Sentence:  There was a period in our cinema when <WSD>montage</WSD> was proclaimed as being 'everything'. We are now coming to the end of a period where <WSD>montage</WSD> has been regarded as 'nothing'. Since we consider <WSD>montage</WSD> to be neither 'nothing' nor 'everything', we now think it necessary to recall that <WSD>montage</WSD> is as essential a component of film-making as all the other affective elements of cinematography. ... The fact is that the makers of a number of films in recent years have so thoroughly 'parted company' with <WSD>montage</WSD> that they even forgot the basic aim and function, inseparable from its "cognitive" role, which every work of art sets for itself: "the function of providing a coherent, consistent exposition of the work's theme, plot, action and events", and their progression both within each sequence and within the film as a whole. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The art or process of doing this.