The Soviet Montage film movement began in the 1920’s 1 and carried on towards the beginning of the 1930’s. In this essay I will be looking at the films of Soviet Directors from the 1925 – 1930 period, I will be studying Dovzheko’s Earth (1930), and looking at the similarities and differences in the following films Eisenstein’s Strike (1925) and The Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Pudovkin’s Storm Over Asia (1929).
Strike was released in early 1925 and was one of the first major films of the “Soviet Montage” movement 2. It concerns the strike of factory workers and its conclusion. Like many of Eisenstein’s films it has heavily politicised ideologies and themes. Much like Battleship Potemkin, which focuses on the struggle of a Russian Battleship crew as they mutiny after against their Tsarist rulers. Both Strike and Battleship Potemkin are based on true events; in 1905 a Russian crew did mutiny, and Strike “is a discourse on all the Russian strikes that occurred before 1917” 3. Both films start with a political quote from Lenin. Strike Over Asia is the story of a fictional ancestor of Genghis Kahn, discovered and put into power by the British to control Mongolia with a puppet regime, the film deals with exploitation and the revolution of Mongolia and the partisans.
Earth is the story of how collectivisation affects the people living in a village. It deals with the subjects of collectivisation, communism, family, community, faith and life and death.
Although collectivisation did happen, the family and village portrayed in the film are entirely fictional. Unlike Strike, Storm Over Asia and Battleship Potemkin, Earth uses more characterisation to portray the collectivisation of the wheat fields. In Earth we are introduced to Opana’s family in the opening sequence and each of the main characters are identified as the film progresses, in other montage films, like Strike and Battleship Potemkin, the social forces drive the story forward, not the characters; the main character in Battleship Potemkin, Vakulynchuk, is killed off, and we only identify with the characters through social movements. Indeed in Strike, the only people we know the names of end up working for the oppressors or committing suicide. This motif throughout Eisenstein’s films has been referred to as “heroic realism” 4. Identifying with the social forces rather than the individuals who take part in any action.
In Storm Over Asia, we identify with the social movements, rather than the people progressing the narrative. The main character is known as “Mongol Hunter”, and no one else is identified personally.
In Earth, the Trubenko family take part in the social upheaval of collectivisation; Vasyl takes charge of the Komsomols when they organize the tractor collection, and they hold a meeting in his father’s house. When Vasyl is murdered, his father, Opanas, forces the collectivisation.
“…it’s three main characters – Vasyl Trubenko, Opanas Trubenko and Khoma Bilokin – who represent, respectively, the Komosomol activists in the village, the confused middle peasants and the evil Kulaks…”
(Liber, (2002), p107)
Of course the characterisation in Earth does not take away from the political message about collectivisation; neither does the lack of characterisation in Strike or Battleship Potemkin detract from the political message behind the film, starting and ending the film with a quote from Lenin. The quotes at the beginning and end of Strike bookend the film, reminding the audience that the film is based on true events, and further politicizing the film.
Storm Over Asia is not as obviously politicised as Strike and Battleship Potemkin, much like Earth, this could be because of the fictional story that unfolds before us. The lack of characterisation in a mostly character led story makes it hard to distinguish the director’s motive for setting a tale of revolution in Mongolia. Although, the shots of the military commanders do add to the argument of typage in ‘soviet montage’ films; the generals are all very well looked after and shot in intimidating ways, whereas their underlings live in poor conditions when compared to their commanders, eating, sleeping, working and playing in the same room.
Earth opens with shots of fields of wheat blowing in the wind; it then cuts to a shot of a girl standing next to a sunflower. The next sequence of shots deal with the death of Semen; the grandfather of the main protagonist’s family. Whereas in Strike, the film opens onto a shot of the factory owner, a large bureaucratic man in a top hat and suit. Eisenstein used ‘typage’ to convey social structures and classes in his films. In Strike the rich, upper classes are seen in grand surroundings, drinking and smoking cigars, or ordering about the factory workers:
”The workers, by contrast, are idealized in a manner typical of “heroic realism”, with none of the bourgeois forces exaggeration of costume or demeanour. Moreover, they are far less individualized. The film’s opening depersonalizes the agitators…”
(Bordwell, (2004), p379).
