Eisentstein: The Cinematographic Principle

I found Eisenstein’s essay difficult to understand without the full knowledge of Japanese cinema. He does warn the reader in the beginning of the essay by saying that the Japanese “[have] no cinematography” but “its culture [has] an infinite number of cinematographic traits” (127). Eisenstein then interestingly compares the Japanese prints to different camera positions. He equivalents a drawing of eye twice as big as the man’s body to a “extreme close-up of bulging eyes” (131). It is interesting that the aspects of cinematography can exist outside the cinema realm. An audience can experience the same visual intensity from a close up shot in film than they can experience in a painting of bulging eyes. Eisenstein also parallels conflict of framing a shot to the framing of a drawing in Japan. He explains different cinematographic conflicts: “conflict of depths,” “pieces resolved in volume, pieces resolved in area” (134). Eisenstein then shows a Japanese drawing of a cherry-tree – using the same methods from cinema of construction a direction of his sequence (drawing) and the organization. This essay brought to light the aspects of cinematography that can be applied to all forms of art.