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Realism in the Film Theory of Sergei Eisenstein and

André Bazin
At rst glance the lm theories of Sergei Eisenstein and André Bazin seem to be fundamentally di erent. Ei-
senstein puts at the center of his theory a sophisticated concept of montage while Bazin favors the long
deep focus shot of Orson Welles and Italian Neorealism. In this paper I try to show that despite all these
di erences the two theories still share common ground, insofar as they are both interested in the question
of realism, i.e. if and how lm can show us the essence of something. It is Bazin who in the most explicit way
point out the importance of essence for lm: “I have never been to a bull ght, and it would be ridiculous of
me to claim that the lm¹ lets me feel the same emotions, but I do claim that it gives me its essential quality,
its metaphysical kernel: death” (Bazin 2003, 29 – my emphasis). The argument I develop here is that both
theories share this function of lm as a common goal but favor di erent ways to reach it. I’ll start by discus-
sing how the concept of essence can be found in both theories and then point out the di erences and
similarities.

Essence in Eisenstein’s Theory

At the center of Eisenstein’s idea of essence stands the idea of dialectic. He draws heavily on marxist ideas,
for example when he begins his text “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form” with the following quote: “Accor-
ding to Marx and Engels the dialectic system is only the conscious reproduction of the dialectic course (sub-
stance) of the external events of the world”² (Eisenstein 1977a, 45 – my emphasis). The second part of the sen-
tence seems to be the crucial one. The concept of dialectic that Eisenstein has in mind is not only a way of
thinking but instead it resembles or even reproduces the way the world really works. In other words: for Ei-
senstein the reality is dialectical. A way of thinking that tries to grasp this reality therefore has itself to be
dialectical too. That is the reason why at the center of Eisenstein’s theory of montage stands explicitly the
dialectical motif of con ict: “So, montage is con ict. As the basis of every art is con ict (an ‚imagist‘ transfor-
mation of the dialectical principle)” (Eisenstein 1977b, 38). The reason for Eisenstein why art has to be
dialectical is that its object is dialectical too: “It is art’s task to make manifest the contradictions of Being”
(ibid., 46).

It is important to note that Eisenstein with this conception not only breaks with Pudovkin’s idea of montage
but also with Gri th. For Eisenstein Gri th’s parallel montage “appears to be a copy of his dualistic picture
of the world” while on the other hand the Russian “concept of montage had to be born from an entirely dif-
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ferent ‚image‘ of an understanding of phenomena, which was opened to us by a worldview both monistic
and dialectic” (Eisenstein 1977c, 235). The reasons Eisenstein gives us why the Russian theory of montage
for him is more advanced than the American once again show how closely he links his lm theory with a ge-
neral materialistic philosophy: “The question of montage imagery is based on a de nite structure and sys-
tem of thinking; it derives and has been derived only through collective consciousness, appearing as a re-
ection of a new (socialist) stage of human society and as a thinking result of ideal and philosophic educati-
on, inseparably connected with the social structure of that society” (ibid., 245).

The reason why I dealt with Eisenstein’s conception of dialectic in such great length is that in it we can nd
the answer to the question how Eisenstein thinks about realism and essence. Montage following Eisenstein
is realist because it follows the same principles as reality itself. It should be no surprise than that montage
in this view becomes a method that is privileged to show us the essence of reality. This essence of reality is
what in montage is meaning.

Following Eisenstein meaning doesn’t simply reveal itself, instead we need montage to show what some-
thing means, i.e. what its essence is. When Eisenstein for example in October (1928) intercuts Kerenski with
pictures of a mechanical peacock he tries to point us to the essence of Kerenski. Similar when in Strike (1925)
in the famous montage of soldiers shooting at a demonstration with pictures from a slaughterhouse where
“’butchering‘ is the associative link” (Eisenstein 1977a, 57), it is also this “butchering” that is the essence of
what’s happening. Or in Bazin’s words: with the means of montage Eisenstein tries to lay bare the scene’s
“essential quality, its metaphysical kernel” (Bazin 2003, 29).

Essence in Bazin’s Theory

Bazin labels Eisenstein’s approach as one that puts its “faith in the image” (Bazin 2005a, 24) which by the use
of montage creates “a sense or meaning not objectively contained in the images themselves but derived ex-
clusively from their juxtaposition” (ibid., 25). Instead of this Bazin favors a second approach which he cha-
racterizes through its “faith in reality” (ibid., 24). While writing about Murnau as an example for this ap-
proach he de nes it as follows: “It adds nothing to the reality, it does not deform it, it forces it to reveal its
structural depth, to bring out the preexisting relations […]” (ibid., 27). We already see here that this ap-
proach also deals with the essence of reality but in a completely other way then Eisenstein. Instead Bazin
suggests that its possible to show the essence – to which he is here refering as “structural depth” and
“preexisting relations” – by showing reality itself without adding anything.

