Soviet Montage
RTitle: Trace some of the relationships between film aesthetics and the social / political / economic contexts in which they are located.
Name: Winter Dong YAN
Candidate no: 109057
Module title: Issues in Film Studies: European Film Cultures
Tutor: Emilia Chi-Jung Cheng
Date: 11th Dec 2012
Words count: 1749
Everett’s statement ‘European cinema is not a monolith, but a series of expressions of different ways of questioning and portraying itself and the world’
(Everett, 5) demonstrates that the whole European cinema can hardly be defined since not only the gap between Central Europe and Western Europe but also the notable national identities create various form of aesthetic elements in cinema movement which reflects political, cultural and social circumstance of each nation. Thus, European cinema can be regarded as national cinema representing state heritage as well as embodying the national historical moment.
Forbes and Street state that the European cinema engages itself in the national issue with a range of expressions from reworking on typically Hollywood genres to repossessing the national history (Forbes & Street, 2000, p40). It is essential to lay stress on the national question since this is a vital component to both the content and the structure of the film. Both the movement of Soviet montage and French New wave can be considered to be reaction to which involved young artists that were intricately connected to society. With reference to two films, which are The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, Russia, 1925) and Breathless (Jean Luc Goddard, France, 1960), this essay will attempt to examine how social and political upheaval which Soviet Union was enduring result in its aesthetic approaches, and technical aspects of Soviet Montage cinema and how the social and economic turbulence related to the innovative characteristics of French New Wave.
The Bolsheviks realized that force alone could not lead to the victory of revolution. The
Name: Winter Dong YAN
Candidate no: 109057
Module title: Issues in Film Studies: European Film Cultures
Tutor: Emilia Chi-Jung Cheng
Date: 11th Dec 2012
Words count: 1749
Everett’s statement ‘European cinema is not a monolith, but a series of expressions of different ways of questioning and portraying itself and the world’
(Everett, 5) demonstrates that the whole European cinema can hardly be defined since not only the gap between Central Europe and Western Europe but also the notable national identities create various form of aesthetic elements in cinema movement which reflects political, cultural and social circumstance of each nation. Thus, European cinema can be regarded as national cinema representing state heritage as well as embodying the national historical moment.
Forbes and Street state that the European cinema engages itself in the national issue with a range of expressions from reworking on typically Hollywood genres to repossessing the national history (Forbes & Street, 2000, p40). It is essential to lay stress on the national question since this is a vital component to both the content and the structure of the film. Both the movement of Soviet montage and French New wave can be considered to be reaction to which involved young artists that were intricately connected to society. With reference to two films, which are The Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, Russia, 1925) and Breathless (Jean Luc Goddard, France, 1960), this essay will attempt to examine how social and political upheaval which Soviet Union was enduring result in its aesthetic approaches, and technical aspects of Soviet Montage cinema and how the social and economic turbulence related to the innovative characteristics of French New Wave.
The Bolsheviks realized that force alone could not lead to the victory of revolution. The
Bibliography: Andrew, D. (1987) ‘Breathless: Old as New’ and Jean-Luc Godard: a Biographical Sketch’, in Andrew (ed) Breathless, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 3-20, 21-24 Forbes, J & Street S. (2000) ‘The Battleship Potemkin’ in European Cinema: An Introduction, New York: Oxford University Press Thompson, K. and Bordwell, D. (2003) ‘Chapter 6: Soviet Cinema in the 1920s’ in Film History: An Introduction 2nd edition, Madison: McGraw Hill Breathless, Directed by Jean Luc Goddard, France, 1960 The Battleship Potemkin, Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union, 1926