National Board of Review Magazine (Jan 1939 - Jan 1942)

10 despite the fact that the closeup was the same one in all three experiments. Often montage consists of so-called time lapses. A child grows up to be a man, or lovers separate, travel separately, and after ten years they meet again. We are asked to cover these time lapses by a series of pictures. For that we often use many so-called camera tricks, laps and so on. They have a psychological value. Try to think of the past month of your life. Certain impressions will come to your mind. They will be superimposed on each other and be changed and merge from one to the other. In fact, the camera offers us many psychological devices in order to create very potent effects on the screen. One can express emotions purely through filmic means; through images; not merely by relying upon acting or dialogue. Now, as to a little theory. A good montage is a very exciting thing to look at if it is good. Why is this so? From childhood our interest in motion, in movement, is very intense. The child is carried in his mother's arms arovmd the room. This means things move and things change, pan around, and the ceiling changes. He is rocked in a cradle. He plays on a merry-go-round. His organisms get used to movement and he reacts to movement when he sees it on the screen. Experience has taught us that certain movements have very, very strong physiological effects. Sometimes we almost feel dizzy when we see a very strong movement on the screen. The movement creates a socalled kinesthetic reaction in our organism, because whenever ive move the scene before us changes, and when we see movement we react in the same manner. I have found out that very exciting effects can be obtained by shooting scenes in such a manner that movement will create a physical reaction, and by putting such rythmical scenes together. Each art explores its own world. Music explores the world of tone, painting that of line and color, sculpture that of solid form. There is a whole new world to be explored yet, that of movement, and a wonderful new instrument has been given to us in the camera. National Board of Review Magazine So far the camera has been used mostly as a passive sort of instrument, as a recording instrument to record an actor's acting or writer's story, but it has not been used much in a creative manner, it has not sought those interesting movements around us, and tried to build them into a rhythmic picture to express our emotions. It must learn not to rely upon words which belong to literature, but try to express something through movement. A dance is an example of this, in a limited way — it shows the movement of the body on drapery. There is such an infinite variety of motion around us which, if properly explored with the camera in a creative manner and put together will, I think, create a new art. And the same, perhaps, applies even to sound. The sound recording instrument has also been used in a passive manner so far; merely to record action, speech, music. It has explored the world of tone, but there is a world of noises around us and very beautiful sounds that could be organized by means of the sound camera into a really new art. Well, these are theories which I like to play with, but I would rather make films than talk about them. If I am not very explicit it is because I am trying to express myself more in images than in words. Question : You speak of sound creating a new art. Mr. Mendoza referred to the fact that in a certain scene in one of his films he used a combination of instruments that he never had used together before, and he secured an effect that otherwise would have been lost. It was a celestial scene of some sort. Is that what you mean? Answer : I do not mean the use of musical instruments. There are a lot of natural sounds that could be emplo3-ed, by means of distortions, overlapping, and amplifying, and so forth. Question : After the shooting of the film? Answer : Yes. Question : In one of the closing scenes of Three Comrades there are two men standing by a grave, and in the background is a city. The men remark that there is firing in the rear. Would you call tliat a montage effect?