Soviet Montage (1924-1930)

Hello again readers! So today, I'm going to write about my notes and observation about the film movement called the Soviet Montage. 

After the Russian Revolution that ended on October 1917, the Russian government find it hard to regain their power and to govern all aspects of life in Russia. Despite the war, some film production companies are still operating and they did good in the market since films from other countries were banned in Russia then. the typical films that time (1910's) was a slow paced melodrama, showcasing the talent of the actors (Sir also said that the kind of movies that Russia did before were similar with Filipino films)

But the film companies did not like move of the Soviet government to have all the private properties under the control of the administration. So the film companies hoarded all of their film stocks, took their equipments and went to other countries.

Lev Kuleshov

Some young directors tried to make movies that would be the start of a national cinema movement. They are Dziga Vertov and Les Kuleshov. Kuleshov founded the State School of Cinema art, the first school in the world. In that school, they tried experimenting "by editing footages from different sources into a whole that creates an impression of continuity" just like the Classical Hollywood Style. It was the basis of the Montage Style. 

One interesting fact about the montage style filmmakers is they were from the other fields before being a director. But there is one prominent director that came from the Czarist period, Yakov Protazanov and he remained to his style even there are new style in film making in Russia. 

In 1921, Russia faced economic drought that forced Lenin to build the New Economic Policy (NEP) that allowed private firms for business. That's when the producers before started to release their film stocks again and Soviet production began to grow again. The government tried to have the power over the film firms by creating Goskino in 1922.

"Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important." (Lenin, 1922)

The Soviet Montage style had their first glimpse in 1924 with the movies, The Extraordinary of Mr. West in the Land of Bolsheviks, The Death Ray (1925), Eisentein's Strike (1925), and Potemkim (1925).

So, what is Montage Style?

For Pudovkin, he believe that shots were like bricks, to be joined together to builda sequence.Eisenstein disagreed, saying that maximun effect would be gained if the shots did not fit together perfectly, if they created a jolt fir the spectator. 

In the montage movement, they usually did not have one protagonist, they have social groups. They also did not resort to professional actors in their films, they would usually get normal people to act, because non-actors have the genuine emotion, according to Sir. It was called typage.

The fall of Soviet Montage was due to the Soviet government itself, they did not allowed complicated films and some filmmakers went out of Russia. And the government introduced a film movement that is based on reality, Soviet Realism in 1934. The movement ended when Vertov released films Enthusiasm (1931) and Pardovkin's Desserter (1933).

Enthusiasm 1931

Here's a sample of the Kuleshov effect! hope you liked it! 

- KC