage-ride and the orgy of intoxica-
Ozep, in particular, lays great stress on the compo- tion occupy too great a space in the rhythmic con-
sitional value of the scent. All optical appearances struction of the whole, and take the breath away, so to
architecture furnitureobjects of all kinds, are in
speak, from the court-room scene, which should really
every case placed as advantageously as possible in the have been the high point of the film since it contains the
picture-frame, so that they accentuate the content of
denouement and the untangling of the story's threads.
the scenic action. Ozep forces the spectator to see only
Here, Ozep missed a wonderful opportunity for a
that which is absolutely necessary for his understand-
rhythmically organized, logical decomposition of the
ing or that which is later to refresh his memory. All
tension. Though he carried the action of Ivan-Smerdy-
other elements are ruthlessly discarded and eliminated
akov in a parallel line with the court scenes, it never-
from the picture. Only the most important, which con-
thless ended in a blind alley, for Smerdyakov's appear-
tains positive significance for the scenic content at
ance at court does not enter the field of vision, despite
hand, is thrown into strong relief.
the fact that by means of Smerdyakov's confession that
For the picturization of the night of the murder, he himself is the murderer of the elder Karamazov,
Ozep resorts to the three "notorious" dashes of Dostoi- Smerdyakov without anything further becomes the
evskian fame, the use of which brought upon the conveyor of tention of the whole situation.
great Russian author severe criticism for having touch-
Example of the parallel action:
ed on the technique of a mediocre detective-novel.
Court-trial Ivan Smerdyakov's
at
These dashes are cheap as they cause the reader to pass Court-trial Smerdyakov confesses
Court-trial Ivan and Smerdyakov on the way
through unsolved tension and cunningly leave him at
a loss as to who it was that committed the murder. to the court-house
Ozep also makes use of this sensational "WHO"? He Court-trial Ivan and Smerdyakov the en- at
poses it as a formal question here, as a formal question
trance of the court-house
there. But at least
this particular application of the
Ozep's film-dramaturgy
method.
justifiies
Court-trial Ivan up the judge
steps to
Smerdyakov
Ozepbuilds the Russian landscape into the murder- in the ante-
affair.Nature's elements serve as putty and cement room Court-Trial; Ivan reveals.
for the construction of supermundane realities. Moon- Ante-room
light-night a tree
stump a howling dog a bush without Smer-
the illumined window
wind blowing curtains the dyakov
Court-trial; clerk announces to the
fence the man the entire scene is enveloped in an judge the suicide of Smerdyakov.
uncanny atmosphere. Everything is charged with a pre- The end of the film bursts out into a refrain which
monitory sense of weird happenings. thematically is a pure adaptation of Tolston.
This "overtonal" montage of the murder-night With sweeping brush-strokes Dmitri's deportation
(Mordnacht-montage) Ozep also applies to Dmitri's and Gruschenka's voluntary accompaniment of him
night-ride in the carriage. This episode starts slowly into exile, are depicted. A locomotive is ready to go.
in long shot. As the camera turns about, gradually, Smoking funnel, wheels, the engine (boiler), then
in the distance the carriage comes into view. The ele- the moving semaphores, in short, all the image-ele-
ments of the picture carriage horses avenue trees ments of the beginning of the film are repeated, until
tree-trunks
tree-top s sky
landscape h o r s e s finally the trains pulls out. Behind an iron-grated win-
horses' legs
driver
drive whipping up the horses dow, Dmitri; on the platform of the end car, Grus-
by degrees fall into a speeding-up, racing staccato of chenka; and then train pulls out, panting, boiling,
flash cuts. All becomes a mad race, a raving, scream- steaming into the landscape, toward Siberia.
33
A
Translated for "Experimental Cinema" by
Abel Plenn
BULLETIN NO. 1
OF THE MEXICAN CINE CLUB
The Cine Club of Mexico has been organized and (c) to organize lectures and publish articles and critical
affiliated with the Film Society of London and with reviews on cinematography.
(d) to work for the establishment of the educational cine-
the League of Cine Clubs of Paris. Its program is the
ma means of scientific films; to see that the social
by
same as that of the cine clubs throughout the world, function which cinematography can fulfill be mede effect-
but it is especially akin to the Spanish Cine Club which ive in Mexico.
has achieved great success in the two years of its
Article 3. The Mexican Cine Club proposes to work together
existence. with the foreign cine clubs, but at the same time to
The essential points of its program are: (i) to pro-
investigate the problems of its own surroundings.
cure the showing of good European, American and Article 4. The Cine Club will be comprised of an unlimited
Asiatic vanguard films; (b) to establish the educational number of members. These will be divided into active
cinema, with special attention to the systematic show- members and subscrbing members. Active members and
subscribers will pay the same amount of dues and will
ing of scientific films; (c) to study the History of the
enjoy equal rights, but active members will be given
Cinema by means of film-exhibits dealing with the various duties to fulfill.
Art Director: Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano. tographic sessions of the Cine Club; (lb) to enjoy any
Technical Director: Emilio Amero. privilege which the Cine Club may obtain for its mem-
bers.
Secretaries of Finance: Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Maria Izquierdo. Article 8. The sessions of the Cine Club will be of two kinds:
business and cinematographic. Only active members will
Sec'y of Propaganda: Carlos Merida.
be entitled to attend the former. The cinematographic
Directors: Maria M. de Alvarez Bravo and Ro- sessions will be held at stated intervals, preferably every
berto Montenegro. month as soon as this is possible. They will consist of
General Secretary: Agustin Aragon Leiva. the howing of films, of short lectures, reading of re-
ports, suggestions, etc.
The organizers of the Cine Club are among the
most serious-minded writers, artists, journalists and Article 9. The cinematographic sessions will be public, and non-
Mexico, who have been able to see that our members will pay an admission charge. The difference
critics in
between the total dues and that of the admission charges,
environment is a sufficiently cultured and mature to together with the right to receive mai lat the club's post-
make possible the existence of a Cine Club whose office box, consiitute the member's privilege.
prime mission is to give the cinema the place which
Article 10. Those joining the Cine Club will pay a member-
it deserves as a powerful vehicle of culture.
ship fee of one peso, Mexican silver currency, and
In order to make known the circumstances which monthly dues of one peso fifty centavos, Mexican silver
currency. Payments will be made in advance.
have determined the creation of the Cine Club and to
point out the details of its program, these organizers Article 11. Each member of the Cine Club will receive two
will shortly circulate a manifesto calling for general cinematographic session and a 25 percent
tickets for every
at the expense of the Cine Club itself or in combination Mexico City, June 4, 1931.
with some promoting management. General Sec'y., Agustin Aragon Leiva.
34
^r
Soviet Union encourages the development of young "Next work: China Express. This seems to me to
talent and gives it a chance to function. Here in capitalist assemble all the sins and infatuations of my youth.
America, the so-called "land of opportunity" (sic!), "Later I created a long film (based on documents)
there is no chance whatever for working-class youth in
Metal, the subject of which was the Socialistic up-
the field of art. This is especially the case in the cinema, building of heavy industry.
where the only opportunity for "youth" to function is in "Now I am engaged and tone-films. They
in talkies
the eventuality of its being related to some powerful give me the inspiration and work anew. Great
to learn
movie mogul. But then, the basic difference is one ideas, mostly concerning montage, which we want to
between sheer prostitution of brains and energy for fulfill in spite of very poor mechanical equipment, ex-
vulgar commercial purposes on the one hand, and the citeus and force us to look at things from a new angle.
utilization of energy for the creation of artistic master- In these questions I fully agree with the Manifesto on
pieces on the other hand. Sound by Eisenstein, which you no doubt know.*
Thus, Trauberg, who is now twenty-five years of
"A I am
writing a scenario about the psycho-
present
made three films of eminent artistic import- logy of a European worker, who is nearing revolu-
age, has
ance: Metal, The Stormy Way, and China Express. His tion I am making a
complete survey of my meth-
fourth picture is in production now. Of these three,
od of creation, my views
in all lines concerning mov-
China Express is the best known to the Western world. ing picture direction, beginning with the construction
of the scenario to the composition of the "shot" and
It was a first-rate success in Germany, England, other
European countries, and in the United States. every small detail of the work. I am trying to find out
37
N.SOLEW
i
Works. If you would merely see the stills, you would we can project movement very easily, less easily, emo-
think Jutkevitch is a second Pudovkin! tion; and with difficulty, thought. There are, though,
What about the story itself? I shall quote to you more instances of the projection of thought in Soviet
what I wrote recently in the Moscow News: pictures, than in the pictures of America and other
"The cast being limited to three characters countries. And in speech, there is a big difference
only, the films offer great opportunities for "plot between renderng an emotion and a thought. The only
development." The films show two workers thing is that we must expend more time and atten-
against the background of a large metal works tion than we do in conveying movement.
in old Petersburg in the days before the World But in the movie, we can connect the talk with
War. vision, as we wish, and combine very rapid speech
"The first is a class-conscious worker who un- with speedy change of images. So it was done in
derstands the conflicting interests of the capital- Mountains of Gold, although not in a very pure and
ists and the proletariat. The other, a peasant who convincing form.
has just been ruined by the local landowner,
For example the worker, coming from the village,
has come to town for the sole purpose of earning tells about the way his "farm" is managed. This is a
enough money to buy himself a horse and return monologue, and a very slow monologue. But it is not
to his native village. tiresome, because during this speech we see on the
screen silent scenes about which the speech is con-
"However, as the plot unfolds itself, the class-
cerned.
conscious proletarian recognizes that although
This device is used through the bigger half of the
the boss of the works is his enemy, he bribes
film.
his servants with silver watches.
The other device is the manner of using music.
"The silver watch becomes the leit-motif of
There is simple music, illustrating those things which
the whole film.
we see on the screen. But it does not cease as the scene
"The first worker, who
has just received a sil-
is finished. As mutual pursuit
in the art of fugue, the
ver watch as a gift from the boss for betraying
of voices or parts (one of the most important forms
his fellow-workers, repairs to the nearest saloon
of music) is continuous all through the film. It pro-
and sings the song of the 'Golden Hills' or the vides a kind of background for the whole subject, and
'Mountains of Gold' that is, the mountains of
it illustrates the inner emotions of the players and of
gold which he will heap up while working for
the audience as well! In Mountains of Gold there is a
his boss."
double fugue, a fugue which begins with two parts
is by no means a new
This, of course, idea. We saw and two subjects simultaneously. The one is the song,
it happen with Ivan, the hero of End of St. Peters- Mountains of Gold (based on the theme-idea of the
burg. But, of course, it has a very important political picture); the other is a simple waltz for wind-orchestra,
value: to show all young people how the situation was composed by Shostakovitsch. This one is the more
before the World War and the conditions under which important of the two. We hear them in beautiful grow-
the working class was living at that time. ing calm in the first scene, when the peasants are
But the main power of the film is in the sound: coming to the metal plant inquiring about some work.
the dialogue and the music. The complete text of the Then, in the scenes of bribery with the silver watch,
talk of the peasant, just coming from the village, was the music meaows like a Hawaiian guitar.
written by the great master of the Russian language, And at the end, in a furious fortisimo of the whole
Chapigin (Leningrad). And the way in which this symphonic orchestra, it storms through the scene where
talk is used is very remarkable. There are long dia- the silver watch is hurled back at the boss.
38
,
There are also some excellent scenes in a bar, where The Family Scotinini, The Daughter of the Captain,
the drunken talk of the hero (he has just received the and other historical-literary movie-subjects).
silver watch) is played against the background of The story of the House of the Dead is also taken
the strongest old tsiganian (gypsy) romance-music. from ** There was a novel by Dostoievsky,
literature.
But itwould take too long to relate everything The Chronicle of the House of the Dead ("house of
about this film. It is more a work of art than The the dead" the jail. Shklovsky has changed the situa-
Road to Life and more popular than Alone. There tion. He has made Dostoievsky himself the hero of
is one outstanding fault in Mountains of Gold some the film because the novel itself was written by Dos-
parts are too long. But I am sure Amkino will show toievsky when he was in Siberia as a political prisoner.
it in California in more suitable length. In my opinion As in The Road to Life, there are fine songs in The
it would also be better named The Silver Watch or House of the Dead, songs of the Siberian prisoners.
Silver Hills. We are also awaiting a big film by Dovzhenko, the
The Road to Life and Alone are two big sound films famous creator of the silent, but great, Earth (called
in America, Soil). This new film deals with the prob
which Amkino has not yet shown in America. * They
are now making their trip from one European capital
lems of a human being under the conditions of the
period of socialist reconstruction of society. The pic-
to another. The success of The Road to Life is tre-
ture is entitled Ivan (Russian name for John), a title
mendous. It is not only the first great Soviet sound
which is not less important or significant than the title
film, but also the first Soviet box-office picture.
It ran
Earth. "Ivan" is one of the workers on Dnieperstory,
two months one "movie palace" in Berlin, then
in
the huge dam and power plant that is being built on
several consecutive weeks in twenty-three other first-
the Dneiper River of the Ukraine.
class Berlin theatres. There has been no equally artis-
Next time, after seeing the House of the Dead,
tic picture since the time of Storm Over Asia by Pudov-
wholly, and not in parts only (as now), I shall write
kin.
you more about it.
The young director of The Road to Life, Nicolai
Ekk of Mezhrabpomfilm, was several years ago a sim- *Since this letter arrived, as we go to press, we learn
ple actor in Meyerhold's Theatre, just as the author that theHouse of the Dead has been finished and
of the scenario of Mountains of Gold was a movie- shown in Moscow Ed. Note.
architect and director of small, and esthetically "dry," **Federov is the director of the stage-spectacle
without subject matter.
films, Roar, China!, by S. Tretjanov, produced at Meyer-
What are we waiting to see on the screen during hold's Theatre. This spectacle was highly praised in
the next few months? Germany.
N. Solew.
The next big picture will be The House of the Dead, Roar, China! was put on by the Theatre Guild in
produced by Mezhrabpomfilm studios. It is being di- New York City two seasons ago. Over and against
rected by Federov,* a former assistant of Meyerhold. the vehement protestations of Rouben Mamoulian, the
The continuity of this film was written by our famous director, the Theatre Guild insisted on emasculating
theoretician of literature, Victor Shklovsky, who has the political ideology of Tretjanov's original manuscript.
written many scenarios and continuities (Bulat Batii Bourgeois dictatorship. Ed. Note.
REMARKS ON CINE-LANGUAGE
Continued from page 24
afar a naval battle, an erruption of a vulcano, or the relying on instinct, "horse sense," empirically acquired
surface of the moon, as well as the "class struggle," knowledge of tricks, camera angles and situations regu-
the inside of a drop of blood, etc. lated by the indications of the box-office, in Russia, on
Such is the field for "macro-," "micro-" and "tele-"- the other hand, the Soviet film-worker strives to build a
shooting. (Microscopic and telescopic.) rational theory of his art, analyzing it in its infinitesimal
I want to add that it is also possible to apply to cine- formal elements, analyzing at the same time the struc-
matographic uses the X-Ray tube, and so to pierce ture of society. For, to reflect it on the screen and to
through, with the camera, the walls of a house, or see
transform it into reality is the function of cinema art.
the inside processes of an organism. Furthermore, a
plate, sensitive to the infra-red rays, could even "see" ERRATA: In the above article, A Few Remarks on the Elements
through the mist and night. of Cine-Language, we wish to call the reader's atten-
tion to the following correction: The first sentence
6. on the fifth line, second column, page 24, should read
as follows: "The choice of words (as Hamlet says,
To conclude: One of the many fundamental differ-
we read only 'words, words, words' ) their dis-. . .
ences between the typical "Hollywood" and the Russian position in a sentence their rhythmical flow" etc.,
film-workers is this: While in Hollywood they work etc., etc. . . .
39
.
f
t
LEWIS JACOBS
HIGHWAY 66
Montage Notes for a Documentary Film
"Rjechevsky has the virtue, his aims being limit- "PAY AS YOU EARN!"
ed, to pose problems bravely before the director; -The peering newspapers
he determines the emotional content and the sense preaching their corruption
of the film without determining the visual con- -In trumpet-grandeur
tours." Pudovkin. and lusty conclusion.
-Limp cities alike in their escapes "ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT!'
and conquests -A Greta Garbo sign
-Concordant traffic -Vibrant
-Dumb hordes long out of work -Throbbing to adolescents
Prowling -and nomads
-Their vigilance confined to passing women stamped down like grapes in sweat
and their bodies -Its electric hallucination,
who turn away "FLESH AND THE DEVIL"
-A sudden thrust for space! -Department Stores
from daring offers of recognition -Woolworth the A and P's
and a vise-like need of them -counters busy with wives
-And their bodies -Bargaining
-KODAK AS YOU GO! and impatient with unwanted children
-SOUTH PENN SQUARE! who are as reconciled as their parents.
-Weeping willows for men "Papa Loves Mamma
or what's left of them Mamma Loves Papa
to dump their past there Every Thing is Rosy Now!"
To wallow in, to reflect -Skyscrapers
and suffer again babbling to God
their wrinkled history; in their heterogeneous stammer
-For the police to trample in unconcern -And confusing man
of pilgrims' weariness to begone and beast
And bedamned! in their braggadocio.
-DO NOT THROW RUBBISH AROUND! "Roar of Cities has musical under/oner
-A sudden radio pronouncement -The Carnegie Library
-While you're jostled in the street -Severe and uninhabited
from the quick perception of -Fiction for the Sabbath
Apples -And librarians of ephemeral sex
-Unemployed who covet the beggars' cup "SILENCE PLEASE!"
-Citizens! -The Deposits in the men's room
Torsos and ankles and axiom of its walls;
"
-The undulation of a calve "SOME COME HERE TO
or breast _ I3 th precinct
calling for a hand -Cages and complex excrement
to plumb and survey _The writing on the wall
-Its greek fecundity! -Scratches by men awaiting daylight
-Faces -Excavating lice
-Prolix and stained _A n d shuddering
-In format vigilant -From vermin and the cold
-Pouched in decay -Scratching, scratching
-Caloried for others to follow
-Sticky with time _Or for the law to erase:
-Rapt and furrowed "Tully Filmus
-METROPOLITAN! who left this jail for Joltcti"
-FOUR OUT OF FIVE HAVE ITI "They put me here
Shop windows for ridin the rods,
unrestrained and lying / wanted to see things
-their faces bewildering Charley "KID" Weisberg"
-And court-plastered; -Apartment houses
-The clangor of "SALE" notices -Hotel-pimps and gamblers
-The zigzag of "REDUCTIONS" . . -Prostitutes
40
"^Sk
41
RALPH BOND
THE PRODUCTION
OF WORKING GLASS FILMS
Film production by workers' groups in a capitalist hensive picture of various phases of life and activity
country is naturally beset with extreme difficulties. in the Soviet Union today. The cost was negligible.
With the slender financial resources available to these As a result of a Conference of delegates from the
groups a wide range of technical equipment is practi- various Workers' Film Societies, a decision was made
cally out of the question. to produce a somewhat more ambitious effort. It was
Does this mean that we should content ourselves decided to popularise filmically the Workers' Charter,
with theorising over someone else's films until the the militant programs of the revolutionary workers.
revolution places the studios, the equipment and the An outline scenario was prepared and I was given
money in our hands? responsibilty for its production.
Obviously such a policy would make the work- The film 1931 is its title has now been com-
ers' film groups a mere collection of critics, stifling the pleted and was received enthusiastically at its first
creative impulses that are to be found everywhere in London presentation, igji shows how the dockers,
our movement. the railwaymen, the miners, the textile and steel work-
Whatever the difficulties, we must combine the socio- ers are exploited under the rationalisation attacks of
logical and technical study of the Soviet films with the employers. The imperialist character of British
production work of our own, however crude and frag- capitalism emphasised with shots of slave labour
is
mentary it may be in the first stages. in China and the suppression of native revolts by
We must learn to master, in a practical way, the troops and warships.
elements of film production so that when we have the Shots of unemployed workers at the Labour Ex-
resources after the revolution we shall know how to changes, and the slums where the workers live are
make use of them. contrasted with the luxury pursuits and wealth of the
Although the Workers' Film Movement in Britain bourgeosie.
is quite young, it has tackled this production problem The struggles of the colonial workers are cross-cut
and has already certain achievements to its credit. with those of the British workers and there is a sym-
What form of production is possible? I suggest that bolical sequence urging solidarity with the Soviet
we can at least make a start with (i) workers' news Union. Various shots of British workers in action,
strikes, marches and demonstrations build up in a
reels; (2) montage films; (3) documentaries.
Here in Britainwe have achieved somethinga very rising tempo to the fade-out title, a map of Britain,
little something in these three forms. We have made with the words "THEIR OWN" superimposed.
three news reels, each about one thousand feet in Difficulties of securing interior scenes of factory and
The subjects covered by
length. these reels include the workshop conditions necessitated the borrowing of
May Day demonstrations, the International Day of certain sequences from other films, but a very con-
Struggle against Unemployment, the strike of the Lan- siderable proportion of the film we shot ourselves with
cashire textile operatives, and the Unemployed Hunger a portablehand camera. The film is entirely document-
March. ary; we employed no actors and no studio settings. It
A single reel montage-film has been made under runs about 1,600 feet and costs under 50 pounds.
the of Glimpses of Modern Russia. This entirely
title As an experiment, 1931 is valuable, not only for
consists of cut-outs from Soviet films imported into its propaganda content, but because it has taught us
Britain. The material was collected and fashioned into that workers' production is possible even with the most
a rhythmical pattern. The result is a fairly compre- limited resources.
STEPHEN CLARKSON
the London branch of the Federation of Workers' siderable portion was taken out of doors with only a
Film began a new season in the fall.
Societies, hand camera. "The film endeavors, necessarily brief-
The programme was particularly notable. The
last ly, to emphasize the unemployment, poverty and ex-
first film was a Chaplin comedy and made interesting ploitation of the workers in capitalist England and to
comparison with a film prepared by the London Work- show how the Charter is a weapon which the workers
er's Film Society, called Nineteen Thirty-One, which have forged in their economic and political struggles."
42
The brilliant cutting by Ralph Bond, who directed, it says . . . "The social importance of the Blue Express
has resulted in a documentary that is not only remark- is equalled by its superb artistic qualities. The tech-
able in its power of expression, but valuable as a histor- nical resources of the director, his inspired symbolism,
ical document, and the pride of the members of the his profound sense of satire, his rhythmical cutting, his
Federation. dialectical treatment of the social class-conflicts in
The item was the Blue Express, and after she
final China today, have contributed to making the Blue
had been driven victoriously over the frontier, one left Express the most important work from Russian stu-
the kino in a state of mind in which admiration for dios during 1930." And one may add that Ilya Trau-
the technique and consideration of the idea were fight- berg, the director, takes his place with Eisenstein,
ing for footage. Pudovkin, Dovzhenko, and Room.
The Blue Express (sometimes known as China There was an interesting repertory season at Strat-
Express) is one of the finest examples of Russian ford, an east London district, where the local censor
technique that the writer has had the opportunity has taken a sane attitude towards The General Line,
of seeing, and it is hoped that by the time this article Tur\sib, Earth, The Ghost that Never Returns, Storm
is printed, Americans will have had the opportunity Over Asia, Men of the Woods, Giant Harvest, and a
of seeing it. It is wonderful. The quick cutting to series of interesting shorts, both new and old.
significant detail is used with more skill than ever Earth is the most recent Russian film to be shown here,
before and the musical accompaniment by Edmund but it is not possible to form any fair opinion, as the
Meisel with mixed sound-effects produces an almost censor had been peculiarly ham-fisted with his ignor-
perfect harmony of sound and sight. It is the first Rus- ant shears. But the original treatment of an entirely
sian syncronized film and gives great insight into the new subject, or rather an old subject from a new ap-
almost unconsidered problems of visio-aural coordina- proach, makes Dovzhenko as important in the Rus-
tion. The programme aptly describes the film when sian cinema as Ilya Trauberg.
VICTOR P. SMIRNOV
The development of sound in the Soviet cinema took vitch, proves correct the Soviet policy of assimilating
place in the latter months and during 1931.
of 1930 foreign experience and developing a Soviet industry
Although Soviet cinematography was able to profit of producing sound recordingand sound reproducing
by the machine achievements of the United States (al-
ready a veteran in the sound film field), and by the
equipment. The recording in these pictures is little,
if at all, inferior in quality to European productions.
A
achievements of the younger German sound film in- Among the important sound pictures to be released
dustry, nevertheless, it had to go through its own per- in 193 1, is the film Fear, directed by Room. Its scen-
iod of infancy and suffer all the ills of that period. ario was written by the talented young playwright,
The first steps of the Soviet sound cinematography A. N. Afenogenov.
were timid. But the earlier experiments in sound in In 1 93 1 the number of Soviet sound films, includ-
the United States and Germany helped the Soviet cine- ing the synchronized ones, was modest enough; thirty-
ma in shortening this period of infancy, and greatly two were made, of which twelve were features, the
accelerated its progress. other twenty being educational. In 1932, Soyuzkino's
In 193 1 the sound film industry began to train peo- schedule calls for a great increase. One hundred sound
ple for the new medium; began to test and select the films will be produced; twenty-five of them features
best Soviet recording systems, and to discover writers and the remaining of an educational nature. In 1931
whose manuscripts were suitable for sound films. there were only 50 sound screens; in 1932 the number
There are three systems of recording in use in the of sound screens will reach three thousand.
Soviet Union now: the Shorin, the Tager, and the
In spite of the fact that the old motion picture stu-
system devised by the engineers Othotnikov and Mar-
dios of the Soviet Union are not well adapted to the
shakovitch. Professor Chernyshev did valuable work
production of sound films, this year will, no doubt,
with neon lamps, which should also be mentioned.
be utilized in filling the gap in sound film technique
The fact that some of the best composers of our the gap that resulted from the late entrance of Soviet
Deshevov, Shostakovitch, and
times Glier among cinematography into the sound field. 1932 will see the
them have written for the new sound films, is espe- Soviet cinema brought back to its high standard of
cially noteworthy. The first two mentioned are inter- artistic quality, which was somewhat lowered during
nationally known. the last years, due to the reconstruction of the industry.
Analysis of the production of 1931 shows that Soviet This is assured by the enthusiastic response of the Union
cinematography is fast acquiring experience and mech- of Proletarian Writers and Composers to Soyuzkino's
anical technique equal to that of the advanced nations. appeal to participate in the creation of a new and power-
The appearance on the sound screens of Western ful branch of art that will be accessible to millions of
Europe of such films as Road To Life with Shostako- people.
43
G.L.GEORGE
Translated by H. J. Salemson
PARIS LETTER
in Germany and in England, and with no small suc- shown on the screens of America, Fifty Million French-
cess. But it will not be seen in France. For the first men, a film definitely aimed against the good name of
time, the true reasons for suppressing this picture here France."
have just been revealed and, as usual in such cases, This chastisement was revoked after a short time,
the repulsive stench of police and business "plots" ac- but Beggars' Opera still was not permitted.
companies their announcement. The letter, written by This is the situation in France. Therein lies a con-
the director of the prefectorial board of censorship to fession of failure. When, after sixty years of "demo-
the company which was to release the picture in France, cracy," the leaders of a country are reduced to emas-
is definite and significant. The following deletions were culating a film, for fear that the masses might find in
it some encouragement toward a supreme revolt, one
demanded in this letter:
can conclude that they are condemning their own crea-
The delegate of the Prefecture of Police considered
tion and admitting that they are unable to retain gov-
"indecent" the showing of a prostitute accosting a man
ernmental power in any manner other than police
on the street. No doubt, he wishes to see this only on
dictatorship.
the sidewalks of Paris.
