The profession of film director can and should be such a high and precious one; that no man aspiring to it can disregard any knowledge that will make him a better film director or human being.
Sergei EisensteinRead
Now why should the cinema follow the forms of theater and painting rather than the methodology of language, which allows wholly new concepts of ideas to arise from the combination of two concrete denotations of two concrete objects?
Interpretation
What this quote means
Eisenstein suggests that cinema should innovate beyond traditional arts like theater and painting, using language's ability to create new ideas from combining different concepts.
In this quote, Sergei Eisenstein advocates for cinema to develop its unique methodology distinct from that of theater and painting, emphasizing the potential of film to innovate by employing language's capacity to generate novel ideas through the juxtaposition of different objects or concepts. He believes that cinema, as a medium, should harness this linguistic approach to convey complex narratives and express innovative ideas, rather than relying solely on established artistic forms.
Themes
CinemaLanguageArtTheaterInnovation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a film studies class to illustrate the relationship between different art forms.
More from Sergei Eisenstein
All quotes →It is art's task to make manifest the contradictions of Being
Sergei EisensteinRead
Language is much closer to film than painting is.
Sergei EisensteinRead
Similar quotes
When done right, music should breathe, be alive. It's not about getting it perfect, it's about capturing lightning in a bottle.
Bob LefsetzRead
Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye!
Paul CezanneRead
I try to remember that the job - as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy - of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.
Dani ShapiroRead
Well-written novels make you more empathetic towards other people. You can identify with someone who isn't you. You can change your identity. A 14-year-old boy can become Anna Karenina. It is a miracle.
Olga TokarczukRead
The Photograph is an extended, loaded evidence — as if it caricatured not the figure of what it represents (quite the converse) but its very existence ... The Photograph then becomes a bizarre (i)medium(i), a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest (o)shared(i) hallucination (on the one hand 'it is not there,' on the other 'but it has indeed been'): a mad image, chafed by reality.
Roland BarthesRead
The stars fell one by one into his eyes and burnt.
Frank O'HaraRead