1. Sergei Eisenstein
The Montage Theory

2. Eisenstein’s early years
• January 23rd 1898 - February 11th 1948
• He was born in Riga, Latvia but his family
moved frequently in his early days.
• Eisenstein came from a middle-class family.
His father was an architect and his mother
was the daughter of a prosperous merchant.
• In 1920 he moved to Moscow and began his
career in theatre.
• He was a pioneer in the use of “montage”, he
argued that montage was the essence of the
cinema.

3. What is a Montage?
The process of selecting,
editing and piecing together
separate sections of film to
form a continuous whole.
Eisenstein believed that film
montage could create ideas or
have an impact beyond the
individual images
2 or more images edited
together create a “tertium
quid” (third thing) that makes
the whole greater than the sum
of individual images.

4. For Example
Eisensteins greatest demonstration of
“the power of the montage” comes in
his “odessa steps” sequence of his
1925 film “battleship potemkin”
The montage allows Eisenstein to
manipulate the audiences perception of
time by stretching out the crowds flight
down the steps for 7 minutes, several
times longer than in real life.

5. Another example would be the famous
sequence involving a runaway baby
carriage show Eisenstein using montage
to arouse emotion amoung the films
audience.