How to understand Eisenstein in 5 easy steps

I won't lie to you. Eisenstein is a difficult director, who will probably not capture your interest, because:

his films are in black and white and
their plots are usually very slow.

So, if you're expecting to see a movie like the ones with superheroes or a romantic comedy movie just showing the love of 2 people, you probably won't find it here.

But if you overlook those and want to see a true architect of cinema who influenced a multitude of directors and artists, buckle up and let's get started.

Eisenstein in 5 simple steps:

5 All the films of Einstein are political. The director grew up in the climate of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which overthrew the Tsarist regime and installed the Communist Party. The man is no longer just a subject of a regime, but a citizen, a participant in the administration. The need to organize can be seen in Eisenstein's early films, the first and best being "The Strike". Even his films dealing with Medieval Russia are intended to highlight the greatness of Russia.

Strike (1925)

4 The script is usually concise. Eisenstein does not tell verbose stories. Most films, anyway, are dumb. Words or dialogue are minimal within his films. What matters is the image. (Keep that in mind). It is said that the script of "Battleship Potemkin" was only one page (of the original script)

εικόνα.png
source

3 Βig crowds. Ιn his films epxect to see many scenes with big crowds. Whether it is The strike with the crowd of strikers or The battleship Potemkin with the revolutionaries, there is a mass of people running around, symbolizing collectivity. The protagonists in his early films are integrated into the crowd and do not stand out, except as necessary for the development of the plot. Only in his latest works we see that there are central protagonists (Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible), but his aim is to show the greatness of Russia. Through the heroes the Russian people emerge.

εικόνα.png
source

2 Symbols. He was deeply iconoclastic. He simply loved to speak though the images or the scenery that usually were an allegory for the true meaning. In the final scene of the Strike he uses a slain cow to sylmbolize the slaughter of the workers by the soldiers. As the cows are slain, so are the workers, "meat" for the need of the wealthy.

εικόνα.png
source

1 Montage. He created a whole new style of montage. The Soviet Montage, as it was called, by the theorists of cinema, was either speeding or slowing the rhythm of the sequence in order to create to the viewers the agony. Also, they used long shots to show the big picture or close-ups to show the events that played a decisive role in the development of the play.