Soviet Films in France
Furthermore, he forbade the showing of a scene in
The treatment given Pabst's picture can give only
which bribery is clearly established when the jailer weak idea of the systematic manner in which Soviet
a
Mackie Knife, leader of the bandits, that he has
tells
films are boycotted in France. Still, through the rela-
manacles at every price and, finally, releases his wrists
tions of the French director, Abel Gance, at the Quai
in exchange for 50 pounds. This episode is considered
d'Orsay, it is possible that some of them may be author-
topical because, recently, in a provincial prison, an
ized for public showing. In this way, Along the Quiet
inmate was freed through the corruption of several
Don, made by Olga Preobrajenskaya, director of The
guards.
Women of Riazan, has been shown at Studio 28, a small
The delegate of the Ministry of the Interior consi- avant-garde house. But this is obviously not what might
dered the speech made by the beggars' chief, subversive have been hoped for. Needless to say, the admirable
and unwarranted. Under no conditions can talking Russian films are not meant for a few snobs and esthetes,
pictures mention the hard hearts and sensitive nerves
but for wide, general audiences which might profitably
of the rich who are responsible for the misery of the
come to know their lessons of beauty and culture. In
poor (sic). that, too, France is considerably behind the other
The Foreign Affairs delegate formally opposed show- nations.
ing a close-up of the Queen of England, livid with Elsewhere, despite an imperialism and a hatred of
fear and hiding her face behind a bouquet of flowers the Soviets inno wise inferior to those of the French
as she beholds the beggars. The scenes of the beggars bourgeoisie, such masterpieces as Potem\in, Soil,
being brutally disbanded by the police did not have to October, and others, the true classics of the screen,
be deleted. Naturally, in a bourgeois film, mass demon- have been recognized and authorized for general re-
strations can be shown only if participants are massacred
In France, they are not even submitted to a board
lease.
and beaten by the "defenders of law and order." That of censors whose answer is so certain beforehand.
is the safest policy. How can we forget that, after the "subversive" passages
The line also have to be cut in which Mackie
would of Pudovkin's great film, Mother, were deleted, the
Knife an ex-police official will always make
states that film was only one-half of its original length?
a good bank director, because there have been so many According announcements, Old and New,
to late
prefecture employees and even retired Prefects of heretofore suppressed, will be run at Studio 28, too.
Police who have become bank administrators. But here is another beautiful example of the hypocrisy
In agreement with the firm's executives, Pabst re- of the stalwart guardians of our virtue: the film will
fused tomake these cuts which would have taken all not be shown under its real title, which has become
meaning away from his film, and he invited the entire too well-known. Instead, it will be authorized only if
French Parliament to a private showing of Beggars' titled The Struggle for the Land.
44
b> *
SEYMOUR STERN
47
Hollywood's degeneration. Fundamentally, in the deep- high marks of attainment on this side of the Adantic,
est dialectical sense, the basic causes of the stupidity, we shall be able to judge everything else accordingly.
ignorance and tyranny of the American film-industry Of ocurse, the moment we say "Griffith," we evoke
are indissolubly connected with the Marxian causal instantaneously the more fundamental montage-system
factors. of the Soviet directors, who developed Griffith's ele-
mentary discoveries to their logical conclusion. But in
The whole mountain of celluloidal rubbish heaped
this instance, for purposes of historical review and in
up under the electric sign, "HOLLYWOOD," is a
order to obtain a proper perspective on the present
dialectical product, a crazy but inevitable monument,
film situation in America, we shall use only the more
of the decayed culture of the American bourgeois class.
general and elementary principles of Soviet film-ideo-
No wonder, then, that in the final stage of capitalist
logy as a means of comparison and definition.
society, when world capitalism has already begun its
mad plunge downward, Hollywood's movies are eager- FILM TECHNIQUE IN HOLLYWOOD
ly sought by "tired business-men" to release them a
Today methods of film technique obtain to a far
false
moment from their sorrow! greater degree in Hollywood, and are more desperately
The existence of an institution through a period of adhered to by the directors and "master" technicians of
time need not signify progress; it may indicate retro- the American film-industry, than at any previous period.
gression. On one hand, the Soviet cinema in seven The essential reason for this is: overcapitalization of the
years has advanced to a condition of artistic conquest industry and the tyrannical use
of power by the control-
that no one had ever dreamed of, not even the vener- ling interests have driven experimentation out of the
able old Elie Faure in his Art of Cineplastics, nor such studios or underground, and even the best directors, irre-
superficial, muddle-headed art-critics as Gilbert Seldes, spective of what ingenuity they may possess, must con-
whom we now perceive to have been captivated by the form to outworn and illogical conventions.
decadent avant garde cinema of France. On the other The photography of the Hollywood product is in
hand, there is the "film" developed by Hollywood. itself a summary expression of a false, romantic, bour-
Degenerative impulses from the beginning; misunder- geois oudook on life and the American scene. But it
standing of the basic principles of film-form; relent- is in cutting, in the editing-process, that we find the
less abuse and persecution of the small minority of greatest source of Hollywood's corruption of film-
useful and creative men involved (Seastrom, Flaherty, technique. In this sphere, experimentation of even the
Stroheim, Dupont, Murnau); extension of false tech- most elementary nature by experimentation we mean
nique; growth and deliberate encouragement of tech- creative activity, the seeking of new expressive forms,
nical creative methods (cutting, photography, direc- the action of the artisdc intellect is to denied the
tion and scenario-writing) that are essentially non- makers of films. In its place stand certain myths, certain
filmic and that have been obviously inspired by purely falsehoods, of film-construction.
commercial exigencies during the industry's periodic
Even if it were not for the low, moronic substance
panics.
of Hollywood pictures, the predominance of these
The Hollywood technique of today is a mirage falsehoods, the conviction of the majority of the direc-
gready admired by certain bourgeois film-producers tors that these false methods are the correct methods
and even by some of the "advanced" theorists of of filmic contraction, would alone absolutely forbid
Europe, particularly of France. The French group, any intention of assigning a place to the Hollywood
for example, freely admit the accidental, crazy tech- product among genuine film accomplishments.
nique of the American film, but they find in the pro-
Here; for example, is an incomplete "catechism"
duct itself a certain mechanized good-natured elan that
of the lies and illusions in which the Hollywood pro-
is missing in their own lives. It is therefore possible
ducers place their faith:
for them either to ignore the technique or to find in
"accident" a source
of virtue never mind at the 1. If a director has been "trained" in the cutting-depart-
ment, he is ipso-facto a "wise" director and a "master"
expense of how manythousands of Hollywood's wage-
of montage. (This half-truth emanates from the well-
slaves who periodically pay the highest price for these known case of Milestone. I shall discuss the connection
directorial "accidents"!
and so they have propagated of Milestone with American cutting-methods later.)
throughout Europe a hybrid-American conception of 2. When no other means of transition between the shots
the cinema that is really quite attractive to many bour- suggests itself, use a "lap dissolve."
geois esthetes. Happily, the mirage is even at this very 3. The "lap dissolve" is useful at all times as a means of
moment beginning to grow dim on the horizon, and smooth visual flow. (In this error alone
be found may
the key to the technical degeneration of the American
between the growing proletarian thunder at home and
film.)
the death-ratde noise of the American talkie across the
4. The function of film-photography to please the
sea, the bourgeois esthetes of Western Europe who for
is
48
traditionalizing has cheated the masses of movie-goers valid as an illustration of the power of time-concentration and
time-montage, but I have quoted it here with reference to the
out of a rich esthetic experience, and incidentally ef-
treatment of space. However, it is more celebrated for the mont-
fected a wholesale corruption of cinema in the West- age of time. Even the broad masses of people who have seen
ern world, it is necessary, first, to examine briefly the this tremendous film, without knowing a thing about film-tech-
essential points of the most important theory of film- nique, have marvelled at the violent parallelisms of the modern
locomotive racing across the landscape and the massed chariots
construction in the history of the art and, second, to
of Cyrus sweeping over the desert toward Babylon. The equal
analyze the salient construction-methods of Holly- of this has not been achieved in the subsequent fifteen years of
wood in the light of this theory. American cinema.
49
We arc led to expect a change of shot, but, instead, sequence of the Soviet film In Old Siberia (Zuchthaus
we continue to gaze at this relatively motionless close- Nach Sibirien) directed by Raismann, is important: 2
up of the Red flag. Main Title:
Fully fifteen to twenty seconds (a long time in screen 1. Siberian sky.
action) pass before anything happens. And then, im-
2. on insignia
Partial dissolve into aurora design
perceptably at first, the Red flag dissolves slowly
of Greek Catholic Church. This design grad-
almost sadly, it seems! into the white flag of the
ually overspreads the entire s\y and the s%y
counter-revolutionary armies!
finally dissolves out.
In a single carefully developed dissolve, without a
3. Dissolve into composition-shot of a group of
change of camera-placement and with no organic spat-
church buildings.
tial motion, a lapse of time and a drastic reversal of
4. Dissolve into huge tower of Greek Catholic
situation are conveyed to the spectator.
Church.
These incidents have been cited as exampels of con-
tinuity, of the possibilities and variations of continuity- 5. Dissolve into huge Christ figure.
treatment, but, as a matter of they cannot be fact, 6. Dissolve from Christ figure into group of
thought of, from a technical and esthetic point of view, prison buildings.
in terms so simple and superficial. To define the meth- 7. Dissolve into a different group of prison
ods of continuity utilized to weld the film into an buildings.
artistic, structural whole, the Russians have taken from
8. DIRECT CUT
to long-shot of a gloomy
the French a word that in the last two years has creat- prison and a snow-waste in Siberia.
ed immense excitement and considerable anguish in
9. Perspective shot of a line of prisoners march-
the Western world, especially in Hollywood. I refer,
ing across the frozen waste, silhouetted against
of course, to the word "montage." As unfamiliar as
bleak Siberian sky.
this term is to many
people in America in connection
with the creative problems of the motion picture, it is
There are very important conclusions to be drawn
from the above continuity. For one thing, note that
a relatively simple matter to explain its meaning.
the lap dissolve is not used here as a slip-shod connect-
To mount a film means, broadly speaking, to organ-
But means ive of shots,having no filmically logical reason for its
ize it in a logical order of continuity. it
existence. But it is employed as a means of suggesting
more than this. The montage of a film implies certain
to the spectator the objective connection between the
definite ideas of cutting with respect to the internal
various elements (prisons, churches, facades, religious
relationship of its parts. For example: the proportion-
symbols.) The dissolve of one into another is an im-
ing of sequences on the basis of (i) the number of
shots required to build up each sequence and (2) the
plied association which would be either lost or very
length of each particular shot in relation to the length unclear if were used.
direct cuts
of every other shot. These two considerations lead But, at the end of this group of shots (1-7), occurs
di reedy to the establishment of tempo, rhythm and a direct cut after a whole series of dissolves into the
general lines or tendencies of movement. culmination-shot (the prison on the snow-plain) to
The reward montage,
for the correct building-up, or which all preceding seven shots are related as a collect-
of tempo in a scene of great emotional power, or for ive unit. And the prison itself is the main setting of
the montage of a strong, irresistible rhythm in a se- the story.
quence of mass-action and many conflicting currents This use of the dissolve is a radically different thing
of movement (as, for example, the massacre sequence from the nonsensical use or rather, misuse, of dissolves
in Potem\in) is the evocation of intense emotional in pictures of Hollywood, where we see one room
response from the audience. "melting" into another, or a man walking from one
It would leave too serious a gap to omit one consider- room to the next in a "lap dissolve" for which there
ation of the montage-process that is more advanced is no logical filmic reason except that the director and
and that is, perhaps, of even deeper significance. the cutter did not know how to build the continuity.'
Specifically: the montage of images which have no Another important observation to be made from Rais-
external, or subjective connection, but whose objective mann's continuity is the minimum time-element and
(meaning) connection is decisive. In such connections space-element involved in the transition from one image
of images, regardless of the unifying process by Eisen- to the next. These elements are present, but only in the
stein's "conflict basis" of images, or by Kuleshov's broadest sense. We know that it is Siberia, that it is
early "brick-upon-brick" connection process, the ele- in the time of the Czar, that there is a significant con-
ments of time and space do not enter into considera- nection between Greek Catholic Church and Czarist
tion.The following simple example from the opening
3
The most conspicuous misuse of the lap dissolve occurs in-
2
This is one of the least important of the Soviet films, but one cessantly in the pictures of one of the worst American directors:
which nicely suits our purpose of analyzing an elementary exam- Josef "von" Sternberg. It would make too long a digression to
ple. Wc need not go to Eisenstein or to Dovzhenko at this stage of relate all that this man does not know about film-construction and
analysis, since the construction of "non-match" images in their direction, but his recourse to endless series of dissolves gives us
films is undertaken on an entirely different theoretical basis a cue to the basis of his perverse idea of the cinema. In one of
that of purely overtonal and intellectual-symbolical imagery along his recent pictures, Dishonored, he used so many dissolves that
lines of "conflict" and "synthesis" respectively. Raismann is the film became optically tiresome^ entirely apart from the poor
one of the youngsters among Soviet producers, and we could direction, etc. One shot melted into another, and this process
even choose examples from Kuleshov, the pioneer of Russian was kept up relentlessly, without stop, until the picture was a
directors, whom Eisenstein has termed "theoretically quite anti- confusion of mixing, dissolving, inter-melting scenes and it was
quated." We do not need to travel to the farthest terminal of sometimes difficult to determine which was which. This, of course,
the left cinema-line in order to provide examples that, by con- was an extreme misuse of a false method which even the betteT-
trast, show how backward Hollywood really is. informed directors use in all their films.
50
.
prison. The atmosphere of gloom, oppression, tyranny, manifestly it cannot be achieved without resort to the
dominance of the church, very strongly con-
etc., is physical operation of cutting.
veyed. And as concerns the symbolical value of the Up few years ago, the American directors used
to a
images (the church insignia, the Christ figure, etc.) to pride themselves on their ability to edit (mount)
after seeing this picture, I made the following note, their films in a way that compelled the attention of
which I have incorporated in my essay, Principles of the audience. We
may expose this fallacy in passing.
the New World-Cinema: Generally, the stupidity of American directors, a stu-
"To operate as a symbol in an explicit symbol-rela- piditybeyond description, was covered up by the clever
tionship, an image need not be temporally (film-chro- work who had a better sense of
of an obscure cutter
nologically) or spatially (film-geographically) con- the filmic structure than the director and who was,
nected with other images that precede or follow it ... therefore, permitted to earn $25.00 a week for his
This summation montage, which opens the film, con- knowledge as against hundreds of dollars or more per
sists of elements (prisons, churches, facades, religious week that the director got for his ignorance.
symbols, etc.) which have no geographical connection
Moreover, the excessively limited knowledge of the
with each other or with the action projected, but which
are coordinated as essential elements in the explicit
cutters themselves
remarkable beside that of the di-
rectors, but pathetic beside that of the Soviet techni-
symbol-relationship formulating
church and prison (oppression in old Siberia)."
the association of
cians never really entitled the American movie-crowd
to toot theirhorns so loudly about their editing abili-
And I added
with almost the solitary excep-
that,
ties. They understood editing, i.e., a certain ingenious
tion of Griffiith (in his earlier days), this
is a phase
assembling of the shots to make the picture "flow
of the montage of symbols entirely unknown to Ameri-
smoothly." And they knew it better than the Germans
can picture-makers.
or the Swedes, and better than the French commercial
From these few simple examples we can realize: (i)
directors.Montage, however, the revolutionary creative
the significance of montage as the one unifying factor
extension of the editing-process, they have never known
in filmization and (2) the importance of montage-
as a group and known but superficially in single cases.
ideology as a method of dialectical analysis of film-
construction. (Cine-analysis.) It was characteristically brazen of the shyster-direc-
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to mention that the exam- tors of Hollywood to pretend that they had attained
ples we have offered hardly begin to give an idea of the the "highest mastery" of the cinema of any group on
vast and rich attainments of the Soviet cinema to date earth, but this sophism has been sufficiently punc-
in the creation of new, significant montage-forms. tured by superior Soviet accomplishments. What has
According to Pudovfyn, not been sufficiently emphasized is the fact that what-
ever artistic accomplishments the American film can
montage is "the logic," "the structural principle
of film-language" Film Grammar. show during
especially by
at least the first ten years of its existence,
way of montage, are either the achieve-
According to Eisenstein,
ments, or the imitation of the achievements, of one
montage is the mathematics of film-construc-
tion, the dialectical principles governing the dynamics man. And we have already seen that Griffiith, even
of film-form Film Dialectic.
though he towered far above anyone else in the epoch
dominated by his name, failed basically. But Griffith
And both Eisenstein and Pudovkin have emphas-
ized, again and again, that montage does not mean,
at his best distincdy knew how to "cut" indeed, how
and is not of necessity intrinsically identified with, to mount along at least metrical lines, and sometimes
quick, shortly-cut flashes of scenes pieced together in
in a starding way prophetic of Eisenstein's overtones.
world that montage does not mean cutting, although ity to handle '.the themes they are confronted with.
51
.
the continuity of a Soviet film to perceive how, even ment of actions and lines of movement unified in a
in the field of elementary metrical cutting, the Holly- single synthetic impulse" actions "converging in
. . .
In another article I characterized this as a "fiery, present review the standard methods, traditions
in
Heraclitean continuity," emphasizing the "intoxicat- and 'ideas" of the American bourgeois cinema and
ing interplay of conflicting elements (collision of shots, see how they measure up to the system of montage-
collision of angles, collision of tempos, collision of logic that has just been discussed.
52
^ii
Provincial Institutes, there are six of these, one in stage, contains an implicit attack on the proletariat
every Province, and they are equivalent to high schools and on those countries that are rich in prime raw mater-
in the U.S.A.,
as well as in the National University,* ials and in economic possibilities, which the imperialist
the Negro students often get the highest honors and robbers are seeking. I have never seen projected in an
are the best exponents of learning and are deeply American film the fundamental inequality between
esteemed and admired by their white comrades. bourgeosie and proletariat.
What is the attitude of the Cuban critics and intel- According to Marx, the arts are based
on the economic
lectuals toward Hollywood films ? structure. Nikolai Bukharin in his important work,
Cuban and Historical Materialism A System of Sociology ,Chapt. IV,
Petit bourgeoisie as they are, the critics ,
intellectuals are deeply interested in idealistic philo- p. 196, says:"Directly or indirectly, art is ultimately
sophical schools and other hocus-pocus, most of them determined in various ways by the economic structure
suffering from an irremediable spiritual and mental and by the stage of development of the social tech-
The New Babylon and The End of St. Petersburg sent social forms. Then
it will be in accord with that
without any comment or they charged them with the dialectic and revolutionary essence which I mentioned
accusation of "propaganda," as if every art in the before. This is what happens in the case of the Soviet
world has been anything else but a vehicle to carry films, but not so with the Hollywood pictures, which
on and extend the idea or the message of its author, are fetters, holding up and impeding the development
i.e., propaganda.
of the new art. There is a sharp contradiction between
the purposes for which American Capital is using the
Very few of the Cuban and intellectuals have
critics
cinema and the cinema's inner and authentic essence.
seen Potemkjn or the old American films, like Way
Down East or Broken Blossoms, for instance. They Every class in its dominating period has developed
have been interested in the films only for the past five an art of a particular mood or school of art, reinforc-
or six years, when European literati began to make ing its domination through that art. So the proletariat
will develop the cinema and make it fulfill its maxi-
so much noise about the new art, "Chaplin the ge-
nius," etc., and I do not believe they know anything
mum possibilities.
either about cutting or montage, ignoring the fact that Controlled by the bourgeoisie for its own benefit
these are the backbone, the very nerve, of cinema art. and used against the exploited, very soon the cinema
I do not hesitate in affirming that not one of our es- will turn itself,
for dialectical reasons, against the
thetes, art critics and intellectuals has heard of Eisen- bourgeoisie, helping the proletariat in its inevitable
stein's theories of cinematic arts, based on dialectic ma- historical rise to power and contributing to put an
terialism, the philosophy so deeply hated by them all. end to what Karl Marx called "the closing chapter of
the prehistoric stage of human society."
They do not realize that the cinema in inner
is
everyday use I better say mis-use of montage and pressed, from September 30, 1930 to the present, by
Machado's government because the students bitterly pro-
sound. They have accepted the talkies in the Holly-
tested against the brutal regime and against American
wood way, and those pictures, mere copies or photo- imperialism. Machado, like practically every president
graphs of theatrical pieces operettas, musical come- of Cuba, is an agent of American imperialism.
53
And we have not yet seen the
films of Dziga Vertov, Alexander Room,
Esther Schub, M. Kaufmann, Lev Kule-
schov, or the LEFT-group of Lenin-
grad. Very important productions from
Hol-
LINE) (Der Kampf um die Erde) stein Theatre on Broadway on an all-day-
influence was detectable in a certain
PAMIR (Expeditionary Film) run (continuous show) policy. This was
lywood production shortly afterwards.
A FRAGMENT OF AN EMPIRE a mistake from the start, since the nature
After Potemkin had been displayed in TURK-SIB of the picture urgently required that it
any number of theatres in and around CHINA EXPRESS (THE BLUE he seen by the audience from the begin-
Los Angeles and Hollywood, came a long EXPRESS) ning to the end, in sequence, and there-
stretchwhen no one heard anything fur- LASH OF THE CZAR fore on definite schedule. The next mis-
ther about Soviet films. But soon rumors take was the advertising, which was al-
began to come across the country from 1931
together hopeless. The third mistake was
New York, and friends of Russia heard SOIL (EARTH) the musical score for which Hammerstein
or read of the sensational New
stories STORM OVER ASIA hired a complete film-orchestra.This
York receptions accorded such pictures as IGDENBU score was utterly out of spirit with the
End of St. Peterburg, Ten Days That CITIES AND YEARS picture, the leader of the orchestra hav-
Shook the World and several others. TRANSPORT OF FIRE ing decided that it would be all right to
Pudovkin's powerful film of the Rus- AL YEMEN play the Song of the Flame (from one
sian Revolution, The End of St. Peters- CAIN AND ARTEM of Hammerstein's operettas) as a theme-
burg, was shown in 1929 at a Fox thea- STORM OVER ASIA (revival) piece. And to crown all these tragedies
of a large group of people in Hollywood itsch, Stabavoj, Preobrazhenskaja, Ekk, Yet, in spite of this, it ran at the Roxy
to look forward to that sanctified Friday and others. Theatre, the largest house in New York,
night on which a new one of those It is a good list, from one point of where it was held over a second week.
strange, startling and generally over-
powering Bolshevik films would be shown,
view namely, its variety and volume. In Detroit it ran three weeks at a large
But on the other hand, it is quite incom- Fox house. In other cities its success was
with Amkino's trade-mark of the sun plete. The Soviet Cinema is a fertile and proportionate. But after three years we
rising over the earth as a significant fore- productive field of artistic labor. The have not' yet had the opportunity of wit-
runner to the images themselves 1
number of it6 preeminent films exceeds nessing how Hollywood will take to this
Here is a complete list of the Russian that of all other nations taken together. gigantic film.
54
m
A "candid camera close-up" of a scene at the banquet of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences (of Hollywood, Cal.J on November u, 1931. The "candid camera," which
"pictures natural character studies of its subjects while they are unaware of its presence," here
shows Vice-President (of the U.S.A. I Charles E. Curtis (at right) in a pleasant little chat with
his sister, Mrs. Dolly Gann (at left). For those especially interested in the study of "motion pic-
ture arts and sciences." it will undoubtedly be valuable information to /(now that Mrs. Gann
wore "a white chiffon gown, exquisitely appliqued with white taffeta medallions embroidered
with gold thread. And real orchids." Photo courtesy Los Angeles Evening Herald.
Filmarte, packing the house with crowds get a feeble idea of what this beatific other examples of obvious, sentimental,
that received it with enthusiastic ap- banquet was like. bourgeois photography. Most of these
plause. This was especially significant in The awards made by the Academy rais-
reproductions are the efforts of camera-
view of the antagonism toward the yel- ed Although few people in Hol-
a storm. men engaged in the industry.)
low race that the fruit-capitalists of South- lywood took the whole circus seriously, Thus, while on one hand we fully agree
ern California have tried to foster among the cameramen were aroused. They were with the protests of the Hollywood
the population of this section. incensed over the Academy's selection of cameramen against the Academy's award
The fame of Storm Over Asia spread the photography of Tabu as the "best to Tabu as far as these protests are based
throughout the northern district of South- photographic work" of the year. Their on comparisons between working-condi-
ern California, and people came to see protestations were based on solid reason- tions on the Murnau-Flaherty production
it from towns twenty, thirty and fifty ing. and working-conditions in Hollywood,
miles away,
from Long Beach, Santa
Tabu, they claimed, was not a regular on the other hand, we fail to see what the
Ana, Laguna, Riverside and even from status of Murnau's photographer has to
studio-made picture. It was produced en-
Santa Barbara, ninety miles up the coast. do with it. As a matter of principle, we
tirely independent of studio-supervision,
In consequence, it was brought back to do not understand just where this issue
and it took approximately two years to
the Filmarte six months later for a sec- of "recognition" or "non-recognition"
complete. Furthermore, they objected, it
ond run. is easy to shoot a film in the South Sea
comes in. Most
Hollywood cameramen
The majority of the other Soviet films
Islands, where climate, quality of at- are so jealous and so completely flushed
shown in Hollywood were also very popu- with a sense of inferiority when they see
mosphere and many other material and
lar. The outstanding among successes a Soviet picture, that they either condemn
natural conditions are overwhelmingly
these were: Potemkin, Old and New, Ten the picture wildly or shut
in your favor. This is quite a different their eyes
Days That Shook the World, A Frag- thing from shooting pictures in a dull, to the tremendous power and honesty of
ment of an Empire extremely successful Soviet camera-work. They do not "recog-
China Express, Turk-Sib, Her Way of
flat-toned
wood.
real-estate bedlam like Holly-
nize" this camera-work. But does this
Love, Old Siberia, The Road to Life, mean anything? Is Soviet film-photo-
Up to this point the arguments of the
and The Five Year Plan. cameramen, wrathful at not having
so graphy bad photography, because Holly-
As these films continued to be shown, been considered for the coveted Academy wood photographers feel injured by the
one after another, increasing groups of "honor," were logical beyond dispute. comparison? Certainly not.
new people came to see them, while the But there was another angle to their ob- The cameramen's union of Hollywood
audiences who had followed them from an angle which some
jections, reveals understands very well why it has erected
the beginning came to expect higher
illuminating features of the peculiar psy- the insuperable barrier of an initiation-
standards and more finished results. Such
chology of the American movie-crowd. fee that ranges from $750.00 to $1000.00.
results were not always forthcoming due
These precious photographic geniuses of The cameramen's clique of Hollywood
to the fact that the order in which the
the Hollywood film-industry were all has no desire to encourage new talent,
Russian films were shown in Hollywood "hot and bothered" because the photo- to afford young creative ability a chance
was not coincident with the order in grapher of Tabu, so they maintained, was function. What does
to it care if there
which they had been produced in the US not a "recognized" photographer. be ten Tisses at the gates of Hollywood?
