Soviet Montage Slaughter Scene from Stachka Strikes Analysis Assignment
Soviet Montage Slaughter Scene from Stachka Strikes Analysis Assignment
You are to write a 500+ analysis of a short film or the scene of a longer film. Ideally, the short film or film scene will be ADA compliant. The film or scene must be available online. When you have finished with your analysis, please post your analysis in the M11: Editing Analysis forum in the Discussion Board.
Because students must each choose a different film, once you know the film you plan to review, you should make a posting with the name and date of the film in the subject line. Once you have written the review, you can respond to your initial posting with the review.
Although it is not required, I would encourage you to post comments concerning your colleague’s reviews and the films they chose.
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Example:
Seregi Eisenstein (1898-1948) was a Russian film director most know for his film BronenosetsPotemkin
/ Battleship Potemkin(1925). Eisenstein was a strong supporter of the communist revolution in Russia. His communist sympathies can also be seen in his other films.
Eisenstein is also know for his use of Soviet Montage, an editing technique explained in Soviet Montage: Crash Course Film History #8 (2017). Some well known examples of Eisenstein montages include:
- “Slaughter Scene” from Stachka / Stike (1925) [includes images of cow being slaughtered]
- “Odessa Steps Scene” from Bronenosets Potemkin / Battleship Potempkin (1925)
- “God and Country Scene” from Октябрь (Десять дней, которые потрясли мир) / October: Ten Days that Shook the World (1928)
- “Dance of Oprichniki” is a scene from Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor / Ivan the Terrible Part II (1958)
- “Soldadera” (1979) serves as the Epilogue for Que Viva Mexico (1979) [The scene begins at 1:16:34.]
In my on campus film class, I usually teach “Misery” (1929) which is the first part of SeregiEisenstein’s Frauennot – Frauenglück (1929). “Misery” advocates for safe, legal abortion. The second part of the film shows a pregnant woman having lunch with her husband who dies in a work related accident. Her fortune is that she will have no way to support herself and her child.
In an earlier module, I mentioned that Seregi Eisenstein drew erotic images that were very sexually explicit. Some of those images might even be considered pornographic. When I cited this, I argued that these images were irrelevant to the video in which I cited. But might these images be relevant to an understanding of Eisenstein’s work as a filmmaker? How much do the personal lives influence their films? This is a question that we don’t have time to deal with in detail, but it is worth considering.
Although I am not aware that Eisenstein included any explicitly gay experiences in his films, I do think that he employs homoeroticism when framing his shots. This issue is dealt with by Ronald Bergan in his “The Battleship Potemkin Comes Out of the Closet” (2011). While doing research to see if the issue of Eisenstein’s sexuality was the subject of any academic studies published in journals, I came across Grant, Gary K. “Whitman and Eisenstein.” Literature and Film Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 1976. 267-274. Academic Search Complete. 21 Nov. 2017which compared montage used by nineteenth century American gay poet Walt Whitman and Sergei Eisenstein. I was particularly interested in this article because my current artwork involves a technique known as photo montage and I am currently working on a series of pieces inspired by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1855). You can see some of my photo montages in the “Art” section of my website.
