German Expressionism

The predominance of German Expressionism in Cinema needed different situations in Germany to gain power during the 1920’s. The internal situation and the necessity to activate their industry allowed for the creation of several films in the decade that enhanced the mise-én-scene which became the major interest for directors in this movement. In the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, 1920, Weine), the film that started the movement, and furthermore Metropolis (Germany, 1927, Weine) that provide an example of how mise-én-scene can be exploited in such manner that it becomes part of the plot and interact with the characters, even becoming another character. It is in these films that mise-én-scene transmits emotions and sentiments to the spectator by avoiding the reality of the world and creating an inner world of the German situation in celluloid.

After the confrontation of European nations in World War I, Germany fell in a moral and economic depression which was the reason that the newly born Weimar Republic struggled to aid the nation and their internal industry. One policy that the government adopted to help the film industry to grow and gain prestige among Germans and countries abroad was the establishment of the Universum Film Aktiengesellchaft (UFA), which agglomerated the production and distribution in order to succeed in the film industry (Cook, 2004, p. 90).

The UFA would become the main collaborator for artist and filmmakers to develop their projects and distribute them; the intention of the UFA was to create a cinema that gained prestige in order to compete with other cinemas: “Since in those early postwar years the conviction prevailed that foreign markets could only be conquered by artistic achievement” (Kracauer, 1966, p. 65). The UFA considered that the only way to succeed was by encouraging an artistic movement in cinema in order to gain acceptance and markets.

Caligari is a film that was created by this policy. The artistic movement that was encouraged at this time was expressionism, due to the fact that it became the predominant movement for German artists in other arts as well. Expressionism was brought to film, especially in Caligari, to express the inner feelings that people had about their experiences in the war and the consequences.

Caligari had to innovate in order to succeed; however, the film industry had two problems that affected the production of this film. The first problem was the economic recession that Germany lived in, in the first years of the Republic; after Germany surrendered the Weimar Republic had to ration everything in order to indemnify other nations. The production of Caligari employed the shortage of electricity by painting shadows that reinforced the impression of lighting: “One feature particularly characteristic of many expressionist sets in the early phase of Weimar cinema is the use of painted effects to create the Impression of light and shadow…” (Roberts, 2008, pp. 24-25). The importance of maximizing the light is connected to the expressionist movement by second problem.

The second challenge was the lack of colour, which was handled in other artistic areas like painting and theatre. This situation could not be solved in the era of the 1920’s and directors, and set designers, had to improve their sets to counteract the colour problem. In Caligari, the mise-én-scene became their priority to enhance the quality of expressionism: “Thus the mise-en-scene of the expressionist films sought to add colour through the broader imagery portrayed on screen” (Roberts, 2008, p.24). The set, acting and use of lighting counteracted the lack of colour by allowing the director to exploit the mise-én-scene and innovate at the same time: “… coupled with innovative mise-én-scene resulted in a uniquely stylized set design, the employment of painted chiaroscuro effects and the adoption of an exaggerated acting method… (Roberts, 2008, p.34). The result was that filmmakers focused their attention on the scene and the composition of the frame rather than cinematic movement of the camera and editing.

The mise-én-scene became the main quality of the films in German Expressionism and it had an importance in the plot of the Film. The sets in Caligari were constructed in an exaggerated shape to connect the state of mind to the main character. The director, in order to reinforce the importance of mise-én-scene, adds to the performance of the actors, which had to merge with the sets to develop the style applied in the film.

One example of the exploitation of all the elements in the frame is the presentation of Cesare in the fair town by his master Dr. Caligari. The scene is intercut between close shots to Cesare’s face and full shots when Caligari opens his cabinet and allows Cesare to be free. The mise-én-scene and makeup of the actor aid in reinforcing the mystery of the character; furthermore, the lights enhance all these aspects, which help the actor to reinforce his acting within the plot: “The attempt made in Caligari to co-ordinate settings, players, lighting and action is symptomatic of the sense of structural organization which, from this film on, manifests itself on the German Screen” (Kraucer, 1986, P. 76). Cesare is fused to the set and elevates the emotion that he had to express to the spectator, in this case terror.

The setting of Caligari is artificial and recreates a world that is inside of one of the characters. The set describes a character’s mind, instead of recreating the world that he lives in; the visual construction describes his state of mind and his necessity of control: “In the film Caligari expressionism seems to be nothing more than the adequate translation of a madman’s fantasy into dictorial terms” (Kraucer, 1966, p.70). The intention of describing the mind is connected to Germany’s situation; struggling as a consequence of World War I and their need of control. The film itself seems to appeal to the spectator to choose between control or insanity: “typical movie fare tended to be more sensationalist than expressionist classics like The cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) with its beautiful props and wrenching; unappealing choice viewers must take between tyranny and chaos” (Brose, 2005, p. 146). It is in Caligari that the spectator sees that Cesare and Caligari are not the monsters of the film but the set where they lived: “Although Cesare and Caligari are certainly menacing, the real danger is the threat of madness and of reality breaking down” (Prince, 2004, P.16). The mise-én-scene become a character in Caligari and will be exploited in other German Expressionist films like Metropolis.