SR. Therefore, it often happened that after If it is moved at all by this fact, it will
Exactly what does this mean? What
an exceptionally wonderful film was be moved to crush them and to shut its
do they mean when they speak of a
shown, a poorer one, which had been gates. It does not "recognize" any other
photographer being "recognized" or "un-
produced several years earlier, followed
recognized"? Who does the recognizing? photography except its own or that which
it up. And a number of these poorer
sanctions for own
purposes as an ex-
By whose standards and by whose law it its
pictures were decided failures, both artist-
is an "outcast" photographer "not re- clusive economic clique, regardless of how
ically and commercially. Such as: The
cognized"? excellent, how truly wonderful other
Lash of the Czar, Cities and Years and photography may be. It is therefore sim-
A Son of the Land. But there is no doubt The answer, our opinion, is quite
in
ply another manifestation of that nar-
that if they had been released three years simple and can be expressed without any
row, ignorant outlook on the cinema-
ago, before Ten Days, Arsenal and other technical red tape. A movie photographer
tic accomplishments of other nations
picturesof a high standard, they would is "recognized" in Hollywood when he
which seems to be an inveterate charac-
not have been such commercial failures. is socially and economically a member
teristic of the Hollywood movie-mind.
In this respect, it is interesting to note of the cameramen's clique; when he is
that Cain and Arlem, Al Yemen, and a mejnber of the cameramen's union THE PROPAGANDA QUESTION
Igdenbu, three pictures of minor signifi- (virtually a social club), when he is "one Shortly after our third number appear-
cance, were quite popular at the Film- of the boys," as they say; when he plays ed, our esteemed contemporary, the Hol-
a good game of poker with his fellow- lywood
arte, but were very disappointing to the Spectator (formerly the Film
studio-people and intellectuals. cameramen, or otherwise "gets in the Spectator) in its issue of September 26,
(For details concerning the exhibition swim" of their social activities. 1931, took space to say a few remarks
and reception of the other Soviet films Being a "recognized" photographer, concerning Experimental Cinema, prole-
shown in Hollywood during the past two according to the cameramen's union, be- tariat art and the question of propaganda.
years, see the Hollywood Bulletin in "Ex- ing considered worthy enough to be given The writer stated that he was "suspic-
perimental Cinema," Nos. 2 and 3.) awards, honors, mentions, etc., has little, ious" when he read (in E. C. No. 3)
if anything, to do with one's photographic that the magazine would 'succeed in esta-
THE ACADEMY AND THE creative "Creative photographic
abilities. blishing the ideological and organization-
CAMERAMEN ability," as a matter of fact, means only al foundations of an American working-
The organization which styles itself the one thing in Hollywood: ability to photo- class cinema.' And he said that he was
"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and graph a weeping-willow tree so that it "surfeited" when he read comments on
Sciences" of Hollywood (!) had a rather resembles a nineteenth-century pastoral 'the American imperialist policy,' 'capital-
hectic time of it in its assignment of of a quiet English countryside, ability ist and 'working-class aud-
propaganda'
awards on Nov. 10. It awarded the var- to photograph a baby (ain't-it-cute, etc.), iences.' He went on to say that he did
ious prizes for the year's "artistic" achieve- afb'ilityto photograph a cross or some not recall "ever having met a man who
ments (sic), amid a terrifying gush of other religious symbol with emphasis on considered himself permanently a mem-
ballyhoo and vulgar publicity, the hub its sentimental appeal. This is "creative ber of the working class. I know many
of which was the dozing schnozzle of photography" a la Hollywood. who are undoubtedly members of such a
Vice-President (of the U. S. A.) Charlie (To appreciate the extent to which class, but they will bristle at the sugges-
Curtis. The dinner at which this august this bogus conception of photography pre- tion.The American as a race is young
personage somnambulistically presided vails in the American movie-capital, look and optimistic. He is content with the
over the Academy's august events need through any issue of International Photo- present system because there is fat in it.
57
If he can not secure the fat, his children minds and mental defectives? Truly, our This statement from a man who has
will, or his children's children and they friends, we are "surfeited" ! made one of the few meritorious films
will secure it without the fuss and 6trife The Spectator concluded its meditation produced in the United States impressed
of revolution. That is his dream. A dream in a rather strange and, we think, contra- us as being an honest, practical and in-
may be untrue, but while it endures its dictory way. It assured its readers that telligent recognition of what the Ameri-
potency is unquestionable." Experimental Cinema "will never be read can movie-system really is. The recent
by the working class it seeks to unshackle, attempts of certain directors to "graft
It is precisely because, as the Spectator
has so clearly stated, the American work- but the best minds of Hollywood may on" the montage-construction they have
er is not yet class-counscious, that Exper-
make some money out of its suggestions." seen in the Soviet productions are futile
nize the idiocy and futility of the tradi- "best minds" with ideas! We would like of Hollywood is to quicken the aud-
tional dream that in America every to know, however, in what way precisely ience's attention, but that excuse in it-
worker has the chance of becoming rich, the Spectator imagines that the film-ideol- self is a weak one and inconsistent with
ogy represented by Experimental Cinema the montage-ideology.
that we are earnestly and relentlessly
striving to establish in this country a can be grafted on to an opposite system, Directors who imagine they can pro-
cinema which will analyze and destroy the Hollywood system? And how does it duce great pictures merely by incorpor-
that dream in all its imbecilic aspects. reconcile its opinion that we cannot be ating a lot of quick cuts remind us of
read by the uneducated workers with its the "Socialists" and social reformers who
In this connection we may make the imagine that they have only to institute
suggestion that we can provide the "best
statement that life itself, in the form of de- certain reforms and "clean up" some ugly
minds" of Hollywood with ideas for fur-
pression, hunger and unprecedented cap- spots in the capitalist system in order
ther accumulation of money? Has the
italist brutality toward the working-class, to get rid of the evil itself and "evolve"
Spectator never heard of "educated mo-
is helping to burst this bubble. No doubt a better system. It is patch-work, ineffect-
rons"?
the Spectator is more or less dimly aware ive retrogressive
at best, at the worst.
of the mass bread-lines of the Eastern and SOVIET STIMULATION IN
mid-Western cities, of the mass hunger HOLLYWOOD "THE HOLLYWOOD CODE"
in "sunny California" and of such inter- In a recent conversation with one of Our friend Bryher, who co-edits Close
nationally famous instances of capitalist the editors of Experimental Cinema, Up with Kenneth MacPherson, had some
America's "brotherly attitude" toward its William K. Howard, director of While interesting things to say in a recent number
wage-slaves as the incarceration of Tom Gold, expressed himself with regard to of the magazine. In astrong and suc-
Mooney, the murder of Sacco and Van- the Russian cinema. He gave vent to his cessfully analytical attackagainst the
zetti, the massacring of Negroes, mine- unbounded admiration of the Soviet pro- "Hollywood Code" of picture-making,
workers, But perhaps the Spectator,
etc. ductions. He said that they were far and she wrote: "Wherever Hollywood has
though it may have heard something of away the greatest films in the world; been accepted, there has been a definite
the foregoing events (not to be thought that they had given an impetus to the lowering of the standards of cinema."
of, however, material for a
as possible cinema, the full effects of which could We are, of course, heartily in accord
movie-comedy or a bedroom "art" mas- not be calculated at the present time. He with this statement, and we believe
terpiece), is not yet acquainted with less said that up to the time when he first at least we sincerely hope that it marks
publicized affairs such as the present saw Soviet films, his interest in cinema a clear recognition on the part of Close
reign of terror in Harlan, Kentucky, or had begun to slacken and he felt that it Up of the character and extent of the
the endless number of cases of industrial opposition to Eisenstein's art.
was hopeless to try to create anything
persecution, stool pigeon espionage, police
bestiality and incommunicado imprison-
worthwhile the film and its problems
ity
We
of
no possibil-
maintain that there
two antipodal
reconciling these
is
58
:
world because of her love for an old admiration for the Soviet Union. Even would certainly be most inter-
it
father-mother-grandparent or a young before going to Russia, Mille startled De some producer take his eye
esting to see
brother-sister-orphan-child at choice, everyone by admitting bluntly that "there off the older arts, and the box office, and
helped by the patent-enamel body is something rotten at the core of our give free play to cinema technique, with
paint into which American stars are system." its infinite- possibilities."
dipped.
Rowland Brown,
(Ed. Note: No mention was made in this
of the film director
"The leader of the mutineers would Quick Millions, makes no secret of his
editorial
of S. M. Eisenstein, or of the
watch the advances, laugh,
doctor's Soviet cinema.)
sympathies with the first workers' and
remember in a cut-back his old mother, peasants' republic. One the eve of Nov Excerpt from an article in the Los Anges-
knock the doctor out, pat the girl out ember 7 (anniversary of the 1917 Revo- les Times of Sunday, August 9, entitled
of his way and sit down and drink.
lution), he sent a cablegram to the Soviet "The Reason Why Greta Garbo Will Not
The doctor, not being in uniform, Government in which he extended his Talk:"
would leave muttering in sinister ca- congratulations and stated that the sys-
mera dissolves. Through the Odessa tem of society being built up by the "Oh," said Greta, with a little sob of
mists, the mutineer and the girl would Soviet Government is "the first real ges- pure ecstasy, "I tell you what I like. I
discover love at first sight, to be bro- like to smell horses and look at sunsets."
ture at civilization."
ken apart at the first kiss clutch, by
memory of the salior's waiting Excerpts from the speech of Louis
the FILM CULTURE IN THE U. S. A.,
comrades. The heroine, jealous, would B. Mayer, Vice-President in change of
1931
wander to the steps. Then, since production Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
of
Headline on the front page of the Holly- Studios, at theAnnual Dinner of the Aca-
Hollywood is wealthy in ideas as well
Wood Daily Screen World, Saturday, demy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
as cameras, there are at least three
May 16: as reported in the Los Angeles Examiner
directions open to the Simple
story.
of November 11
love, the sailor is accused falsely by "HIGH-HATTY" DRAMAS
the doctor, is about to be shot, but is NUMEROUS "As one of the founders of the Aca-
rescued as the sheet drops, by a com- demy, am thrilled with pride
tonight
Repeated Warnings Against Intelligentsia I
rade or the girl; romantic drama, the as look upon this gathering, the most
Stuff Have Little Effect on Production" I
sailor is an officer disguised as a muti- distinguished ever assembled in the his-
Brilliant Thought from Improvement of
neer in order to discover some treach- tory of
Screen Entertainment, by Frank Woods, this institution.
erous plot to overwhelm the ship; or
a paper read at the Hollywood Conven-
a play of gangster life, the ship is
"From of our nation has
the capital
tion of the Society of Motion Picture
loaded with alcohol, and the doctor come Vice-President Crossing the Curtis.
Engineers, May 28: continent for the special purpose of at-
and the mutineer are leaders of two
separate bootlegging establishments. "... the news reel remains the one item tending this gathering, he honors us with
on the theatre program that retains a per- his presence and the good wishes of the
But the end of all the stories must be
the same: a triumphal bridal proces- manent public appeal. Why is this? The President of the United States.
sion down the Odessa steps, Cossacks reason is perfectly apparent. It tells the
"Leaving his busy office in Sacramento
in front with bayonets decorated with truth about things of interest. There is
in order to be with us, the chief execu-
orange blossoms, sailors behind, the magic in the truth. Let us not forget this
tive of the Stateof California graces our
folk songs of the world, and on the phrase. There is magic in the truth."
gathering with his presence. Surely this
edges, children with doves. The dif-
From the Hollywood Herald, June 16: assemblage would be woefully incomplete
ference between this story and Potem-
"The 'housewarming' at Bernie Toplit- without the presence of Governor James
kin, is the difference between kitsch
zky's new Malibu Beach home turned in-
Rolph.
and art."
to one of the largest and most artistic
Bryher concludes by suggesting that "Senators, public officials and some 200
parties ever 'thrown' for the picture
the next time the reader visits an Amer- leading newspaper publishers, men whose
colony. A beach set, 'Paris Streets' with
fingers are ever on the public pulse and
ican movie, he should form a mental pic-
cafe exteriors and tables on the strand, whose wisdom
ture of the way Eisenstein or Pudovkin in a great measure guides
and an Eiffel Tower illuminated in the
would have treated the same subject and, the trend of public affairs, are among our
background, cost in excess of $2,000.
conversely, the next time he sees a Soviet distinguished guests."
Two hundred guests, including many in-
film he should imagine in his mind's eye
dustry executives, attended, and two or- "As president of the Producers' As-
how Hollywood would have made it. The
chestras provided Spanish music and jazz, sociation, I perhaps am in a specially ad-
movie-goer will then understand, says
respectively. Specialties were contributed vantageous position to know just how
Bryher, "why the tinned ideas of Holly-
by Marilyn Miller, Buddy De Sylva, Tom much the industry owes to the Academy
wood are so dangerous."
Patricola, Harry Rosenthal, Nina May . . . and I say to you tonight, that it is
McKinney, Gus Shy, June MacCloy, the greatest factor for progress the pro-
CHAPLIN, DE MILLE, AND Raquel Torres and Dorothy Burgess." ducing industry has ever known.
ROWLAND BROWN ON CAPITAL-
ISM AND THE SOVIET UNION From Variety, June 23: "The producing of pictures is a com-
There is a definite growth of liberal plicated affair. It involves every bewilder-
"I am not a radical," Mr. DeMille said,
and semi-radical sentiment among the ment, from the intricate mazes of an ab-
"but now things are a question of right
more intelligent members of Holly-
the truse science to the oftentimes equally
and wrong .... There is something rot-
wood film-colony. Some of them even intricate problem of the human equation.
ten at the core of our system."
read The New
Masses, The Left, and other "In this maze of bewilderment, the
of the Revolution, but with
publications From an editorial in the New York Times, Academy has been a guiding light, straight-
what degree of understanding, apprecia- entitled A Shakespeare for the Films, ening out our misunderstandings, solv-
tion and acceptance remains yet to be July 27: ing our technical problems, helping us
seen. "The movie world is worried. In spite improve the artistry of our pictures and
Recently, three prominent
individuals of the gigantic growth of the industry, creating greater understanding between
in the American film-industry have ex- with its chains of theatres round the industry and public.
pressed themselves openly and unminc- world, there is cause for anxiety. Some-
"And so tonight we are gathered to
ingly on the question of capitalism's thing more than the depression is at
bestow the symbols of the accomplish-
downfall and the Soviet Union. work. One producer defined the trouble:
ments in the paths of progress. The little
London Charlie Chaplin
We don't know what we want exactly,
In recently- statuettes to be awarded tonight are, in
and the public doesn't know what it wants.
said that he did not see how the capitalist themselves, small things, but their signi-
A more thoughtful analysis is offered by
system could endure another five years. ficance is truly great. Each and every
Marcel Rouff in an article in the Mercure
one stands for an achievement of im-
De returning from the USSR,
Mille, de France. He believes that the reason
portance and benefit not only to us here
in an interview published in the Los An- for the nralaise in films is revealed by
tonight, but to the world at large."
geles Record and other papers, was not the cry of one expert: When shall we
slow in declaring his enthusiasm and have a Shakespeare of the cinema? Recent announcement of the Fox film
59
The Yellow Ticket, as advertised in Los tyranny . . . where "The Yellow tative level. The sound-reproduction of
Angeles newspapers: Ticket" is a (badge of shame, but this picture is not equal to that of the
still a of privilege
pass .into . . most banal American movie. It is greatly
TOMORROW this maelstrom of blackened he.irts inferior to thatof Ozep's Karamazov.
AT TWO THEATRES is woven a courageous romance Whether this due entirely to the inferior
is
GLORIOUS WOMANHOOD ... a love that defied the persecu- mechanical equipment of Soviet studios
BRANDED BY A NATION tion of a nation at the present time, or to a bad print, is
REVELING IN SIN! Raoul Walsh's hard to say. But now and then the sound-
Russia ! .of . . Land drama .. .
recording impaired Ekk's film to a great
land of licensed love . . . land of "YELLOW TICKET" extent.
less children," "wild boys"), The Road First, the preview audience. (Private everyone.
to Life, was given its American premiere previews of Soviet films are always held
Yet many people here have criticized
in Hollywood. This is the first time at the Filmarte, the only theatre where
it as being "too romantic." The emotion-
that the premiere of a Soviet film has Russian films are shown, a few days in
alism of the film, they said, was not
taken place in Hollywood instead of in advance of the public presentation.)
consistent with the clear-cut Marxist poli-
New York. The reason for the change This audience comprised, altogether, tical ideology.
in policy is probably due to the keen about 60 to 70 individuals. At the film's
interest that the American movie-indus- Several others held the characteristi-
conclusion, they all applauded enthusias-
try has manifested in the question of how cally bourgeois-American view that the
tically. was clear that Ekk's work real-
It
Russia would come through with sound ly pleased them because two other Soviet
film is "superficial" because it fails to
60
cation" the locomotive, accused Ekk
of asked questions, they have not analyzed With this banal story of the new life
of a of "technological fetishism."
sort it, discussed montage or argued about of Russia, the author of The End of Saint
(Cf. Anisimov'i criticism of Eisenstein "technological fetishism." They simply Petersburg has made an admirable film.
in Literature of the World Revolution have seen the film and have been tre- The sound, recorded by professor Obo-
No. 3.) mendously impressed. Ienski, is used by Pudovkin to such ad-
But on the other hand, many hungry The success of The Road to Life in vantage that it is obvious that after a
people, many people who have long been Hollywood marks the beginning of a few laboratory experiments he has learn-
without jobs
Hollywood's unorganized, very promising epoch of Soviet sound- ed to exploit it to the utmost
unformed "bread-line" have managed films in the United States. The superlative quality of the photog-
to see The Road to Life. They have not Hollywood, Calif. raphy, a perfect rhythm never interrupted
in its continuity and harmony, a complete
comprehension of the individual and col-
lective souls of the Russian people, and
especially the "Pudovkin manner," per-
sonal and vibrant, his exact appreciation
of the value and duration o fevery im-
It is
is Beautiful,"
61
Jl
own report on the progress of his work. resurrect the revolutionary dreams of his the end he goes with the American Ex-
Two other feature films will be re- The Brothers Kara-
youth, comes too late. peditionary Forces to Siberia. Here he
The House of
leased in the near future, mazov, whose heroes he wanted to make deserts and joins the Revolution, to help
The Dead and The Horizon. into revolutionaries, remains unfinished. the Bolsheviks in the construction of the
The House of the Dead is being direct- The Horizon, the other feature sound Soviet Union.
ed byFedorov, a co-worker of Meyer- film, under the direction of Kuleshov,
is
hold whose work, Roar, China! is well the former teacher of Pudovkin. The
Another film of the young director,
50,000 workers
and intellectuals in America, organized and functioning in revolu-
their spokesman,
W MASSES
Only American Monthly of Revolutionary Art and Literature
47 Artists
including GROPPER, BURCK, GELLERT, DEHN, LOZO-
WICK, BARD, HERNANDEZ contribute satirical cartoons and
drawings.
Workers Art
all workers cultural activities are reported and discussed in the first
62
SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY
,-wJ^^ PUBLISHED MONTHLY
Ol4 iSetV
XT.,-.. 71/f ^. BY THE
JMagaZine friends of the soviet union
ready now
SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY, 80 East 11th Street, New York City, N. Y. Marcel Scherer, National Sec-
retary. Subscription: $1.00 per year in U. S. A. and Mexico; Foreign: $1.50 per year. Single copies
10 cents.
The LEF
JUST OFF THE PRESS
containing articles of exceptional interest to every
Subscription $2 a year;
portant younger writers in America: Horace Greg-
Single
$2.50 foreign. ory, Paul Peters, Murray Godwin, Herman Spector,
Copies 50 cents. Norman Macleod, Robert Cruden, H. L. Lewis, etc.
THE LEFT is published at 218 W. 3rd St., Davenport, Iowa, and is edited by Jay du Von, Marvin Klein
and George Redfield.
63
TIIhe spirit of the age HOUND
AND
demands new typographic expression
Bookings to Clubs
Fraternal Organizations
Workers' Theatres
of
Christel Gang**
SOVKINO FILMS Formerly with Cecil B. De Mille and
WELT- FILMS Universal
secretary
Studios as translator and
in German and English.
PROMETHEUS
German Staff Translator for
and Experimental Cinema
WORKING-CLASS WRITE
NEWSREELS 318 West Ninth St., Room 802
Los Angeles, Calif.
64
.
ti
RECESSIONAL
<lA 7S[ew Tlay by
WILLIAM HURLBUT
A play which confronts,few previous works have ever done, one of the
as
bitterest phases of the social life ofAmerica A dramatic incident of that
sophisticated section of the American middle class which is unable to under-
stand itself: the "smart", "highbrow" class of New York.
Recessional is comparable only to Waldo Frank's Holiday in its piercing
revelation of the futile irony and absurdity of the phrase:" the white man's
burden", and in its cutting analysis of the white man's proven incompetence
to meet the problem of his so-called "supremacy". Here is a play the power
of which, in an era marked by the triumph of the cinema, may do some-
thing toward re-vitalizing the art of the stage.
Published by Stanley Rose
Also
NEW BOOKS BOOKS AND MAGAZINES ON, AND
FROM THE SOVIET UNION BOOKS ON THE CINEMA
Published by
No. 5
1934 FIFTY CENTS
NOTES ON ACTIVITIES OF
EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
DURING 1933 . . . .
v K
Activities of Experimental Cinema
CONTENTS This Quarter L. J. 40
During 1933 Inside Front Cover Moscow Overtakes and Surpasses H. P. J. Marshall 41
Introduction to"Que Viva Mexico!" Seymour Stern 3 The Kingdom of Cinema Rene Clair 43
Synopsis for "Que Viva Mexico!"
S. M. Eisenstein and V. G. Alexandroff 5
Fifteen Years of Soviet Cinema ... V. Smirnov 44
Review of Arnheim's "Film" L. J. 48
Manifesto on "Que Viva Mexico!" . . . The Editors 14
Formal Cinema Kirk Bond 49
Josef von Sternberg B. G. Braver-Mann 17
Proletarian Cinema in Japan 52
My Method A. Dovzhenko 23
27 Harry Alan Potamkin Irving Lerner 53
Dziga Vertoff Simon Koster
28 Experimental Cinema in America 54
A Theory of Synchronization Joseph Schillinger
Before and After Conrad Seiler 32 The New Deal in Hollywood Hollywood Technician 57
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
V. G. ALEXANDROFF has been CLAY HARRIS, a technician in Hol- V. SMIRNOV until recently was head
co-director and script collaborator on all of lywood, is a critic and theoretician well of Amkino, the distributing agency for Soviet
Eisenstein's films. known there for his advanced views. films in America. At present he is in Moscow
working in the studios.
KIRK BOND is a Baltimore film critic IRVING LERNER, still and mo-
N. SOLE W; A critic and film worker
who has written for Creative Art, Bookman, tion picture photographer and instructor at
in Moscow. He is the U. S. S. R. editor for
Adelphi, Europa, and HouirJ &c Horn. the Harry Alan Potamkin School of the
Experimental Cinema.
Film, has written many reviews for the
All letters of
all checks, subscriptions and
inquiry, All manuscripts should be mailed to the New York
money should be addressed to the editorial
orders, etc. officeof Experimental Cinema and should be accom-
and business offices of Experimental Cinema, 51 West panied by return postage. Experimental Cinema wel-
47th street. New York City. Francis Steloff, Business comes manuscripts but cannot be held responsible for
Manager. the loss or damage of unsolicited material.
engagement in New York City, under the title ployer, without according to the employed even so
Thunder Over Mexico. much as the right to edit and mount the material
The Experimental Cinema have fre-
editors of after he had shot it, was so cunningly worded
quently been asked: How does it happen that the that those who have seen it find it difficult to blame
people responsible for the fraudulent version of Eisenstein despite his apparent gullibility. Histor-
"Que Viva Mexico!" are in a position to maintain ically speaking, it was not the first time an im-
that their market-product, Thunder Over Mexico, portant artist has been duped and tricked by his
was indeed based upon Eisenstein's own words and patrons. Thus, while Eisenstein agreed in writing
the Maguey story, and attempted to sell it to it was not in the Sinclair-Lesser distortion) in a dy-
the public as representing the entire epic of Mexico namic group of static elements: Maguey -)- Cloud
shot by Eisenstein and as having been cut "in accord -\- Vast Perspective (the Chihuahua plain) -\-
with Eisenstein's ideas". Accordingly, to the extent Fortress -f- Endless and Desolate Desert.
that he abided literally by the plot of the Maguey In the Prologue also, the sum-image, "the land of
story (the only episode, by the way, which con- Yucatan", materializing on the screen (original
tains anything resembling a plot, the rest being of film) out of a dynamic and rhythmic progression
a purer cinematic and documentary character) of such image-elements as "heathen temples", "holy
Sinclair was able to say, with the same kind and cities", "majestic pyramids", "masks of the gods",
degree of "technical truthfulness" that one would "phantoms of the past", "ruins", etc., culminates
expect of an unscrupulous lawyer, that he had concretely, like grey tones thickening with increas-
"followed" the scenario. That, in "following" the ing density into black, in a synthetic visualization
scenario, he had removed from its position in the of the "realms of death, where the past still prevails
symphonic pattern an entire episode; that he had over the present".
stripped the isolated episode of its poetic and musical The scenario, however, fails to establish what was
overtones, its revolutionary implications, and its actually intended as the major theme of the Mexi-
profound reflections on the life of central Mexico; can epic: i.e., the assertive eternality of the domi-
and that the result of Lesser's cutting was neither nant Indian race-types from ancient Yucatan to
in harmony with the spirit in which the scenario
modern Mexico. The fulfillment, the final triumph,
is written nor in accord with any of Eisenstein's of these race-types was to be depicted by Eisenstein
intensely personal manifestations of style, nor with
in a prophetic anticipation in imagery both ma-
his basic principles of cinema technique,
were trivialities that did not deter Sinclair from
these
jestic and fantastic of the revolutionary urge
dormant in the exploited descendants of those an-
publicly glorifying his crime. The material for the conclusion (the
cient races.
