What are vsevolod pudovkin five edit techniques?

Answer 1

V. I. Pudovkin's five montages appear in his book On Film Technique from p. 47 onwards, under the section 'Editing as an Instrument of Impression.'

His five montages are contrast, parallelism, symbolism, simultaneity and leit-motif or re-iteration of theme.

Quite simply, a contrast editing technique would be to show a man's hunger by contrasting it against another man's gluttony to emphasise the man's hunger. A parallelism is to show two different events by linking them with a common element, for example two separate events may occur at the same time, therefore time links the two scenes. In 'The Three Colours' series the director shows characters in a courthouse, where events from one of the previous films in the series are happening - an example of parallelism between two separate films in a series. A good example of symbolism in a Soveit film would be the crew of the Potemkin raising the red flag at the end of the Eisenstein's 'The Battleship Potemkin' and even the mother at the end of Pudovkin's 'Mother'. Simultaneity is how a director resolves a narrative sequence. When a film concludes there are two actions occurring, the outcome of one action depends on the outcome of the other. Good examples are the classic silent films of Hollywood like 'Barney Oldfield's race for a life' in which a jilted lover ties his lost love to the train tracks and then steals a locomotive to run her over, only the efforts of the hero can save her - but will he make it time? Simultaneity is essentially corss-cutting. Leit-motif (German-meaning re-iteration of theme) is the repetition of imagery that represents the film's strongest theme. 'L'Atalante' by Jean Vigo is perfect example of the use of leit-motif.

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