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Original Creators: "Father Of Montage" Sergei Eisenstein

We take a look at some iconic artists from numerous disciplines who have left an enduring and indelible mark on today’s creators.

Each week we pay homage to a select "Original Creator"—an iconic artist from days gone by whose work influences and informs today's creators. These are artists who were innovative and revolutionary in their fields. Bold visionaries and radicals, groundbreaking frontiersmen and women who inspired and informed culture as we know it today. This week: Sergei Eisenstein .

“Montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots" wherein "each sequential element is perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other.” — Sergei Eisenstein

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Soviet Russian film director, scholar, and theorist, Sergei Eisenstein, cites the revolution as catalyst for making him an artist. Otherwise he would have followed his father into architecture and engineering instead of joining the Red Army, where he learned Japanese and elements of Kubuki theater, which became instrumental in developing his film style. Considered the “father of montage,” he pioneered the idea of unleashing a “collision” of shots in order to play with the audience’s emotions and create metaphors through the juxtaposition of similar images. The way he communicated visually was extra key since most of his films—including Strike (1924), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), and October (1927)—were silent.

The Battleship Potemkin, (1925)

In 1930 he was invited to Hollywood to work on some projects for Paramount but his leads fell apart when he got there. Not wanting to go back to Russia a failure, he met Upton Sinclair through mutual friend Charlie Chaplin and went to Mexico to work on ¡Que viva México!. Unfortunately, Sinclair shut down production before the project was completed, leaving Eisenstein without any footage or creative control. He moved back to Russia and took up a teaching position at VGIK, where he developed the curricula for the director’s course, writing many theoretical articles like Film Form and The Film Sense, which are still studied and discussed in film schools today.

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Eisenstein finally resurrected his film career with the biopic Alexander Nevsky in 1938, which was his first sound films. Though its distribution was delayed until the Soviet Union went to war with Germany, he walked away with a Stalin Prize and an Order of Lenin.

Though he directed only a handful of films in his lifetime, the critically-acclaimed propaganda film The Battleship Potemkin (1925), about a riot that ensued on the battleship Potemkin, is hands-down his most influential work. It’s been referenced and spoofed by filmmakers, re-scored, and reinterpreted by artists for decades. Check out some of our favorite references to the iconic film below.

Francis Bacon: Study for the Nurse in the Battleship Potemik, 1957

Francis Bacon cites the image of the nurse in The Battleship Potemkin as catalyst for his work and inspiration for countless other paintings.

Steven Spielberg: Schindler’s List

The iconic little girl in the red coat is shown escaping from Nazi solders, referencing the (painstakingly) hand-tinted flag in The Battleship Potemkin.

Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather, (1972)

Referencing the Odessa step scene, Neri shoots Barzini at the top of the steps. Watch a clip of all the films that reference the Odessa step scene here.

Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (of the Pet Shop Boys) with the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra: Battleship Potemkin score, (2004)

Eisenstein wanted his film’s score to be rewritten every 20 years in order to stay relevant for each new generation. Here’s a clip from the Pet Shop Boys and the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra’s collaboration.