It are Italian neorealist directors that for Bazin exemplify this approach in the most complete form and on
which he develops his position of realism. “They never forget that the world is, quite simply, before it is so-
mething to be condemned” (Bazin 2005b, 21 – original emphasis). A prime example for this kind of lm is for
Bazin Rossellini’s Paisà (1946). “The unit of cinematic narrative in Paisà is not the ’shot‘, an abstract view of
reality which is being analyzed, but the ‚fact’” (ibid., 37). This facts are not a means to an end but have a va-
lue on their own. That’s also why there is no need to explicitly connect or interpret them, instead its a cha-
racteristic of lms like Paisà that they have “great holes” (ibid., 35). Bazin uses the following methaphor to
elude this point: “The mind has to leap from one event to the other as one leaps from stone to stone in
crossing a river” (ibid., 35). In doing so one might miss a stone or slip, but that lies in the essence of the sto-
nes. “Actually it is not of the essence of a stone to allow people to cross rivers without wetting their feet […].
Facts are facts, our imagination makes use of them, but they do not exist inherently for this purpose” (ibid.,
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35). Film then has to respect this essence of the facts and present them according to their nature. That in no
way suggests that lms like Paisà have no meaning or moral. It just has a di erent source there: “For Rossel-
lini, facts take on a meaning, but not like a tool whose functioning has predetermined its form. The facts fol-
low one another, and the mind is forced to observe their resemblance; and thus, by recalling one another,
they end by meaning something which was inherent in each and which is, so to speak, the moral of the sto-
ry – a moral the mind cannot fail to grasp since it was drawn from reality itself” (ibid., 36). According to Bazin
it then is unnecessary and can only do harm to add something to this factual character. It wouldn’t help to
bring out the essence of something but instead would obfuscate it. Films like Paisà or Le Ballon Rouge (1956)
– to which the following quote refers to – therefore don’t “owe anything to montage” (Bazin 2005c, 45).

Bazin’s position in this regard can easily be misunderstood. Hence it is important to point out that he doe-
sn’t think of “realist” lms in the way of an objective documentary that – like a y on the wall – is only obser-
ving and recording what’s happening. Instead he reminds us that it’s essential for lm – as for any form of
art – to select what it shows. “Every form of aesthetic must necessarily choose between what is worth pre-
serving and what should be discarded, and what should not even be considered” (Bazin 2005b, 26). Yet what
is important for Bazin is that the whole, the entity of what is shown is preserved and not broken apart.
“[N]eorealism by de niton rejects analysis, whether political, moral, psychological, logical, or social, of the
characters and their actions. It looks on reality as a whole, not incomprehensible, certainly, but inseparably
one” (Bazin 2005d, 97). For Bazin only this way does justice to reality.

Different Approaches – Common Ground?

After introducing the di erent ideas that Eisenstein and Bazin hold of reality and essence this part will ex-
plore the question if – considering the di erent approaches that both favor – there is still common ground
that can be found in both theories.

In this search for common ground it is important that one doesn’t miss the di erences of the two approa-
ches. What seems to separate the two conceptions most fundamentally is a di erence that Bazin described
as an a priori vs. and a posteriori approach. “[…] the neorealist lm has a meaning, but it is a posteriori, to the
extent that it permits our awareness to move from one fact to another, from one fragment of reality to the
next, whereas in the classical artistic composition the meaning is established a priori: the house is already
there in the brick” (Bazin 2005d, 99). Examples of Eisenstein’s montage in this sense are clear examples
where the “house is already in the brick”, i.e. the scenes of a montage only makes sense in the whole set-
ting. In the scene of Kerenski and the mechanic peacock which was mentioned above, the image of the pea-
cock can’t stand for itself, it is meant to be a part of a montage. In other words, as the essence of the brick is
to be part of the house the essence of this scene is not found in itself but only in the context of the intercut-
ting with Kerenski.

As we’ve seen, Bazin follows this metaphor further when he contrasts the bricks of the house with rocks in a
river. Their essence doesn’t lie in the fact that we can use them to cross the river, unless we use them to
build a bridge out of them (ibid., 99). For Eisenstein quite contrary the scenes of a montage – although he
rejects the brick metaphor – are like cells of an organism. “The shot is a montage cell” (Eisenstein 1977b, 37).
In his view the function of montage is to bring these elements in a dialectical relationship of con ict. “By
what, then, is montage characterized and, consequently, its cell – the shot? By collision. By the con ict of

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two pieces in opposition to each other. By con ict. By collison” (ibid., 37). Here Eisenstein openly admits that
the characteristic role of the shot doesn’t lie in itself, but in the relationship to another shot.

