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Reading Eisenstein Reading "Capital"Author(s): Annette MichelsonSource: October, Vol. 2 (Summer, 1976), pp. 26-38Published by: The MIT Press

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7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading

Capital

ANNETTE

MICHELSON

If,

n

all

ideology

men

and their ircumstances

ppear upside-down

s

in

a camera

obscura,

this

phenomenon

arises

from heirhistorical ife-

process

s the

nversion

f

objects

on

theretina

does from heir

hysical

life-process.

Karl

Marx,

The German

Ideology

We have

always

known

thatEisensteinwished

to

make a film f

Capital,

and

we now know

that

this was

no

merewish.

It

was

a

project, arefully

onsidered,

intensivelydiscussed, partially researched,tentatively lanned.

The diaristic

evidence

f

October

1927

through

April

of

the

following

year

hould

nitiate new

stage

of

inquiry

nto Soviet

film

heory

nd

practice

f

the

post-revolutionary

ra,

sharpening

and

confirming peculative

impulses

hithertoconstrained

by

the

deliberate

pace

of

posthumous

publication.'

Eisenstein's

work is

not alone

in

question; speculations

of the widest

range

must

now

be

extendedor

re-directed.

Although

one

cannot,

n

this

nitial

stage

of

reflection

pon

a

crucial

document,

expect wholly

to

survey

ts contours

or

assess

the

order

of its

consequences,

one

may

attempt

o

specify

hat rucial

quality,

ituating

histext

within

hehistorical

moment

rticulated

nd

inflected

y

the

larger

text

of Eisenstein.

The worknotes rebegun-to all intents nd purposes, s wesay-while he

is

editing

October,

ommissioned

n

celebration f theRevolution's

tenth nniver-

sary,

not

ready

for

elease

until

March

14,

1928.

The entries ontinue

through

he

aftermath

f

the

release,

when

they

re

undoubtedly nterrupted y

the

order

to

return o

work

on

The General

Line,

begun prior

to

October,

ntercepted y

that

anniversary

ommission and resumed

on

June

20th.

This film

s

completed,

following

some further

nterruption

nd

critical re-orientation rom

Stalin,

as

The Old and

the

New,

in

February,

1929.

And

on

August

19th,

Eisenstein,

charged-together

with

Tiss6 and

Alexandrov-with the

nvestigation

f

the

new

1. We owe therecent

ublication

of

"Notes for

film f

Capital"

in

Ikusstvo

Kino,

January,

973,

pp. 57-67 to Naum Kleiman,the Curator f theEisensteinMuseum nMoscow. For this ndformany

other

ntelligent

nd

scrupulously

xecuted

nstances

of

his

scholarship,

am,

like

so

many

others,

deeply grateful.




7/17/2019 778417


28

OCTOBER

technology

f

sound,

departs

n

the

three-year

oyage

through

urope,

theUnited

Statesand Mexico.

October,

slightly

ut but

swiftly

assed

by

German

censors,

had

opened

in

Berlin on

April

2, 1928,

under the

title Ten

Days

that Shook

the

World,

nd

by

December of

that

year,

Eisenstein,

writing

to

Leon

Moussinac

in

Paris

of

the

misunderstandings

urrounding

ts

reception

broad,

says:

"The

proclamation

that

'm

going

to make

a

movie

of

Marx's

Das

Kapital

is

not

a

publicity

tunt. believethat he

films

f

the

future

will

be found

going

in

this

direction

or

else

they'll

be

filming

hings

ike

The Idea

of

Christianity

rom

the

bourgeois

point

of

view ).

In

any

case,theywill have todo withphilosophy. t is true hat won'tgetto

this

for

nother

year

or a

year

and

a

half,

since the

field s

absolutely

untouched.

Tabula

rasa.

And

it will

be

necessary

to

do

a

lot

of

sketching

before

trying

to treat such

an enormous

theme

without

compromising

t.

I'd

really

like

for

you

to

look

at October

more

or less

from

he

point

of view I've

just

outlined.

You'll see

a multitude

f

this

sort

of

step-beginning

with

the

awkward,

even

vulgar,

even

shameful

symbolism-and

going

to the Gods

and

Kerensky's

Rise, which,

ike

the

battleship's

ions,

serves

s a

ladder

to a

completely

ifferentdea

of

cinema.2

Eisenstein,

then,

s

obviously

still

reflecting-at

distance

of

eight

months

fromthe last of

the

work

notes

published here-upon

the

possibility

f

filming

Marx.

With

Octobernow

completed,

he is

considering

ts

mplications,

xtending

and

systematizing

he

claims

made

by

and

for

his

film s "a

collection of

essays"

on

a series of

themes.Cinema

is now

confirmed,

hrough

oncrete

practice,

s

a

conceptual

medium,

a mode

of

discourse,

nd the

freshly ompleted

work s re-

assessed as

the

pivotal

stage

of a

cinematic

future.

We

must

understand his

udgment

n

a sense that

s

particular

nd

distinct

fromthat which generally nforms ur understandingf the restof Eisenstein's

career.