After the success of Caligari the UFA became a popular company for almost a decade, even with the Hyperinflation in 1924, which helped them their position in Germany, and their success continued until they started to lose power, in subsequent years, against the influence of Hollywood cinema (Cook, 2004, P.110). The UFA soon started to finance new projects that would help them to regain their previous position. The project that considered would return them to success was Metropolis, although they never achieved that goal: “In Metropolis, UFA handed Lang its flagship film of the later Weimar period, pouring vast quantities of money into the production in the vain hope that the tale would enhance UFA’s position in the lucrative US Market” (Roberts, 2008. p.63).

The UFA intended to continue their tradition of gaining spectators by sophistication and innovation in Metropolis, as Caligari had achieved before. In Metropolis, Fritz Lang had the idea to emboss the techniques utilized in previous films, accomplishing a new level of stylization. Lang succeeded in transforming the use of mise-én-scene by adding special effects to improve the Expressionist technique: “However Metropolis mostly represents and apotheosis of the use of special effects not only in German silent film, but in German film as a whole … but in Metropolis Lang’s team broke new ground by combining state of art techniques…” (Bachmann and Minded, 2000, p17). Lang used special effects in this movie to create an inexistent world of tomorrow and elevate the Expressionist art on his set.

One of the special effects applied on this movie was the Schufftan process [spiegeltrickverfahren], which combined two sets in a mirror that are projected to the camera. One is a miniature set and the other one is live action and both seem to interact simultaneously in one single space (cook, 2004, p.98). The schufftan process is used in different scenes to mix sets and give continuity to the story; however, the process is also used to enhance the action of the mise-én-scene and participate along with the actor which had to merge with the set in order to recreate the world that the film is showing.

One example is the scene where Freder sees how the machine, Molloch, is devouring the workers that walk into his mouth. This scene was constructed with the schufftan process to allow the mix of action and sets to develop the plot of the story: “In Metropolis…used to the film the sequences of the city’s machinery transformed into a monster devouring the workforce amidst a hellish scene of fire and smoke” (Roberts, 2008, p.66). As in Caligari, the set is part of the plot and not ornamentation. The set also becomes a character, literally, which participates and interacts with the actors thanks to the use of Special effects.

The evolution of German expressionism in Metropolis is reflected by the techniques instead of the sets. The set continue to be expressionist; however, it is by Special effects that art is now expressed. Thanks to the special effects, the camera is no longer a spectator, as in Caligari; it also participates on the construction of the plot. The camera becomes a collaborator to express and create. One example of this is when the robot is transformed into Maria in the laboratory of Rotwing, the inventor. As in Caligari, the presentation of Robot-Maria in Metropolis had all the elements of German Expressionism: the lighting help to define the character; the set was built to emphasize the contrast of light and shadow and, although there is no acting by the robot or Maria, it is the acting of Rotwing that completes all the Expressionist element, however the camera rise the transformation with the use of light to describe the transformation: “the anthropogenesis is accomplished by transferring the human from of Maria by means of electric currents… the fantastic-mysterious event taking place here absolutely had to be made visible” (Bachmann and Minded, 2000, p80). In this scene, Lang uses electricity to achieve lighting effects, impossible for Caligari due to the necessity of economizing electricity.

Lang revolutionized the method for German expressionism by using special effects to include the camera in the action and interact in the plot. The transformation   of Robot-Maria mixes the set, the acting and the lighting as Caligari; nevertheless Lang added to these elements the use of Special effects and editing to improve the composition of the same elements. Furthermore, as in Caligari, the mise-én-scene is fully integrated into the plot, becoming the antagonist of Freder, in which the set interacts with the characters and even harms them, for instance the scene of the machine Molloch, where now it becomes part of the action and the actors have to become subordinate to the set in order to enhance the expressionist quality of the movie.

Thus, Caligari and Metropolis recreate a world that is either inside the mind or  is inexistent and permit the use of Aesthetic elements, like expressionism, in order to create this world by mise-én-scene which transfer the feelings of the characters or the director.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari marks the beginning of German Expressionism in cinema, a movement that was exploited by the UFA in order to gain prestige among other nations and individuals and to succeed as an industry. The freedom the UFA permitted to filmmakers and their teams to experiment allowed them to exploit the artistic influence.

Caligari focuses on the use of settings in order to describe the inner thoughts of the characters, creating in this process an extension of the character in the mise-én-scene, which participates in the action. In Metropolis, it is marked the decadence of this artistic movement and the UFA; the necessity to regain spectators allowed the applying of new cinematic techniques to enhance mise-én-scene and participate further with the characters, becoming a main actor in the film.