A word as to the style and method of the scen- epilogue) was photographed. But obviously, since
ario. Perhaps the first thing that strikes the reader the land had been taken from the Indians by the
is the complete absence of technical directions or Spaniards and withheld from them by the subse-
specifications of any kind. The language is that of
quent governments of Mexico, Eisenstein was again
poetic prose, and it is never intruded upon by prac- embarrassed to mention this theme of European
tical suggestions of camera, focus or montage. The imperialism in a scenario which had to be officially
method is that of projecting an image on the printed sanctioned. Consequently, neither the epilogue nor
page without defining its final cinematic form. the scenario as a whole in any way reveals the main
The scenario thus becomes, in
storehouse of images from which the director selects
a sense, a kind of objective of the picture, which is the dialectic in-
terpretation of Mexico. Indeed, the scenario as it
what he wants and fashions it according to his crea-
stands here, being mostly descriptive and narrative,
tive decision at the moment. How plain it is, there- shows no such grand conceptual design.
fore, that none but Eisenstein could edit the mater-
ial! How
obvious that neither Sinclair nor his hired The epilogue in itself is rather insipid "propitia-
hack, Lesser, could have edited the film "in accord tory palaver" which Eisenstein had no intention of
with Eisenstein's ideas" since there were no tech- using in the final film, but which Sinclair em-
nical directions to guide him!
phasized in his mutilated version. Sinclair was thus
able to say that he was "faithful" to the epilogue,
Yet the identity between the verbal imagery of
the written page and the filmic realization is prac- as indeed he was,
but to an epilogue which was
never intended for the picture!
tically complete. For example, in the Maguey episode,
the line: "Feudal estates, former monasteries of the In conclusion, it is only necessary to quote Eisen-
Spanish conquerors, stand like unapproachable stein himself on this "official" scenario. When
fortresses amidst the vast seas of cactus groves", consulted two years ago about he its publication,
has its exact counterpart in several of the shots warned, quite good-humoredly, that, because of the
taken in the neighborhood of the fortress around Mexican censorship and due to his growing sus-
which the action is built, the Hacienda Tetlapayac, picions of Sinclair, he had been forced to write the
and the overtone of "unapproachable fortress" in a scenario "in the apple-sauciest way". He doubted
"vast sea" is most eloquently projected in the ton- that admirers of his previous works would be im-
ality of Tisse's photography, in the perspectives of pressed, except unfavorably, by the document. We
the individual images, and in the montage of the are offering the scenario for "Que Viva Mexi-
whole cumulative composition to produce the ef- co!", despite its author's own critical strictures,
fect of arid grandeur. because, whatever enforced failings as a dialec-
its
Similarly, in the same episode, the following tic interpretation of that country, it does project,
image, caught by Eisenstein from several acute although imperfectly, a substantial portion of the
angles, casts its tragic overtonal spell: "The hissing basic framework of Eisenstein's finished film.
bullets pierce the succulent leaves of the maguey Moreover, as the reader will discover, there is very
plant and the juice, like tears, trickles down its little "apple sauce" and a great deal of poetry in
trunk." Even the generalized assertion: "Aggressive- this unusual example of cinema-writing. It is hoped
ness, virility, arrogance and austerity characterize that this self-derogated work of the author will
this novel", was photographed, and was to have furnish a clue to the real magnitude of the rich and
been mounted in the original film (which, of course, glorious vision of Eisenstein and Alexandroff.
stories and of the Finale at the end of these. A golden necklace this is the object of all her
dreams; this is the dream of all the Tehuanas the maidens and keep them spellbound upon the splen-
Tehuantepec girls. dor of her beauty and her new golden necklace.
From tender childhood a girl begins to work, After the dance, when Concepcion withdraws
saving painstakingly every nickel, every penny, in with her beloved to a retired corner, Abundio pro-
order that at the age of sixteen or eighteen she may poses to her. And now:
have the golden necklace. THE PROPOSAL
The necklace that is a fortune, it is an estate. Behold Concepcion trembling, pensive, frightened.
The necklace is the future dowry. And here the author speaks!
And the bigger, the more expensive it is, the
haooier future, marital life.
Why Concepcion, isn't this what you came
for? Is it not what you expected? Is it not what
That is why the dreams of Concepion are so you longed for? In reply to the voice of the author
oassionate; that is why the visions floating before Concepcion smiles, nods her head in assent. But!
her mind's eye are so colorful. The Bridegroom's Mother is a practical woman!
Handsome youths alternate with the necklace She sends her women to the bride's house to take
dreams. stock of the dowry and make sure that all is right.
Youthful beauty blossoms on the screen. . . .
That there are enough petticoats in the trous-
The dreamy song of the girls wafts over the seau. That the gold coins in the necklace are plenti-
dreamy voluptuous tropics. . . . ful.
Oh, ... we have let ourselves drift so deeply Experienced old women, nearly centenarians who
into dreams, that we have not even noticed how the had taken hands in the marriages of three genera-
girls got to work, when they went over to the tions come to Concepcion's home. They examine
market place, exhibited their wares: oranges, ba- all her outfit, feel the velvet, smell the silk, count
nanas, pineapples, flowers, pots, and other mer- fish, the gold coins in the necklace and subject them to
chandise for sale. The Tehuantepec market-place the tooth-test to make sure of the purity of the
is an interesting sight. If you will look in this gold.
corner you may think yourself in India. Stirred to the depths of her soul Concepcion
On turning to the other side you will find it like laughs with joy and happiness. The venerable wo-
Bagdad because of the big earthenware pots sur- men then pronounce judgment:
rounding its youthful vendor. All is perfectly right! So, traditional rites begin.
In still another place it looks like the South Seas. Concepcion's friends bring her presents: cow A
However, there are also spots that look like nothing dressed up masquerade costume; goats with
in a
else on earth, for four-eyed fishes are sold only in bow ties around their necks; they are carrying on
Tehuantepec. their shoulders many hens, turkeys, little pigs and
As soon as a girl sells some trifle, as soon as she other gifts and in a quaint procession are advanc-
receives the few cents in payment, she immediately ing toward the bride's home.
begins to think of the necklace, begins to count the In compliance with a tradition centuries old they
gold coins she still has to earn. bring her pure bee's-wax candles fantastically deco-
Thus, coin by coin, the necklace is built, en- rated.
hanced, but, alas, it is still short one the bigger, Middle-aged women are busy in the elaborated
central coin. preparation of typical and delicious dishes for the
So figured Concepcion, she needed only one, just indispensable, peculiar banquet.
one more coin to win the right to happiness! Entire Tehuantepec is stirred up by this event.
Business, however, is slow in the quiet, lazy All the girls are wearing the fairy regional cos-
tropical market. tumes and wait for the newly-wedded near the
Concepcion goes on dreaming about this last coin, church.
while the song, the song that stands for happiness Under the sound of the wedding bells the pro-
with Tehuantepec girls, continues to float in the cession carrying palm branches goes to the house
air. of the young couple.
But at last the bananas are sold, those bananas And when left by themselves, Concepcion coyly
that were to bring in the money for completion of allows her husband to take off her pride the golden
the necklace. And as the customer pays Concep- necklace.
cion, she says: "May your necklace bring you Grandma runs out on the balcony and loudly
luck!" announces to the expectant Tehuantepecans that
The happy Concepcion tightly grips the long
Concepcion the girl, has become Concepcion the
wished-for coin in her hand. woman.
THE BALL Sky rockets soar up high; fire-works crack, all
The most beautiful that the tropical forest can the young girl friendsof Concepcion turn their
yield, flowers, banana-trees, palm-leaves, fruits, fairy head-gear inside out, like a flock of bih-birds
adorn the walls of the dance hall. all spreading out their wings, and they dance and
The most elegantly dressed of the Tehuana girls sing!
are seen there. The dance hall is the only place THE SANDUNGA
where a youth and a girl may meet, where they can The Sandunga that always sings in the air when-
confide to each other the secret of the heart! ever happiness comes either in dreams or in reality.
In the brilliance of her best dress and the high While throughout the tropical forest under the
pitch of her feelings she casts aside the silk veil peaceful fragrance of the palm-trees life pursues
of her shawl to draw the eyes of all youths and its habitual daily course.
The old apes rock their offspring to sleep. It is a hymn in which they pray to the Holy
Parrots teach their young to scream. Virgin to help them on the newly dawning day.
Pelicans bring fish for their little ones in their When the high snowy peaks of the mountains be-
pouches. gin to glitter under the rising sun the gates of the
Time new
flowers bloom. Concepcion the
passes, fortress-like farm-house are opened and, ending
woman is now
happy mother.
a their song, the peons tightly wrapped in their se-
Thus the story of Concepcion comes to an end, rapes and holding their big sombreros in their
with the portraying of happy, contented parents hands, pour out into the cactus fields to suck in the
and a laughing boy. juice of the maguey with long, especially fitted
bastian alone against all the assemblage. The cartridges are exhausted.
Sebastian is sent rolling down the stairs for his The peons make an attempt to flee.
insolence and effrontery. The agile charros fling their lazos around the
Adoor opens and the intoxicated villain appears fugitives and hold them captives.
before the excited group. All torn, tottering Sebastian and two of his sur-
Distraught, weeping, Maria slips by stealthily be- viving friends are brought in upon the scene of
hind his back. Sara's funeral.
The aggravated. But
tenseness of the situation is Eye for an eye . . . they pay with their lives
the "hacendado" is a good-natured old man. He for their daring.
does not want to mortify his guests, he does not Among the magueys, where Sebastian had worked
want to spoil the feast. and loved, he findsi his tragic end. . . .
To distract the people he issues orders to start the Beyond the great snow-white summits of the
music, the fireworks and the games. volcanoes the sun is sinking. The day is dying.
Maria is put under lock till next morning, pend- The large gates of the estate are closing.
ing the hearing of the case. Maria is set at liberty and goes looking for the
In the rattle of the music, the excitement of the body of Sebastian amidst the maguey plants.
games and intoxication of hilarity, the sad incident Her appearance startles the buzzards and they
is forgotten. fly away.
The brighter the fireworks blaze, the more vio- While over the high walls of the estate float the
lent wrath rages within Sebastian's heart. sounds of wailing.
Vengeance germinates in his mind. A mournful, drawn-out wailing the Indian
Vengeance begets conspiracy. farewell to the setting sun.
Three of his comrades pledge themselves to help Maria finds the remains of her beloved, of him
him get revenge. who was to become her husband, who had raised
In an auspicious moment they direct the blazing his arm in her defense she sobs convulsively
. . .
Under cover of night the fugitives evade per- Action includes scenery of all the most beautiful
spots of Spanish colonial style and influence in Art,
secution.
Morning overtakes them in a forest on the slope buildings and people in Mexico.
of a mountain.
(Mexico City, Xochimilco, Merida, Taxco, Vuebla,
Vending their way towards mountain pass
the Cholula, etc.)
across the ridges, they plod laboriously through the The atmosphere of this part is of pure Spanish
thickest of the fairy-woods. The charros, however, character.
w
"Youthful beauty
blossoms on the
screen" P. 6
(Below)
"The dwellers of Yucatan, land of
rums and huge pyramids, have still conserved, in
feature and forms, the character of their ancestors,
the great race of the ancient Mayas." P. 5
m
'Maria is forgotten." P. 7
("Death comes
dancing." P.
along
13
.
All the beauty that the Spaniards have brought The sixty thousand attendants release an Ah! of
with them into Mexican life appears in this part wonder the moment the bull runs out into the ring.
of the picture. The very famous David Liceaga displays all the
Spanish Architecture, costumes, bull-fights, ro- beauty and elegance of the art of the matador.
mantic love, southern jealousy, treachery, facility Full of grace and valor he dances his "dance" on
at drawing the gun, manifest themselves in this the margin of death and triumph.
story. He does not stir from his place even when the
In old pre-revolutionary Mexico the annual holi- bull's horns come within a hair's breadth of his
day in worship of the holy Virgin of Guadalupe is body; he does not tremble, but smiles serene, and to
taking place. top it all he pets the sharp horns of the animal and
Hence the abundance of merry-go-rounds, shows, this provokes an endless savage outburst of delight
And finally the heroes of this tale, the famous In the meantime, in the town square, fairs and
matadors, are getting dressed for the performance on market-places, a crowd of many thousands are con-
the veranda of a Spanish patio, amid the tinkling of templating the ritual ceremonial dances of Indians
guitars and the sound of militant songs of the ring. dressed up in gilded brocade, ostrich feathers and
The best of the matadors is enacted by David huge masks.
Liceaga, the most renowned matador of Mexico and Underthe peals of the ancient Spanish church
"champion" of the "golden ear." bells,under the sound of music and the rolling of
beating drums, the thunder of exploding sky rock-
In front of a pier-glass, swelling with the self-
ets, the feast flourishes. Under the roar of the
consciousness of their importance and grandeur, the
exalted crowd, at the other place, the killed bull is
matadors are putting on their gold and silk em-
taken away from the grounds.
broidered costumes.
A
maelstrom of hats and unabating ovations ac-
More than the front of the
others, wriggles in
company the triumphant exit of the valiant mata-
mirror, (the most concerned about his personal ap- dor.
pearance) the care-free picador, the lazy Don Juan now met his "queen." Wrapped up
Baronita has
Baronita.
in one cloak, the pair of lovers make their way
He is mindful of every detail, for an encounter through the narrow Spanish alleys to the landing of
more hazardous than the bull fight awaits him. the boats adorned with flowers.
He has a date with another man's wife! Having Their boat sails by the floating gardens along the
dressed, the matadors drive to the chapel of the dreamland canals of Xochimilco, the so-called Ven-
Holy Virgin, the patron of their dangerous art. etia of Mexico.
Having knelt before her altar, whispered to her In the shade of an awning under the sound of
his prayer, and begged her benediction, the best of guitars and marimbas the pair of lovers will forget
the great matadors drive over to the quiet home of their troubles.
his mother to bid her But trouble does not forget them.
Good Bye! The wife catches sight of her husband; the pair
hide behind the curtain and a swift change of their
May be for the last time
course saves them from a tragic look.
And on the plaza a multitude of some sixty-
The husband is furious, he is raving, because he
thousand people, amid hand-clapping, shouts its im- can find no trace of his wife. A mad pursuit among
patience. The orchestra in gayful tunes begins to the moving maze of flower-covered floating temples
play the opening official march and the matadors
of love ....
make their appearance in the arena. The boat of the amorous pair passes under his
During the parade the picador Baronita appears in very nose and disappears among hundreds of other
full splendor, mounted on his white horse, and festively adorned boats.
throws a stealthy glance in the direction where the In a retired nook of a remote canal the "Ship of
queens are seated. Love" lands. Baronita conducts his forbidden love
The belles of the city in expensive lace under the to the summit of a mountain, to a big stone cruci-
refreshing breeze of fans, and open coquetry, are fix, where they watch the sunset and exchange
Baronita manages to locate the queen of his in- In their moment of utmost they are sur-
bliss
flamed heart and give her his "killing" glance. prised by the husband. He draws
Spanish fancy-
his
And as in the traditional "Carmen" the eyes of made pistol. He is ready to discharge it. And by
the matadors meet the dark eyes of the beautiful pure miracle Baronita escapes the avenging hand . .
queens and as a tradition dictates, this glance kindles The final song of the great feast ends the day.
the flame of valor in the matadors* eyes. Happy, romantic, is the finab of the story about
11
this ancient and beautiful Spanish holiday. When overcome by exhaustion he falls asleep and
bis stentorian snoring joins in the general snoring
FOURTH NOVEL: SOLDADERA chorus of sleeping soldiers.
The background of story is the tumultuos
this Pancha washes his shirt and cleans his gun.
canvas of -movements of armies,
uninterrupted At dawn, while the echo of the desert still rever-
battles and military trains which followed the revo- berates with the soldiers' snoring, Pancha places
lution of 1910 until peace and the new order of five or six cartridges in Juan's gun and puts the
modern Mexico were established. gun by his side.
Deserts, woods, mountains and the Pacific Coast She packs her household belongings in her big
at Acapulco, and Cuautla, Morelos, are the land- sack and lifting it to her back she joins the crowd
scapes of this story. of women setting out on their endless pilgrimage.
Faint under their heavy loads, trying to calm the
PERSONS: crying children, munching the tortillas left over
1. Pancha, the woman who follows the soldier
from breakfast, the crowd of women runs along the
the Soldadera.
dusty, deserted road.
At first one gets bewildered, one cannot under- her hands in the broad gesture women are apt to
stand what is going on
women are catching hens, make when
"Who knows?"
saying:
(Quien sabe
pigs, turkeys; women are hastily seizing tortillas and .?) . .
Women wrangling, fighting, shouting at each women and gets lost in the big moving mass of
other .... humanity and in the dust that veils everything from
Whatis up?
the human eye.
These are soldiers' wives, "soldaderas," forerun- Machine-guns are roaring.
ners of the army, who have invaded the village. The clatter of cavalry is heard.
feed their weary husbands. Juan is fighting like all the rest of the soldiers.
One of them is Pancha; a machine-gun ribbon He discharges his gun.
household utensils weighs heavily on her back .... Rushes into attack amidst bursting shells.
Having caught a chicken and voiced her snappish Under the cars of a freight train the "soldadera"
retort to the protests of its owner, she finds a con- are praying for their fighting men.
venient place for the day quarters. They have suspended their "Santos" the holy
The soldaderas are breaking camp by the bridge images of their dearest devotion from the car wheel
on the bank of the river, they are getting their and placed their little votive lamps on the springs
brimstones metates
out of their sacks, are husk- of the car axle.
The machine guns are silent.
ing corn, kindling fires, and the clapping of their
palms, patting tortillas, into shape, seem to an- The shooting abates.
nounce peace. The soldiers' shouts are no longer heard.
A little girl is crying and to console her, the The soldaderas go to the head of the tran, to the
mother, for lack of candy, gves her a cartridge. engine, and hence they look in direction of the end-
The child sucks at the dum-dum bullet and re- ing battle.
joices over the glistening toy. The soldaderas rush up to meet them, scrutinize
The weary army enters the village and the soldiers their faces.
in ravenous anticipation inhale the smoke of the Question . . . ! "Have you seen mine?"
bonfires. The excited Pancha is looking for Juan.
Clarions sound the call to "rest." Here they bring him wounded.
Artillery soldiers release the donkeys and mules
Pancha runs up to him.
from the dust-covered machine-gun carriages; the
Uncovers his face . .
women are looking for their men. .
She treats him to a roast chicken and hot tor- The soldaderas bandage up wounds, treat them to
tillas. the best of their knowledge. Apply tortillas to the
Supper over, Juan rests his head in Pancha's lap wounds and fasten them with willow fibres.
and hums the tune the guitars are playing. Juan is safe and sound but worn out, and he
"Adelita" is the name of the song and this song must get into the car of his troop for the officers
is the leitmotif of the "Soldadera." and engines are blowing the whistles for departure.
12
Having seen him board the train, Pancha gets on that enables it to play "Adelita" stoutly, solemnly
the engine platform. and triumphantly.
The angry voice of the sentinel calls to her. Like peals of thunder roll the triumphant shouts
"What have you there under your shawl?" above the heads of the soldiers.
And lifting her rebozo, Pancha answers quietly: The armies are fraternizing.
"Who knows, senor, it may be a
"
girlor it may be One might decipher on the banner the last word
a boy ... of its device.
The In the packed cars
troops start off noisily. Towards Revolution.
the soldiers singing "Adelita"!
are And on the Towards a New Life . . . says the voice of the
roofs, the soldaderas with their kitchens and chil- author.
dren are squatted like crows. Toward a New Life! . . .
wounded soldiers . . .
Technicians.
This time Juan does not come back. Students.
And when the fight is over amidst its smoking Agriculture experts.
ruins Pancha finds the body of her husband . . .
And the Nation's leaders, the President, generals,
She gathers a pile of rocks, makes him a primitive secretaries of State Departments. Life, activity,
tombstone, weaves him a cross of reeds . . .
work of new, energetic people but if . . . you look
She takes his gun, his carriage belt, his baby, and closer, you will behold in the land and in the cities
follows the slowly advancing, tired army. the same faces.
Her legs can hardly support her body, heavy un- Faces that bear close resemblance to those who
der the burden of grief and weariness. held funeral of antiquity in Yucatan, those who
And then the same cross soldier walks up to her danced in Tehuantepec; those who sang the Alabado
and takes the baby from her. behind the tall walls, those who danced in queer
Pancha leans on the strong arm of her new hus- costumes around the temples, those who fought and
band in order not to fall and not to lag behind the died in the battles of revolution.
army. The same faces
"Adelita" is the tune the tired bands are playing, but different people.
falsely and out of rhythm.
A different country,
13
MANIFESTO on "Que Viva Mexico"
"The notion of anyone doing the montage of Eisenstein's film Eisenstein'sbackers, who have never from the start shown
except Eisenstein himself is outrageous to all the canons of a due consciousness of what the film is all about, the epilogue
Art. No economic situation justifies such an aesthetic crime." has now been converted into a cheerful ballyhoo about "a
Waldo Frank new Mexico," with definite fascist implications.
"Of grandeur of the undamaged original (The Last
the The remaining mass of material, consisting of more than
Supper) we can only guess . . . dreadful restorations were 180,000 feet, is in danger of being sold piecemeal to com-
made by heavy-handed meddlers; some imbecile Dominican mercial film concerns.
monks cut a door through the lower central part; Napoleon's Thus, Eisenstein's great vision of the Mexican ethos, which
dragoons stabled their horses in the refectory and threw he had intended to present in the form of a "film symphony,"
their boots at Judas Iscariot;more restorations and more has been destroyed. Of the original conception, as revealed
disfigurements. . . ." Thomas Craven. Men of Art in the scenario and
Eisenstein's correspondence with the
in
editors of Experimental Cinema, nothing remains in the com-
TO OUR READERS mercialized version except the photography, which no amount
Last year, a great deal of space was devoted to a film entitled of mediocre cutting could destroy. As feared by Eisenstein's
Que Viva which S. M. Eisenstein, the renowned
Mexico!, friends and admirers, the scenario, written in the form of a
Soviet was making at that time.
director There were two prose poem, merely confused the professional Hollywood cut-
articles on the film, one of them an authorized interpreta- ters. The original meaning of the film has been perverted
tion by Augustin Aragon Leiva, Eisenstein's special assistant by reduction of the whole to a single unconnected romantic
throughout the production. In addition, there were ten pages story which the backers of the picture are offering to please
of still reproductions, which, to quote Laurence Stallings, popular taste. The result is "Thunder Over Mexico": a
gave a "foretaste" of the film. The editors of Experimental "Best-Picture-of-the-Year," Hollywood special, but in the
Cinema were more than merely enthusiastic about it: they annals of true art, the saddest miscarriage on record of a high
had been given a copy of the scenario by Eisenstein himself and glorious enterprise.
and they were convinced that Que Viva Mexico! would mate- For more than a year Eisenstein's friends and admirers in
rialize, as no film had ever done, the highest principles of the the United States have been appealing to his backers, repre-
cinema as a fine art. sented by Upton Sinclair, to save; the picture and to preserve
There is now being released on the world market a movie it so that eventually Eisenstein might edit it. A campaign
called Thunder Over Mexico, which is what it is: a frag- was even launched to raise $100,000 to. purchase the material
mentary and entirely conventional version of Eisenstein's orig 1 for Eisenstein. Finally, a Committee for Eisenstein's Mexican
inal majestic conception. The story behind this commercialized Film was formed, consisting of the editors of Experimental
version is without doubt the greatest tragedy in the history Cinema and including Waldo Frank, Lincoln Kirstein, Augustin
of films and one of the saddest in the history of art. It Aragon Leiva and J. M. Valdes-Rodriguez. All these efforts,
represents the latest instance of a film director, in this case however, were unsuccessful. It is now too late to stop the
a genius of the first rank, forfeiting a masterpiece in a hope- release of "Thunder Over Mexico."
less struggle against sordid commercial interests. But there is one alternative left to those who wish to save
We decry this of "QUE VIVA MEXI-
illegitimate version the original negative of "QUE VIVA MEXICO!": the pres-
CO!" and denounce it
for what it is, a mere vulgarization sure of world-wide appeal to the conscience of the backers
of Eisenstein's original conception put forth in his name in may induce them to realize the gravity of the situation and
order to capitalize on his renown as a creative artist. We de- give the film to Eisenstein.
nounce the cutting of "QUE VIVA MEXICO!" by profes- The purpose of this manifesto, therefore, is two-fold: (1)
sional Hollywood cutters as an unmitigated mockery of Eisen- to orient and forewarn public on the eve of the arrival
taste
stein's We denounce "THUNDER OVER MEXI-
intention. of a much misrepresented product, "Thunder Over Mexico";
CO" cheap debasement of "QUE VIVA MEXICO!"
as a and (2) to incite public opinion to bring pressure to bear
As all students of the cinema are aware, Eisenstein edits upon the backers in a last effort to save the complete negative,
("mounts") his own films. Contrary to the methods generally both cut and uncut, for Eisenstein.
employed by professional directors in Hollywood, Eisenstein Lovers of film art! Students of Eisenstein! Friends of
gives final form to the film in the cutting-room. The very Mexico! Support this campaign to save the negative of "QUE
essence of his creative genius, and of his oft-quoted theory of VIVA MEXICO!". Do not be satisfied with any substitutes
the cinema, consists in the editing of the separate shots after for Eisenstein's original vision! Make this campaign an un-
all the scenes have been photographed. Virtually every film forgettable precedent that will echo throughout film history,
director of note has testified, time and again, to the revolu- a warning to all future enemies of the cinema as a fine
tionary consequences of Eisenstein's montage technique on the art! ! !
modern cinema, and every student of the cinema knows how letters of protest and appeal to Upton Sinclair. 614
Send
impossible it is for anyone except Eisenstein to edit his pictures. North Arden Drive, Beverly Hills, California, and communi-
"THUNDER OVER MEXICO" has not been edited by cate immediately with the Committee for Eisenstein's Mexican
Eisenstein and yet is being exploited into as his achievement. Film, c/o Experimental Cinema, International Film Quarterly,
The editing of "THUNDER OVER MEXICO" is not Eisen- 1625 North Vine Street, Hollywood, California.
stein montage.
EDITORS OF EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA.
Out of approximately 200,000 feet of film shot by Eisen-
Foreign Film Journals: Please copy! Immediate Propaganda
stein in Mexico, a picture of some 7,000 feet cut according to
convential Hollywood standards, has been produced, an essential! Film Societies: Duplicate this manifesto!
to your members!
Distribute
tecs, Toltecs and the Mayans, has been converted into a VIVA MEXICO!". This was the first document of its kind
pseudo-travelogue. ever issued on behalf of a motion picture, and it is especially
Worse than this is the fate of Eisenstein's original epilogue, significant as indicating the character and purpose of the
which was intended to establish the timeless continuity of types already historical struggle to save one of the world's most
from ancient Yucatan to modern Mexico, and which was important films. The manifesto was the first public protest
meant to anticipate the revolutionary urge dormant in the against the destruction of a cinema masterpiece and, accord-
descendants of those ancient races. Under the guidance of ingly, we have reprinted the entire document here.
14
"Full of and
grace
valor the matador
dances his 'dance' on
the margin of death
and triumph-"
P. 1 1
Sex appeal and good
photographic tone but
no organization of mass,
space and line. Light un-
dramatic.
//
"OH HOLLYWOOD, MY BELOVED HOLLYWOOD!