October

will

not

merelyyield

themes,

mages

or

even

strategies

or

future

development

r

recurrence,

uch

as we

find

n

Alexander

Nevsky's

re-working

f

elements

eveloped

for

Che Viva

Mexico;

October

generates

formal

rogram

nd

a method

that

promise

to

transform

xisting

cinema.

Warning

Moussinac

of the

sharp

break between

Potemkin nd

October

"it

is

thedialectical

denial

of

Potemkin"),

he

goes

on to announce

that

he is

ready

o

"overturn"his

"entire

system."

Thematically

as

well as

formally.

think that

we

shall find

ur

cinematography

n

'the other ide' of the

ctedfilm-that

s,

n

thefilm

2.

Lkon

Moussinac,

Sergei

Eisenstein,

rans.D.

Sandy Petrey,

New

York,

Crown

Publishers,

nc.,

1970,

pp.

28-9.




7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading

Capital

29

as

newsreel,

s well as

in the film s

itself.3

nd most

amusing

of

all,

thiscinematographywill be genetically deological, for ts substance

will be the

screening

f...

Here's

a kind

of

coup

de

thkidtre:

he one

essential

word

in

all

this

hodgepodge

doesn't come

to

mind,

my

explanation

becomes a

charade.

And no

dictionary

t hand.

Okay,

take

the German

word

begriff

concept,

Idea).

But

there

s no absolute

begriff.

hey

are

always

'classical'.

(From

the

word 'class' and

not

'classicism'.)4

The

consequences

of that

break

between

Potemkin

and

October

were

envisaged

s momentous.

The

19th

entury's roto-cinematic

ascinationwith

the

prospectof "thephilosophical toy" s tobe realizedand transformedn a filmic

enterprise

which

will

subject

the

productive

tructure

ubtending

that

toy,

ts

technology

nd its

claim of

absolute

objectivity

o

rigorous

ritical

nalysis.

Film

will indeed be

philosophical

or it will

not,

in

any

but

a trivial

ense,

be.

The

function

f

the

celebratory

ork

ust completed

s discovered

y

ts

maker,

eading

Capital,

to be

propadeutic.

The filmic

translation

of

the

Critical

Analysis

of

Capitalist

Production that

must

follow

will

establish

the

evel and the mode

of

a

truly

evolutionary

inematic

consciousness.

Eisenstein's

ntuition

that

the

pro-

jected

work

might

anticipate

or confront

bourgeois

effort

whose

function

s

analogous

to that

of

Feuerbachian

analysis

seen

in relation

to that

of

Marx,

is

extremelynteresting.He seems, by implication, to propose the new film s

combining,

for hat

reason,

he

theoretical

unctions

f

The

German

deology

and

of

Capital.

To this

we shall

return.

Throughout

his

working

ife

and

irrespective

f

the

episodic

deviations

or

reversals nforced

y

specific

istorical

circumstance,

isenstein was at

pains

to

ground

his

conceptions

of

montage

n

the

dynamics

f

the

dialectic

nd,

further,

to

specify

he manner

n which the formers

the

concrete

ilmform f

the atter.

Althoughhe will ultimately eclare that"montagethinking s inseparablefrom

the

general

content

of

thinking

s a

whole,"5

he

works,

n

the

1920's

toward

n

articulation

f

montage

s the

formal

nstantiation

f cinema's triadic

ehearsal

f

thedialectic. ts

essentially

ynamic

haracter erives

rom he

pectator's

onstant

3.

I

am

indebted

to

Jay Leyda

for

the information

hat the

sequence

of

"Kerensky's

Rise"

in

October

was derived

from

newsreel

sequence

shown

to

Eisenstein

by

Esther

Shub.

This

gives

a

somewhat

ambiguous

character

to Eisenstein's

remark,

s one

might

also

interpret

t,

within the

context f the

mmediately

receding roclamation

f

being

"ready

o overturn

my

ntire

ystem,"

s a

rejection

f the

techniques

developed

n

the acted

film n

favour

f

a

documentary

method

f

the

ort

advocated

by

Vertov

hroughout

heir

ong,

intermittent

ebate.

4. Moussinac,p. 28.

5.

Sergei

Eisenstein,

Dickens,

Griffith

nd

the Film

Today,"

in

Film

Form,

ed.

and

trans.

Jay

Leyda,

New

York,

Harcourt,

Brace

and

World, nc., 1949,

p.

234.




7/17/2019 778417


30 OCTOBER

resolution,

solicited

by

the

style

of

1924-29,

of "conflict"between

"colliding

shots." The parametersof that synthetic esolution,of those "collisions" are

subjected

to a

constant

extension,

so

that

the

rhythmic

oppositions-or

antitheses-of

shot

size,

camera

angle

or

directionality roliferate

nto the ater

all-over

tructure

f

the

overtonal

tyle,

n

which the

system

f

montage

built

on

particular

dominants"

is,

by

virtue

of a

totalizing principle,

extended to all

parameters

usceptible

to

organization.6

It

is,

of

course,

this onstant

nd

progressive

adicalization,

ogether

ith ts

persistent

heorization,

which

distinguish

him not

only

from

Griffith,

ut from

colleagues

such

as

Kuleshov

and Pudovkin.