Both films create a new dimension of mise-én-scene and expresses what existed in Germany in the 1920’s, allowing the filmmakers to recreate two worlds, one that existed inside of the film and that of the Germany that lived through a depression during the time when they were filmed.

WORK CITED

Bachmann, Holger and Minden, Michael (eds). (2000). Fritz Lang's Metropolis: cinematic visions of technology and fear. Rochester: Camden House.

Brose, Eric Dorn. (2005). A History of Europe in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford Universtiy Press.

Cook, A. David. (2004). A History of Narrative Film Fourth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Kracauer, Siegfried. (1966). From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German film. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lang, Fritz (dir). (1927). Metropolis. Germany: Universum Film (UFA).

Prince, Stephen (edit). (2004). the Horror Film. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Roberts, Ian. (2008). German Expressionist Cinema: The World of Light and Shadow. London: Wallflower Press.

Weine, Robert (dir). (1920). Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari. Germany: Decla-Bioscop AG.

The Cat

As it was suggested to me I’m writing this confession, which is more like an explanation, to demonstrate not only my sanity but also the false accusation of murder in the first degree. It is not my desire to demonstrate how normal I am, but I can assure you that I grew up in a lovely house and I have the most regular life in a neighborhood that is too quiet to discuss any type of violence. I have normal friends and never consumed any type of drug in my life; perhaps the only sin I have dealt with until these days is my urging of the flesh that forces me to look for women, which takes me to one of the most important elements of my attempt to prove my innocence. It is perhaps because I grew up in a very regular town that I don’t find regular women as appealing as the prostitutes from the big cities.

Yes, I admit that that night I went to seek a prostitute with the intention of satisfying my needs, but not looking for a drunken girl. I love prostitutes, not as the poets or singers of the world want to create that image of a woman that suffers. No, I love prostitute for that, to fuck. A prostitute allows a man to pay for sex and not experience any problems later: no reclaims, no children (if you protect yourself), no fights. Then why did you accuse me of trying to have sex with a drunken girl? Perhaps you can understand why I get so frustrated when someone accuses me of something that I didn’t do. So now I propose to reconstruct what happened that night so that you will be able to understand my point of view.

That night was on a Friday and I had just finished my shift in the meat factory where I work. I decided to relax and enjoy my weekend off by visiting some girls in an old whore house. What better way for a man who works as hard as me to relax than to enjoy a night with a girl? After I took a fast shower, I took my car and started the half an hour drive. I have to let you know I live in one of the small towns that are near the city, which allows me to be separate from the disturbances and the scandalous life that most residents there deal with. That night actually the road was more quiet than usual and the curves become more difficult for me since any animal could have jumped out in front of the car and I could have had an accident. I was paying attention in case any deer were to appear in front of the road, when on the last and most difficult turn appeared a small cat, forcing me to untimely apply my brakes and almost causing me to crash on one side of the road. Luckily I was able to control the car and I went out to check if the cat was ok; he was frightened but otherwise ok. I had decided to leave when I realized that he was lost and in his eyes I saw a fear to be alone.

Gently I put him in the copilot seat and continued on my way to the town. Perhaps the best decision would have been to go back and forget about my plans for that night, but unfortunately the road is too tide to turn back and I was close to the city and I felt that it was better to continue and drop the cat in a nearby street.

When I got to the downtown, most of the people were coming out of the bars, already drunk and very disrespectful. God knows that I am not a prejudice against drinking, but I am against teenagers drinking, particularly those who are not able to control themselves. In seeing all those teenagers holding each other in an effort to not fall onto the floor, I could not stop wondering how society allowed these excesses and tolerated their behavior which put at risk normal citizens like me. These and more thoughts I had in my mind when a couple crossed in front of me. I stopped the car by reflex, but instead of feeling bad for crossing the street without any precaution, the girl just stood in front of the car and stared at me and hit my beautiful vehicle. I have to admit that I was upset and I decided to give a lesson to that person. I started the engine and as fast as I could I moved my car, crushing the pavement and the girl that was in front. I felt liberated until a guy threw me his beer (yes, it was the idiot who was drinking in the street) and I decided to reverse and again I hear the crack of something under my car. 

I stopped and came out of the car with some object to protect my self, but luckily the guy went running when I reversed. As soon I came out of the car I noticed the smell of blood. I’m used to that smell, almost as a perfume and when I finally saw the pavement I noticed the girl, whose head was crushed, and I knew that she was dead.

I will be honest, I got so horny. I usually find those bar girls and their makeup grotesque, but as I saw the blood coming out from her wound and  what was inside, I could not control myself and my flesh betrayed me. Yes, I will be honest that I found that the women was attractive enough to have sex with and that is why I am thankful that the police came as fast as they did t to stop me, but I told you already that I am not crazy, I just was confused.

