Beyond Eisenstein’s montage theory: works of art construction general principles

Abstract

This article discusses some aspects of the montage’s theory of the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), based on the semiotician V. V. Ivanov’s theory book “From the Diaries of Sergei Eisenstein and Other Essays”. Three Eisenstein’s essays are analyzed: “Out of Frame” (2002b) and “The Dramaturgy of Film Form” (2002c), both published in 1929, and “Word and Image” (2002a), released in 1937, considering the studies of Ivanov with the objective of clarifying the general concepts of his montage’s theory applied to the field of research known as “Russian semiotics” or “semiotics of culture.” Eisenstein’s montage theory itself, which has gone beyond the field of cinema to become a general theory of art, allows a closer approach to his general assumptions regarding the creation of works of art and its reception.