Searching

recent

history

for

the

clarification

ffered

y

some

parallel

endeavor,

ne thinks

f the

manner

n

which

theSch6nbergianrow,as developed byWebern,was extendedbyBoulez in the

1950s,

from he serial

organization

of

pitches

to that

of

timbre,

ttack,

tc.

The

function

f

montage,

n

the

hyperbolic

nstances

f

the heroic

ra,

was

maieutic. Its

strength

s

judged

to

reside

"primarily

n the fact

that

the

desired

image

is

not fixed or

ready-made,

but

arises-is

born

.

. .

assembled

in the

spectator's

erception."

....

it includes

in

the creative

process

the emotions and mind of

the

spectator.

The

spectator

s

compelled

to

proceed along

with

self-

same

road that he

author

traveled

n

creating

he

mage.

The

spectator

not only sees therepresentedlementsof thefinishedwork,but also

experiences

the

dynamicprocess

of

the

emergence

nd

assembly

f

the

image

just

as

it was

experienced

by

the

author.7

And

for

Eisenstein,

s

for

Marx,

"not

only

the

result,

but the road to

it

also,

is a

part

of the

truth.

he

investigation

f

truth

must

tself

e

true,

rue

nvestigation

is unfolded

truth,

he

disjunct

members

f which unite

in

the

result."

Octoberhad been

Eisenstein's

most

elaborate nd

sophisticated

ffort

n

the

direction

f

the

radically

maieutic

cinema,

and

in

at

least two

different

ays.

Its

spatio-temporal

istensions

nd

syntheses

ad,

as

in

the

celebrated

equence

of

The Liftingof the Bridge, reordered ction in a multiplicity f aspects and

positions

thus

altering

the

temporal

flow of the event

and

of its

surrounding

narrative

tructure.8

he result

was a

declared

disjunction

of

constituents,

olicit-

ing

a

new

quality

of

attention

nd

eliciting

nferences

s to

spatial

and

temporal

relations.

Perception

of the

disjunction

within the

distendedmoment

nd

frag-

mented

pace,

had

to

be

cognitively

esynthesizedy

the

pectator

nto

the

order

f

an

event. The

recaptured

nity

of

constituents hat

were

experienced

s discrete

6.

Among

the

texts

n

which

this

development

s

discussed s "Methods of

Montage,"

Film

Form,

pp.

72-83.

7.

Sergei

Eisenstein,

ilm

Sense,

ed.

and

trans.

JayLeyda,

New

York,

Harcourt,

Brace nd

World,

Inc., p. 32.

8. For

a

detailed

discussion of

this

sequence

see

my

Camera

Lucida/Camera

Obscura,"

Artforum

XI,

(January,

973),

30-37.




7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading

Capital

31

was

heightened y

the

apprehension

of

a

temporalwedge,

driven

nto

the

flow f

narrative, temporalityxceptional,momentous, pic in form.

In

another,

more

generally

familiar

ense

(it

is

explicated

n

his

writings),

Eisenstein

worked

n

October

to

develop,

as "a ladder to

a

completely

ifferent

idea

of

cinema,"

the

technique

which

could

induce a

cognitivegrasp,

not

only

of

abstract

oncepts

s

such,

n

thematerial

oncreteness

f

their lass

determination,

but

of

the

very

forms

nd methods

of

discourse.

This

was

to

be the

"intellectual

montage"

proposed

in

"the

dance of

the

Gods about

Korniloff,"

n

atheological

argument

demanding

or

impelling logical

deduction.9

Now,

the

common feature f

these

two forms f maieutic

cinema

is

their

analytic

mode,

developed

and intensified

y

thevarieties f

disjunction

facilitated

bythemontage style.And it is Eisenstein'semphasison theanalyticfunction f

cinema that ustains

his

work-theoretical

nd

practical-of

the

1920s.The last

of

the

notes for

Capital

records the

bleak

intimation

that

this

direction within

innovative

inema-and

indeed,

within

much

of

the advanced

art

of

the Soviet

Union-is

destined to

defeat

by

the

close of

the decade:

"The

tragedy

f

today's

'leftists'

onsists

n

the

fact hat he till

ncomplete nalytic

process

finds

tself n a

situation

n

which

synthesis

s

demanded."

When one turnsfromMoscow toconsiderthe

arger

ontextwithinwhich

Eisenstein

must

be

read,

one

discovers

that his

sense

of film s

cognitive

nstru-

ment

and

mode of

discourse s sharedor

echoed

in

the concerns

nd

intuitions

f

the

major

theorists f

bourgeois

Europe

at that

time.

t

is,

in

fact,

during

this

period 1920-29)

during

the wift

e-organization

nd acceleration f

the

ndustry

following

he

First

World

War,

that

unprecedented

opes

for

inema

crystallize

n

an

early

theoretical

iterature.

t

is

then,

prior

to the

ntervention f

sound,

that

converging

xpectations

nd

achievements

roduce

the

ntimation f

cinema as a

unique,

a

privileged

mode

of

analytic

nvestigation.

he

acceleration f

formal

and

technical

development

within

the

intensified ationalization

nd

expandedmarket fthefilm

ndustry,

s attended

y

a

buoyant

xpectancy,

rticulatedn the

speculative

rhetoric

f that

arly

iterature.

The

writings

f

Elie

Faure

are

among

its most

euphoric instances.)

