Cinematic languages and the unrealized film projects of Sergei Eisenstein
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation investigates a series of incomplete film projects initiated by Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein between the years 1927 and 1933. Its purpose is to consider the value, both aesthetically and theoretically, of the materials used by Eisenstein in the generation, elaboration, communication, and exploitation of cinematic ideas that for a variety of reasons were never able to be filmed. Through a thorough analysis of archival materials, Eisenstein's published works, and secondary literature, I suggest that these incomplete films, far from being failures, instead represent a glimpse into a creative process yet unbounded by the practical considerations of actual film production, and can be read as utopian attempts to further develop Eisenstein's personal cinema aesthetic as well as that of the medium in general. In Chapter One, I analyze the external similarities of the Capital (1928--29) and Glass House (1927--30) projects and their shared film-theoretical mandate to develop the possibilities of intellectual cinema—in the domains of vision and cognition. I demonstrate here how their cinematic execution would have required new, and ultimately impossible, film languages for both camera and page. In Chapter Two, I consider the evolution of Eisenstein's theoretical assumptions about the sound film and development of the ideas of audiovisual counterpoint and the internal monologue. I analyze the two resulting "American" screenplays and the novels from which they were adapted: Sutter's Gold (1930), based on the novel L'Or by Blaise Cendrars, and Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1930). Eisenstein reworks the ideological fabric of these literary works and uses audio to both deepen the sensual atmosphere of the action and complicate the psychology of the central characters. In Chapter Three, I address the demand from above for a new form of Soviet comedy and its influence on the origins of the incomplete project MMM (1932--33), analyzing the strange textual structure, verse form, and content of the script. An unbounded plasticity of bodily boundaries and shapes arises in the script and leads to a climax in which Eisenstein uses the mechanical devices of cinema production to penetrate into the human body. The intention of this study is to formulate an approach to the unfinished Eisenstein work, modeled as an opportunity to look deeply into the process of cinema creation. In introducing new information on this canonical Russian artist and thinker, I argue for an understanding of the cinematic work as a syncretic collection of evolving written and visual forms and demonstrate the value of what is produced around the cinema—its literary apparatuses and graphic generators. I propose that such a view of cinema as a multiform process, segmented into many stages, can allow the part—the unrealized film—to stand in for the illusory whole of the completed work.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2018; ©2018 |
| Publication date | 2018; 2018 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Condren, Dustin |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Jakovljević, Branislav |
| Degree supervisor | Skakov, Nariman, 1978- |
| Thesis advisor | Jakovljević, Branislav |
| Thesis advisor | Skakov, Nariman, 1978- |
| Thesis advisor | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Thesis advisor | Oeler, Karla |
| Degree committee member | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Degree committee member | Oeler, Karla |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Dustin Condren. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2018 by Dustin Michael Condren
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