Following this one could argue that Eisenstein’s usage of a slaughterhouse scene in his famous montage in
Strike is instrumental, because it used solely to signify something else. It doesn’t stand for itself but its main
function is to show us the meaning of another scene, namely the massacring of demonstrating workers. Le
Sang des bêtes (1949) on the other hand could be seen as a lm that tries to preserves the essence of a
slaughterhouse.

From this point of view the gap between Eisenstein’s and Bazin’s position seems to be irreconcilable. That
this is a too simplistic view is indicated by the high opinion that Bazin holds of Eisenstein and his work. Ins-
tead Bazin seems to sense that there is common ground between his ideas and Eisenstein’s. “Was it not
from the outset their search for realism that characterized the Russian lms of Eisenstein, Pudovin, and Do-
vjenko as revolutionary both in arts and politics, in contrast to the expressionist aestheticism of the German
lms and Hollywood’s mawkish star worship? Paisà, Sciuscà, and Roma Città Apperta, like Potemkin, mark a
new stage in the long-standing opposition between realism and aestheticism on the screen” (Bazin 2005b,
16). Here Bazin puts Italian neorealism in the tradition of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925), in fact he
suggests that Italian neorealism provides us with “new solutions” (ibid., 16) for the same problem that Eisen-
stein dealt with. This common problem, I would argue, is to nd a way how cinema can show us the essence
of things.

We see that it should be undisputed that the approaches Eisenstein and Bazin suggest are di erent. For Ei-
senstein the best way to bring out the essence is montage, because it allows us to show the meaning of so-
mething by contrasting it with other shots. This is grounded – as was shown above – by a dialectic under-
standing of the world that makes such an approach necessary. Bazin on the other hand favors the long
deep focus shot used in Orson Welles‘ Citizen Kane (1941) or the fragmentaric character of Rossellinis Paisà.
But they share the common ground that the goal of each approach should be to show us the meaning, the
essence of something.

Bazin seemed to have had more trust that the essence of reality reveals itself if lm doesn’t give us an inter-
pretation a priori. But for Eisenstein too the purpose of montage isn’t to force a special meaning that can’t
be found in reality itself on the spectator. Instead the spectator plays an active role in Eisenstein’s concepti-
on: “In fact, every spectator, in correspondence with his individuality, and in his own way and out of his own
experience […] creates an image in accordance with the representational guidance suggested by the author,
leading him to understanding and experience of the author’s theme. This is the same image that was plan-
ned and created by the author, but this image is at the same time created also by the spectator himself” (Ei-
senstein 1977d, 33).

In a way one could therefore say both montage and long deep focus shot leave it to us to make something
out of them. For example in Paisà when we follow a woman looking for her boyfriend, “leaving us to the task
of being alone with her, of understanding her, and of sharing her su ering” (Bazin 2005b, 37). Of course the-
re are example of montage where the meaning that Eisenstein wants to show us is obvious and easy to fol-
low, especially in his rst long lm Strike³. But in Potemkin or October (1928), by making use of the di erent
“methods of montage” (Eisenstein 1977e), the examples become more sophisticated and open for
interpretation.

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Both also share the notion that in the end lm should show something “whole”. For Eisenstein this can be
reached indirectly through montage: “The juxtaposition of these partial details in a given montage construc-
tion calls to life and forces into the light that general quality in which each detail has participated and which
bins together all the details into a whole, namely, into that generalized image, wherein the creator, followed
by the spectator, experiences the theme” (Eisenstein 1977d, 11 – original emphasis). The function of monta-
ge then is to “evoke in the consciousness and feelings of the spectator, reader, or auditor, that same initial
general image which originally hovered before the creative artist” (ibid., 31). Bazin shares the goal of show-
ing reality as a whole. But the way he proposes to reach this goal di ers from Eisenstein’s. As was mentio-
ned before he doesn’t deny that the lm director must select what he shows in his lms, that he “filters reali-
ty” (Bazin 2005d, 98 – original emphasis). “[B]ut the selection that does occur is neither logical nor is it psy-
chological; it is ontological, in the sense that the image of reality it restores to us is still a whole – just as a
black-and-white photograph is […] a true imprint of reality, a kind of luminous mold in which color simply
does not gure. There is ontological identity between the object and its photographic image” (ibid., 98).

