The daily worker., 1930-05-24
By HARRY A. POTAMKIN

! SO
the U. S. A, with his cameraman,
Comrade Edouard Tisse. At the end
of the month his co-director, g. W.
Alexandroff, will follow. They are
under contract to the Paramount
Publix producers. Eisenstein's as
sistant will be Ivor Montagu, one of
the founders of the Workers Film
Society of London, composed large
ly of Communists.
Eisenstein was asked: "Will you
make mass film here?"
He replied: 81 hope to-"
"You do not believe in the love-
triangle?"
what do you mean, believe? 1t
exists. But | am not interested in
it, 1t isn't my artistic concern"
/ Wouldn't you like to make a
comedy?'
81 would. My work in workers
theatre of the Proletkult in Moscow
was buffoonery, circus farce. But
you must understand that the Soviet
director is interested in comedy as
social satire. 1t must serve a social
function"
care American films barred from
Soviet Russia because Of their cap
italist viewpoint"
american films are not barred
More are not exhibited because of
the fantastic prices American pro-
ducers demand. Of course certain
American films have no place in
cur society. You cannot expect us
to be interested in King of Kings
it is too far away from our life.
But we have liked Nanook and Mo-
ana, the films of Chaplin. Chap
Inns long films we have not seen
because of their formidable prices.
l think his Woman of Paris a mile
stone in the development of the ci-
nema, although l have condemned
Soviet directors for following it too
literally. Its attitude, content and
form should not have influenced a
kino such as ours, with mass prob
lens and social perspective"
"Will the U. S. S. R. make talk
les? And if so will the international
appeal of her films be destroyed?"
"Of course we will make talkies.
But they will not be dialogue films.
Speech will be but small and dis
tributed part of the sound. The
sound and speech will be synchro-
nized after the visual portion is
filmed. We will not time the speech
to the improvements. Nor will we
have only people speaking. The
rivers and fields will talk too. Not
duplicate naturalism but dispropor-
tion., Other languages can be in
serted for the Russian. The inter
!nationalism is preserved. Our sound
technique is already present in our
silent technique, in montage. Mon
tage is the mounting of the film,
the combining of the single images
or frames Of the negative into a
progressive composition. Our film
making begins where the American
ends.
We want ed something more
than just a physiognomy, something
more than just grimaces or actions,
we wantetd to convey a sense that
would remain after the physical
image had passed, an 'overtone', as
it is called in music"
Would you not say that this sense
is achieved not by plan but by an
inner feeling?"
mo, | would not. 1t is true that
individual sensibility is important,
but method of overtone can be
formulated like mathematics for
Others to follow. At the State Tech
nical Institute of the Cinema in
Moscow, where l taught the theory
and practice of motion picture di-
rection, we instruct the students ac-
cording to such method. They are
taught in laboratory-fashion, by
selection and relation, where to place
the door, left or right, and why.
How to select and relate physiogno-
mics for their resonance"
China Express is a result of this
education.
Actors? 81 select types from
non-professionals. In. the combina-
ton, not in the histrionics, is the
film realized. Martha Lapkina, the
peasant-woman in Old and New,
was, of course, an exceptional in
stance. She experienced all that
we desired"
Effect on audiences? Eisenstein
now speaks as head of the Cinema
Division of the Psyche Physical
Laboratories for the study Of audi
ence relations:
EFFECT is relative. In battle
scene, instead of showing men slain,
| wished to convey the physical hor-
ror by the butchery of cows. Re-
fined cosmopolitans shuddered but
n e a a ts, accustomed to the
slaughter of cattle, were not
touched. This admittedly makes
the problem difficult in the Soviet
Union, due to the diversity Of audi
ence, but we are meeting the diff
Guilty by making special films with
specific appeals, instead of manu-
featuring least common denomina-
tor pictures for everybody"
"Will you make a film of Marks