As you can see, I am just a regular person. My life is not that of a crazy psychotic but rather a polite citizen that tries to do good things and give lesson to the people who surrounded him. Indeed sometimes I have to do bad things in order to give lesson to the people who are doing wrong, like those kids that came out of bar. I just wanted to set the example of how to walk when they come out from a party and are drunk. But most important, I want to show you that I’m like anyone else who cares about other people, like you who are reading this confession. I’m exactly like you. Or perhaps you would never stop your car to save a poor animal?

The Naked Woman

... and when I woke up, the naked woman was still in my bed.

Revolutionary Cinema in Latin America

Is Revolutionary Cinema an art? Then it required an understanding of Marxist dialectic and the desire of social transformation throughout a country. This is the main ideals that were seeking filmmaker in Latin American during the 1960s, a decade that inspire social revolutionaries, after the success of the Cuban revolution and the implementation of Marxism doctrine, to seek new techniques in order to incite revolutionary though in individuals. Most filmmakers took the Montage theories by Eisenstein as a symbol of transformation and applied them in their films to enhance their political view about social situation of their countries. Most of this filmmakers created cinematic movement, such as Cinema Novo or Third Cinema, which do not force them to apply a specific technique in the elaboration of their films, allowing them to have a freedom in experimentation in other techniques develop in other countries and use them as a propaganda for a social transformation but also to innovate cinema as an true art. This essay analyzes how filmmakers from Latin America, in Brazil and Argentina, uses the theories of montage design by Eisenstein in order to develop in cinema a new aesthetic that helped in the social transformation by the creation of new myths or a new revolution since they considered montage and Marxist dialectic as and alternative in educate and foment their political views. It will be use two films from Glauber Rocha and Fernando Solanas and it will be compare their essays or interviews to understand their political and ideological view and then compare with the theses of Eisenstein in order to delimit and understand how they apply montage in their cinematographic oeuvre.

It most remember that most of these director are trying to create a new process of formation that distant from their own historical past that is connected to western civilization and that consider a correct to follow due that they are trying to bring new opportunity to the people which is not a easy task due for the same problem of the historical position. As Jorge Sanjines (1979) point out in his essay, “the revolutionary cinema must seek beauty not as an end but as means. This proposition implies a dialectical interrelation between beauty and cinema’s objectives, which must be correctly aligned in order to produce and effective work” (62). Then the Revolutionary cinema had to transform the environment by using collision of ideas in order to create a new world; even though the cinema novo do not work outside of Brazil nor ask a unification of the continent, it works as other national cinema of the areas.

In Brazil, the Cinema Novo appeared as an answer to the legacy of the exploitation of the American companies throughout the country and the result of the lack of nationalism in the cinema industry; most filmmakers of the 1960s were experimenting in techniques to incite a revolution in the country such as Glauber Rocha who believed that cinema is a great instrument for communication and that it is also a great tool for learning about humanity and society (1970, p110), which he enhanced by the practice of Marxist dialectic in his films due that allowed to him in develop of ideas and at the same experiment in search of an revolutionary aesthetic: “Marxism’s great contribution is precisely the revelation of the possibilities for the development and application of dialectic though. This is essential in the arts, because art can only develop through a rigorous and permanent application of the dialectical method” (Rocha, 1970, P110). These thoughts are related to the theories of Eisenstein due that montage and art are part of dialectic and according to his theories art is always conflict with the social mission, nature and its methodology and between this three elements there is a collision between the emotional and rational that produce a new meaning from both elements, and this is an element that is shared in the construction of montage (Eisenstein, 1929). This collision is applied in specific moments on his films to enhance the political views of his films by montage in an artistic method, so senses can participate in the creation of meaning.

 In Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol [Black God, White Devil in the land of sun] (Brazil, 1964, Rocha) montage is an element of collision that help to understand the political views and goals of the director who adopted as a mean to represent the reality of the area that is depicted in the film. The film is about the violence in the north of Brazil, which is deserted area, and follows the peasant couple Manuel and Rosa who pass through various stages of violent revolt; from the assassination of a landowner, their decision to join to a messiah leader Sebastio, who is assassinated by Rosa and then both join to Cangaceiro* Corisco who in the end of the film is assassinated by Antonio das Mortes, who was a hit man hired by a Catholic group to assassinate Sebastio but instead he kill Corisco thinking that he was the murderous of Sebastio, freeing in this way the couple who are free to go where they want (King, 1990, 110). Most of the technique of montage concentrate actually in the confrontation which evoke the collision of individuals, except in the beginning of the film where Rocha use a shot of a death cow cover by ants around the body of the animal and then use a shot of Manuel in a sitting position who did start to move and is open the shot to contemplate the desert that surround it. This montage is referred by Eisenstein as a Tonal Montage due that collision is about life and then and that affect the emotional side of the spectator, almost in as impressionistic element (Eisenstein, Autumn 1929, 75). The resemble of the figure make them look alike and then share the same fate which is not yet explained but by perceiving the desert in the back and mix with previous shot the impression seems to be death and anguish.