The

sense

of

cinema as a

possible

agent

of

social

transformation

s

general

and

will

persist

hroughout

he

crises

of the

next

half-

century.

What

s

particular

o

the

theoretical

nd critical

ensibility

f

that ime

s

the

recognition-not

by

Eisenstein

lone,

but

in

the

theory

nd

practice

f

Clair,

Epstein,

Vertov,

Faure, Artaud,

Benjamin,

Balasz,

Fondane,

Lager

and to

some

extent Delluc-of a

new critical

instrument,

acilitating

n

epistemological

inquiry

of

unprecedentedmmediacy

nd

power.

Before

ettling,

owever,

or

he

notion

of

Eisenstein s a

man

of his

time,

t

s

instructive,

or ur

purposes,briefly

9.

This

sequence

is

analysed

in

NoEl

Carroll's

"For God

and

Country,"

Artforum

I

(January,

1973),

56-60.




7/17/2019 778417


32 OCTOBER

to

compare

thenature nd

consequences

of his

intuition

nd its

articulation

with

that fanotherfilm-maker,eanEpstein,whosepractice nd theoreticalffortsre

exacly

contemporary

with his and

similarly

ubject,

once the

sound

barrierhad

been

passed,

to

periods

of

stress nd

silence.1'

Epstein

had

started

n

1921

to

produce

a

body

of

theory

which

was co-

extensivewith his

film-making

areer.

Originating,

ike

Eisenstein,

n an

Eastern

European bourgeois

milieu,

he

had,

before

urning

o

film,

tudiedmedicine

nd

then turned

to a

literary

areer. His scientificnd

literary

ulture

provided

the

terms

f the

sustained

theoretical ndeavor

which,

ike

Eisenstein's,

tands n

an

intimately

ialectical

relationship

to

his

film-making.

ike

Eisenstein,

he was

at

everypoint

concerned to

ground

his

speculation

in

contemporary

heoretical

developmentsnd therebyointensifyhe enseofeachfreshtageof his work s a

matter

f

present,

unctional

necessity,

while

aspiring,

at the

same

time,

to

the

constitution

f an

ontology

of cinema.

Like the

Soviet

artist,

e was both

reserved

and

innovative n his

attitude

to

sound,

and his eventualuse of

it,

involving

slowed

tempo

consistent

with

his

experiment

n

slow

motion,

parallels

Eisen-

stein's insistence

n

the

new

parameter's

disjunctiveness

s a

guarantee

of

the

preservation

f the

montage technique

nto

the

period

after

929.

Epstein

is

concerned to

account

for

and

to

preserve

the

initial sense

of

wonder elicited

by

the

appearance

of

the

medium,

threatened

with

extinction

through

he

ntensive

evelopment

f

thenarrative odes

during

that

decade.

His

insistenceon the productiveness, he inventivenessnherent n this attitude

derives,

no

doubt,

from

traditionally

mpirical

stance.

He

is

the

dvocate

of the

revelatory

ower

of

specifically

inematic

techniques

nd

processes

s

such.

The

modifications

f

spatial

and

temporal xperienceprovided

hrough

low,

acceler-

ated or reverse

motion

will

provide

fresh

ccess to the

true,

oncealed

nature

f the

phenomenal

world.

The

revisions

f

perception

nd

judgment

mpelled

by

that

access

would confirm cientific

iscovery

nd

redirect

pistemological

nquiry.

Like

Vertov,

Epstein

is,

of

course,

a

member

of

the

generation

fascinated

by

developments

n

quantum physics

and

by

the

theory

f

relativity.

hey

play

something

f

the

structural

ole

in

the

formation

f

his

thinking

hat

Pavlovian

theoryssumes in Eisenstein's arliertheoretical fforts."

10.

"If

Epstein

knew

particularly

ard

times

round

1935,

s the

history

f

his

film-making

hows,

he

learned

very

uickly

what

conclusions

to draw

from

hem.

Forced

to

play

second

fiddle o

men

who

no

longer

understood

him,

he

rapidly

earned how

to

recover,

o take

refuge

n

short

features

ather

than to

stop making

true

inema.

How

many

others

have had

that

kind of

courage?"

Henri

Langlois,

"The CreativeWork of

Jean

Epstein,"

Cinemages,

No.

2

(1955),

trans.Bob

Lamberton,

New

York,

Anthology

ilm

Archive.

his

detail

of

Epstein's

career,

ontemporary

ith

Eisenstein's

difficulties

s

they

ulminated

n

the

public

humiliation

t the

Conference

f the

All

Soviet

Union

of

Film-Makers

n

1935,

produced

imilar

results-the

stoical

decision

to

relocate ffortn

another

ontext,

ess

subject

o

the

pressures

nd

contradictions

f

the

developing

ndustry

f the

1930's.

The

option

open

to

Epstein

was

the short

film;

n

Eisenstein's

case,

it was

an

intensified

eaching

schedule. These

parallel

circumstancesuggest hat hework-and theproblematic areers-of bothmenmustbeconsidered s

part

of

a

larger

historical

momentwhose

contradictionswere

ntensifying

n

both

East and West.

11.

