A grammar of the film : an analysis of film technique (1950)

Film Technique : 2. Synthesis these effects are achieved have already been described;1 but there is a further and more complicated effect which belongs to the sphere of montage. We have seen that the contents of two contiguous shots may have not only independent effects of their own, but may produce a third effect which arises from their contiguity. Similarly, a whole sequence in the visual film may produce a single effect (in reality, of course, a complex of content-tones and montages); its contemporaneous sound may produce another distinct effect; and the collision in the mind of these two will produce a third. This is simultaneous montage; an instance may be given at once to show how valuable to a director is a sharp and accurate conception of it. The Rebel 2 told a story of the opposition of the Bavarian peasants to Napoleon’s invasion of their country in 1809. The last sequence ran as follows. The three rebel leaders, having been captured after a defeat, were sentenced to be shot. They were stood before a firing-squad while the sentence was read to them, the sound being realistic throughout this part. The squad fired, and the rebels were again seen, fallen sprawling in the dust. But now the sound of a patriotic song was faintly heard, ghostly figures of the three men rose from their prostrate bodies and, ^ee Chapter V, pp. 180-184 above. 2Part directed by Luis Trenker. 228