The next scene is when Sebastio is killed and at the same time arrive Antonio das Mortes who starts a massacre of the followers of the messiah in a stairs of the town and that the sequences of shot is rapidly edited between the couple escaping from the area, Antonio shooting while he progress in moving through the stairs while the people running in the stairs without any order trying to escape from him and even some shots present who people are being kill, although it is never present the bullet holes. The scene uses element of Rhythmic Montage due that the actual length does not coincide with the determined length in the scene and that is enlarge this length by adding more material making it more distinguished the tempo of the scene (Eisenstein, Autumn 1929, 73-74). The elements of Rhythm are necessary to the collision of ideas due that helps to felt certain connection to the individuals; In order to create this identification the Montage has to accelerate the scene and in that way the Tempo is increase not only for benefit to the scene , but to create an ideological connection by the organization of shots which also works with the movement that is perceive in each individual shot; The order between in Close-ups of human figures rushing chaotically with shots of Antonio das Mortes who descend in harmony create a chaotic movement creating a march rhythmically down the steps similar in Eisenstein films (Jacobs, 1969,152). The Rhythmic montage is exploited as an aesthetic element to attract people to the situation that the character are leaving and there felt connect to the assassination of this followers.

The other sequence to reflect the use of Eisenstein techniques is in the confrontation of Cangaceiro Corisco and Antonio das Mortes and that in the last part of the fight the Cangaceiro jumps and Rocha uses two more times the same shot creating a effect similar to certain films of Eisenstein to emphasize the raging of Cangaceiro and the extreme violence of the scene and creating in this process a cinematic metaphor from the fury of Corisco before his death (Cook, 2004, 129) and that led the freedom of the peasant in order to be able to escape of this area. This sequence enhances the violence of the character that is an element that Rocha exploited in the film by montage to connect his ideas of revolution and change to the audience.

In Argentina two filmmaker decided to create a continental, and even world wide, movement in creating revolution against the countries who have colonized or kept a capitalistic system to the third world countries and these last want have to start a era of revolutions, violent ones, in order to regain the freedom and become independent. These films for decolonization try to create a revolution in the entire continent and not only in a regional area by using the theories of Eisenstein to create an effect of solidarity and an intellectual revolution among individuals.

Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino in their essay “Towards a Third Cinema” mention the capacity for synthesis and the penetration of the film image in the mind of individuals and the power of enlightenment of audiovisual as a medium communication (Solana & Getino, 1983, 44), a goal that they were looking in the creation of their films that motivate the people to mobilize, agitate and politicize sector of the people; to arm them with rationality and perception about the struggles and problems that had their nations (Solana & Getino, 1983, 39).  In this essay the ideals of Third Cinema is to encourage filmmakers to immerse themselves in every stage of cinematic production including and exhibition (Pick, 1996, 58) but keeping a freedom in choosing any artistic movement and aesthetic that would help them to enhance the propaganda of revolution.

In La Hora de los Hornos: Notas y Testimonios Sobre el Neocolonialismo, La Violencia y La Liberacion parte I [The Hour of the Furnaces: Notes and Testimonies about Neocolonialism, Violence and Liberation (1965-1968)] (Argentina, 1968, Getino & Solanas), Solanas and Getino achieved a documentary that is a fusion between the Third World radicalism with the artistic innovation that revives the historical sense of avant-garde and cultural militancy towards to political participation of the individuals and that which experiment a new Cinematographic languages that generates meaning and secures the film's relevance (Stam, 1998, 254). By the combination of photos, archive footage and some paintings the furnace achieve to tell the story of Argentina, and the Third World Country, who is perceived that the inequalities of the area are the result of neocolonialism, a term that refer that Third world countries are in control economical, political and ideological by a external power, usually from a 1rst world country. It must be remind it that most of the symbol and photos used in this documental are from the late 1960s ideology and the dialectic is formed for that period of time (Stam, 1998, 255), Nevertheless the interpretation had allows to understand the collision of ideologies, between Marxism and capitalism (neocolonialism) in the entire film and that uses Eisenstein techniques to achieve this dialectic, which promotes dialectical readings of the region's history (Pick, 1998, 111). Therefore, the furnace have to be understand as a film that the key element is revolution against neocolonialism and the historical oppression of the third world.

Solanas applies from the beginning a Rhythmic Montage by colliding shots of written phrases of famous writers and guerrillas fighters and shots of people who are protesting in the streets and that collide with the words while in a fast pace are shown to the audience. The scene started with a slow pace that is control from the music and cut from time to time to the shot from letter to the violent shot, however as gradually the music change to a more accelerate pace the images are also increasing their editing to a faster and faster increasing the violence that they represent and even the letters are more fast creating sensation of excitement but in a violent way. Is with this introduction that is used the elements of montage as Eisenstein identify the basic structure of montage: “A view that from the collision of two given factors arises a concept” (Eisenstein, 1929, 37). As it was mention before, the collision of ideas is part of art too, then by creating this collision Solanas is also creating art and that inspire his own ideas; in addition to this, there is also the desire of political view that is manifested in the shots and that induce to the spectator to reflect or even to invite to continue to see the film and learn a new perspective. In the use of Eisenstein ideas allow him to fulfill his desire in create a new cinema, the Third Cinema.