Pavlovian

theory

s

influential

n the

early

development

f the

theory

f

"attractions,"

nd

in




7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading Capital

33

Little

or

no attention as

been

paid

until now

to the

many

unique

qualities film an give to therepresentationfthings.Hardly anyone

has realized that the

cinematic

mage

carries

warning

of

something

monstrous,

hat

t

bears

a subtlevenom which could

corrupt

he

entire

rational

order

o

painstakingly magined

n the

destiny

f

theuniverse.

And

the subversion f

that

rational"

order

s seen as akin

to

that

f

science

tself.

Discovery

lways

means

learning

that

objects

are

not

as

we had

believed them

to

be;

to

know

more,

one must first bandon the

most

evident ertainties

f established

knowledge.Although

not

certain,

t s

not inconceivable thatwhat appears to us as a strangeperversity,

surprising

onconformity,

s a

transgression

nd a defect f the

creen's

animated

mages

might

erve o

advance

another

tep

nto that

terrible

underside

of

things"

which was

terrifying

ven to Pasteur's

pragma-

tism.

.

Now,

the

inematograph

eemsto be a

mysterious

mechanism

intended o assess the

false

accuracy

of Zeno's famous

argument

bout

the

arrow,

ntended

for the

analysis

of

the

subtle

metamorphosis

f

stasis into

mobility,

of

emptiness

into

solid,

of

continuous

into

discontinuous,

transformation

s

stupefying

s the

generation

f

ife

from

nanimate

lements.12

And

Epstein's

wonder-it

is a kind of

terreur

acrk'e

t

savante-culminates

in

a later

text,

f

1928,

contemporaneous

herefore ith

Eisenstein's

planning

of

Capital:

Slow motion

actually

brings

a

new

range

to

dramaturgy.

ts

power

of

laying

bare

the emotions of

dramatic

enlargements,

ts

infallibility

n

the

designation

f

the inceremovements

f

the

oul,

are

such

that

t

obviously

outclassesall

the

tragic

modes

at this

time.

am

sure,

and all those who

have seen

certain

parts

of

La

Chute

de la

Maison Usher re also sure,that f a high-speedfilmwere made of an

accused

person

during

this

nterrogation,

hen

from

eyond

his

words,

the

truth

would

appear,

unique,

evident,

written

ut,

that there

would

no

longer

be

any

need

of

ndictment,

r of

awyers' peeches,

r

of

any

other

proof

than

that

provided by

the

deep

images."

13

Eisenstein's concern with

inducing

states

of

maximally

intense

response

in

the

spectator.

The

transition romthis

concern

to

later

preoccupations,

bundantly

documented

n

late

texts

uch

as

"Non-Indifferent

ature,"

deserves

areful

tudy.

12.

Jean

Epstein,

"The

Universe

Head

over

Heels,"

Ecrits ur

le

Cinema,

Paris,

1974,

pp.

257-263.

The

sectionhere

quoted

is extracted rom translation

y

StuartLiebman

to

be

published

n

issue

no.

3 ofOCTOBER.

13.

Jean

Epstein,

A

Conversation

with

Jean

Epstein,"

L'Ami

du

Peuple,

May

11,

1928,

rans.

Bob

Lamberton,

New

York,

Anthology

ilm

Archives.




7/17/2019 778417


34

OCTOBER

This

sense

of

cinema

as

revelatory

f truth

s,

of course shared

by

Marxists

such as Vertov.Compare with theseremarks,Vertov's ccountof therevelation

afforded

y

seeing

himself

ilmed,

while in

a

perilous

leap,

in slow

motion,

and

Benjamin's

observations n

the same

process

considered

s a

technique

for

the

psychoanalysis

f

gesture.

Epstein's

notion of cinema as

a

critical nstrument

s,

however,

ouched

in

terms hat re

wholly

nnocentof an

awareness

of

social

or

class determination.

inema

is,

for

him,

never

glimpsed

as a form f

production,

subject

to the

material conditions

of

production.

The

ground

of his

theory

s

identical to

thatdescribed

by

Marx as thatof

Feuerbach:

Feuerbach

speaks

in

particular

of the

perception

of

natural

science;he mentions ecretswhichare disclosedonly to theeyeof the

physicist

nd

chemist;

but where

would

natural

science

be

without

industry

nd commerce?

Even

this

pure'

natural

science

is

provided

with an

aim,

as with its

material,

only through

trade and

industry,

through

the

sensuous

activity

f

men.

So

much

is

this

activity,

his

unceasing

sensuous labour and

creation,

his

production,

he

basis of

the

whole

sensuous

world

s

it

now

exists, hat,

were

t

nterrupted

nly

for

year,

Feuerbach

would

not

only

find n enormous

change

in

the

natural

world,

but would

very

oon find

hat the

whole world

of

men

and

his own

perceptive

aculty, ay

his

own

existence,

were

missing.14

For

Vertov,

he

systematic

xploitation

of

cinematic

processes

or

"anomalies,"

as

he called

them),

f

slowed,

accelerated nd

reversed

motion,

of

split-screen

nd

of

superimposition,

f

disjunctions

n

rhythm

nd

in

cutting

were to be

put

to the

service of

revelation-but

that

revelation,

was a "Communist

decoding

of the

world,"

inseparable

from

he

heightening

f

class consciousness.