I would argue that Eisenstein – just as Bazin does – also aims at this ontological level with his montages. But
what seems to divide them are di erent conceptions of ontology. Eisenstein in this regard can be seen as
transcendental realist. The essence of things for him is hidden and must be discovered and exempli ed by a
dialectical method of montage. When he shows us in October a soldier that is shooting with a machinegun at
a demonstration and – in a ne example of metric montage – intercuts the face of the soldier with a close-
up of the ring gun, he uses this technique to point us to the essence of what’s happening: the coalition of
man and machine, the ambiguity of who’s controlling whom, the tact in which both interact together. Bazin
on the other hand believes that the essential quality has to be found in the empirical events themselves. His
position therefore can be described as empirical realism. A good example for this approach can be found in
De Sica’s lm Umberto D (1952), where we see a girl that slowly wakes up in the morning and follow her all
the way from bed to the kitchen where she starts preparing breakfast. The scene is quite long with only a
few cuts showing us this daily routine in its continuity. For Bazin this continuity of time is an important fea-
ture of cinema that was introduced by Welles. “Orson Welles restored to cinematographic illusion a funda-
mental quality of reality – its continuity” (Bazin 2005b, 28). It is also this continuous ow of time that for Ba-
zin is an essential feature of reality. Combined with long deep focus shots as used in Citizen Kane it is the
core of Bazin’s concept of a posteriori. “It is no longer the editing that selects what we see, thus giving it an a
priori signi cance, it is the mind of the spectator which is forced to discern […]” (ibid., 28).

Eisenstein on the other hand doesn’t seem to be interested too much in this dimension of time. When for
example the sailors await the nal attack in Battleship Potemkin the scene is heavily cut, showing us the sin-
gle persons only for short periods of time. Instead of depicting this period of waiting, where time seems to
be running slowly, through long and continuous shots Eisenstein decides to give us an overview what is go-
ing on on board. In other words we see not how the individual reacts but instead the collective, the ship as a
whole. From this collective perspective the time period isn’t seen as a long and continuous stream but as a
meaningful series of events, condensing the length of the waiting period.

Conclusion

I have tried to show that despite all the di erences between Eisenstein and Bazin their theories have in
common a fundamental similiarity: their attempt to answer the question how lm can show the essence of
reality. Both agree that this can’t be accomplished by simply showing reality as “authentic” as possible, as
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the usage of non-professional actors both in Eisenstein’s movies and in Italian neorealism could for example
suggest. Instead they honor the fact that lm is a form of art and therefore must select and decide which fa-
cets of reality to show. Both Eisenstein and Bazin also emphasize the point that the result of the image in
the end should be a whole. While for Eisenstein this whole must be built by using montage and juxtaposition
Bazin claims that the whole can’t be broken into pieces but that a fact of reality has to be valued as an end
in itself.

It is this di erence that seems to be the most serious between the theories of Eisenstein and Bazin. I have
tried to explain it as a di erence of the concept of ontology that both hold. While Eisenstein’s realism is
transcendental and aims to nd the essential quality of something beyond the empirical level Bazin’s positi-
on seems to be more an empirical realism, looking for the essence in real events and facts.

But after taking into account all the di erences both Eisenstein and Bazin have in common that in their lm
theory they search for the essence of reality, “its metaphysical kernel” (Bazin 2003, 29).

Martin Bartenberger, 2012

Notes

1. Bazin here is writing about the lm The Bullfight (1951) by Pierre Braunberger.

2. The quote is taken from Razumovsky’s Theory of Historical Materialism. I want to note that here I can’t deal
with the question if this quote or Eisenstein gets the theory of Marx and Engels right. Instead I will here un-
derstand and analyze dialectic in the way Eisenstein does.

3. Again the scene with the slaughterhouse is notorious in this regard, but also his depiction of the “capita-
lists” or the usage of the lemon squeezer while workers are attacked by soldiers.

Bibliography

Bazin, André. 2003. “Death Every Afternoon” In Rites of Realism: Essays on Corporeal Cinema, ed. Ivone Margu-
lies. Durham/London: Duke University Press. 27-31.

Bazin, André. 2005a. “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema” In What Is Cinema? Volume 1, André Bazin.
Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. 23-40.

Bazin, André. 2005b. “An Aesthetic of Reality: Cinematic Realism and the Italian School of Liberation” In What
Is Cinema? Volume 2, André Bazin. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. 16-40.

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Bazin, André. 2005c. “The Virtues and Limitations of Montage” In What Is Cinema? Volume 1, André Bazin.
Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. 41-52.

Bazin, André. 2005d. “In Defense of Rossellini” In What Is Cinema? Volume 2, André Bazin. Berkeley/Los Ange-
les: University of California Press. 93-101.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1977a. “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form” In Film Form, ed. Jay Leda. New York: Harcourt.
45-63.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1977b. “The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram” In Film Form, ed. Jay Leda. New
York: Harcourt. 28-44.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1977c. “Dickens, Gri th, and the Film Today” In Film Form, ed. Jay Leda. New York: Har-
court. 195-255.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1977d. “Word and Image” In Film Sense, ed. Jay Leda. New York: Harcourt. 1-65.

Eisenstein, Sergei. 1977e. “Methods of Montage” In Film Form, ed. Jay Leda. New York: Harcourt. 72-83.

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