The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram

In “The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram,” Sergei Eisenstein compares the structure of cinema to that of Japanese language and communicative construction. He also delves into the study of linguistics and presents an interesting idea: language is essentially a form of montage. Language combines single, nondescript elements into meaningful concepts. In the same way, cinematography is montage as well: it takes individual, neutral shots and combines them into expressive series of meaning. Eisenstein compares his understanding of the ideogram to the Japanese haiku. He makes the connection by discussing laconism, a term I did not know of before reading this essay. Laconism is brevity of expression, which means Eisenstein viewed it as meaning distilled down to it’s purest form, in this case, an image or shot. Just as haiku’s are three concise phrases that make up a greater whole, so too are shots concise phrases that also make up a greater whole. He also emphasizes the interaction between shots and refers to this union as the conflict of two pieces in opposition to each other. Eisenstein interestingly argues that this infinite possibility of collisions is not only what makes cinema so unique, but also what makes cinema possible.