Vertovwishedto

make films

hathad

the same

basically

necessary

ualities

as

shoes

or

other

useful

objects,

films that

would

clarify

he

relations

of

workers

with

each

other."

Epstein's

view of

cinema's

critical

unction

s,

then,

n

a

sense

clearly

vident

by

comparison

with

Vertov nd

Eisenstein,

pre-materialist.

t is

the

clearest

nd

mostsophisticated xpositionof cinema's epistemologicaldimensiondeveloped

prior

to their wn

work,

nd

it

does

appear,

n relation o

their

hinking

nd their

practice,

to

occupy,

within

the

historical

development

of film

theory,

place

roughly

analogous

to that

of

Feuerbach,

considered

as

pre-Marxist.

he

film-

maker

who

developed

his

prime

strategy

f intellectual

montage

as a "Dance of

the

Gods around

Korniloff"was

most

certainly

ware of

Feuerbach's

mportance

and his

limitations,

nd

of

Marx's

view

expressed

n the

opening

lines of

the

Contribution

to

the

Critique of

Hegel's Philosophy

of

Right:

"The

critique

of

religion

is

the

prerequisite

f all

criticism.... The

foundationof this

critique

s

the

following:

man

makes

religion,

religion

does not make

theman." We do not

know ifEisensteinwas familiarwithEpstein'scriticalpositionas expressednhis

14.

Karl

Marx,

The

German

deology,

New

York,

nternational

ublishers,1970,

p.

73.




7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading

Capital

35

theoretical

writings.1'5

t

is

here,however,

hatwe can

grasp

the

sharpness

f

his

hypothesisof a futurebourgeois cinema in the discursively nalytic mode,

recapitualing

he

history

f

pre-Marxist

riticism

nd

producing,

n

the

process,

work

whose

role

in the

development

f

theoretical

ractice

will be

analogous

to

that

f The Idea

of Christianity.

he

film

heory

nd

practice

f

the

astdecade

do,

in

fact,

demonstrate

development

f

this

sort

n

which

the

critique

of

religion

has

naturally

been

replaced by

the

critique

of illusionism.16We

can,

at

any

rate,

hypothesize

isenstein's

udgment

of

Epstein

as

having,

in

the

terms

f

Marx's

eleventh

thesis

on

Feuerbach,

"only interpreted

he

world,

n

various

ways,"

and

going

on

to claim

that "the

point

is

to

change

t."'7

The

notes

for

Capital,

then,

are

a

program

for

the

development

of the

cognitive nstrumentn the service f revolutionary hange,for film n which

"the established

place

of

the theme

s

taken

by

the

subject

of

basic method."

And

the

"leap,"

as Eisenstein ikes

to

put

it,

"is made" into

the materialist

inema

for

which Strike s

the

first

xploratory

reparation.

Strike

was,

as

we

know,

the result f

Eisenstein's

propulsion

from

he

space

of

theater

nto

that

of

cinema,

thedirect

onsequence

of

his

staging

f

Tretyakov's

Gas Masks

within the

setting

of a

real

factory.

n a celebrated

text'8

he

has

described hatmovement

f

propulsion.

In

Gas Masks we see

all

the

elements

f film

endencies

meeting.

The turbines, he factory ackground negated the last remnantsof

make-up

and

theatrical

ostumes,

nd

all elements

ppeared

as

inde-

pendently

used.Theater

accessories

n

themidst

f

real

factory

lastics

appeared

ridiculous. The elementof

play

was

incompatible

with

the

acrid smell

of

gas.

The

pitifulplatform

ept

getting

ost

among

the

real

platforms

f

labor

activity.

n

short

the

production

was

a

failure.And

we found

ourselves

n

the cinema.

And

Eisenstein,

whose cinema

will

become

identified ith the

fixed hot as the

15. EisensteinmentionsJeanEpstein'sLa Chute de la Maison Usher n "The Cinematographic

Principle

nd

the

deogram,"

Film

Form,

pp.

43-4.

It is

cited s a

"commendable

xample"

of theuse

of slow motion n

contradistinctiono the

formalist

ackstraws

nd

unmotivated

amera

mischief"

f

Vertov's The Man with the

Movie Camera.

Although

he has

evidently

ot

seen

the

Epstein

film,

e

remarks

upon

the

way

in

which "in this

film,

normally

cted emotions

filmed

with a

speeded-up

camera

are

said to

give

unusual emotional

pressure

y

their

nrealistic

lownesson

the creen."

Usher

is

cited,

together

ith Kabuki

theatre,

s an

instance

f

ntensified

perception

f

disintegrated

ction"

in

"The

Cinematographic

Principle

and

the

Ideogram,"

Film

Form,

pp.

43-4.

I

have

discussed

the

reasons for

Eisenstein'suse

of

Epstein

in

his

onslaught

against

Vertov

n

"The Man with

the

Movie

Camera: From

Magician

to

Epistemologist,"Artforum

(March,

1972),

60-72.

16.

This

development,

n

which

I

include

my

own

published

work,

calls in

turn for

ntensive

critical

nalysis.

17.

