Evening star., 1947-06-29
The Art of Eisenstein
His Genius Lies in knowledge That Movies
Are a Visual Medium
By Harry Macarthur

The man who gave the them dsserVce
way picture description method OF tell
ing story with pictures sound director could
use subtie get point but he also had to be man WIN
knack carrying narrative forward series OF silent
After the sound OF the movie hm the
printed subes replaced by the words OF the actors rms
fine and itself have no compliant 100 many M
e eco however either knew that
one picture worth 200 words Too many directors nave 0ee anu
are content to let actors talk story along
We are not advocating the sound track and re-
version to the silent movie Inat SOUND va
occasion bring poetic speech COMEDY croSse anu tha+
Lone II brings us fine merely suggesting tnae
the best pictures made by those directors wa" nt
their art is that the camera Is tne PRIME
and that the mcrophone the cameras little helper
Bears Mark. .
mind while Watching he idtes'
Aim tn be released the Terrible asensten
few will deny genius This new hm not 1t is true % mo
genius to compare with his previous Pofemkin OF
hut 1t does the mark OF the maStet ~. rsr
Fsenteins skill evidenced in many ways in ivan the l
,ben his use of his the he handles iarge
dramatically In his selection OF Hicioen' iA '' ~ -
build forcefh narrative 49,. J., . .. .,a with him
- art however must be based political rather than ar
t,c Grounds The story certainly dramatic Esenstein tells It.
80 T assumes the throne of all the Rssias he
as onnoson from the powerful He wins his rst oae
IN enlarge Russia her strong tnat oler wiz @
% attack her He finds continue to fight the ooya h
wife poisoned deserts him His empire als
tumble in continuing boyar opposition and ne
the people call him back to the throne as 'ne ''0"'
HoIIvwood's Done 1t,
.-rLJa with oil dramatic out tnat
this quite the Ivan w we've met IN our os @ ~ +h soviet
resend in sernly natonaisc phoopay as nero th oe
neone which 1t is likely something he never eHpec " W
tocs fact for of dramatic narrative , r s,,o,
NJ me will deny course that the portrait OF ivan We
v.snen gives us is propaganda. 1t is designed TO each e
o that union strength to combat tnr enemies @
IN undermine American Government out IL S "
propaganda -. .xodos t,s so,, for
Fisensen however who has traded MS soul 1or
The comfort that accrues propagandist There was time
when he could have he chose to go the way OF he
evolutionists His motion picture Poeml toio Ihe
roc story Of mutiny of Russian cruiser VINO
osted the red flag food bad and tossed tne
no the sea 1t is safe assume Eensen in Ivan the Ter
rbe" a dealing with what ne feeS 10 DC 'ne ""' 1
than an artist cheapening his talent
Photography Noteworthy
artist not olmln-
thing of continued visual excitement
It, incidentally was EDWARD
sse who photographed be- Of course that part
of the genius actually sse genius for an Eensten
picture is unmstakably stamped by its photography
of his phoopays than meets the eye
always noteworthy Time and again
the storytelling 1mple-
the entire account OF 1van first
full OF memorable photography
complaints incidentally about the acting
Terrible Some have found ovdone to the
point where udicrous this little silly to us
Chinese for being mperturbabe
c!d rolling chid Russian for taking
meodramat the volatile Russians
a doubly
is that thanks to Esenstens skill
Terrible would be understood
bv an iiterate American
saw It without subles 1t motion picture with the