Discontinuity clips on October and their context

(This article is excerpted from The Art of Cinema: Form and Style. The purpose of this excerpt is to give me and some general audiences a general understanding of the background of the film and the angle from which it should be viewed.) At 20 For most Soviet directors in the 1920s, editing was the primary method of organizing the film's form, and it did more than reinforce the development of the story in a system of continuity. Eisenstein's early films—"Strike," "Battleship Potemkin," "October," "Old and New," all attempted to frame a film in some way. Eisenstein was reluctant to allow editing techniques to succumb to narrative, and instead saw film as a product of editing. Eisenstein opposed continuous editing and sought and developed what Hollywood calls discontinuous editing; he often designed, shot, and edited to create the greatest collision between shots and scenes. Because he believes that only this way of dealing with conflict allows the audience to also participate in the process of understanding the film. Eisenstein is unwilling to be bound by traditional drama, so his films freely travel between time and space, forming image patterns designed to stimulate the audience's senses, emotions and thoughts. Here is an excerpt from "October" to briefly illustrate how Eisenstein used discontinuous editing. In short, Eisenstein's spatial editing, like his temporal and graphic editing, aims to form mutual relations, simulations and contrasts, and then interpret the meaning of events. This layer of interpretation is not conveyed to the audience in an informative manner, but in discontinuous editing, forcing the audience to decipher the connections. This clip, as well as the rest of October, shows that there are other powerful treatments beyond traditional continuity editing. PS: Watching American films of the 1930s and 1940s will familiarize you with traditional continuity editing techniques and try to predict what shots will come next (you will be amazed at your hit rate). If you're watching a videotape, try turning off the sound so you'll be more aware of the editing techniques; if you see a shot that violates continuity, think about its purpose; if you see a shot that doesn't follow traditional editing techniques movie, find out its special editing mode. If possible, take advantage of the slow motion, still and reverse functions on a VCR or DVD to carefully analyze every scene of the film. (This works for all films.) This way, your observation and understanding of editing is bound to increase.