"
This rapturous exclamation falls from the lips Sternbergian remarks could be uttered only by a
of a small dumpy man with flowing sandy hair director who lacks sensitivity, who has a low
as he stands before his home on one of standard of esthetic evaluation and an unbalanced
the hills that look down upon Hollywood's philosophy of life and cinema.
film factories. The little man lends a touch of the But Sternberg can scarcely be called an astute
exotic and dramatic to his fervent declaration, for spokesman, for his credo, "Hollywood has nothing
he wears a richly ornamented black velvet coat and to learn", if interpreted in the light of actual per-
his arms are outstretched as if offering a benediction. formance, can be said to mean that Hollywood's film
The man is Josef von Sternberg. The time: 1927, makers, by virtue of their own incompetence and
the year in which his Underworld, a gangster film, the "system" of production and the ideological dis-
was breaking box office records. integration to which they submit, are endowed with
Underworld appeared at a psychological moment such extraordinary talent for injecting mediocrity
when people, wearied to a point of ennui by Holly- and stupidity into their celluloid strips that it is
wood's innocuous celluloid, were turning their at- obvious Hollywood has nothing to learn about
tention to news about the exploits and acquisitive the application of these conspicuously atrocious in-
technique of racketeers in the lower brackets. Ap- gredients which shape the content and form of the
pealing to the violent bourgeois desire of getting bourgeois film.
something for nothing, but getting it at the point What more fitting example of Hollywood's disre-
of a gun if necessary, Underworld became a hit. gard for the film as an art and as a force for social
This motion picture glorified the gangster, Stern- betterment could be had than the fact that the lone
berg's false fantasy, based on a Nick Carter concep- exhibit of the American motion picture industry at
tion of social reality, gave the picture an effective if the Chicago World's Fair was none other than the
cheap brand of melodrama. His own irrational living presence of the MGM
lion? What the promo-
appraisal of the immediate acceptance of Un- tersof the "Hollywood" concession at the Fair did
derworld in a society in which art stagnates not get from our film entrepeneurs they supplied in
simultaneously with the economic and poli- the best Hollywood manner with such banal side-
tical disintegration of capitalism, led Sternberg shows as "Virgins in Cellophane", "Adam and Eve
to exaggerate grossly the importance of this in Garden of Eden" and "Nudes of the Na-
the
picture and himself to film art. He began to tions", with assurances from the obseqious barkers
regard himself as the artistic director in Hollywood. that "all the costume which each girl wears could be
He implies that he is the messiah of film art in tucked into an envelope". Sternberg's Hollywood,
Hollywood. Hence, Hollywood should follow his which "has nothing to learn", offered a lion
methodology. His directorial colleagues he views to the Exposition of a Century of Progress although
with arrogance and disdain, although in both the history of the motion picture in a social-his-
structure and content his work is just as slipshod torical-creative sense is replete with material for an
and false as theirs. He continues to set himself up exhibit of the first order. But to stage such an ex-
as an oracle of film opinion and from time to time hibit would necessarily be the job of outsiders, since
issues statements on the cinema which should in- the American motion picture industry notorious for
is
terest psychiatrists. He has thumbed his nose in pub- its lack of a social-historical-creative approach to the
lic at Theodore Dreiser and Bernard Shaw whose cinema.'
social commentaries, although appreciated by many From the time Sternberg made Salvation Hunters
high school boys, would probably leave Sternberg dis- down to the present day, he has persistently posed
traught if he really tried to comprehend them. The as an an affectation which afflicts a considerable
artist,
backwardness of the Hollywood cinema and of Stern- number of Hollywood's "leading" directors, among
berg, as its self-appointed spokesman and as a direc- them such over-rated men as King Vidor, Frank
tor, is exemplified in one of his statements which Borzage, C. B. DeMille, Clarence Brown and others
illustrates a penchant for putting fictitious above in- whose chief claim to film leadership is rooted in
trinsic values in film practice: their talent for Kitsch. Their work and Sternberg's
"Hollywood has absolutely nothing to learn in are marked by a very narrow range in the use of the
motion pictures from any European country,
neither from Russia or Germany".
film's structural forms
a range so limited and in-
expressive that aside from variations of subject
This statement, like the outburst from his own matter their productions may pass for the out-
hilltop, "Oh Hollywood, my beloved Hollywood", put of one and the same director. None of Holly-
is pregnant with connotations at once amusing and wood's directorial pretenders, however, has been as
successful as Sternberg in transforming an affecta-
17
tion into a generally accepted myth about an art- knowing how dishonest his material is, to speak char-
istry which exists in none of his films. itably, is simply ignorant.
II. Sternberg cannot be accused of lacking a sense
A film director is an artist in a complete sense of integrity and honesty within the framework of
when he employs his tools to present a dialectic his own distorted outlook, since he has fought, on
treatment of nature and man, instead of picturing occasion, in behalf of what he considers to be right.
nature and man in a falsely romantic relation to In one instance he walked out of a studio rather than
each other; he seeks to develop new aspects of cine- compromise with what he thought were his convic-
matic design in time and linear patterns, and image tions. Sternberg, however, is honest in that he be-
relationships, with which to intensify artistically lieves in his own ignorance. Yet his natural inclina-
the deeply realistic content of his thematic material; tion to wallow in it is hardly a valid enough reason
he seeks new forms and methods not for their for- for expecting the spectator to accept the ephemeral
mal values alone but for their integration with an world and empty fantasies of his work, no matter
understanding of social phenomena, so that he may how much he may believe in them himself.
develop effective, and if possible, heroic image ideas. Consider a few of the many examples of Stern-
Judged by this standard, what is the position of berg's lack of psychological and social insight which
Josef von Sternberg as a director? marks his films: The problem of the young man
In Sternberg we have a director who concentrates driven frantic by unemployment in Salvation Hun-
on surface effects, who emphasizes the externals of ters is evaded in the closing scenes which show him
film mechanics in a most inarticulate manner and daydreaming on a plush sofa. In the same film, "the
represents his own delirious fancies as real life. Brute", the burly captain of a barge, threatens with
This highly publicized director has been connected his fist a child of six, and physiological law is entire-
with motion pictures for almost twenty years. He ly discounted as the undersized, underfed young
served as camera man, film cutter and scenarist be- man hurls "the Brute" into an automobile. . . .
fore becoming a director. But what of his actual In The Docks of New York a street-walker
performance? wearies of her wretched existence. She seeks
His productions show that experience as a camera a solution of her dilemma in suicide by jumping into
man is no guarantee that
this practitioner can use or the river. A ship stoker, who turns out to be sex-
direct the camera filmically; that having been a film starved, sees her plunge and dives into the water to
cutter is no proof that a man has film-organizational rescue her. He takes the girl to a dilapidated wharf
mastery, and that having written scenarios is no in- hotel where he rents a room for her. But on the
dication of the capacity for conceiving themes based following morning she arises and props herself
on a sensitivity to social experience on one hand and against a pillow and appears fresh as a daisy, her hair
dynamic cinematic form on the other. and finger nails so carefully groomed as to suggest
What
if Sternberg has been a camera man? The that she spent the night in a luxurious beauty parlor.
tricksand tonality of his photography are repetitive ... In The Case of Lena Smith the young peasant
and monotonous, devoid of both inner meaning and mother climbs over a high barbed wire fence to enter
pattern indicative of feeling for screen design, and, a large orphans' ward in a hospital, seizes her baby
in short, without style. Curiously enough, he and born out of wedlock and escapes unobserved. . . .
pseudo-aesthetic critics label his camera direction as The more than middle-aged Herr Professor of The
the work of a "stylist". Blue Angel becomes a pimp because of his devotion
to a cabaret singer of recent acquaintance; and
What if Sternberg has graduated from the cutting
room? His cutting
he has boasted to me that he
despite having been dismissed from his post because
the montage of great films. played by economic determinism in the sex life of
the capitalistic West led him to picture an Anglo-
What if he has been a scenarist? His scenarios
he writes them for his films* !)
call for a trivial
Saxon cabaret singer in Morocco as leaving her
wealthy suitor on the edge of the desert, to join the
methodology. They are given over to the propaga-
female dregs that trail the French Foreign Legion
tion of gloomy vagaries without psychological and
so that she might be near her soldier. Sternberg's
social insight. The inference is that a scenarist who
distorted conception of the relation between man
deliberately writes such scripts must lack intellectual
and his socio-economic background shows why
honesty. But a scenarist who produces them without
this director is incapable of thinking the behaviour
of his characters through to a logical con-
(1) This seeming privilege is reserved for "leading" Holly-
wood directors because they can be depended upon to clusion. And this is the film maestro who was as-
embody all those ingredients in a scenario which give
a picture maximum appeal at the box office and to the
signed the job of filming An American Tragedy, a
region below the belt but none above the neckline. work whose picturization called for a director of
18
keenest social-analytic powers as well as mastery of imaginative linear movement of his players and their
film structure. physiological peculiarities. He
does not, because he
A director so sadly limited, technically and in- cannot, utilize light, player and inanimate object for
tellectually, as Sternberg appears to be must needs building up a dramatic idea, a psychological or social
lean upon two props in order to get by with his implication as do Dovzhenko, Pabst and Eisenstein.
distortions of reality which gibe so nicely with the It is impossible to imagine. Sternberg conceiving a
degenerate idealogy of the bourgeois cinema. These striking commentary with an acidity such as we
two props are ( 1 ) Pictorialism for its own sake and find one of the sequences
in of Stroheim's The
(2) player "personality". In this respect, Sternberg Wedding March.
is no different than his directorial contemporaries in In this particular sequence the baron as a symbol
Hollywood whom he regards patronizingly. Al- of the nobility and the manufacturer as a symbol
though his pictorial talent is more developed than of the capitalist-bourgeoisie are dead-drunk as they
that of the majority of Hollywood directors, it is haggle, while seated on the floor of a fashionable
thin when compared with the grandeur of the pic- brothel, over the terms of marriage between the
torialisms in Murnau's Faust and Dracula. More- baron's son and the industrialist's crippled
over, Murnau, in addition to possessing the ability daughter.
for imparting remarkable rhythm and continuity to It is interesting to note that when Sternberg
his films, usually employed his richly pictorial mind wanted improve upon the visual appeal of his
to
for the exposition of plausible mood or situation. films that he chose to go to Erich Pommer who
Beside the arbitrarily selected patterns of the excels at imparting a highly professional slickness to
images by Dovzhenko, Dreyer or Eisenstein, Stern- a motion picture, a quality which Sternberg today
berg's little pictorial talent is analogous to an insipid employs in his work as a veneer for the artificial
magazine illustration in contrast with a mural by content of his scenarios.
Rivera or Orozco. The scenes in the productions by
A director filming artificial content shuns any
Hollywood's messiah of film art are very much like
but artificially technical methods. Sternberg evades
the first attempts of arty film amateurs who play
the ideological material necessitated by clearly-
with light, shadow and tone around, under and
wrought image patterns. He would be incompetent to
above objects with complete indifference to any in-
picture a theme like that of Carl Dreyer's Joan of
ner meaning of the images. There may have been a
Arc in which almost every image presented the sharp
time when Sternberg may have fitted into the field
plasticity of the object. On the contrary, Sternberg
of illustrative photography a field in which he
properly belongs rather than in motion pictures evades the challenge of the object in his abuse of
soft focus, lap dissolves and superimposed dissolves.
but the advances among photographers in their ap-
The incoherence and thematic
superficiality of his
proach to the object have become so forthright that
material, combined with
meaningless optical ef-
his
it is doubtful whether he could hold his own among
fects, only succeed in making the spectator feel the
them today.
vacuity of this director's mind.
Sternberg's pictorialisms rarely conceal his pover-
Sternberg's directorial incoherence and lack of pro-
ty in film-structural and forced, pre-
invention
portion in dramatic due to his ignorance
values,
tentious direction of players, light and camera. His
of the relation of man
his environment, are
to
concern with the pictorial for its own sake is one
evident in his mechanical, schematic handling of
of the reasons why no Sternberg film ever presents
players. They always strut. Whether the picture be
an image with a relationship to another image for the
Underworld, The Docks of New York, The Blue
purpose of developing an independent image idea (1 *
Angel, Morocco, Dishonored or An American Trage-
in the mind of the spectator, thereby enabling
dy, the women are always pushing each other or
the spectator to discover for himself the significance
posturing about with hands on their hips. Olga
of a situation or an idea. He is not equipped artis-
Baclanova, a better interpreter of character and pace
tically, technically or mentally to build a film hav-
than Sternberg, and Emil Jannings, are the only
ing the montage structure of such a picture as young
players who have successfully rebelled at Sternberg's
Raisman's In Old Siberia, a Soviet film of minor
inability to probe human types in relation to en-
importance.
vironment and behaviour. The players in his films
Like other directors in the non-filmic tradition
strut may be called strutting pictures
his pictures
Sternberg is compelled to escape from the problems
of film structure by depending upon a simple, un-
because he cannot build up image concepts and
patterns with fragments of objects for the inten-
sification of an idea or an emotion. His players must
ci) To be fair to Sternberg, we may recall the one and needs strut because the falseness of the content in
only instance of this montage in the many films he has
his scenarios makes it impossible for him to cut a
made. This occurred in The Case of Lena Smith, viz.,
the scene of the man taking a revolver out of the film so that it may present the greatest number of
dresser drawer, which cuts to a scene of the smoke
floating past the dresser drawer but with the man out
image running time of the picture even
ideas in the
of the picture. The implication, of course, is obvious if he were able to cut a film in this manner. He
namely, that the man killed himself during the interval
between the two scenes. This set all Hollywood astir,
moves instead of cuts, which is typical of all
and Welford Beaton in his Film Spectator pronounced directors who build their films either in the non-
this mounting as an example of "brains". However, it
is more than likely that this use of contrast between cinematic pictorial and semi-theatre traditions of the
two shots, elementary as it was, was due to one of motion picture. Sternberg's players strut because he
Elder Will Hays' dicta that suicides must not be
portrayed too explicitly upon the screen. cannot use the camera filmically for the selection of
19
significantly graded and related images in time and in Greed was interwoven with the ideological con-
space. tent of the film. In Salvation Hunters however,
Ill Sternberg sought to imitate the optical realism of
A director so inarticulate in visual film language,
Greed for a theme that was the antithesis of Stro-
so fearful of a test of his feeble abilities by demands heim's picture. The caprice of the arty poseur the
based upon a dynamic presentation of the object, is
fitful treatment of objects, players, camera and cut-
certain to flee from subject matter which requires
ting
were unfolded in every shot. The sombre ton-
ality of the mud, the dirt, the wharves and the
a selection offormal means essential to a dialectic
water with its patterns of shimmering light were
and sociological phenomena.
analysis of psychological
interesting only as photographic illustrations. As for
That is why Sternberg made a sorry mess of An
having any montage value they were negligible.
American Tragedy. Evasion of the filmic treatment
These shots showed that it is more important for
of the object charcterizes every Sternberg film, a
a film to contain a powerful montage of image ideas
fact which explains why he has never directed a
even if it dispense with artistic photography than
picture in which the material necessitates the totality
to consist of "arty" images recorded for their own
up by a series of images physically
of an idea built
sake with indifference to their filmic organization.
independent of each other in time and space. He
would be like a lost child wandering in a Thus, in his first directorial effort Sternberg
mountain fastness he had to cope with some
if revealed was unaware that the conclusion
he
of the powerful sequences which Dovzhenko com- of his theme was artificial and its montage
poses out of such shots. Nor could Sternberg build the antithesis of dynamic constructive cutting. The
up the impact of an emotion or a situation by ana- tedious pace and long scenes of the picture, tiresome
lyses and sub-divisions of motion, either by breaking because they contained none of the tension and
into it with in-between scenes or depicting its mean- situation that justify long scenes, set forth Stern-
ing with a succession of scenes as Eisenstein has done berg's deficiencies in film structure although up to
with telling effect in various sequences in Cruiser the time he made this film he had worked at
Potemkin and Old and New. The fact that neither various jobs around film studios for twelve or thir-
Sternberg nor his Hollywood contemporaries have ever teen years. It is also pertinent to add that the slow
attempted to experiment with these montage forms pace of his films suggests a feverish straining after a
shows how far they lag behind the progress of film dignity entirely absent in the dope-laden content
practice in a purely formal sense. It would take a of his themes. But as Salvation Hunters cost $5,000
volume to point out instances of Sternberg's wrong one suspects that it was produced to show film
treatment of camera placement in which certain aver- magnates how cheaply a film might be manufac-
age German and English directors outdistance him tured. Sternberg succeeded in his objective since the
completely. I know of movie amateurs who could film culminated in a directorial job with Metro-
help him immeasurably with the problems of camera Goldwyn-Mayer.
placement. On this point he could learn a great deal IV
from the younger students at the Moscow State Film However, in essentials Sternberg has been dead on
University. It can be said without fear of contradic- his feet ever since he made Bad
Salvation Hunters.
tion that neither Sternberg nor his Hollywood col- montage and an amazing ignorance of the moving
leagues, with the exception of Rowland Brown, are forces behind human behaviour and social reality
even capable of mounting so simple an event as a cluttered up his subsequent films The Dragnet, The
speeding train. For that they might have to look Last Command, The Docks of New York, The Case
up Trauburg's China Express and some of the early of Lena Smith, all silent films, and such talkies as
experimental films by Walter Ruttmann. Sternberg The Blue Angel, Dishonored, Morocco, An Ameri-
and the other Hollywood directors as a whole have can Tragedy, Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus.
wasted too much time with effects secured by non- Sternberg has nothing to learn in motion pictures
filmic photography, legs, buttocks and glycerine but in Shanghai Express he flattered Trauberg and
tears. Dovzhenko, the former by imitating China Ex-
Salvation Hunters was the first film directed by press both in genre and action while from Dov-
Sternberg. It was an independent venture by Stern- zhenko's Arsenal he adapted cliches from the freight
berg, featured bu such vicissitudes as lack of funds, train sequence. But the imitation of vital formal
materials and even food, for the director frequently methods is inherent in a failure to realize that they
did not have money for his lunches, all of which also represent an elucidation of man and his rela-
should have made Sternberg curious about the con- tion to his immediate world.
tradictions in a society in which creative effort is Of course, the Hollywood cinema is so regimented
virtually hamstrung that a dialectic analysis of social reality, artistically
Although Sternberg assured the writer that elucidated, is well nigh impossible. Nevertheless
Salvation Hunters was an effort of which he was there are opportunities for a director even in Holly-
ashamed, it appears that he has reversed his position wood, he have the will, ability and perception to
if
and declared to others that he considers this his best single out incidents and situations in his thematic
picture. Salvation Hunters was made after Stro- material which he may convert into images of social
heim's Greed began shocking the acquisitive instincts experience and give them vigorous filmic form. That
of the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie. The this can be done is shown by Rowland Brown's
visual grimness of the objects, locales and characters Quick Millions, one of the few masterfully mounted
20
pictures that have come from Hollywood. But Stern- For present purposes it is well to offer a brief
berg has neither consciousness of reality nor con- comparison with Fritz Wendhausen's silent film, The
sciousness of film form, both of which impel a Trial of Donald Westhoff, made some years ago in
director to create film reality. pre-Hitler Germany and one of the most notable
It is well to note here that an ultra-reactionary productions in the annals of cinema. Its theme,
organization like The Daughters of the American barring minor variations, was similar to that of
Revolution was keen enough to put its finger upon An American Tragedy in that it portrayed the social
the social challenge to bourgeois religion, morals, bankruptcy of bourgeois society in its attitude to-
economics and law in Dreiser's An American Trag- ward the problems of youth and the effects of that
edy. The Daughters proceeded to meet that society upon the weak, negative traits of a young
challenge by demanding that the National man who seeks to adjust himself to it. From The
Board of Review, in which the D.A.R. plays a dom- Trial of Donald Westhoff Sternberg, who has im-
inant role, protest to the Hays office against Dreis- plied that he has nothing to learn about films from
er's slashing attack. And despite the various shades any country, could derive something about funda-
of liberals and radicals who belong to it, the Na- mentals in structural cutting, rhythm and filmic-
tional Board of Review obeyed the dictum of the visual language; how to develop striking implications
D.A.R. since it is inconceivable that the Daughters
, through intensively graded fragments of ob-
would cooperate with an organization which they jects; how to direct players; how to exploit the pro-
could not influence. But all that Sternberg saw in perties of the camera with psychological insight;
Dreiser's novel was an illicit sex affair which ended and how to interpret social experience. So well-
in two killings, one of the girl by the young man planned, tightly constructed and sensitively directed
and the other of the young man by the law. That was Wendhausen's picture that those who saw it
bourgeois society molded and then by law murdered remember it as a rare experience. Beside it Sternberg's
a young man reared in its image, escaped Sternberg. version of an American Tragedy was a feeble pre-
For that matter, there is not a single so-called "big" tense at film making; one which served indubitably
director in Hollywood who is intellectually, tech- as an exposal of his shallow conception of filmic,
nically and artistically qualified to do justice to the human and social values. A
comparative showing
theme in Dreiser's novel. The only director of the two the fact that one is
films, in spite of
Eisenstein who was thus qualified was rejected silent and the other audible, would deflate Sternberg
by the American film industry. So great was Stern- as a director, shatter his pose as the messiah of film
berg's exultation at the humiliation of a fine motion art in Hollywood and prove him to be a cock-of-
picture artist that after being assigned the picturiza- the-walk who is one of the most retrogressive
tion of An
American Tragedy he arrogantly pro- directors that ever set foot on a movie lot.
claimed that " Hollywood (meaning Sternberg?) Moreover, such a comparison would show that Eisen-
has absolutely nothing to learn in motion pictures". stein's exit from Hollywood holds one clear im-
Such defiance had in it too much the note of fear plication namely, that Sternberg and the other
the consternation of a novice lest a film made on "leading", "eminent" film maestros of Hollywood
American soil by Eisenstein would have sharply could not risk the inevitable reactions which would
exposed the backward status of Hollywood have followed the showing of an American-Eisen-
cinema. Furthermore, Sternberg sought to conceal stein film in American film houses. The presence of
his own failure to understand Dreiser's social inter- Eisenstein in Hollywood meant that the tinsel
pretation by confusing the controversy between foundations of Sternberg's and of many other direc-
Paramount and Dreiser with statements to the effect torial reputations in Hollywood were threatened! ! !
that all the content of so long a novel as An Amer- And that could not be! How the colony must have
ican Tragedy could not be filmed. And Ray Long, rejoiced at Eisenstein's exit. Who knows but that in
at the time already released from Hearst's editorial their degradation they may have echoed the
stables, erstwhile book publisher and now a story Sternbergian refrains of "Hollywood has nothing to
buyer for a film studio, also hauled out an opinion learn" and "Oh -my Hollywood, my beloved Holly-
from the depths of his dubious profundity which
wood!" the Hollywood which is being destroyed
amounted to a defense of Sternberg's attempt to by its own incompetence and the general crisis now
camouflage his own unfamiliarity with social reality. shaking the foundations of capitalist society.
21
Stillfrom Hell on Earth,
first international sound
film in English, French
and German. Directed by
Paul Trivas.
j
A. DOVZHENKO
After the Revolution the Ukranian cinema was with its environs and outlying districts, but Ukraine
on the basis of social motives. The story itself has are two systems of cinematography. On the one
no value for meunless it is the resultant of a certain hand, Soviet cinematography; on the other hand,
socialform. This point of view determines also the French, American, etc. cinematography.
method of my work. I call it The subjects of American as well as European
Synthetic Method: cinematography are: love, strong hero, beautiful
Out of a great quantity of material, which would women, beautiful scenery, toilettes, luxury, etc. They
suffice for the creation of five or six pictures, I have been successful in finding certain audiences in
make one single film, linked together by unusually the Old as well as in the New World. The Soviet
strong tension. It represents a certain condensation cinema was also compelled to find certain elements
of the material into one single whole. to gain the favor of its proletarian public. It had
to find a firm way and the result was that it gained
I choose my characters in such a way that they
not only the favor of its own Soviet public, but
have the ear-marks not only of a film-hero, but of
whole social groups. It is the well-known "method also the enthusiasm of sections of the audience in
of types" of Soviet cinematography.
capitalistic states, especially in Europe.
The Soviet cinema found its public because of
Arsenal is the first turning point of my work.
these elements:
(Dovzhenko considers his two preceding pictures, masses, crowds, mobs;
Diplomatic Luggage and Zvenigora, purely as the colossalmovements;
studies for his creative work. L. L.) special subjects;
It has an historical basis: specialcamera angles;
end of
the the Imperialist War of 1914-1918 tempo.
decay
the of the Russian lines In So/7 I wished to work in another way. I
return
the of the soldiers to their homes wished to eliminate by means of the great speed of
their stay in the territory of the Ukraine the proper motion all the naturally effective pas-
and the first outbursts of revolution. sages; and I chose also a simple subject. A concrete
There arose in Ukraine during the Revolution, instance will show how I worked:
two chief problems: national and social. Straight field, common village, common men.
The national problem was the object of activity These are the three most common elements, which
of the Ukrainian bourgeoisie and of a section of the enabled me to rely only on my art and on my
intellectual workers. These men, in order to attain man-actor. From time to time I do not use an actor
their national interests, sacrificed the social ones at all.
23
is necessary that a non-actor should feel what is from this, they are destroying the internationalism
demanded of him. of the cinema. They are making it unintelligible,
There are sometimes cases when it is very difficult but
to explain to a non-actor. In such instances I use
the so-called SPEECH
can be used in a picture in an international sense.
PROVOCATIVE METHOD OF WORK:
Imagine, as a simple instance, a panic in a big stock
To force a non-actor to make
grimace a certain
exchange: men are talking here in different
or movement. To provoke himFor instance, to do it.
languages, but in spite of this we know that they
a scene requires astonishment; then, to provoke are expressing panic, fear, fight. Another instance:
in him the expression of this astonishment by the
A ship with fifty sailors of different nationalities.
aid of the feats of a skillful juggler.
The sailorsdo not understand the words of their
MASS MOVEMENTS, MOVEMENT OF MASSES languages; the price of the cargo has fallen in the
represent the fundamental conception of my picture stock exchange and the ship must be destroyed; this
Soil. Not a great subject, but, instead, the factors news is caught by the radio-telegrapher who does
constituting a social state. My task was to evoke not understand the languages of the sailors but tries
through these factors certain associations in the desperately to explain it to them; the sailors do not
spectator. My work was guided by understand the words, but they begin to understand
the meaning of his language; they see horror, death;
ONE MAIN DIRECTIVE: they look for rescue; and, though they speak differ-
To create a picture which would lure the specta- ent languages, they understand each other quite well
tor to see not only once, but to go and see it
it now. In both instances we may see the relation of
several times. If we can look many times at Raphael's sound, in our example of word, to the image and
or Rembrandt's pictures; if we can always read even to the whole composition of the film.
Byron or Goethe, or hear Beethoven's music, or
follow Shakespeare's lines, why should it not be Apart from words, there are a great many
possible to see also several times a valuable, artistic NATURAL SOUNDS
film? which are just as expressive, emotional and rich as
Or, is the word in a sound-picture. But up to now they
WHICH IS MORE ADVANTAGEOUS TO have not been fully utilized. They serve as mere
AN INTELLECTUAL PROCESS, illustrative material, while actually they have such
great possibilities as far as the artistic synthesis of
to make a picture which the spectator looks at
only passively, being in the theatre with his girl or
sound and image is concerned.
film to the sound-film. It is the talking-picture, and then we shall not confine ourselves to the mere
which in its present form
is the greatest mistake as recording of sound, but we shall strive to attain
far as the sound-film concerned. The "talkies" may
is artistic creation on the basis of the relations and
be compared to the worst stage ventures and, apart proportions of sound to the image.