The second scene to be analyse is the collision between the painting of the libertadores* that a join with people who are playing golf in modern Argentina; although the voice over are telling about how neocolonialism was created since the independence, it actually never mention nothing about the people who are playing golf. This scene is in Eisenstein theory an overtonal montage due that the collision of images created a sense of relationship among painting and golfer; one form of connection that is not a clear trait until you collide both ideas and that create new understanding (Eisenstein, autumn 1929, 79). This collision do reflect the past and present and mix it instead of subordination from one to the other, this is only possible by using overtonal montage because the relationship has to be created by the audience by colliding this shots. As Zuzana M. Pick (1998) mentions in The new Latin American Cinema a Continental Project, Solana in the editing process enabled him to work in a constructive structuring of the materials, whereby new ideas were developed and critical elements were tested (58) and in this process the furnaces seeks an investment in conflicting instances of national consciousness (60), as a result in testing the overtonal montage and the development of the ideology anti-neocolonialist.

In the third scene to be analysed is the scene from a slaughterhouse where is intercutting scenes from a slaughterhouse and pop-culture advertising icons. This scene is exploited further by actually show how is kill the cows with a hammer while the pop culture invite to the audience to gaze the female and male figures and invite to see more of the slaughterhouse. This scene correspond to Eisenstein theory of Intellectual Montage due that require conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual effects by combining two shot that are not related or that one of them is outside of the filming, asking to the audience to combine the emotional and intellectual ones in order to understand this (Eisenstein, 1929,82). The advertisement are not related to the slaughterhouse, physically, but it has a connection with the Argentinean situation; As Robert Stam mention, “in Argentina, where live-stock is a basic industry, the same workers who can barely afford the meat that they themselves produce are simultaneous encouraged by advertising to consume the useless products of the multinational companies” (261). This shot required a complete participation from the entire film since it not only collide with this two shot but from the rest of the film that since the beginning, explain the necessity of live-stock as industry, the bad nutrition of the people, and the constant invasion of product and ideologies from other countries; this scene and the editing allows to join the entire film in to juxtaposition images, first the slaughterhouse that kill the cows and resembles the images of the peasants in Argentina, and then the advertisement that is use in the do reflect the ideology of the first world and their invasion of ideology and that is adopted by bourgeoisie and that are show through the entire film.

Another element that has to be mention is the collision of sound with image and that is another aesthetic element that have to be consider by analysing this films and that is part of the theories of Eisenstein. This an element that he could not analysed as he did with image editing, he mainly mention briefly about the possibilities of sound in montage: “[A]nd let us not now forget that soon we shall face another and less simple problem in counterpoint in the sound film of acoustic and optics” (Eisenstein, 1929, 40). However he did envisioned the possibilities of Sound as a tool to enhance the montage techniques, but that have to obey certain qualities, which he consider that sound have to distinct non-synchronization with the visual image (Eisenstein, 1928, 258). This applied in the furnaces and Deus and Diablo and that help to increase the use of dialectical montage as a system of conflict by the collision of sound with the image and create, or perhaps help in the development of meaning.

For instances in the furnaces the sound is non diegetic sound such as a Tango that celebrate the beauty of the nation while the image from a poor area named Conventillos* that camera track an entire house where people lived in misery and in sadness while the song ask to celebrate the greatness and the love of the great nation and success of the revolution. This element is one key aspect of montage using sound, since Eisenstein claim that is the only possible way to create meaning. Grigori Vassilievitch Alexandrov mention in an interview about working with Eisenstein: “Because Eisenstein believed that synchronous sound, agreeing with the image, is a theatrical mean while in the cinema sound must be an elements of the composition: sometimes the conflict between sound and image produces quite new impressions” (Alexandrov, 1965, 61). The contrast of the music with image create a sense of discomfort about what we see and what hear, allowing to the end take as truthful the image since the image is the most prominent element in the montage and cinema; sound in this case works as an aid to collaborate in creation of meaning. Although the scene do not use montage, it provide collision by use of sound to create new meanings and that works in different levels since ask to other sense beside sight to participate in the creation of meaning and allow a complete perception of Dialectic montage in a Cinema, a Cinema of revolution.

Thus, Eisenstein’s theories provide several connections to the development of cinema revolution through Latin America which apply several theories of montage and Marxist dialectic to develop films that it would provide a social transformation through violence or intellectual revolution and foment a renovation to the classic standard life that had people in through the continent and that it was a common issue around all the areas. Most of Latin America cinematic movement is during the 1960s that were a period that is highly politicized the area due the success of the Cuban revolution and that inspire the area to search new techniques that were communist, then Eisenstein’s theory become a symbol of renovation and change. The use of montage serve to enhance their political views about the continent but also to create a new aesthetic in Latin America that was never defined by anyone; by being a movement without a style it allow them to experiment and in sometime improve the techniques that they used. In the freedom of Aesthetic that applies Montage in order that art become a tool in the creation of revolution, as a social transformation or description of violence in the continent and give to the audience an alternative in politics, economic and cultural with a new political view.

