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Strike (Eisenstein, 1925) - Coggle Diagram
Strike (Eisenstein, 1925)
Expressionism
Expressionistic performance
- Overly exaggerated performance - overt facial expressions - manager's facial expressions present him as condescending and patronising
- Manager's white suit and gelled hair represents his superiority and wealth, and to demonstrate his inexperience of manual labour
Typage
- Eisenstein routinely uses actor's physical characteristics to create an impression instantly of the character they are portraying - mostly used to create animosity and present unlikable characters (as opposed to creating a character with psychological depth)
Critical Debate: Why does Eisenstein force the viewer to become actively involved in forming abstract ideas?
- Eisenstein stressed the importance of audience response, and proposed that filmmaking could be controlled in order to generate specific effects on the spectator
- The emphasis should not be on representing the real world or constructing a narrative, but in generating an effect in the spectator through a series of shocks or 'attractions' - with this, he adopted ideas of Agitprop agitation/propaganda and the Kuleshov effect
- A style in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist's inner feelings
- Originating in early 20th century Germany, it seeks to express emotions rather than to represent external reality
- Characterised by the use of symbolism, exaggeration and distortion
- Realism is about representing things in a realistic way and often focuses on everyday life, whereas expressionism expresses people's inner world, focusing on emotions rather than external realities
- Eisenstein was influenced by the Soviet film movement Constructivism of the early 20th century - which rejected stylisation and celebrated the 'human machine', which reflected the modern industrial world of the time
- Involved new theories of acting and physical movement based on exploring the mechanics of the human body and communication
Context
Cultural
- A political propaganda film which raises awareness of class struggle and advocates unity, promoting the ideology of the ruling Communist Party
- Based on a series of strikes in Russia in 1903, concerning factory workers striking for better wages and treatment
- The workers are eventually suppressed by the capitalist factory owners and their spies
Soviet Montage
- First major Soviet montage film
- The Kuleshov effect is the cornerstone of Soviet montage - meaning is contextual, it is not created in the shot, but in where the shot is placed in relation to others
- Eisenstein referred to this as intellectual montage - it demanded that the audience be an active participant in constructing meaning within the film
- Eisenstein also referred to this as 'Kino-fist' - opposing shots have the potential to create a synthesis, a new idea or emotion that leads to audience knowledge
- His use of montage was much faster than Vertov's 'Kino-eye', it exists within the gap between two or three shots, its messages are blunt and overly political
Cinematography: Kino-fist
- Eisenstein's cinematographic theory Kino-fist aimed to create conflict within the film's shots and frames - this included graphic conflict, conflict of size, conflict of movement (of crowds, people in order, people in disorder, tracking shots)
Social and Political
- Leader of the Community Party Vladimir Lenin (who the film features a quote from in the opening) considered film the most important of the arts in educating the masses as it could communicate without the need for literacy skill
- The Soviet montage filmmakers made revolutionary films that depicted upheavals leading to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 (the October Revolution)
- Eisenstein focused on montage being used as a propaganda tool and an alternative to the continuity editing of Hollywood cinema
- In Soviet montage films, characters often appear as stock types who represent particular classes in Russian society - characters or 'types' were often performed by non-professional actors (typage)
- In Strike, workers are presented as a collective unit, upholding the Communist values of people working together for the state - the mass or collective of heroes contrasts with Hollywood, typified by the main hero played by an individual star
Key scenes
A Reason to Strike/Suicide sequence
- Workers gather around the dead worker, representing unity and collectivist nature
- No leader of the proletariat emerges representing union (further mirrored by lack of protagonist/main character of the film)
- Crowd scenes are shot in deep focus to highlight this
- Manager's clean white suit contrasts the workers' costume and highlights his inexperience of manual labour - typage and expressionistic performance encourage dislike from the audience
- Dead worker appears to blend in with the machine - links to Constructivism
- Camera tracks backwards as workers run out of the factory as the strike begins, involving the spectator in the chaos - alignment with workers
- Shot of two workers fighting on a board rocking on the back of another - represents the bosses' exploitation of workers
Fat Cat's Feast
- Use of typage - majority of the capitalist bosses are overweight, compared to the slim workers, representing the bosses' greed and encourages audience response
- Metaphor of the close up shot of a boss squeezing the lemon, intercut with shots of crowds of workers by tackled by the military - represents crushing of the proletariat
- Expensive alcohol and port represents contrast in wealth and lives of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
- Bosses are positioned far apart, contrasts the long shots showing the close proximity of the workers who appear to move as one body (representing union and collectivism)
The Apartments/Final sequence
- Woman pushed into a corner by a soldier and horse - a microcosm of the military crushing the proletariat - shot from high angle to emphasise the woman's inferiority and inability to escape
- Cross cutting between contrasting innocent children and violent militant chaos - evokes anger in the audience for the military and empathy with the workers
- Slaughterhouse footage of the cow is a clear metaphor for the proletariat - emphasised through cross cutting
- Ink spilt onto the map mirrors blood of the proletariat being spilled
- Crowds trapped behind gate represents imprisonment
- White shirts hanging above the apartments foreshadow the blood that will be shed - white also represents innocence and purity of the proletariat, compared to violent, militant bourgeoisie
- Crossfade from aftermath of the massacre to the laughing army general forces the audience to make a connection between the two - encourages alignment with the proletariat
Representation
Eisenstein's hierarchy
- Capitalist bosses and shareholders are caricatures, their performance and Eisenstein's use of mise-en-scene are derived of exaggerated theatrical symbols of greed and oppression - in contrast the workers are more realistically portrayed
- This is represented by the typage of the capitalist bosses - overexaggerated performance and facial expressions, large faces and smoking cigars, all represents the greed and exploitation of the bourgeoisie - juxtaposed by the realistic representation of the proletariat working classes
- Departure from the classic Hollywood model of individual protagonists who determine the action
- The Marxist view proposes social forces as the causal agents, not individuals
- With the absence of psychologically rounded characters the emphasis was no longer on the individual but on the group - the proletariat
- Strike does not have a protagonist or individual hero whose actions and motives form the basis of the narrative
- Only one one character is identified by name (the worker who commits suicide) and the other characters are best regarded as representations of different classes and groupings that occur in the proletariat's struggle against the bourgeoisie
- The workers are far less individualised than other groups, and individualism is presented as a thematic opposite, as any worker who is presented as more distinct will either die or betray their comrades
- The spies employed to sabotage the strike are given animal names and characteristics