24
r
DZIGA VERTOFF
Dziga Vertoff, the Russian film-pioneer is on a should be built in which merely documentary films
tour through Europe. He has been in Berlin for a were to be produced, not only for Russia, but for
few days, in Paris, London, Holland, and every- the whole world.
where he has given lectures on Russian film-art, on The "Film-Eye" the program of
also contains
the film-art in general and on his own sound-film Vertoff and his men. As
the microscope and the
Enthusiasm, Symphony of the Don-Basin in par- telescope are means by which the eye can see small
ticular. and distant objects, so the film-eye "the camera"
A talk with Vertoff pays. For is he not the is a means for the human eye to conquer space
great discoverer of new possibilities in filming? For as well time and, besides, the subjective human
as
the greater part we owe to him the notion of con- way of Therefore the film is the ideal
seeing.
all film-aesthetics and
struction, the foundation of means to render facts, to teach people to see in an
stillnow, every new film which he produces is a organized way, to show them that which through
seeking for new forms of expression. It does not the difference in time or place they cannot spot
affect him that others popularize the possibilities with the naked eye.
discovered by him, and get credit for it. He doesn't After the manifesto on the "Film-Eye" Vertoff
want the great international cinema-crowd. He brought us one on "Film Truth." In the period
seeks the film, that is; the film as a special and inde- from 1922-25 he produced 23 small and great
pendent means of expression (which needn't neces- films, which he called "Film-Truths" and which
sarily be a form of art to him). were devoted to the most divergent subjects. Ver-
In 1919, he started his first attack on the film- toff enumerates some of them: Spring, Two Worlds,
industry of that time by condemning the Russian The Black Sea, The White Sea, Moscow; Today, To-
comedy-film, by means of a manifesto and by de- morrow, Yesterday, Pioneers, Radio and Lenin. All
manding the fabrication of pictures, without actors, these films were documentary, but made up in a
without action, and without artificial scenery. He very unnatural way. Neither the connection of
also pleaded for the sound-film which couldn't, at time nor that of place is respected. The pure film-
that time, be foreseen at all, in that same manifesto, force of contrast and harmony, the impulse of the
which could not be published until 1921. didactic construction, leads the composition. This
But before that Vertoff had achieved some prac- Vertoff style forms the greatest possible contrast
tical work, namely when in 1918 he arranged and with the usual style of acted films and yet, one day
made up forty weekly news-films after the princi- a man appears who seeks the middle between two
ples of the Film-Eye group, supplied by him. poles and who connects the form, the composition
In 1919, he made his first great picture, the his- and the scenery of the "film-truths" with the the-
torical documentaryfilm, A
Year of Revolution, atrical means of acted films: Eisenstein produces
out of existing film-material. One year later it his Potemkin.
was followed by The Struggle of Tsaritsin, again In the meantime in 1923 there appears Vertoff 's
a documentary film which, however, in striking film, The Film-Eye, in which he realizes his the-
contrast to the methods of that time, he arranged ories in a strictly dogmatic way. In 192 5, March
out of small groups of two or three pictures. This Soviet, a striking symphony of the raising of a new
film was his first step in the direction of his last society; starting from hunger, misery and death and
and most famous silent-picture The Man With the rising to an apotheosis of the new life. In 1926,
Camera. follows a sound-film experiment, The Sixth Part
In 1921 were published two sensational manifestos of the World, a heavy political film, accompanied
"one destructive and one constructive" as Ver- by spoken text, which was broadcast from a wire-
toff calls them himself. The first demand in these less station into the film house. In 1927, Vertoff
manifestos was that the programs in the cinemas produces The Eleventh Year, a non-speaking film
should no longer consist of 99 percent acted films the construction of which is on a musical founda-
and 1 per cent of documentary films, but for 75 tion. And in 1928, his last silent picture, The
per cent of documentary ones (actual, scientific and Man With the Camera. With this the first part of
culture films), and, at the most, for 2 5 per cent Vertoff's work comes to a close, for Enthusiasm,
of acted pictures. It was called the Lenin Propor- which he produced in 1930, is according to him,
tion as Lenin, who has asserted himself that the not his last but his first picture. (This explains
actual news-film was to be the foundation for cine- Vertoff's attitude towards the sound-film.)
matography, had exacted a similar demand. In the Also when making this sound-film, Vertoff at
manifesto, it was pointed out that also in daily life once found his own method. From the very be-
the stage takes up about 10 per cent of the time and ginning he did not take any notice of the carefully
that one is wrong in including the general means constructed theories of the technical men. Whilst
of expression "Films" in that tenth part. So the these gentlemen gave severe orders that at two miles
group "Film-Eye" demanded that film-studios distance round the studio no noise was to be made,
27
or else the filming in the studio would surely come inferior position, and calls it to life, by means of
to nothing, Vertoff with his apparatus went a dynamic setting. Not only time and
place have
straight to the most uproarious spot in the whole been torn asunder but also picture and sound are
of Russia, theDon Basin. He didn't want to have often separated, where they belong together. This
anything to do with the sound-proof studio; he film is not subdivided chronologically but consists
didn't even condescend to make one single studio- of themes (march theme, theme of heavy toil, theme
picture. On the contrary he hung his microphones of sports, of a rest day, etc.) and has been composed
in spots where there was so much noise that the of combinations and contrasts of these themes. Also,
human ear couldn't take it all in. He placed his the sound is free from its natural functions and
camera on the ground which trembled incessantly has a dynamic effect of its own by way of com-
through the working of the engines. He made his bination and contrast. More than once, two, three
pictures deep under the ground and sometimes in or four totally different sound-complexes are put
scorching heat. With his camera he climbed upon together. The human language is at times only
moving trains. He was present everywhere. With audible by means of a telegraphic Morse code. But
his film eye he saw all without being seen himself! nowhere has the sound been made artificially. It
For Vertoff doesn't use artificial scenery. He is everywhere taken straight from real life.
surprises life. He spies on it unseen from a hiding Of course Vertoff is full of new plans. First
place, sometimes at a very great distance, for which of on his journey he collects material for his
all
he has a special filming system. But notwithstand- new work. His film eye is always vigilant, and
ing this systematic avoidance of all that is unreal, then he has another plan which has reached a fur-
Enthusiasm is anything but a natural rendering of ther status: A sound film Lenin again without ac-
sound. For in Vertoff's hands, no film remains a tors, with the person of Lenin as found in the his-
reproduction of reality. He frees the film from an torical film-material.
JOSEPH SCHILLINGER
excerp
rom A THEORY OF SYNCHRONIZATION
I. Inadequacy of Art Theories to the Crea- adopted bit by bit, and very eagerly, manners and
tive Experience. attitudes from the various sources: literature, the-
Literature: Quantitative and accented systems of atre, photography, and even music. A compara-
versification do not provide enough plasticity to tively improved system of sound photography came
match the natural flexible flow of a tongue. into existence and application before the "motion
The metric system turns into a Procrustean bed picture people" made up their minds what to do
for the over-developed body of a living and evolving with it. You know, they are too busy to think, but
language. always ready to act. This mental and muscular
Music: Music is still waiting for its emancipation. attitude has already done plenty of harm and will
The linguistic stamp is still revealed here and there. do more. Accustomed to producing plays on the
Enough syntactic cages and rhyming boundaries screen in silent form, they proceeded with the same,
still exist in the music of our day. only making acting individuals talk. The other
revelations were: to see and hear a band playing, a
The creative and the interpretive instinct found
its way out of these stuffy cells long, long ago. dancer tapping while music played, a Beethoven try-
ing to express the narrow path of the Panama Canal.
The scholastic theory routine, side by side with
notation, are too rude to express the
archaic
. . We also experienced some unconsciously dia-
.
the
letic productions: "hula-hula" dances at the Long
subtlety of "deviations and violations."
Island Paramount Studios, and the U. S. battleships
The rhythm theory of the civilized world, orig- maneuvering in Honolulu.
inated and expounded in German regiment quarters The alliance of cinema and music has already
("eins, zwei; zwei"), is but the first step in
eins,
given most incredible results: A Rubinoff in full
evolution of rhythm and is far behind its organic dress playing one of the numerous violin banalities
forms. (close up) in a foreground of ever-changing color-
Cinema: Cinema was born in the age of the ma- ful wilderness of a rugged landscape. The idea is:
ture theatre, the wilful neglect of technique in because some essential improvements were recently
painting, with sculpture searching for new "ways made in sound recording as well as in color photog-
and means"; architecture experiencing its first ren- raphy, one has something to do with the other. And
aissance since antiquity; poetry pursuing music, and as noobdy is anxious to listen to a violin in a dark
music trying to escape from this honorable affilia- hall any more, let them have a "visual accompani-
tion. ment."
The past of photography before the birth of cin- In any case, if there is such difficulty in handling
ema was not a very glorious one, but it fostered in an individual art form because of false premises and
the visual arts an attitude of respect toward optics: uncertainty in method, it should be many more
lense and illumination became a "condition sine times difficult, and not quite safe for posterity, to
qua non." . . .
manipulate two or more arts at once, unless an ade-
Without any art theory of its own, cinema has quate method will be adopted.
28
II. General Premises. This range, undoubtedly, will expand in the future
A. Negative. owing to auxiliary optical and acoustical devices:
Fortunately, there is a point on which all true higher frequencies of sound waves, ultra and infra
artists agree; in order to produce a work of art, it light rays. The integral of rhythm in any art com-
is necessary to induce order into relations of art ponent can be expressed through the following series
material. This "rhythm" or "composi-
is called as a universal law of composition:'
from
Nevertheless, the anarchy starts right 00 +
tion."
this point. What is rhythm, what is composition? (l) 5x _oo x" = 1 1/x ( l/x) n 2
One offers a fluent transition from one moment to 00
another. The other prescribes conflicts at any time: (l/x) n 1/x 1 X x n 00
conflicts between successive visual moments, con- where the negative values indicate the absence of
flictsbetween sound moments, and finally, conflicts the component or of one of its parameters.
between any optical and acoustical moments. Instance:
No doubt, for any particular purpose a group or The foundation of European music in XVIII-
a system of determined modifications can be adopted XIX centuries is usually composed with x 2, =
with the best result serving a special purpose. But then
it seems very naive to ascertain conflicts as a perma- 00
nent necessity. It is untrue from politico-economi- 52 = (i/
2 )
n
Yz 2/2 2 2" 00
cal standpoints: the working class is struggling for
its happier and easier future and not for the sake
or, as an average form:
of the struggle. It is untrue as well from the re-
4
2
flexological viewpoint: constantly repeated reflexes
of the same kind lose their intensity. Continuous
S = (/2 )
4
(Yz)' (Yz)- Yz 2/2 2 2
2
3
3
2
4
lated tension) in art is due to certain phenomena step in fractioning of a unit (the process occurring
the left side of 2/2) known as a musical measure
known to technology of art, which are somewhat
similar to electric resistance obtained through a sys- 2 1 1
tem of coils. In musical melody, for instance, it will be: = + +2> the second step:
is due to such factors as relationship of time to 2 2 2
pitch, revealed in the number of revolutions around 2/2+ J4 = Ya+i '/4+t2 ^+t %+U 3 etc., when
the pitch axis and the difference in frequencies be- ti,to arethe consecutive time units. The first step
tween the axis and its related climax. in factoring of a unit (the process occurring on the
B. Positive. right side of 2/2) and known as the process of
The requirement for the theory of art is
first building groups of musical measures or phrases will
that it should be a theory, i.e., such a logical sys- be: 2/2 2 X
2; the second step: 2
2
=
-f- 4; the
ing different processes that are parts of the theory. This case being expressed graphically through an
In other words, it should take such a position to- alternatingly moving segment of a stffaight line
wards art making as mathematical or theoretical (being in this case a trajectory) growing at uni-
physics takes towards experimental physics. Then form speed under right angle will mean:
the actual products of art will not be "exemptions if X = 2, then 2/2 + l
+ J4t
/z t 1 2
(Fig. 1)
from the theory," but will dissolve in the magni-
tude of the law and its modifications. The uni- 2/2 '/4 ti =l
A*2 +
(Fig. 2) + V-LM + VaU
versality of this theory requires that its premises where the dotted lines express the axis of 2/2.
should be based on observations of natural phenom- Therefore: 2/2 2 =4 will be: Ti 2/2 X =
ena and conclusions drawn therefrom. These prem- = ti + t2
(Fig. (Fig. 6)
technology and the mechanics of art on the one 5)
hand, and psychophysiological reactive processes on or
the other. The quantitative differences and inter- Or any of the other variations of the same design
actions of all these components result in what ap- through the four quadrants.
pears to us as "art quality." Musicians usually call this kind of composition
III. Essentials. "square music," which in linear design will mean:
Every art component is a continuum, and as such, (Fig. 7)
29
.\",-'
(Fig-
are obtained through interference of two or more
8)
periods of the second order if neither of their terms
The exterior sides determining the arcs of the
equals one. Therefore the simplest case will be:
second power will be:
3:2
X2 = 1/3 + 2/3
(Fig. 13)
(2-3 + 1-3) =4-9 + 2-9 + 2-9 -f 1-9
then the resultant of interference will be:
(Fig- 9) (Fig. 14)
Proceeding with higher powers of X in the form 6 3X2 = X = 6/6
of a binomial fraction, one can split any given area px 2-6 4- 1-6 = 1-6 2-6 + +
into many fractional areas reserving the inherent In the same way 4:3 ratio
relation of the whole. This is known as "harmonic (Fig. 15)
division," though the power process has never been then the resultant of interference will be:
applied to it consciously. (Fig. 16)
Synchronization of the visual-audible does not 12 4 X 12/12
3 = X =
necessarily mean one to one correspondence. Dif- px = 3-12 4- 2-12 -f 2-12
1-12 1-12 + 3-12 + +
ferent components can be correlated through all the Rhythmic cycles obtained in such a manner have
infinite variety of their different powers and differ- the three following characteristics:
ent modifications of the same powers. Different
parameters of the same component follow the same
(1) periodicity
(through uniform value of units
and recurrence of the whole cycle after com-
principle. This means that the continuum of one or pletion.)
more components can be represented through a sys-
tem of parabolas, where the location of points ex-
(2)
symmetry (in relation to the axis point: an
inverted symmetry providing contrast at the
pressing different parameters can be determined. For same time.)
instance, a certain tone applied for musical pur-
(3) balance
(formed around the axis or at the
poses may have p=
3x (relation to the pitch axis point, when the number of terms is 2n
axis), t=(l/5) 2 and i(intensity) ,== 2x. or 2n+l.)
There are different ratios of correlation serving A rhythmic cycle, once obtained, provides many
different purposes.For instance the rhythmic center variations even at its first power.
for an image on a given area will be more dynamic Instances
or dramatic at the ratio 4:3 than at 1:1. The same (3 + 1) + (2+2) + (1 + 3)
is true referring to time for a whole composition: P4:3 =
the suspension of a climax will be more effective at 12
the ratio 3:2 than at 4:3 as it develops later, it being used with such a grouping provides three
will seem tenser. All the variety of possible forms variations:
of rhythm values can be obtained through a com- (3 + 1) + (2 + 2) + (1 + 3)
plex which incorporated in my theory of rhyth-
is
(2 + 2) + (1 + 3) + (3 + 1)
mic cycles. This theory is built on three premises: (1 + 3) + (3 + 1) + (2+2)
(1) physical
periodic phenomena Grouping by single terms will give 6 variations
m
30
Diagrams Illustrating "A Theory of Synchronization'
* ' t
V t4 \*
N T
\
X
\
\
' t. /
/
/
/
1 /
X t.
T* t. / 9 a"
T. ^ / T,
i r
J L
11
i_n ru i_n
72
rLTLTLTLrLTL '
10
1* l+lt-1-.-l-t-l*!. 15
l ~ Z + 2 * I.
J 1 I
i
15
r
3 * 3 -i- S...
rr rr rra
~gr
3$:
I
I -o- fto
#
I L
IS
I I
14- :
~1_TT i u i__n BE
i
i
ff7
7- tf ^
i i
i
i i
i
16 19
. y-J
3
KS
2
~ ai
xo
V^
31
CONRAD SEILER
country needs you. (Again he points to the aud- MEDIUM SHOT of sign on a factory gate: "No
ience with one dramatic finger, and then Help Wanted."
freezes in that attitude.) CLOSEUP of ex-soldier reading the sign.
CLOSEUP of war poster with the handsome four MEDIUM SHOT of a group of unemployed in
minute speaker. front of the factory. Some of the men are still wear-
Quick pan shot of other posters in reverse. ing part of their khaki uniforms.
CLOSEUP of the orator, motionless. Suddenly a LONG SHOT of an endless bread line of jobless
distant bugle call, then sounds of battle: cannon, men.
machine- suns, bursting shrapnel, shouting. CLOSE UP of soup being ladled out in a charity
CLOSEUP of the muzzle of a large gun. joint. The eagerness of hungry men.
CLOSEUP of the gun operator. He pulls lever. PAN SHOT of street of empty stores with their
CLOSEUP: of the muzzle of the gun discharging "For Rent" signs very much in evidence.
32
the machinery a spider has spun a web. unemployed. The police go into action. Tear gas.
MEDIUM SHOT of crowd of unemployed work- Brutality.The scattering crowd.
ers at the water front. CLOSEUP of a police truncheon striking a
CLOSEUP of a worker looking at his torn shoes. worker's head.
MEDIUM SHOT of a crippled ex-soldier, in MEDIUM shot of the police in action.
uniform, begging. CLOSEUP of a bleeding worker lying uncon-
LONG SHOT of another bread line on a cold scious in the gutter.
night. Abject misery. The playing of "The Star MEDIUM SHOT of a shack in one of the many
Spangled Banner" continues through all these "New Deal Cities" in these United States. Appall-
sequences. ing poverty. In the doorway of the shack stands an
LONG SHOT of unemployed in a flop house. ex-soldier in an old ragged uniform.
Row upon row of sleeping men. Poverty, squalor. FADE OUT:
LONG SHOT
row of white
of a military cemetery. Row upon Fade in on title in large letters: "19 3
?"
crosses.
PAN SHOT of the same posters as in the first
CLOSEUP of legless ex-soldier. sequence shown in the same order. The camera moves
CLOSEUP of armless ex-soldier. quickly from one poster to another, and then focuses
CLOSEUP of an ex-soldier with a steel brace once more on the special poster with the inscrip-
attached to the back of his neck.
tion:"Your Country Needs You!" The same hand-
LONG SHOT of the unemployed riding freight some poster figure is pointing his finger at the
cars.
audience.
CLOSEUP of a freight car crowded with LAP DISSOLVE TO:
"transients."
CLOSEUP of an orator in a front coat. Unlike
MEDIUM SHOT of an eviction. Furniture piled his fat predecessor in the early sequences, he is tall
upon the pavement. A woman seated in a chair and thin. But he speaks with the same oratorical
on the pavement. She holds a small child in her lap; intonations and uses the same gestures. In general
two other children are standing next to her. Nearby composition this shot closely resembles the one first
stands an emaciated man dressed in a ragged shirt shown of the fat orator. The music of "The Star
and old military trousers. Spangled Banner" is played softly at the beginning
CLOSEUP of a crying woman. of the speech, but presently there is a rather abrupt
CLOSEUP of the ex-soldier. crescendo until the new orator cannot be heard.
MEDIUM SHOT of a group of unemployed
sleeping beneath a bridge or viaduct. They
(NEW ORATOR)
are
(Pointing a finger at the audience)
covered with newspapers.
LONG SHOT of a garbage dump. Men, Your country needs you! Your government has
women
called you to the colors to fight for liberty and
and children foraging about for food.
democracy, to fight for those glorious principles
MEDIUM SHOT of garbage dump.
upon which country was founded
this great the
CLOSEUP of a woman stuffing a bit of food into
principles Right and Eternal Justice. You are
of
a sack.
fighting for your homes and your firesides. You are
CLOSEUP of a child picking up a crust of
fighting against tyranny and barbarism for a new
bread and eating it.
world of love and goodwill. You are the heroes of
MEDIUM SHOT of the Bonus Army marching
today and tomorrow, and your country will never
on Washington.
forget you and your glorious sacrifices. (Crescendo
LONG SHOT of one of the Bonus Army
of music. The orator's mouth continues to move,
"camps." ramshackle huts made of odds and ends.
but not a word more of his speech is heard.)
Poverty, filth.
FADE OUT.
CLOSEUP of Bonus Army camp.
LONG SHOT of Bonus Army being driven out NOTE The editors of Experimental Cinema
of Washington. The burning camps in the back- welcome scenarios by film experimenters and
ground and the dome of the Capitol. professional film workers dealing with the
MEDIUM SHOT of a mass demonstration of the American scene.
33
N. SOLEW
Letter from U. S. S. R.
This letter will reach you late in summer. At be senseless in print. You would have written a
the end of the summer we will have in Moscow story about a story. This is the usual scenario.
several new sound films Ivan by Dovzhenko, Pudovkin and Dovzhenko are attempting new
Motorship Pjatiljetka by Pudovkin. I know their
cinema problems. Ivan and Pjatiljetka are the first
scenarios well. They contradict the usual scenario real sound films. (The Road to Life and Golden
forms. There is no love interest and no narrative Mountains were silent at first then reshot.) Soon the
construction. The scenarios deal directly with film film will take its place beside literature and the
reality. Try to remember how many pictures you've theatre as an art. It will be an art of condensation.
seen without love or risk.You immediately think of Life will be portrayed better than by the novelist
Turksib as probably the only one. Moscow critics
of today or the theatrician.
wrote that Turksib doesn't show the real from the
reel. It has been called an enthusiastic picture Pudovkin has recently written an article on his
about the first steps of the Five Year Plan but new montage theories. It deals mainly with move-
doesn't portray the people as they are. However in ments on the screen based on the principle of per-
Ivan and Motorship Pjatiljetka this will be more ception. Pudovkin has developed the idea of per-
apparent and perhaps decided. ception of vision on the screen and analyzed their
What would this mean for world-cinematography? psychological causes and results.
It would be the beginning of film art. It will prove Two additional films that will soon come to
that the cinema can work not only with emotion America are The Ghost That Never Returns, di-
but with ideas. Try to imagine what kind of litera- rected by A. Room, scenario by Henri Barbusse. It
ture it would be if the subject of the usual film deals with prison life in America. The other film is
drama were printed. It would be vulgar and all the Salt of Svanetia by Kalatozow. It depicts the wild-
tiresome details which we see on the screen would est of Caucasian countries before the revolution.
E. G. LIGHTFOOT
34
Two still shots from a film directed and
photographed by Henwar Rodakiewicz pre-
senting the surface aspects of New England.
//
THE FACE OF NEW ENGLAND //
Lower still
Would have
been better if the cam-
era had been focused
about half an inch from
the top.
Left: Arsenal
Below: Soil
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LEWIS JACOBS
DOVZHENKO
Dovzheno one of the few great directors of
is sacrifice his material for "effects". His heroes are
whom knows very little. Those
the public at large not "objects individualized", but heroic figures
who have seen his films have come away with a representative of social groups. His types are much
new respect for the cinema. The complexity of deeper than character drawings. In the same way his
Dovzhenko's form and content is as difficult to films have no value as stories, i.e. plot, character-
appreciate at one seeing as hearing Beethoven or read- ization,and other paraphernalia of climactic de-
ing Dosteovski for the first time. To attempt a com- velopment outside their social conflicts. It is this pro-
parison between Dovzhenko and the Hollywood found Marxian basis that determines Dovzhenko's
director is as far fetched as linking Bach with Irv- method, propels his form.
ing Berlin. Eisenstein is perhaps the only other director who
Dovzhenko has an intense feeling for nature in stands adamant in this "non-individualistic" ten-
its profound implications. It has been extremely dency. Anisimov recently pointed out Eisenstein's
difficult for him to adapt himself to the new and failure to overcome his problem of the dialectical
ever developing conditions of his immediate environs. approach to the personal. "Objects pour down upon
His films typify this struggle of the individual to the heads of spectators in enormous quantities,
orient himself to the greater benefits of a socialized (Eisenstein's film Ten Days That Shook The
society. Dovzhenko's sincerity is reflected in images World)
porcelain, cut-glass, chandeliers,
of power and sequences of beauty, and offer a glow- statues, columns, architectural ensemble of the
ing tribute to both the society which is moulding Winter Palace all these not conforming to the
him and the artisan resultant from that society. basic content of the film are transformed into a
Until the advent of sound Dovzhenko had made real deluge of objects. We might say an objective
only three films: Svenigora, Arsenal, and So/7. deluge] The film which was to have been a history
Svenigora was a translation of a Ukranian folk tale. of the October Revolution becomes a horde of dead
It was disliked and not understood. Arsenal, Dov- objects covered with the dust of museums. curious A
zhenko's second film unreeled Ukrania's struggle for paradox results: the museum objects are individual-
freedom. Few liked it; less understood its strange ized and pictured with great exactitude while the
cinematic construction. Those who did, called it, movement of the masses appear drab, deprived of
"extraordinary" and compared its director to individuality and reduced to mere allegory! (All
Eisenstein. Eisenstein "Dovzhenko
himself said, italics mine.)
must be watched. He is infinitely more interesting The great concern of Soviet directors has been
than the film." A professional compliment from schematism. Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Trauberg, Ermler,
one who can afford to be generous. Room, Protazanoff, Barnett, single out incidental
Dovzhenko's third film projected the class
Soil, episodes, chip their character out of one cast and
struggle in a Ukranian village. The film was a approach proletarian reality by a narrow schematic
rhapsody of victory for a new society. Dovzhenko picture-continuity. A montage-system based on
"the Ukranian" was called "a poet, a mystic." The and developed from the discoveries of the
film, it was claimed, was not "direct enough." The bourgeois artist-director: D. W. Griffith.
better directors admired its new montage struc-
Eisenstein the only other director beside
is
ture, while outside the Soviet Union the film was
Dovzhenko who has established an entirely new ap-
hailed as "a masterpiece."
proach to the film process. An approach part and
Unlike other directors, Dovzhenko has never parcel of the rapid growth and fertility of the soviet
been concerned in his films with problems of the reality itself.
individual, (Bed and Sofa, directed by Room) iso-
In all his films Dovzhenko has avoided bourgeois
lated revolutionary experiences, (Fragments of an tricks. His, even more than Eisenstein's, is the vital
Era, directed by Ermler) or acting, characteriza- imagination. The revolutionary experience is deeply
tion, formulas derived from literature and
plot; ingrained in him. He never leaves this social ap-
the theatre, and which permeate the world of cin-
proach to the theme. He projects the dialectics of the
ema. Dovzhenko is the first director to make the
class struggle without resort to caricature. He
spectator an active participant at a film showing.
never schematizes the social processes nor does
A film by Dovzhenko is an experience, not an escape. he resort to film them into formalized, immobile,
This quite a revolution in itself when we think
is
circumscribed pictures. The technique of montage
that ever since the bourgeoisie developed the prin- never substitutes itself for the thematics of social-
ciples of motion pictures, the film was always used
istic Dovzhenko's films are utilitarian
definitions.
as a palliative, as "entertainment". The social sig- and methodology of struggle and con-
practical; a
nificance of this in a class society is very apparent. struction, teaching the audience, educating them,
Dovzhenko understands too well the problem of organizing them into proper directions and assum-
tension and condensation of subject matter to ing an active role in their working-class lives.