The workers are rarely seen in grand surroundings, living in relative squalor with their families, struggling for food and tobacco as “The Strike Drags On”. The realism of their struggle is at odds with the oppressors almost comical appearance; when pushed into a pool of dirty water the first reaction of one of the factory owners is to comb his hair and straighten his suit.
The oppressors in Potemkin are far more severe and serious, the first time we see the ships admiral he orders the shooting of strikers, covering them in a tarpaulin, the police guard in the Odessa Staircase sequence are also shot in a very intimidating manner, at the end of the Odessa Staircase scene a woman approaches the guard, whose shadows engulf her and her injured infant. The main agitators in Storm Over Asia are the British army, its leaders are shown as being very officious and menacing, especially the General, who at one point in the film appears surrounded by smoke, further emphasising his evil intentions. The idea of ‘typage’ was a “gesture towards realism”; many of the characters were cast because of the way they looked, rather than any acting skill 5.
The opening of Earth could not be more different than Strike or Battleship Potemkin, we see Opana’s and Vasyl’s family in an apple orchard; Semen, the grandfather, is surrounded by the over-ripe apples that have fallen from the trees surrounding his family, the over ripe apples symbolise the notion of death along with Semen, who is surrounded by them 6. In Earth, Dovzhenko frequently uses people, food (in this case, apples), animals and nature to symbolise death and rebirth, the opening shot of the girl next standing next to a sunflower symbolises the idea that the villagers are one with the nature surrounding them; they work with the soil and gain from the harvest 7, even in death the villagers are in harmony with nature, the over-ripe apples will decay and become fertilizer for new plants and life, and will be renewed, much like Semen and his family.
The whole of Semen’s family surrounds him in his final moments; he will leave behind children and grand children to carry on with the work, the young children by Semen’s side could also be considered as his replacement, another notion of rebirth or renewal.
The apples and fruit in general are used as a signs of fertility, when Semen receives an apple from his grand daughter, she clutches the bowl in a similar fashion to the way Opana’s wife holds her pregnant stomach 8, and throughout the film we also see young children eating fruit, further establishing the idea of rebirth and renewal.
The motif of rebirth and renewal carries on throughout the film, when Vasyl’s funeral is taking place; Opana’s wife goes into labour. The idea of renewal can also be seen in the arrival of the tractor and the harvest, with Semen gone, the tractor replaces him and speeds up the harvest process, although the actual growing of the harvest seems to be omitted from the film, which according to Kepley 9; takes away nature’s role in the harvest, only to be supplanted by new technology and labour until the moment Vasyl dies, where the plants brush against his face and we see shots of sunflowers and apples again.
When Semen dies, there is a shot of his son; Opanas, and grandson; Vasyl looking down at him, as well as a sunflower which appears to “look down” on Semen, further establishing the harmony between the villagers and nature, and the renewal each family member brings. There are elements of renewal in Strike and Battleship Potemkin, when Vakulynchuk is killed and Yakov Strongen kills himself in Strike, their deaths give birth to the revolution, in death they become the figureheads and inspiration against their Tsarist oppressors.
The are no elements of renewal as such in Storm Over Asia, but a natural element does appear at the very end of the film, when the main character charges the British army. The wind appears to join in the attack, literally blowing the British out of Asia.
In Earth, machines are given human or natural characteristics, when the tractor arrives at the village; it breaks down because its radiator is empty. The tractor is made part of the village when the Komsomols urinate into its radiator, giving in a natural element, even though it is made from metal. The first long shot of the tractor hides its progress along the road, when we finally see the tractor it seems to spurt from the ground like a plant, further emphasising the role nature plays in these villagers’ lives.
In Strike the main force behind the workers lives is not nature, but the factory their lives revolve around. The factory binds the workers together in their struggle against the corrupt factory owners. In Battleship Potemkin, the actual ship seems to be the main force of the sailors lives; it is where they live, eat and sleep, and it is the force that carries them forward and unites them, this is shown when the smaller ships join Potemkin in the harbour, the people from Odessa have joined the revolution against their oppressors.