In Deus and Devil and the furnaces applied montage to sophisticate the political ideas that had the directors help to create a political film that innovate the cinema of the directors’ region; these films create a popular revolution in specific moments rather than the entire films as Eisenstein did tried through his career; The key moment establish collision of shots that were exploited to enhance the highly politicize meaning that only can be understand by a overall of the film and the theme that they depict in the film but also the collision of shots that create a specific meaning and that is understand by the audience; since most part of the film is to foment education to the audience, did not required a level of education or sophistication in art knowledge, but it did require engagement to the main argument to understand the meaning of the montage.

The films are explanatory about the events as in Deus e Devil that from the beginning uses panoramic scene to picture the desert area and then uses montage to promote a extra meaning to the place that is the suffering of the habitants of the place through violence, while the furnaces uses montage from the beginning but add voice over to create an extra narrative to enhance the collision of the shots; in addition to this, the film also uses sound as an element of dialectic to create new meanings when is not been used montage by image and allow to continue in the new formation of meaning.

Then, the final result is a film that is highly politic but at the same time innovate the aesthetic of their time and did present new ideas in the world wide cinema; it also bring awareness that art is dialectic since require conflict to create meaning to the people, since Cinema Revolution is also art, have to be taken an advance to understand cinema in collision of shots that will create new social transformation, which in the end History has absolve this movement and Eisenstein as an artist. 

Work Cited

Alexandrov V. G. (1965) “Working with Eisenstein”. In L.Schnitzer, J. Schnitzer & Marcel Martin (eds) and D. Robinson (trans). Cinema in revolution: The heroic era of the Soviet Film edited by Luda and Jean Schnitzer and Marcel Martin; translated and with additional material by David Robinson 4^th (Pp 51-64) New York: Da Capo Press.

Cook, A. David. (2004). A History of Narrative Film Fourth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Eisenstein S. (1929) “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form”. In Leyda J. (Ed. And Trans). Film Form Essays in Film Theory. (Pp45-63) United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Plubishers.

Eisenstein S. (Autumn, 1929) “Methods of Montage”. In Leyda J. (Ed. And Trans). Film Form Essays in Film Theory. (Pp72-83) United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Plubishers.

Eisenstein S. (1928) “Appendix A. A Statement on the Sound-Film by Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov”. In Leyda J. (Ed. And Trans). Film Form Essays in Film Theory. (Pp257-260) United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Plubishers.

Getino, O. & Solanas F. (1968) La Hora de los Hornos: Notas y Testimonios Sobre el Neocolonialismo, La Violencia y La Liberacion  parte I. Argentina: Grupo Cine Liberacion

Jacobs, L. (1969) The Emergence of Film Art: The Evolution and Development of the Motion Picture as an Art, from 1900 to the Present. New York: Hopkinson and Blake, Publishers.

King J. (1990). Magical reels : a history of cinema in Latin America / John King. London: Published in association with the Latin American Bureau, Verso.

Pick Z. M. (1996). The New Latin American Cinema: A Continental Project. 2^nd Austin: University of Texas Press.

Rocha, G. (1964) Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol. Brazil: Banco Nacional de Minas Gerais.

Rocha, G. (1970) “Glauber Rocha (Brazil), Cinema Novo and the Dialectics of Popular Culture”. In Burton Julianne (ed.). Cinema and Social Change in Latin America Conversations with Filmmakers. (Pp 105-113) Austin: University of Texas Press.

Sanjines j. (1979) “Problems of Form and Content in Revolutionary Cinema”. In Martin M. T. New Latin American cinema / edited by Michael T. Martin (Vol.1, pp. 62-70) Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Solanas F. & Getino Octavion. (1983) “Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third Word”. In Martin M. T. New Latin American cinema / edited by Michael T. Martin (Vol.1, pp. 62-70) Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Stam R. (1998) “The Two Avant-gardes: Solanas and Getino’s The Hour of the Furnaces”. In Grant B. K. Documenting the Documentary Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

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*    Bandit

*    A Revolutionary leader during independence.

* Shinny town. These are areas created by the government to keep poor people and immigrant without income outside of the big cities as Argentina. The name is regional, but the concept is used through Latin America.

Hero

Simon a 20something year old young man, was suddenly bitten by a mysterious insect and thus it gave him the power, or the curse, of spreading boredom to any person that surrounds him. He can only control this amazing gift by partying, although at the end of the day, this talent always defeated him.

Soon, Simon realizes that he is not a party animal and is not able to control his new gift.  Once a popular individual around the Niagara region, where women would offer to him any healthy entertainment in a hot jacuzzi, now he has become a source of boredom. His powers would infect other people and force them to stop their activities , and then all together, feel  remorse that transforms in a convention of depressed youngsters soon to become priests.