37
CLAY HARRIS
HOLLYWOOD NEWSREELS
Periodically the motion picture enterprises find none of which portray the violent upheavals attend-
it necessary to conduct mild offensive against the
a ing world economic collapse with either construc-
power of self -constituted censorship; not, however, tive or even consecutive sense. As to direct pro-
in the interests of vital truths, but generally because paganda, kindly bankers stammer their love for
of prurient interference with their pandering to dumb animals and indirectly inspire youngsters with
sex-starved movie patrons with lurid sensationalism the philosophy of individual success that is so neces-
sex problems arising out of the contradictory sary to sustain hope; but there is no suggestion of
morals of the decaying system. the misery caused by their insanely grasping, anti-
These hypocritical sorties are conducted by press- social manipulations. Much space and speech is de-
agents, who display no vigor worthy of an intelligent voted to the tariff and tax nostrums of industrial
revolt, but smugly compliment the industry upon barons, but none to an intelligent summary of the
past performance and begin their paper-weight at- social and economic chaos. Endless footage to Big-
tacks as follows: Navy Bigger-Navy debates
but not a single
"Why should not Americans feel pride in and plea for appropriating wealth to adequately house,
encourage an industry in which America leads feed and clothe the vast army of destitute workers.
the world and through which it is putting Every phase of rampant individualism and private
American conceptions of life before the world, accumulation, which has run civilization into a ditch
not as propaganda [sic!], but with immense from which only the organized workers can ex-
beneficial influence upon American prestige and tricate it, is exploited and propagandized in persons
commerce." " 1
of prosy priests, bucolic bankers, political procurers,
Thus: "The sanctity of the institution of mar- demagogic dunces, and pathetic princes. Individual
riage and the home shall be upheld". ... In spite power and success, whether in war, sport, crime,
of wide spread paternal suicide and family homicide politics and exploitation, are presented without an-
because of unemployment, eviction, and destitution! alysis of the motive or social effect, but rather with
No hint of social decay. No cinema dramatization a view to inspiring a similar dog-eat-dog attitude,
of the sufferings, thwartings, strivings of the des- which is beautifully excused if only the "dough" is
titute millions. accumulated and the triumphant one is good-to-his-
"Influence upon prestige and commerce". But . . .
dear-old-mother. Thus private property, with its
no public treatment of "sex-hygiene and prevention concomitants of ruthless greed and exploitation, is
of venereal disease" or other social problems, lest dignified and supplemented with gross senti-
intelligentunderstanding abolish the necessity for mentality.
sex-hypocrisy so popular as a screen theme.
"Czar" Hays makes sure that no idea subversive
"Putting American conceptions of life before the
of anointed privilege reaches the workers through the
world". . But forbidding portrayal of miscegena-
. .
films and stirs them to lively social consciousness.
tion, and ignoring racial discrimination, race riots,
He maintains specific contacts in Washington for
wholesale disenfranchisement of negroes, persecution
the news-reel companies, suggesting avenues for
of the foreign born.
and limitations to exploitation of news events.
In short, the intellectual bankruptcy of Hollywood
Hence the ever-present excitement of military, naval
films is accentuated by the social and economic and air-force grandeur and preparedness, stirring
bankruptcy of capitalist ownership and control, patriotic fervor and unthinking emotion, and adding
which dare not permit free and penetrating expres- to prejudices and hatreds already effectively sown by
sion of the problems it has created and aggravated,
other propaganda agencies. But .the educational
. .
but instead hides behind a hypocritical mask of self- value of picturing bread-lines and masses of un-
imposed censorship. employed, together with enlightening comment
Nor is the news-reel an exception. Here we are emphasizing that this starvation takes place in the
presented with freaks, frumps and oddities that give midst of plenty, strictly barred.
is
the American scene its circus character. Our risi-
bilities are tickled with hog-calling contests, dancing
On the few occasions when mass demonstrations
are photographed, their grim sense is apt to be per-
marathons, two-headed calves and other trivia; our
verted by the banal humor of an announcer. How-
"souls" are served with sight and hearing of priests
ever, sometimes such scenes creep in by accident, as
and prelates performing their aboriginal abracadabra;
during the recent visit of Mayor Walker to San
our sentiments appealed to by playful puppies and
Francisco, when as background to this sycophant
winsome babies; we are "educated" by means of
could be seen militant paraders with banners demand-
thoroughly innocuous photography of temples, rites
ing adequate governmental relief for the unemployed,
and picturesque happenings throughout the world,
demanding the release of Mooney and Billings, and
(,) A Summary of Arguments Against Censorship, protesting against any attempt to invade Soviet
Film Daily Year Book, 1931 p. 671. Russia or in any way interfere with its process of
38
socialist construction. On the other hand, a news- conquer." Trace the ownership and control of the
reel that recently deigned to show pictures of the motion picture industry to its source, and one finds
Moscow celebrations of the Fourteenth Annversary . bankers, industrialists, property owners, coupon-
. .
of the Russian Revolution carefully isolated shots clippers. And what should their mission be, but to
of tanks and soldiers marching with fixed bayonets; protect their own interests? to convert a cultural,
the obvious intention being to arouse hatred of any educational medium into serving those interests!
nation that displays the efficiency of West Point Therefore news-reel content becomes an insipid
in this case to add the Red Menace to the Yellow rehash, carefully loaded with capitalist propaganda.
Peril. In such manner confusion is spread amongst the Particularly so, now that the deepening crisis focuses
workers. "The camera cannot lie!" What cynical attention sharply upon evidence of the failure of the
farceur first uttered that unqualified phrase! The capitalist system to provide even a modicum of
purveyors of news-reel rubbish, like their brethren security for millions of workers. The stringent need
of the subsidized press, know the values of evasion of these asses for clarity in their intense struggle
and omission, has to separate or conjoin items to of class against class finds no response, but rather
achieve implicit lies. deliberate confusion, in the world of moving images
Even if there were not a deliberate campaign of supposedly reflecting the dramatic happenings of life.
misrepresentation, a further capitalist safeguard ex- This signifies the cultural bankruptcy of the Holly-
ists in the carefully nurtured reactionary mentality wood outlook, which resorts to cowardly apologetics
of motion-picture editors, or subserviance imposed on the basis of a supposed "mass content" that was
on them by economic necessity (and this is true of long ago shattered by the impact of destitution.
the entire industry, wherein numerous able creative Can the rising demand for truth and understand-
artists permit themselves to be mentally throttled in ing on the part of the workers be met by news-
return for the weekly stipend). reels? Yes, but not by Hollywood's vendors of lies
Finally comes the censorship, official in some in- and drugs. They have the technique but not the
stances, and unofficial in the case of the National freedom to use a simple effect sound over image
Board of Review, which has, through its representa- to accomplish a dialectic result. For example:
tion of chambers of commerce, women's clubs, and (1) During the speech of the President on the
reactionaries of all kinds, far-reaching influence on necessity for "preserving the sanctity of the insti-
bookings by theater owners whenever occasion de- tution of marriage and the home" ... we cut in
mands. shots: of unemployed workers and their families
A commentator on news-reel censorship declares: being evicted pauper suicides lying in morgues
. . .
"Scenes of strike riots were ordered eliminated ... a homeless veteran picking over garbage . . .
from news reels in one state at the time its then back to the sonorous phrases of stupidity and
newspapers were using photographs of the exact reaction in the face of social decay.
incidents recorded in the films. Another board, (2) During the speech of a militarist spreading
upset by the appearance in a picture of an em- war propaganda and advocating bigger and better
ployer who did not use safety devices to pro- and more destructive war machines . . . we cut in
tect his employees, ordered insertion of a title library shots: of putrid corpses strewn like garbage
reading: 'Henry Jones, a type of employer now on a battlefield millions of wooden crosses in . . .
happily extinct, who does not believe in safety the various national cemeteries of the war dead . . .
". The most telling count against the bayonet attack on the Bonus Army at Anacostia
censors
. .
is that they have deliberately suppressed new cannon fodder being used against the old and
news or altered its import by cutting out pro- outworn then back to the war-monger, whose
. . .
portions. In one instance, the statement of a kind are preparing more terror and destruction for
Presidential candidate was cut; in another, sec- the world's workers.
Thus evasion of certain subjects would seem to ing, departing for Europe and testifying at Wash-
be justified by external pressure and public demand. ington with brazen assurance that the bankers must
This is a half-truth
a typical capitalistic con- be served first workless workers on the bread . . .
tradiction. Evidence: It is precisely the current or lines then back to the lying economist, whose
. . .
capitalistic system of education and propaganda (in dull phrase suggest the sound of a drone, a parasite.
which films as a whole join the radio, the press, the (4) During the vote-catching plea of a politi-
school, the pulpit) that perpetuates superstition and cian who invokes the Constitntition and declares
bigotry, race-hatred and sectional bias, as a matter that prohibition and debt moratorium are the root
of self-protection and on the basis of "divide and of all economic and social evil ... we cut in shots
of destitute workers in all countries under capitalist
(2) "Censorship of the Theater and Motion Pic-
3
tures" Beman; p. 199. < > Ibid. p. 213.
39
rule, of prohibition or national debts
irrespective dustrial areas; drama enough in bank-runs and
... quotation from the constitution: "All men are
a evictions, horror enough in the morgues, prisons,
created equal" followed by shots of negroes
. . . Hoovervilles and jungles. It is left, however, to the
being beaten and shot by hired thugs ... a negro numerous workers' film and photo leagues to
strung to a tree, naked and sexually mutilated, photograph the real essence of the crisis; to struggle
with embers of a fire beneath him police slug- . . . on with inadequate equipment, in spite of confis-
ging unemployed workers whose banners demand cation of their cameras and film, in spite of police
government aid another title: "Life, Liberty,
. . . terror.
and the Pursuit of Happiness." then back to . . . Hollywood news-reels seek innocuous subjects.
the mental flag-waving of the candidate for office Only in direct propaganda do they display vitality
in the service of the capitalist class. for war preparations, to exalt the exploiters, to
It is not for lack of stirring material that the spread lies. They are a definite source of menace,
news-reel suffers. There is vitality enough in mass under capitalist control, to the further cultural
struggles being waged constantly in farm and in- progress of humanity.
THIS QUARTER L. J.
WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD: A photostat of MAMA LOVES PAPA: The bourgeoisie attempts
Road to Life. It needed a Stroheim with a Marxian to laugh at itself. Funny-paper Mr. and Mrs. Super-
approach. ficial, except for a moment when city corruption is
disclosed.
MORNING GLORY: Neither flicker, movie, nor
cinema, Katherine Hepburn in a pre-Raphaelite cameo.
STRANGER'S RETURN: Is this America's "white
hope" director? Hasn't Vidor heard of the two mil-
POWER AND GLORY: Carefully photographed
lion starving, striking farmers? Has he ever seen
rehash of nickelodeon 24 sheet.Called Narratage
a farmer? Lionel Barrymore sulks. Miriam Hopkins
but remember Barnum.
squints. Vidor struts his incompetence.
40
H. P. J. MARSHALL
course of economic history. Before the crisis over- documentalist, maker of Bridge, Rain, Zuyder
took the world (excepting only the USSR), most Zee, etc., after making a sound film Phillis Radio was
of the successful artistic brains were bought by invited by Meschrabpom Studios to make a docu-
Hollywood, but not all. Outstanding are those of mentary sound-film of Soviet Youth.
Reinhardt and Eisenstein who went but did not suc- II.
cumb to cheap commercialism. Youth. Red youth. A great seam running through
Now the cadre has changed with the economic all the strata of activity in this huge continent of
movement. Eisenstein who has just returned from nations. From European Russia to Oriental Asia,
Mexico finds Moscow crowded with old acquaint- from Arctic Tropic Tadjekistan. All part
Siberia to
ances: Erwin Piscator, Hans Richter, Karl Junghans, of the plan. The Five Year Plan in Four, of Socialist
Hans Eisler, Bela Belaz, and Joris Ivens. Men who Reconstruction.
have come to the Soviet Union for the opposite reason Such material, such themes, such inspiration has
to that of those who go to Hollywood (in fact they never before in history been offered to art, to artists.
would not be considered "successful" in their own And here we are in Moscow with the job of taking
countries) are here to express an idea and a purpose some of this dynamic stuff and weaving it into a
in film art practically impossible in any other work of art. There's so much of it. Colossal. We
country. discussed the question with the leading youth or-
Here is Piscator, who has so often come under ganisations, read all the literature we could, talked
the censor's repression in Berlin, in Odessa has made to the men who had
been there, saw the pictures
a sound-film of The Revolt of the Fishermen from that had been painted and the films that had been
the book of Anna Segars. Hans Richter (who
. . . shot. Then we made a plan. We would choose the
along with Ernest Toller, George Grosse, John two great fronts of the Plan: metal and coal. Here
Heartfield) has developed from abstract expression- was a great youth organisation, mighty construction
ism of form to concrete expression of revolutionary and production, a vortex of old and new, East and
content. He has produced a sound-film Metal about West, peasant and worker building the Plan.
. . .
the great Berlin metal strike last year. Pearl At- On the map two names stand out in great red
tasheva collaborated with him in writing the letters: Magnitogorsk, Ruzbass. Magnitogorsk, on the
scenario which is based on the actual documentary borders of the Urals, Kazakstan, and Central Siberia.
material. . Karl Junghans, who made a film of
. . Here, by mountains of iron-ore is being built the
proletarian life in Berlin directed Black and White, greatest metallurgical plant in the world, unique in
deling with the great problem of the relationship of the socialist sense of being a complete co-operative
negroes and whites in the class struggle in the United combine from blasting the ore to making products
States. The whole scenario was based on historical from steel. The one important raw material not
material and shows the contrast of negro life and found on the spot is coal, and that is supplied
labour in America and the thriving negro collectives, from Kuzbass. Here in Western Siberia are the
farms, and colonies in the South of the Soviet greatest coal fields in the world.
Union. These were to be our objects together with Mos-
Hans Eisler, Berthold Brecht, and Slaton Dudov cow as the centre!
came to Moscow with a copy of their collective took us four days to get to Magnitogorsk. At
It
work, Rule Vampe, the first important German first glimpse it's like the Wild West of our early
proletarian sound-film, which has been suppressed by film days, with buggies and horse-riders, rough roads,
the Berlin censor. It deals with a group of un- a shack for a station, barracks to live in, and a
employed workers who through the crisis are forced wooden store main street. But you haven't got far
to the last degree of poverty and live in self-made on the rough ride up the hill when the mighty pan-
huts on the edge of the town. There they dig a great orama of construction is revealed. Colossal iron
grave and put up the epitaph "Here lies buried our edifices, strange looking pipe lines of enormous dia-
last hope of ever getting work". Brecht who wrote meter, rows of huge chimney stacks, a maze of
the script is the author of the scenario for The railway lines, countless buildings, wood, brick, iron,
Beggars' Opera satire brought up-to-date. In Ger- concrete, masses of workers, and through it all a
many he is well known as a revolutionary dramatist deep vibrating hum of sound, which on coming
and poet. Hans Eisler, composer of revolutionary nearer grows to a roar of noise. Metal-flow, steam
music and mass songs, wrote the music for Rule valves, compressed air blasts, pneumatic hammers,
Vampe including two well-known proletarian electric welders, cranes, winches, excavators, trains,
songs, "The Song of the Out-of-Work" and "The conveyors, working full speed, night and day . . .
Peasant's Revolution". Dudov is a young regisseur and two years ago this was a deserted steppe!
41
Here all-singing, was a giant of the
all-talking, when Tartary was an empire; the youthful militant
Five Year Plan. And
out of this apparent chaos of songs of Tartar Komsomols; the old national instru-
sight and sound we made a composition, with the ments of the dark Khirghiz. These woven to-. . .
leit motif of Youth. For practically half of the peo- gether with the special music and songs Hans Eisler
ple working here are young. Of all nationalities, composed for the film.
Russian, Ukraine, Bashkir, Tartar, Khirghiz, Sibe- After three months of strenuous shooting in
rian, etc. Here under the leadership of the Com- Magnitogorsk, particularly because of the
difficult
munist Party is seen the emergence from the old na- delicacy of the semi-portable sound-film-apparatus,
tional separateness and backwardness into working- and the roughness of the roads, and tempo of con-
class unity. The peasant masters technique. And in struction, we are in Western Siberia, in the mining
thus changing nature, man changes human nature. district of Kuzbass. Here is sharply seen the contrast
A part of our picture shows the construction of between old and new, a tiny earth-house on the dirty
the second blast-furnace proudly called "Komso- and the new, clean-looking standard houses
hill-side
molskaya", because the Young Communist League on the green hill-tops; the little wooden church
took charge of its building from beginning to end. and the great new workers' club now being built.
Youth under 2 5 years of age constructs the Black wooden mine-heads and the white modern
largest blast furnace in the world with productive architecture of the hospital. The Komsomol organisa-
capacity of over one thousand tons of pig-iron a tion in the mining village of Prokopyevsk is very
day. young. A year ago it had 1 5 members and now
And that is not all. Now there has been organized there are 4,400. They
helping to develop the
are
lective farm: becoming literate, working as an un- liminarily called) is competition with
in socialist
skilled laborer, being drawn into the social life by Pudovkin's SS. Pyatiletka; Barnet's Outskirts; and
the Komsomols, and doing his social work (as every Betrayer of the Fatherland by Ruector Mutanow.
citizen of the Soviet is taught and expected to do), All these films were produced by Meshrabpom
as a member of the Trade Union which helps in and are sound films with international themes.
administering the works, as a student, as a worker Pudowkin is now working again with his old
in a riveting brigade a shock-brigadier. We are camera-man, Golovnya, with whom he made his
recording the great production noises and sounds, greatest films, one of which, The End of St.
the blasting and hammering, the clanging and ring- Petersburg, was a celebration film for the 10th
ing, and the myriad echos of construction. We are year jubilee together with Eisenstein's October.
recording speech and song
old and modern, na- These were expressive of the period of revolution.
tional and revolutionary; the songs of the Tartars It will be interesting to see the new kind which
which perhaps were sung thousands of years ago must come out of the period of reconstruction.
// //
R-E-L-l-E-F
"One of the relief bureaus gave a family a food order
containing, among other things, a chicken. That night the
investigator visited a local movie and to his surprise saw the
recipient of the food order seated ahead of him with his
family. Upon investigation, it was disclosed that the afore-
said family had traded in the chicken for a cheaper cut of
meat and with the balance added to what they had had
celebrated by seeing a cinema.
"Here is tragedy to me. The bureau decided that such a
family was not worthy and took their order away from
them. What stupidity! If you but sense the desperate need
for release behind this picture you can see my point."
Robert Hartley in New York Times.
42
RENE CLAIR
ready to accept that which entertains him: at times Today, the system installed by the business men
an excellent achievement at others an assininity. Since and their orderlies has made it just about impossible
nothing has ever been done to awaken and develop for any genius or budding talent to come to the
the critical sense of this great docile mass, how can fore. The system represents the most perfect organi-
it be expected to defend itself against the degenerat- zation of defense against all unknown forces which
ing enjoyment meted out to it by so many factory- might revive the declining cinema.
manufactured productions that follow the basest Can the present regime be modified? Is there any
of patterns? When we hear it said: "What else do hope of seeing the cinema regain its youthful
you want us to do? We give the public what they inspiration, the fertile genius which fired its heroic
want ", we feel that this excuse condemns is not impossible. The world crisis is bear-
age? This
the part played by those very people who hide behind ingdown hard on the great concerns. Perhaps to-
it. We
do not seek the reign of a moralizing or in- morrow they will no longer have credit sufficient
we do demand that the cinema
tellectual cinema, but to permit exercising their monopoly on a product
be worthy of the responsibilities incurred by its which demands such vast investments. If so, stan-
great power. Why is there not a censorship against dardized production, divided up between a few trusts,
stupidity, just defensive measures
as there are will have to give way to the independent enterprise
against the and narcotics? Does
sale of absinthe of numerous groups. Even today, co-operative pro-
the mind of a people have less importance than the duction has seen the light in several countries. With
health of its body? That is not what our political this method, the film is produced by the combined
harangues full of innocuous idealism teach us. efforts of the artisans whose different talents are use-
The question that comes up here does not concern ful to the collaboration; in these undertakings, the
only the cinema. Radio, television, and all new forms supervisors and other headmen of the industrial cin-
of expression that technique may give us, will find ema no longer have the right to exercise their tyran-
themselves facing the same problems. Will these nical say. These films can therefore be conceived and
enormous forces be left at the disposal of whoso- executed with more freedom than those produced
ever has enough capital to grab them up? The free- under the blind discipline of the great companies.
dom given in such instances to private initiative All these new films will not be good films, it is ob-
is a caricature of freedom: it results in imposing the vious; no system can by itself create talent. But men
dictatorship of a few restricted financial or in- of talent will, through this means, find a chance to
dustrial groups over a domain which is not solely show themselves, and to show to the cinema itself
material. Possibly the economic and political system achievements worthy of it and of its vast audience.
43
V. SMIRNOV
brings an atmosphere of rough frankness and un- must point out, did not simply mean replanting
tamable will power. uncritically.
"Above all the Soviet cinema gives us the taste The tremendous events of the October revolu-
of thought, poetry and symbol that we have al- tion were by no means over. They had loosed new
most forgotten." consequences which would follow one upon the
During these fifteen years Soviet cinematography other. The brilliant glycerine heroes, so well liked
has not always been victorious. It has been a road in the past, did not correspond with the new hero
of defeats too, of painful searches and reflections, who hsd gone through the tough school of war,
of unsuccessful experiments. hunger, epidemic and revolution.
To trace this road, record the principal changes, The glowing coals on the hearth were too harsh
schools and directions in the last fifteen years of a contrast to the war time campfires, to the villages
Soviet cinematography, is the task we have set our- during the civil war, to the fires in blast furnaces
selves in this survey. end factory that had to be fanned into a roaring
The films in the Soviet Union from
exhibited flame.
1917 to 1925 fall into three classifications; there The was glaringly ob-
falseness of the old film
were the motion pictures released before the nation- vious. It was necessary to change the heroes and the
alization of the cinema, these released after the locale. This meant a change in theme, a change in
nationalization, and foreign films mostly Amer- perspective; the entire artistic-creative base had to
ican and German. re-orient itself.
This group of foreign films must be considered In 1924 Sergei Eisenstein succeeded in doing this
separately. The best of them, the work of such film in his picture "Strike". This does not meant that
masters as Griffith, Lubitsch, and Chaplin exerted a before that time no one had been preoccupied with
great influence upon the further development of these problems. It means only that he succeeded
the Soviet Cinema. in correctly formulating that which was still
The Russian film was no more
pre-nationalized obscure and uncrystallized in other minds.
than a poor imitation of the Italian and French What had he done? He had replaced the old in-
cinema. Its actors were the "Russian" exotics that dividual hero by a new one the mass.
can still be seen, living their "exotic" life in the This was inevitable. Strike was not merely a pic-
cellars of the "Russian Restaurants" of New York, ture. It was a philosophic reply to those who held
Paris and Berlin. In their products handsome men that the individual an exceptional role in
played
and women, as sleek as thoroughbred horses, loved history. In this film the individual roles were sub-
and suffered while glycerine tears flowed down ordinated. The living mass, acting in the tempo
their faces and the coals in the fireplaces burned and scenes characteristic to Eisenstein, let the audi-
low. There was not a trace of thought or of ence perceive power. It allowed them to
its own
psychoanalysis in these pictures. participate in the action unrolling before them,
The Soviet films of that period were just as help- not as separate individuals, but as individuals power-
less artistically though their theme was different. ful because of their relationship to the thousands
The theme alone was not enough. Ideologically these thousand-like individuals. It was a poem of the
pictures were barren. masses. Through it the audience could sense the
The theme and ideology of the foreign films were power of the class, could personally resent its con-
44
. . HOLLYWOOD
tors.
Marchers.
terday's grip and they found it hard to tear them- of Europe, they remain inferior only to the Amer-
selves away. In literature mature work had already ican sound studios.
appeared that dealt with current life. The drama The appearance of sound in the cinema could only
had produced so great a play as Afinogenov's intensify the influence of the theatre on the motion
Queer. Only cinema still lagged behind life. picture. For a time the cinema again was subject
Various attempts by cinematographists to depict to infantile ailments. Theatricalism ran rampant.
these turbulent days showed that life had become Lack of experience and the uselessness of the old
so complex, that their knowledge was insufficient. habit deprived the directors for a time of their
They failed to understand the new man, failed to routine system of work. Suddenly the pictures
understand the new processes unfolding before their slowed down in tempo; they became nothing more
eyes, failed to disclose correctly and profoundly the than photographed theatre, differing only insofar as
significance of various phenomena. Because of this they presented many scenes instead of the compact
the directors substituted human schemes for real acts of the drama.
live people, the generalization took the place of the
The young director, Marcharet, in Men and Jobs,
complex man, the naive poster figure and effigy
one of the most recent of the Soviet talking pictures,
alone were projected on screen.
has succeeded in solving most of these problems.
This was a period of painful searches, of artistic
failures; it required a complete reconsideration of
He has utilized sound as an organic part of his
picture; he has left the theatrical far behind and
the Weltanschauung. They had to shed their ac-
approached very closely to the depiction of the new,
customed views, discard those elements incorrectly
particularized, human hero. This new hero is no
perceived. They had to catch up with the life that
longer Eisenstein's masses; he is as a matter of
was fast leaving them behind. Naturally, this pro-
course an inseparable part of the masses, a drop
cess had to be painful.
in the human ocean, but a drop not of a mechani-
Many cinematographists tried to overlook the
cal, schematic nature. His characters live with all
maturing artistic and demands of the spec-
tastes
their contradictions; they are no longer naive ef-
tator. Not knowing how to give a genuine artistic
figies of virtue or vice. You can have discussions
reply, the directors presented, instead, barren life-
about these characters, you can like or dislike them;
less formulas and symbols.
involuntarily you are forced to think about these
The tendency at the time, was to put into one
images, to try to plumb them.
picture the many complex facets of life. This ten-
dency was foredoomed to failure. The directors were Later, Enthusiasm appeared. Here, even to a
afraid they might leave out or forget a detail, there- greater extent, maturely at last, and set in a con-
fore they left out what mattered. One could not temporary background, we come upon a refined,
see the forest because of the trees. particularized and subtle characterization that is
Motion pictures became boring. On all sides one far removed from the poster character. Values have
heard of a crisis in Soviet cinematography, of searches been re-evaluated and now we are ready for hu-
that led into a blind alley. manized expression.
47
L. J.
// //
Review of Arnh eim s Fil m
Were this book to begin with the statement it ciently Arnheim's ignorance of reality, and his ivory
ends on,
"The future of the film depends on the tower approach to film esthetics.
future of economics and politics, what will happen The contemporary "plastic" criticism of painting,
to the film depends upon what happens to ourselves," divorced from any social or class forces has been
Arnheim might have developed his treatise into prevalent thruout the bourgeois world. This evasion
a definition of historical importance. As it stands of the problem and distortion of the facts are of
however, the book "Film" is an encyclopedia of necessity allies to bourgeois society in their class
film theory. As handbook for the lay-
such, it is a fight. It hasbeen a simple matter for the bourgeoisie
man and beginning film practitioner. For the to control the art of painting. Artists were en-
seasoned film experimenter and theoretician Arn- couraged in their individualism so long as it did
heim's book is merely an excursion into the not rebuke the class that patronized them. Of
past. For the student who considers the film as course sporadic attempts on the part of the more
a reflection of a particular
back to the conditions of that society for its (the
society which refers violent ones
Michael Angelo, Goya, Breugel, Dau-
mier and others, could easily be extinguished, since
film's) sources and standards of existence, Arnheim's they operated as individuals and not as a class.
book has nothing but contempt, as expressed in
With the movie, because of its greater influence
these words: "It is certainly a mistake to consider
and the collective nature of its media, its substantial
that the high quality of Soviet films is attributable
role in a society is much more apparent. Bourgeois
to the new material which the revolution opened
critics can no longer dispose of it with mere "plastic"
up to them. On the contrary, it is being proved considerations. Its cultural, intellectual, and emo-
more and more clearly that the Soviet doctrinaire
tional progress is inseparable from its class character.
insistence upon revolutionary subjects tends to im-
And to understand one must understand its
its art
pede the sincerity, the consistency and the vividness
class. Further, one must understand its role in the
of even the best films."
class conflict, or having failed to indicate its social
Such flimsy statements as: "We are not now con-
roots, one must of necessity fail to interpret its
sidering the cultural or political content but only
undulations.
the artistic" or such malicious distortion of con-
artistic
Write in for literature exposing this crime the most destructive tragedy in the history of films!
