Eisenstein's The Cinematographic Principle...

This article put the notion of film as language into a different perspective for me. Eisenstein begins by asserting that film is a montage. There, of course, can exist montage sequences within film, but a film is a series of cuts that makes us believe we are living out a time in the character's life whose duration is longer than the film itself. Much like the evolution of hieroglyphs, the film language has evolved over time. The final product, todays film, is a result of a history of trials and errors. My favorite quote from the article comes from pg 128. Eisenstein states, "The means of production... determined the form." This means to say that just as a brush and ink determine the form of hieroglyphs, film and its means of production are the director's tools to create his/her distinct artwork. Another point of interest for me in this article is that nothing in itself has an inherent meaning. We give objects meaning. This parallels what we have already discussed in class, but it was helpful to read about it with different context.