One

recalls

n

this

onnectionEisenstein's

arly

ountering

f

the

Vertovian

otion

of

the cine-

eye"with that f the cine-fist." lthough pparently response oa specificallyolemicalsituation,t

can be read as

an earlier

re-formulation

f this

thesis.

18. In

"Through

Theater

to

Cinema,"

Film

Form,

p.

16.




7/17/2019 778417


36 OCTOBER

dominant

component

of

the

montage style,

esponded

with

his

exquisitely

vivid

sense of thematerial nd practicalqualities of the mmediatephysicalsituation

into

which he had

been

thus

propelled.

Strike

presents

n its

opening

passage

a

sumptuous

aerial crane

shot

which

sweeps

through

the

space

of the

assembly

line-produced,

of

course,

by

using

an industrial rane

from he

factory

tself."9

This first

ilm,

ommemorating

he

twentieth

nniversary

f

the revolution

of 1905 and

planned

as

part

of a

series "Toward

the

Dictatorship

(of

the

Proletariat),"

has been described

as

the

laboratory

of

Eisenstein's cinematic

oeuvre.

In

its

deployment

of cinematic

processes,

ts use

of

superimposition,

animation,

masking,

fades,

split

screen and even

of reverse

motion,

in its

metaphorical

prodigality,

t

s,

of

all

his

films,

he

losest

to thoseof

Vertov.

And it

is thereforeardly urprising hathewill, in a laterJanovist ra,speakof t with

something

f

the

severity

ith

which

he

castigates

Vertov,

nd

particularly

The

Man with the

Movie

Camera,

Vertov's

upreme

chievement,

ontemporary

ith

October

nd

the notes for

Capital.

To

these

trictures

e

shall

return s well.

In

1925

it is

Strike

which

embodies

Eisenstein's

developing

vision

of

a

materialist inema.

This

very

first

ilm,

dealing

directly

with the

dynamics

of

labor-capitalrelationships

while

exploring

thecinematic

processes

hemselves

n

all their

variety,

mustnow

be read

as

thedirect

nticipation

of

Capital

developed

through

October.

t is

at

thecenter

f

the

significant

arly

text,

On

the

Question

of

a Materialist

Approach

to Form."

20

We are now

in a

position

to

read

that ext-

and to re-read thers,morefamiliar o us (amongthem, A DialecticalApproach

to

Film Form" and "Filmic Fourth

Dimension"

21)

written ut of the

intensive

work

on

October

nd

The

General

Line,

just prior

to the

departure

or

Europe.

In

the

text f

1925,

Eisenstein

proposes

Strike

s

revolutionary

n

terms

ot

of

its

"content-the

mass

revolutionary

movement"but

rather

n

so

far s

...

it

proposes

a

clearly

determined ormal

procedure

for

ap-

proaching

as a

whole

a

large quantity

of

historically

evolutionary

material-a

way

of

discovering

he

ogic

of

production

nd

revealing

technique

of methodsof

struggle

understood

s

a 'vital'

and variable

process, ubjectonlytotheconditions nd power relationships feach

phrase

of

its

development.

This

required

a

montage

construction

19. The

history

f

the camera

movement s

generallypresented

n

the

standard texts

urgently

requires

radical and

extensive evision o as

to

take

nto

account theenormous

repertoryeveloped

n

the films f

Soviet

Union's economic reconstruction

uring

the 1920's.

Vertov'swork

particularly

n

films

uch

as One Sixth

of

the World

1926)

and The

EleventhYear

1928))

are,

of

course,

herichest

n

this

respect,

or

n

them

the camera is mounted on

every

onceivable

component

of the industrial

environment

ocumented.

The movements

f

varying

irection nd

speed

ingeniously

onstituted

y

Mikhail

Kaufman nd his

co-workers

re,

moreover,

requently

ontrasted r

counterpointed y

use of

split

screen nd

superimposition.

20.

Sergei

Eisenstein,

elected

Works,

d. S.

Yutkevich,

Moscow,

skusstvo

ditions,

Volume

.,

pp.

109-16. A French translationby BernardEisenschitz nd Jacques Aumonthas been published in

Cahiers

du

Cinema,

nos.

220-21,

May-June,

1970,

pp.

32-6.

I

have

retranslated

his text.

21.

Sergei

Eisenstein,

ilm

Form,

pp.

45-63

and

64-71.




7/17/2019 778417


Reading

Eisenstein

Reading Capital

37

conceived

ccording

to the

basic formal

nature

f the

material.

The

new

cinemais a consequenceof a newtype f social contract,n attempt o

integrate,

ot the

aesthetic

evolution

f the

past twenty-five

ears,

ut

immediately

seful

phenomena:

in

particular,

he structural

rinciple

of

presenting

he

processes

f

production

within

thefilm.

his choice

is

important

n

that it

transcends

he

limits

of

the

aesthetic...

More

important,

rom

materialist

oint

of

view,

this

sphere

was

explored.

The

principles

of

heavy

ndustry,

actory

roduction

nd

the

forms f

the

process

of

production

can

alone

determine

he

deology

of

revolu-

tionary

rt

forms,

ust

as

they

have

determined

evolutionary

deology

in

general.

Revolutionaryform s theproductofcorrect echnicalmethods,

which

result n

the

concretization

f

a

new vision

and a

new

approach

to

things

nd to

phenomena.

