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

THE CINEMA AS A GRAPHIC ART a kind of ' anticipation ' of the jump from shot VI shot VII). The viewpoint is changed by 180 : shot taken from the battleship, the reverse of sh< VI. This time the side of the battleship is in tl foreground, and is cut off at the bottom. In tl depth is the sails theme, expressed in verticals. Tl vertical of the sailors. The gun-barrel statical continues the line of the boat's movement in trj preceding shot. The battleship side appears to t an arc, which passes into a straight line. VIII. This repeats IV with heightened ir tensity. The horizontal play of the eyes is tranj formed into the vertical of waving hands. Fror the depth the theme of the vertical has emerged t the foreground, repeating the thematic transferenc of attention to the watchers. IX. Two faces, on larger scale. Generall, speaking, an unfortunate combination with the pre ceding shot. It would have been better to hav introduced between them a shot of three faces, t have repeated shot V for example, also in heightens intensity. This would have produced the construe tion 2:3:2. Moreover, the repetition of th familiar group in shots IV and V with the new endinj shot IX would have heightened the impression of thi last shot. The position is saved by some enlarge ment of the scale. X. The two faces pass into one. A ven energetic throw of a hand up beyond the frame limit A correct alternation of faces (if we make the suggested correction between shots VIII and IX) 2 : 3 2:1. A second couple correctly enlarged in size ir relation to the first couple (exact quantitative repetition with qualitative variation). The line of the odd numbers is different in both quality and quantity (different dimensions of faces and a different number, while retaining the common element of odd numbers). XI. A new sharp turn in the theme. A jump repeating the jump between shots V and VI in heightened intensity. The vertical upthrow of the arm in the preceding shot is repeated by the vertical sail. But the vertical of this sail shoots up from the horizontal. A repetition of the theme of shot VI in greater intensity, and a repetition of composition II with the difference that the themes of the horizontals of the boats' movement and the verticals of the motionless columns are here blended into the one horizontal movement of a vertical sail. The composition repeats the thematic line of union and the fusion of yawls with the people on the shore (before passing to the final theme of fusion : of the shore by way of the boats with the battleship). XII. The sail of shot XI is broken up into innumerable vertical sails scudding along in a horizontal direction (a repetition of shot I in heightened intensity). The small sails move in the opposite direction from that of the large sail. XIII. Having broken up into small sails, the large sail is assembled again, not into a sail, but into the flag flying above the " Potemkin ". A new quality in this piece : it is both static and mobile — the mast is vertical and motionless, the flag flutters in the wind. Formally shot XIII repeats shot XI. But the substitution of the flag for the sail transforms the principle of plastic unification into an ideological-thematic unification. We have not only a vertical plastically uniting the various elements of the composition, but a revolutionary banner uniting battleship, boats and the shore. XIV. Thence we have a natural return from flag to battleship. Shot XIV repeats shot VII, also in heightened intensity. This same shot introduces a new compositional group expressing inter-relationships between the yawls and the battleship, in distinction from that of the first group dealing 118 Fig. 62. — Analysis of linear-dimensional composition in an episode of the film " The Battleship Potemkin ".