Soviet Editing

When it comes to the Soviet’s perspectives on editing, four men have had the most significant impact.  Kuleshov, Pudovkin, Eisenstein, and Vertov have had a lasting impression on not just the Soviet film industry but also the world as a whole.  In contrast to the American way of editing which focuses heavily on narrative storytelling, the Soviets have a larger focus on signs and ideas,

                For starters, Kuleshov completely reinvented the way we think of editing and cinematography as a whole.  Kuleshov focused highly on montage and the interrelationship between shots.  Rather than shots being strung together to form a narrative story like how we Americans think of it, Kuleshov suggests that the shots alone are cinematic material.  The way shots are juxtaposed together makes all the difference.  The Kuleshov Effect demonstrates this idea by showing an expressionless man followed by different shots such as a bowl of soup, a baby in a coffin, or a beautiful woman.  With each shot the audience saw in the man feelings of hunger, grief, or desire respectively even though in reality the man is looking at none of these images and he remains completely expressionless.  This perfectly demonstrates the power of editing; whichever shots one chooses to juxtapose together makes all the difference and one shot opposed to another can completely tell a different story.

                Pudovkin and Eisenstein show similar ideas to their teacher, Kuleshov.  Pudovkin elaborates on Kuleshov’s views on editing by saying that editing is the foundation of film and is basically the most important aspect.  Pudovkin suggests that film is not shot but built and this goes along with Kuleshov’s idea of montage.  Eisenstein also elaborates on Kuleshov’s ideas such as the Kuleshov Effect by comparing film editing to Japanese hieroglyphics.  He suggests that two juxtaposed images create a third meaning and this is perfectly demonstrated in his film Battleship Potemkin.  He juxtaposed images such as a baby carriage falling down the staircase and people screaming unrelatedly to perceive the emotion of sadness and fear.

                Lastly, Vertov uses all of these Soviet editing techniques and his idea of the “Kino eye” in his monumental film, Man with a Movie Camera.  In it he brilliantly juxtaposes images of daily life in Russian cities.  People are seen from all aspects of human life, from work to play and life and death.  Vertov brings all the Soviet ideas of editing and the importance of the pairing of shots together.  The way a film is edited makes all the difference in how we perceive it and is arguably the most important aspect of the film making process.