The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART There may also be a content unity based on the unity of the lighting tone composition, or on the unity of the rhythmic elements. Or we may have a transformation of the narrative and content unity an organic unity of all the four compositional forms possessed by the cine representational technique, and then we get the highest, most valuable and p feet form of interaction between editing composition and shot composition. In all four cases unity may be achieved not only by the simple ' cor pondence ' of compositional forms, but, in accordance with the development associative thought, we can employ any compositional form in accordance eit with the element of associative contiguity, or with that of associative contr The lighting and tone compositions may be independent lines of developmen the editing scheme, and may even be contraposed to the form of linear c position ; but in the general conjunction of all four forms we must achiev content unity determining the correctness of the entire compositional decis as a whole. A unity of the various compositional forms apart from the general narrati content motivation leads to a formalistic determination of the compositional task in other words, to a disjunction of the representational treatment of the film fron the dramaturgic and directorial treatment. Thus we get the first, and in our view the only compositional law : the lai of the organic cosubordination of the whole and its parts. This involves a co-subordination of the editing composition and shot com position on the one hand, and the co-subordination of the compositional form: of the various shots to the principle of compositional succession on the other To illustrate this interconditionality of the intra and inter-shot construction we give an example of perspective analysis of linear composition made by Eisen stein in respect to one of the episodes of his film " Potemkin ". In Figs. 61-62 art given fourteen successive shots from the scene preceding the firing on the ' Odessa Steps.' In this scene the inhabitants of Odessa send yawls with food to th< insurgent battleship. We reproduce the analysis of the linear-dimensional composition in the exact form given by Eisenstein.1 The sending of greetings to the battleship is constructed on the definite crossing of two themes : 1. The yawls speeding to the battleship. 2. The inhabitants of Odessa waving. Finally, these two themes are fused together. The basis of the composition is that of depth and foreground. The themes dominate the picture in turn, each in turn advancing to the foreground, and each in turn thrusting the other into the background. The composition is built up : (1) On the plastic interaction of depth and foreground within the shot. (2) On the change of lines and form in depth and foreground from shot to shot (achieved by editing). In the second case the compositional play consists of the action of the plastic impression of the preceding shot in conflict or interaction with the succeeding shot. (At the moment we are basing our analysis purely on the spatial and linear element. The rhythmic and temporal correlations are discussed elsewhere.) The movement of the composition (see Figs. 61-62) takes the following course : 1 This matter is dealt with by him at greater length in the forthcoming monographsymposium on " Potemkin " shortly to be published in U.S.S.R. — Ed. 116