Magical History Tour – Montage

Montage is one of cinema's most important causal instruments of style and so elementary that its significance is easily forgotten. Montage gives structure to space and time, creates continuities and breaks and can have a dynamic and rhythmic effect. The Soviet avant-garde filmmakers were quick to recognize and explore the value of montage. However, the film language that was so seminal and continues to shape our watching habits today was developed in Hollywood - découpage classique, which evokes a flowing continuity of movement. The editing is as unobtrusive as possible and gives the impression of a light and effortless, seamless narrative. Russian avant-garde cinema of the 1920s places far less importance on organic assembly than on contradictions and contrasts. Dialectical montage, comprised of opposing and associative shots, has a jolting effect on the viewer. The juxtaposition of two shots creates a completely new coherent unity. Later, the various new waves of the 1960s set out to shake up the rules of classical montage. The now famous jump cuts of Godard's first feature A bout de souffle come to mind…