48
KIRK BOND
FORMAL CINEMA
i it is purely an effect, and its dispensability is clear-
ly evident in the slightest attempt at pictorial im-
It is often remarked that cinema is an art un-
pressionism, or symbolism. It is perhaps analogous
ique. Commonly the reason is found in its tech-
to the lifelike realism of last century painters and
nique, involving as it does collaboration to a
sculptors, or to "tuneful" music, except that its
greater or less extent, as well as a degree of reality
proper basis is more difficut to discern. One can,
which for many people effectually debars cinema
without advocating the strict "functionalism" of
from becoming an art at all; occasionally someone
an Eggeling, reasonably ask for some recognition
sees beneath this the essentially dual role which
cinema, far more than literature, must play.
of the two-dimensional, monochrome character of
It has always been characteristic unfortunate- the screen.
Never before, with perhaps the slight exception of ever the validity of a "fourth order", cinema does
Oriental calligraphy, has there been an art to com- supply one, and as far as we can tell does so legiti-
bine such opposites. It is scarcely surprising that mately. It is rigidly restricted, yet it offers almost
the two rarely receive their due together. unbounded possibilities for motion and in space
Generally formal cinema has been the one to time. Again and again intelligent have critics
demonstrated that dependence upon the sensory im- liance of commercial and amateur films alike upon
pressions of the film leads to nothing. It has been well-worn dramatic actions or simple documents. It
is for the future to decide, but it seems fair to as-
considered impossible, by artists and laymen alike,
to express feelings of a high order in nothing more sume that moving values on the screen can have a
than a moving photograph. And the futile, if amus- quality comparable to that of similar values in the
ing, romps of so many experimenters do much to finest musical compositions.
confirm this opinion. They are seldom prepared to The single fact of their motion definitely removes
defend their work against criticism, for they have cinema from competition with the various graphic
not taken it seriously, and their best efforts exhibit arts. Few people realize the vast difference caused
a virtuosity and a lack of conviction that in them- by the simple incident of motion. The photograph is
selves almost persuade one of the barrenness of this still to be judged by the canons of painting, com-
necessary predict one. Whatever the common result, landscape with clouds, and the actual clouds shift-
cinema is in its origin a medium of moving light ing against the sky. A
more pointed illustration is
and shade. The reality of most films is impressive, but an ordinary fire. Painters, with rare exceptions, have
49
passed it by for the obvious reason that there is both in quality and quantity exact mathematical
nothing to paint, it is all motion. Yet there must relations to one another. Involuntarily it possesses a
have been some who wished to catch the bright, beat, which taken for granted in any musical
is
fluid colors of the flames, whose fascination is the criticism. In cinema there is neither unit nor beat
very opposite of that of the pictures we are told for it is only a continuous photograph of nature.
to see there. Somewhat as be
color has come to Of itself, although it exists in time, it does not pos-
used in painting as a functional equivalent for line, sess the aesthetic quality of time. It is thus futile
so on a larger scale the brush-made line gives way in to compare the basic elements of the two for
cinema to the rhythmic ordering of less precise rhythm or harmony. It may not be too fanciful to
masses of light and shade. suggest that this difference is demonstrated in the
One cannot urge too strongly that this obviates formerly universal custom of employing music as
dependence upon structural composition of line and an accompaniment to a film. Just because the film
mass. It is too often thought that the rhythmic, itself lacked a definite rhythm, was it possible, and
dynamic basis of cinema consists in the proper or- commonly preferable, to add to it a tom-tom, as it
ganization of pictorially composed images, each in were, to mark the tempo. The underlying reason,
some sense flowing into the next. Nothing could be of course, is that one sense restricts itself to a par-
more misleading. Such a conception logically forces ticular, ordered phase of its field, whereas the other
one to trim the motion to suit the composition, embraces its entire field. One can no more combine
which is nonsense. To maintain a particular compo- pictures of objects in an exact rhythm (excluding
sition through a sequence is only to bring the thea- as before montage) than one can the objects them-
ter onto the screen, whether the actual content be selves, although the purest abstractions have some
realistic or highly abstract. Naturally, proper com- claim to this closer sort of musical analogy.
position of the motion will normally guarantee Nevertheless cinema is not a cognate art for
reasonably sound static composition, but it must be nothing. If it is dissonant by nature, it can be
clearly understood that this will be due not to the worked into melody by the artist. Upon the material
direct application of the principles of graphic art, of painting he will impose the temper of music, but
but to the more general principles of aesthetics in- with the purpose of painting to impress upon the
herent in good cinema. Whenever the one is definitely physical world an ideal order. Obviously the result
violated, the effect of the other will justify the will be in large part incommensurable with that of
sacrifice. the musician. Their chief similarity is simply their
II dynamic approach. The aim of both arts is an
aesthetic expression in time, and on this level the
In cinema there is not the slightest necessity for
two can be profitably compared. Cinema, no less
pictorial A Turner or a Cezanne as
completeness.
than music, may have a fine subtle rhythm, a power-
well as a Phidias must present a finished design, for ful crescendo, a light-hearted scherzo, or solemn
his success depends upon the immediate aspect of
processional. For the harmony of notes and scales it
his work. The totality of his meaning exists with- merely substitutes a harmony of nature drawn up
out reference to the element of time. The cine-
in ordered patterns of continuity. This, however,
mist, on the contrary, has to project his meaning
introduces the whole question of the real meaning of
through a temporal continuity, in which the single formal cinema.
image, so far from being important, is fundamental-
If cinema is an aesthetic expression in time, it
ly nonexistant. Although still tied to the physical is still true that it is also a visual, and so a plastic
facts of frame and canvas, he is free from respon- art. Except in the purest abstract work, it is neces-
sibility towards them as graphic materials. Their sarily concerned, to some degree, with a representa-
excuse is that a three-dimensional medium (such as
tion of the physical world. It is, therefore, although
Edison envisaged, for example) is artistically in-
closely related to neither the fine arts nor music, a
conceivable. In this respect the stereotyped products sort of hybrid of the two, and cuts across the es-
of Hollywood are more essentially cinematic than tablished distinction between them. Heretofore
some of the films of the painters of avant-garde, there has been either the art of form, expressing
though to be sure the former's anartistic theatrical directly the beauty of nature, or the art of con-
nature more than cancels this advantage. The image tinuity, expressing in a more abstract fashion the
that exists only in the mind's eye as an arrested mo- essential rhythm we find in the beauty of nature.
ment in a sequence, or as used as a dimly suggestive Quite naturally architecture, the first of the arts,
still, has not sufficient consequence to demand at- is called frozen music: music is the final, free form
tention as a subject for spatial design. of those principles which begin with the master
Cinema possesses a greater affinity with music. craftsman and builder. They gradually become
Even here, however, the relation is more useful in clearer and more explicit through the several stages
philosophical than in Music
technical discussion. of sculpture (the final form for the Greeks) and
Western music, that is employs
tem- likewise painting, but in music their expression changes from
poral continuity, and the two are thus what might the relatively concrete to the relatively pure and
be called fourth-dimensional homologues, but they abstract. The latter is not necessarily the superior;
are not so similar in actual detail as to merit the it does form, however, a distinct and separate order.
many comparisons made, and the conclusions that Into this tidy classification has come the film.
have been drawn. A few hoped at first, through the proper composi-
Music is composed of harmonic units, bearing tion of lines and masses, to attain a visual art sim-
50
ilar in character to music. That the abstract film has bitrary motion may please us for a while, but in
not lived up to expectations is a story only too well the picturing of movement we look for a representa-
known. Despite early hopes it seems to have done tion of such movement as we know, the movement
little more than the efforts of the Cubists and others of life, and we do not readily respond to artificially
in painting and sculpture. It may be illogical, but propelled heads, coffins, violins, dice, and the like.
it is a stubborn fact of experience that neither the In short we demand a causality of motion.
painter nor the cinemist can seek his Idea beyond On the other hand, the sensuous film drama is
the limits of natural material. Consequently the film too close to reality, and is already chiefly of histori-
is thrown back upon this material at the same time cal importance. The distinction is not always made,
that it is demanding a musical freedom for its but by this term I understand narrative which re-
quality of motion. The result can only be a com- places the psychological semi-montage of Griffith
promise. Forced to be too realistic both for a purely and Pabst by a sensuous background and atmos-
plastic art and for an abstract art, the film must phere. Caligari, of course, is the prototype (although
hope to be able to fill up successfully a measure less typical, and closer to Pabst than is generally
manent equivalent of the dance and of that har- are obvious throwbacks to the Old German school,
monious extension of the dance the Greeks called poignant reminders of what we have lost. The great
music. The same principle
temporal rhythm of value of the school lies in the fact that it was really
natural material
lies at the base of both, and in
the final expression of the ancient German culture,
of the spirit of the Nibelungenlied, Till, Duerer, and
itself is an answer to those who do not admit the
validity of formal cinema. For always there has Faust. It was impossible for this spirit to see beyond
been an art of "visual music", perhaps before any the pictorial qualities of the screen. It did not and
cinema. Its rhythm is a purification rather than a Pabst, and revealed in the perfection of Faust that
sublimation of the rhythm of nature. Nature neces- the old spirit was dead, there was no one to take
sarily combines the visual with the temporal, the up where the Germans had left off. Modern cinemists
concrete with the abstract, but to turn this into a are at the beginning rather than the end of a tra-
Those films which, irrespective of purpose, may be a pattern in itself than played within a pattern.
regarded as wholly or in part formal fall naturally Such cinema will avoid the exaggerated purity of
into three groups. At one extreme is the purely the abstractionists and absolutists, as well as the
absolute film; at the other the sensuous film drama, impressionistic counterpoint of the Germans. In it
most notably represented by the school of Caligari. the elements will be controlled and unified to pro-
The borderline between these two is the province duce an aesthetic whole, which will yet be credible
of the film-poem which, if we may be permitted and reasonable. Normally it will depict human
to judge cinema by Aristotelian standards, will be beings, for the same reasons that the best painting
the most satisfactory of the three. Whether this and sculpture does; normally it will, however, in
conclusion is allowable or not, the film-poem has contradistinction to painting and sculpture, be ar-
much in its favor. I cannot think that the absolute tificially or formally composed, although some
film is much superior to the abstract film. It is future genius may succeed with sheer naturalism.
subject to the same criticism that mere func- It will, moreover, have space for abstract or ab-
tional patterns, just as in painting, cannot of them- solute sequences, which may perhaps be compared
selves suffice. The eye demands a familiar scene in to figures of speech in literature,
visual art, and will not recognize the idea of beauty build on practice; it is more important to give
of the artist who does not supply such a scene. No experimenters a free hand than to try to lay down
amount of theory can dispel our instinctive convic- for them laws which must inevitably be superseded.
tion that a picture must be a picture of something, It is, however, the critic's privilege to cast ahead
a statue of something, and similarly a picture of and indicate the general scope of a subject, as it
some action, and not a congeries of idle shapes and seems to him, and I think it is not too much to
objects. Motion for motion's sake is a legitimate claim that, of the several divisions of formal cinema,
rule only if it is a motion familiar to us, and which that roughly defined by the term film-poem is the
we expect to see in a continuity of motion. Ar- most likely to be the cinema of the future.
51
Proletarian Cinema in Japan
The proletarian cinema is one of the most back- out its first plan of movie taking, began last autumn
ward sections of Japanese proletarian art. It has not to carry out its second. The money required for the
yet gone beyond chronicling the worker-peasant taking of these pictures is obtained by means of
movement. The first film portrayed the famous voluntary deductions from the meagre wages of the
strike on the soy enterprise in Noda (in 1928). workers and peasants. By September of last year
Later, pictures were taken of the May 1st celebra- 320 yen had already been collected to the account
tions, in 1929, the funeral of workers in Tokio and of the 1,000 yen required.
Kioto during the same year, the large strike of the The peasants greeted the arrival of these portable
Tokio tramcar workers in 1930, Mayday celebra- movie outfits enthusiastically. They themselves went
tions that same year, etc. All these films carry the to the police department to obtain a permit for the
title Chronicle of Proletarian Cinema (Prokino demonstration of films, and voluntarily stood on
News) Although technically the films are taken
. guard at the entrance of the hall. In one of the
quite well, the mounting and assembling of the films villages, the peasants knowing that the police would
is rather poor. not grant a permit posted the following announce-
The Union of Cinema of Japan is
Proletarian ment outside the hall: "Here is held an evening of
affiliated to NAPF. monthly magazine
It publishes a prayer for the deceased Aigava
non-members of
called Proletarian Cinema. The Union has branches the Peasant Union are not allowed." Instead, three
in Tokio, Kioto, Osaka, Yamanasi, Yamagata, etc. films of the Proletarian Cinema were demonstrated.
Discussions on questions of proletarian cinema and They were: Sumigava (the name of a river in a
on the film itself, are generally organized at the time workers settlement in Tokio), Collective cultiva-
of the demonstration of the film, tion of land in the village Siodome, and Children.
them and dispersing the audience. On the intiative and under the guidance of the
During the first half of the previous year five Union of Proletarian Cinema, a short-term course
evenings of proletarian cinema were organized in of proletarian cinema was organized in the begin-
Tokio, two in Kioto, while from other cities there ning of August 1930. Twenty persons from all parts
are no data as yet. A
number of portable cinema- of Japan registered for it. The course, however, had
projectors have been obtained for demonstrations barely started when it was disbanded. Only one
of films in villages. lecture on Cinema and Marxism and half a lecture
However, the proletarian cinema, which has ex- on the Theory and History of the Proletarian Cinema
isted only some two or three years, continues to Movement v/as delivered to the students. Neverthe-
develop. less, on the following day the students decided to
The Union of Proletarian Cinema, having carried organize a circle for the study of proletarian cinema.
Not just one, but many deaths; many skulls, The film began with the realm of death.
skeletons . . . With victory of life over death, over the influ-
What is that? ences of the past, the film ends.
That is the Carnival pageant.
from under the cardboard skeletons,
Life brims
The most original, traditional pageant, "Cala-
life gushes forth, and death retreats, fades away.
vera," death day.
This is a remarkable Mexican day, when Mexi- A gay little Indian carefully removes his death-
cans recall the past and show their contempt of mask and smiles a contagious smile he imperson-
death. ates the new growing Mexico.
52
IRVING LERNER
53
Experimental Cinema
in America
The Film and Foto League has organized groups Henwar Rodakiewicz is now in New Mexico
throughout America making documentaries, work- making a film of Indian life. Working with him
ing-class news reels, and other films of a social are Floyd Crosby, cameraman for Marnau's Tabu,
nature. They have produced several shorts, mounted and Leonie Knoedler, the producer. Rodakewiecz
several features and projected Soviet films through- has made The Barge, Portrait of the Artist and The
out the states. They conduct a school of the motion Face of New England, stills of which are repro-
picture called, "Harry Alan Potamkin Film School," duced on another page.
where technique, production, history and criticism
are taught. Classes are two nights a week and some
of the instructors are: David Piatt, Ralph Steiner,
Irving Lerner, Leo Seltzer, Barton Yeager, L. T. Watson and Webber whose film Tall of the House
Hurwitz, Nathan Adler, Joseph Freeman, Joshia of Usher, was made several years ago from Poe's
Kunitz, Samuel Brody and Lewis Jacobs. story, have just completed Lot in Sodom, a modern
treatment of a biblical story.
Ralph Steiner,winner of the Photoplay prize Joseph Schillinger has made several short films to
several years ago with his film 2
H
0, has shot docu- illustrate his principles of rhythm in motion. The
mentary material on farms and along the water- reproduction from his latest film. The drawings
is
front. Two other films: Gears in Motion and De- for it were made by Mary Ellen Butte and Elias
sign, and Surf and Seaweed, were notable because Katz. The camera work and animation by Lewis
of his feeling for the object. Cafe Universal (ten- Jacobs.
tative title) was made with the cooperation of the
Group Theatre. It is now being cut and mounted
into three reels. It is an anti-war film with stylized
Jay Leyda whose Bronx Morning is showing in all
acting and a specialized use of dialogue. It will
Film Societies throughout Europe, is now in Mos-
be ready some time this winter.
cow studying at the film university there.
54
FROM
STILLS
FORTHCOMING
FILMS
twit/
From The Deserter, Pudovkin's recent sound film. From The Island of Doom,
directed by Timoschenko.
BY A HOLLYWOOD TECHNICIAN
57
MICHAEL ROWAN
After the failure of the repertory venture private Outside of Edinburgh there is the Film Society
Sunday performances were resorted to, and during of Glasgow, which has been in existence for about
the season just finished have been received with three years and has shown many famous films, in-
increasing satisfaction. Fortunately no difficulties cluding Potemkin, The End of St. Petersburg, Storm
have been encountered with the magistrates pos- Over Ra-
Asia, Drifters, Finis Terrae and Theresa
sibly because the word "non-political" was judi- quin. The Glasgow mainly con-
Society's activities
ciously incorporated in the constitution. It has sists of exhibiting such worthwhile films, but I
show such films as Earth,
therefore been possible to understand it intends to open a clubroom and to
Man With the Movie Camera, Mutter Krausen, arrange lectures and demonstrations in the future,
Westfront, and Crossways. More Russian films and is at present organizing student groups at the
would probably have been shown had not the Work- University and the College of Art. A new society
er's Progressive Film Society been in existence. This known as the New Art Movement has also recently
societyshowed practically nothing but Soviet films, come into being with the object of showing Soviet
but ultimately had to cease operations owing to films. In Dundee there was a film society full of
financial difficulties. It is probable, therefore, that enthusiasm and good ideas, but it was forced to
the EFG will show more Russian films in its pro- cease operations owing to the interference of the
grammes next season. local authorities, who took exception to the exhibi-
Apart from performances, which take place
its tion of Russian films. There is word of a new so-
in a central first-run theatre, theGuild holds regu- ciety being established in the university town of
lar meetings in its club-room, where there is a St. Andrews, and the recently formed Society for
library of film books and periodicals. These meet- Cultural Relations with Soviet Russia in Edinburgh
ings have been addressed by many notable directors, announces that it intends to hold cinema perform-
critics, technicians, and speakers famous in other ances next winter.
58
KINEMATRADE FIRST
EDITIONS
Tresents A Selected stock of First Editions
<
Z
o
SOVIETS ON PARADE CINEMA
SPECTACLE OF SOVIETS
Pudovkin's FILM TECHNIQUE.
A new enlarged edition of this
tions. $2.00
<
U
A list of books and magazines on
KINEMATRADE, Inc. the Cinema will be sent on request.
^
CLOSE UP
Photos and reviews which
^ help you to find the very
^ best films of the moment MODERNS
S
Headquarters for Modern Authors
of Insurgent Tendencies.
AMONG those who contrib-
uted last year to CLOSE TRANSITION: An International
UP: Norman Douglas, Dr. Workshop for Orphic Creation
Hanns Sachs, Kenneth Mac- edited by Eugene Jolas, featuring
pherson /
Bryher, Eric Walter James Joyce, Stuart Gilbert, etc.
59
Hidden!
"AGeneration of Motion Pictures". This is the withheld from circulation. It is a jealously guarded
titleof one of the most important documents on and as effectively secluded from public gaze as a
films that we have ever encountered. The author harem beauty in old Arabia. The editors of Experi-
is William H. Short. The publisher is The mental Cinema are not at liberty to say how they
National Committee for Study of Social Values came to see the book, but it was certainly through
in Motion Pictures, located at 1 Madison Avenue, no fault of the publishers.
New York City. The book is a huge volume, filled
with a mass of data and facts that conclusively prove We wrote to the publishers, desiring to purchase
the failure of the Hays organization to raise the a copy, but we were told in a friendly, though
American film-industry from the level of a racket cryptic, reply that "while there is nothing secret
to that of a cultural medium. about the volume", we
should note that "it is
As compilation of testimony against Hays, Mr.
a stamped as property of this committee and
the
Short's volume is of inestimable value, a master- for the examination only of the person whose name
piece of research, denunciation and indictment. As is written on it." The book, according to the same
a revelation of the true character of the American letter, was "prepared as a study of opinion regard-
film-industry it is priceless. As an historical survey ing the social values of motion pictures for use of
of the hypocrisy, double-dealing and hell-bent in- this committee only". The publishers furthermore
tention of the producers to corrupt the taste and declared that they hold themselves "in no wise
standards of the American public, it is richly in- responsible for the opinions noted in the volume,
formative, enlightening and frequently very amus- which is simply and frankly an analysis of what
ing. The and store
citations, the anecdote, incident we were able to find". This letter was signed by
of factual data, innumerable
the protests against William Short, the author and also the director of
American films from every conceivable type of the committee.
organization in the United States during the past
twenty years, the dirty history of many a big box- Only a limited number of copies were printed,
office "hit" (a history not included in advertise- and these were selectively distributed. Just why the
ments, ballyhoo, or books on "movie-entertain- publishers should not wish to release so significant
ment")
all this, and a great deal more besides, a document to the public at large, when it could
makes Mr. Short's work the gold mine of reference be of so much aid in bursting a big American bubble,
and source-information that it is. we are at a loss to explain. But perhaps the pub-
Having read this, you may be somewhat disap- lishers, frightened at the potentialities of their own
pointed to learn that this important book is being weapon, do not wish to burst bubbles. . . .
DISTRIBUTORS OF SIGNIFICANT
AMERICAN & CONTINENTAL FILMS
CAMERON MACPHERSON S
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A NEW FILM BY DR. J. L. S. WATSON, JR.
AND MELVILLE WEBBER
//
BLACK DAWN //
"LOT IN SODOM"
Directed by JOSEPH BERNE
"It is the finest motion picture made in Hollywood "A new triumph in cinematic technique."
"A film of great beauty, power and imagination." COMPLETE LIST OF RELEASES NOW
Tamar Lane New Film Time BEING PREPARED
Honig) 4 r i-
Populism andj tv
.
Dialectics /tjia
(H. A. t>
Po-
15
"
-
ris
.
T
Letter
, _
/T
(Jean
. .
.
Lenauer)
- ,
.
' _ ..
22
... .. Proposed Continuity for the Ending
Evolution of Cinematography in ;""."*'
The w
-ri. j c ~V""j'" of All Quiet on the Western Front
France (Alberto Cavalcanti) 5 Modern Spirit in Films: Theatre
Film Direction and Film Manuscript: and Motion Picture. (Barnet G. (Werner Klingler) 23
61
CONTRIBUTORS* INDEX
Name Issue Analytical Treatise on the Dreyer Film,
Bakshy, Alexander: The Passion of Joan of Arc I
Dynamic Composition I Proposed Continuity for the Ending of
Beaumont, Etienne de: All Quiet on the Western Front II
Quotation on Cinema and Matter II Ozap's Film, The Murderer Karamazov IV
Belazs, Bela: Leiva, Augustin Aragon:
Let's Organize an Experimental Studio for Eisenstein's Film on Mexico IV
Sound Films Ill Lenauer, Jean:
Boltiansky, G.: Paris Letter \\
Soviet Photography Ill Lengyel, J.:
Bond, Ralph: Turk-Sib and the Soviet Fact HI
The Production of Working Class Films IV Lighton, George Wl:
Brailovsky, Alexander: Technical Brilliance or Ideology? IV
A Few Remarks on the Elements of Cine-Language IV Logan, Somerset:
Braver-Mann. B. G.: Hollywood Films and the Working Class IV
The Modern Spirit in Films: The Medium Moussinac, Leon:
of the Movie I From George Melies to S. M. Eisenstein II
The Modern Spirit in Films: Theatre and The Position of the Soviet Cinema Ill
Motion Picture II Piatt, David:
Vidor and Evasion HI The New Cinema I
Brody, Samuel: Focus and Mechanism II
On a Theory of "Sources" Ill One Hour with Gilbert Seldes Is Too Much Ill
Cavalcanti, Alberto: Potamkin, Harry Alan:
Evolution of Cinematography in France II Film Problems of Soviet Russia I
Clarkson, Stephen: Populism and Dialectics II
London Cinema Notes IV Pudovkin. Vsevolod L.:
Dreiser, Theodore: Film Direction and Film Manuscript (Chap. 1) I
A Statement IV Film Direction and Film Manuscript (Chap. 2) II
Eisenstein, S. M.: Scenario and Direction Ill
The Cinematographic Principle and Japanese Culture III Roberts, Michael Rose:
The Principles of Film Form IV Toward a Worker's Cinema in England IV
George, G. L.: (
Smirnov, Victor P.:
Paris Letter IV The Development of Sound IV
Helprin, Morris: Solew, N:
"Que Viva Mexico": Eisenstein in Mexico IV A Letter from Moscow IV
Honig, Dr. Erwin:
Stern, Seymour:
In Eisenstein's Domain II
Principles of the New World-Cinema (Pt. 1) I
Hollywood Bulletin II
Jacobs, Lewis:
Principles of the New World-Cinema (Pt. 2) Ill
The New Cinema: A Preface to Film Form I
Hollywood and Montage IV
Decomposition II
Turin, V.:
Eisenstein Jll The Problem of the New Film Language Ill
Highway 66: Montage Notes for a Documentary Film IV Valdes-Rodriguez, M.:
J.
Kaufman. M.: Hollywood: Sales Agent of American Imperialism .. IV
Cine- Analysis IV Weston, Edward:
Klinger, Werner: Statement Ill
me; but when I ponder seriously what they are I throw the very best of them against the walls."
Don Quixote.
WHAT the curateKnight of the Rueful Visage concerning the popular romances of his day
said to the
applies with equal force to the typical Magazine story today. But whoever heard of a reader of Story throwing
it against the walls? The Viennese and Majorcan issues ha ve become collectors' items. American numbers promise to
follow suit. The reasons are not far to seek:
It has maintained a standard of short excellence unequalled
by any other magazine devoted exclusively to fiction.
And it does not care tuppence whether a name
famous or otherwise, as long as the writer's story is a sound one.
is
The hurly-burly of current events we have always with us, but the crystalization of life in its more enduring values
can only be found in a magazine which Edward J. O'Brien has called "the most distinguished short story magazine
in the world."
Please enter my subscription to STORY for one year. Enclosed find check or money order for $3.00
(Two years, $$.00).
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62
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63
film art number two The HOUND & HORN
Sound, Montage, Surrealism and Cinema, Pudovkin's
Latest Sound Theories, Film Reviews, British Film October-December 1933 Issue
Criticism, International Film Reports.
WILLIAM JAMES, an essay 631 Henry Bamford Parkes
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THE RED FRONT and Educational Work
By Aragon and translated by
Louis Fill In This Form
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64
Of World Importance:
"Experimental Cinema"
What is
GOOD MOVIE?
What makes the film a fine art? What A
IIO.
few of the features:
G
is the relation of Pabst and Cocteau, Rene
THE CULT OF GLIBNESS IN
Clair and Vertoff, Eisenstein and von FILM CRITICISM.
Sternberg, Pudovkin and De Mille, and B. G. Braver-Mann
nanciers? What is the status of the film PLAN FOR A FILM EXPOSITION
worker in the bourgeois cinema and the
Lewis Jacobs
300107386