The oppressing force in Earth are the Kulaks, they are against the collectivization of the fields because it means they will have to share their wealth with the rest of the village, they cannot join in the new social arrangements made by the collectivization 10, the Kulaks do not want to share anything with the rest of the town, the Khoma’s father going so far as to try and kill the families horse instead of share with the rest of the village 11. After Khoma has killed Vasyl and realises that the Kulaks are becoming extinct, he tries to be “reborn” by dancing; placing his head on the ground, and trying to screw himself back into the earth.
The Kulaks inability to unite with the rest of the village is shown throughout the film, in the scene where the tractor arrives in the village, there are shots of three cattle, standing watching the tractor up the path, cut into the same shot, but with three Kulaks instead of the cattle, a direct reference to the place the Kulak are headed. With the aid of the tractor, the cattle will no longer be needed to pull the plough, much like the use of the Kulaks once collectivisation has taken place 12. This technique is quite similar to the end of Strike, when the massacre of the strikers is taking place. Instead of showing the actual massacre of the strikers in person, Eisenstein chooses to show us a bull being slaughtered as a metaphor.
“The last reel (of Strike) is virtually a detachable short film, a showcase of Eisenstein’s “free montage of attractions” that, operating independently of narrative, stimulate strong emotions and wide ranging concepts.”
(Bordwell, (2004), p378)
Religion is also prominent in Earth, the arrival of the tractor is much like the biblical descriptions of Palm Sunday, the eventual martyr riding the village’s saviour 13. The large groups gathered at the end of the film are also reminiscent of gatherings depicted in the bible, when Jesus was lecturing his followers. A more graphic example are the crosses in the background as Khoma confesses to killing Vasyl.
Strike Over Asia compares the preparations of the religions of Asia for meeting with the British army. Conducts of dress and appearance are concentrated on for both parties. The monks preparing their ceremonial dress, and the general’s wife preparing her make up.
Strike, Battleship Potemkin, Storm Over Asia and Earth all contain different and similar elements, each of the films is politically motivated. Strike, Storm Over Asia and Battleship Potemkin all deal with the idea of revolution, so some of the same techniques are used to portray the struggling revolutionaries and the oppressors is different ideological ways, using camera angles and ‘typage’ to make the oppressors more intimidating and the revolutionaries more heroic. Earth does not employ these techniques as much as the other films I have looked at, preferring to tell the story through the characters, rather than the social situation.
References
1. Bordwell, 2003, p119
2. Bordwell, 2003, p127
3. Bordwell 1985, p235
4. Bordwell, 2004, p368
5. Bordwell, 2003, p138
6. Kepley, 1986, p 79
7. Liber, 2002, p108
8. Kepley, 1986, p79
9. Kepley, 1986, p83
10. Liber, 2002, p110
11. Kepley, 1986, p82
12. Kepley, 1986, p82
13. Liber, 2002, p110
Bibliography
Bordwell, D (1985) Narration in the Fiction Film, Wisconsin; University Of Wisconsin Press.
Bordwell, D and Carroll N (1986) Post Theory, University of Wisconsin Press.
Bordwell, D and Thompson, K (2003) Film History: An Introduction (Second Edition), University of Wisconsin, McGrawHill
Bordwell, D and Thompson, K (2004) Film Art: An Introduction (Seventh Edition); University of Wisconsin, McGrawHill
Christie, I (1993) Eisenstein rediscovered/edited by Ian Christie and Richard Taylor. p. cm.—(Soviet cinema) Papers from a conference held at Keble College, Oxford, July 1988. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Eisenstein, Sergei, 1898–1948–Criticism and interpretation Congresses. I. Christie, Ian. II. Taylor, Richard. Accessed on 9th November: http://www.shu.eblib.com/EBLWeb/patron/
Kepley, V (1986) In the Service of the State: the Cinema of Alexander Dovzhenko, Wisconsin University Press. (Chapter 6 Earth)
Liber, G. O (2002) Alexander Dovzhenko: A Life in Soviet Film, BFI Publishing; London
Taylor, R (2006) The Eisenstein Collection: SERGEI EISENSTEIN, London; Seagull Books
1 comment:
i need something more concise to read on my lunch break!
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