The

new

class

ideology

s

the

authentic

renewal,

not

only

of

social

significance,

ut also

of

the

material

and

technical

nature

of

cinema,

manifested

n

what

s

called 'our

content.'

Eisenstein

then

proceeds

in

this

text,

which

speaks

the

idiom

of

the

proletkult,

o

point

to

a

flaw

n

the

"formal

bolshevism"

of

Strike:

.

.

.

he

absence of

material

xhaustively

llustrating

he

technique

of

thebolsheviks'clandestineaction and the economicpremisesof the

strike;

his

ertainly

oes

constitute

grave

defect f

content,

defect f

both

subject

and

ideology,

lthough

in

this

case

it

is

all a

question

of

incomplete

xposition

of the

process

of

production.22

Returning

to

the

notes

for

Capital,

we

recognise

n

them

a

corrected

nd

amplified

evelopment

f a

continuous

project,

ntegrating

he

esson

of

Strike's

most

significant

mission.

The

economic

premises

of

class

struggle

are to

be

unpacked

and

integrated

nto

the

formal

discourse

of

a

Critical

Analysis

of

Capitalist

Production n

which

the

concrete,

material

premises

nd

techniques

f

production and theirconsequences will be proposed througha structure f

cinematic

mplications

nd

inferences or

which

October

provides

basic

strategies

and a

partial

model. In

the

proposed

key

work

of the

philosophical

cinema,

the

documentary

footage

is

subjected

to

logical

reduction of a

rigor

such

that

experiment

external

o

the thesis"

s

rendered

impossible."

The film

f

Capital,

building upon

the

techniques

f

"intellectual

montage"

will

release

cinema

from

its

role

of

chronicle nd of

contemplation

nto

thatof

an

agent

of

revolutionary

change.

For

this

reason,

t

is a

work

with

a

"libretto"

by

Marx:

that s

to

say,

no

cinematic

rendering

f

a

book

but a

filmic

mplementation

f

the

structure

nd

techniques

of

its

analytic

method.

Eisenstein

hen

asts

about for

olutions

to

the

22.

Sergei

Eisenstein,

On the

Question

of a

Materialist

Approach

to

Form,"

Cahiers

du

Cinema,

nos.

220-221,

May-June,

1970,

p.

35.




7/17/2019 778417


38

OCTOBER

complex

structural

roblems

posed.

And it is

at

this

point

that he

encounters

Joyce.

We

have

always

known thatEisensteinwished

to make a film f

Ulysses,

ut

we

do not

know

the

status

f

this

wish.

We do not have evidence

f t

as a

practical

project,

as a

plan.

We

do,

of

course,

have

considerable,

though fragmentary,

evidence of

the manner

in

which

the

impulse

persisted

nto

Eisenstein's ater

work. The

project

forAn

American

Tragedy

drawn

up

in

Hollywood25

nd

the

continuing

preoccupation

with

the

psychology

of inner

speech26

ttest

o that

persistence.

Moreover,

t has

always

appeared

that

Capital

and

Ulysses,

must stand

in

inter-relation s the

two

central texts

defining

he

outer

limits of

Eisenstein's

enterprize-as

if,

perhaps,

the

analytic

project

of the1920swas succeeded

by

the

most radical of

aesthetic

yntheses

n

the

rendering

f themovement f conscious-

ness

tself.We know now that

herewas a

pivotal period

n

which

the

planning

of

Capital

and

the

reading

of

Ulysses

were

imultaneous.

n

the

work

noteof

April

8,

1928,

which concludes

with

the

realization that

"there

are

endlessly

possible

themes

for

filming

n

Capital

(price,

ncome

rent),"

Eisensteintells us

that

"the

official

edication of

Capital

will

be

to

the Second

International

"they

will be

overjoyed"),

while "the formal ide is

dedicated to

Joyce."

N.

Y.,

1976

(This

is the

first

ection

of

an

essay

n three

parts.)

23.

The

incorporation

f

the nner

monologue

as derived rom oth

Joyce

nd

Dujardin

is

described

byEisenstein n "A Course in Treatment,"Film Form,pp. 103-107.

24. This

interest s

developed

in

numerous

ater

texts,

ncluding

"Dickens,

Griffithnd the Film

Today,"

Film

Form,

pp.

245-51.




7/17/2019 778417


26

OCTOBER

The

tragedy

f

today's

leftists' onsists

n

the fact

hat

the still

ncomplete

analyticprocessfindstselfn a situation n whichsynthesiss demanded...

On new themes.

t

was

actually

important

o show

tactics

n

OCTOBER,

and not

the

vents.The

most

mportant

asks

n

a

cultural

revolution

re

not

only

dialectical

demonstrations

ut instruction

n

the dialectical

method,

s well.

Given

the available

data

on

cinema,

such tasks

are

not

yet

permissible.

Cinema

does not

possess

those means

of

expression,

ince

there

has

been,

until

now,

no

demand fortasks

of that

sort;

only

now do

they

begin

to be defined.

Eisenstein

with

Le

Corbusier

nd

Andrei

Burov,

Moscow,

1928

A

AX

p

i~i

.

.

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