The worst part of his powers is that they could affect every person in the area of 2000 feet and therefore all the fun activities would end before the time that they were programmed, in which each individual on the party would blame Simon (unconsciously)  and as end result was never to invite him again to any event.

Simons’s closest friends, Jade and Scott, started to fear the new abilities of their friend and they took the worse possible and indeed hurtful decision. it was better to see Simon for a couple of minutes a day and never invite him to any party more than 15 minutes and hope that never would happen something to get him bored.

However Simon was aware of this new idea which allowed him to use his second power impulse by anger: Remorse. A remorse that feed with the blood of the victim and succumb to a pain in the guts and as a result most of the people accepted the terrible deeds against him. Then, any individual affected by his power would transfer pleasure to Simon’s heart and it would liberate endorphins in his entire body, spreading a feeling that neutralize all the previous powers injected and for an instant in his life, he would feels pleasure.

This sensation normalized his environment and the people who surround him and he finally accepted his new abilities and their qualities as a gift to survive the burden of life. He no longer was Simon, the sad person but rather Simon the guiltier. And his fame grew to any place that he went; he was always praised by others, fear was an incentive for people to entertain him. Fear was always the response when Simon got angry. Hypocrisy surrounded him and he soon realized that he really enjoyed having control over the people, but as in any great moment in life, a sudden event changed everything.

It was when he registered for another year of his undergraduate studies when he met him. It was a routine day for him, as soon as he enter to the new classroom, he make his presence for everybody and wait for everybody to greet and please him with a coffee, tea or anything that he desired and then he would walk inside of the room and find a chair that he liked. Simon just needed to look at the individual and he gently (and nervously) let simon have his seat.

Semesters doing the same, it become a custom for him to never find any conflict with anybody, until that day when one person didn’t perturb by his presence. The physical appearance of this individual make him different to the rest; his brown eyes, as clear and beautiful as the best soil to grew illusion to anyone to see him, a blackish and brown hair and bright and clean and tidy. But his best physical attribute was his smile, which grab the attention of any one whom look at him.

Simon was amazed that his fame did not affect him and even some students around the enigmatic individual ponder if he was not aware of the fury of Simon; one of the classmates approached him an in a imploring tone he started to talk:

• Hi.
• Hi.- The strange student said without stopping to smile.
• I’m sorry to bother you but my friend- he points to Simon- he wants to see if it is possible for you to give up your seat?

He turned to him and after a brief period of silence he said:

• I’m sorry, which is your name?
• So.. I’m sorry. What?- The student asked amused.
• Yeah, your name?
• Oh Charles
• Hi Charles, my name is Roman. Sorry to ask but I prefer to know who I’m talking before I can start a conversation. About your previous question I think is the best for your friend to look for other place. Any one in the other side would it be fantastic.

It was a long time since someone refused anything to Simon and with that of selflessness, Simon got instantly angry causing a great pain to every student in the classroom and their surroundings, except for Roman who continued reading a book of forgotten science.

Amazed by this event, Simon stopped his anger and focused his attention of the smiling man who seemed to not be affected by his anger. He paid attention to him almost the entire class, although in the end he got bored, allowing to be perceived that Roman was either affected by the second gift, and who just left the room while the rest of the class discuss the possibility of a mass suicide and what type of poison to use. A desire grew in Simon’s heart. A new hobby was discovered by him, he started to stalk Roman and try to discover his secret; to unveil the mysteries of his resistance and possibly to discover the origin of his smile. However there was a problem with Roman and it was that Roman did not like Simon at all.

 Simon realized it for the constant rejection to any invitation that he offered to him. Over a couple of months he finally snapped and confronted Roman in the computer lab at his university and confessed everything to Roman about his secret power and how it was that he was the only person who he knew that could actually tolerate his power. When he finally finished his story, Roman looked at him as serious as he could and then in the most calm manner and still smiling he answered:

• well it seems a very interesting story and seems that you care to much what people think or do to you, but to be honest I really don’t like you. And it is nothing to do what you do or who you are. I just don’t like you and I don give a crap about your powers and you. 

After that he left the place, leaving Simon pondering about what just happened there. Then, He realizes that Roman did not have any secret power nor a special ability to defy his power; he genuinely did not care about the feelings of other. Roman was a person who decide to be happy without thinking what other people might think. But he also though about himself.

From the moment that he get an interest in Roman he didn’t actually have to use his power and there was no moment that was bored and angry. It was true that he felt anger and boredom some moments, but as any person in the planet and in these moments he didn’t affect anybody on those moment.

He then discovered that there was not a secret formula, except to be concentrate in something, to have a passion in life and from that moment he took a decision. He took his stuff and decided to walk around the planet in search of something to live for; He finally found something to do for the rest of his life and in a brief second that felt like a life time, he realized that he was in peace. A new hero was born.