This took a lot of time to work through, but was very interesting once I’d read it all thoroughly.

Eisenstein, Sergei. “The Dramaturgy of Film Form (The Dialectic Approach to Film Form.)” The Eisenstein Reader. Ed. Richard Taylor, Trans. Richard Taylor and William Powell, London: BFI, 1998, 93-110

Eisenstein is a tough one to read. ART = CONFLICT.

Methods of montage. In Eisenstein, Sergei ; Leyda, Jay (ed & trans.). Film form : essays in film theory, (p. 72-83). London : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1949.

Lots of talk about montage (surprise) here.

In this reading, Leyda talks about formal categories of montage that we know. These include metric montage, which relies on the absolute lengths of the pieces, which are joined according to their lengths in a formula-scheme corresponding to a measure of music. While the beat should be recognisable, it is important for the organisation of its impression, and can bring into unison the “pulsing” of the film and the “pulsing” of the audience.

Another type of montage is rhythmic montage, where the content in the frame determines the lengths of the pieces. The actual length isn’t mathematically decided, but rather derives fom the length according to the structure of the sequence. Leyda says that this type of montage is inadequate for more complex rhythmic needs, hence…

Tonal Montage, which expresses a stage beyond rhythmic montage. In this, the movement in the frame moves the montage. This could be objects in motion or of the spectator’s eye. Movement is perceived in a wider sense here than in other types of montage. This doesn’t mean we have to get all emotional about it though – the emotional sound of the piece is not to be measured “impressionistically”, but rather with different types of units of measurement and amounts. Instead of measuring “gloominess”, we can measure “light tonality”. Or instead of measuring “shrillness”, measure “graphic tonality”. Movement as change.

Overtonal montage is in Leyda’s opinion, organically the furtherest development along the line of tonal montage, distinguishable by the collective calculation of all the piece’s appeals.