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August 1995, Week 4

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Sender:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Renata Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 24 Aug 1995 02:49:00 -0400
Reply-To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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to the gentleman who recalled a "jump cut" in the Odessa Steps sequence of
POTEMKIN -- in the print i have on tape, there is no such sequence of images:
what we see is two shots (with slight change of angle and shot distance; the
second is an extreme close-up) of a cossack raising his sword repeatedly --
cut-- close-up of the woman in the pince-nez, now shattered and her face
bloody.  this is one very good example of Eisenstein's  thesis v antithesis =
synthesis: the idea of violence/oppression is implied by (what he would have
called) the "collision" of shot 1 (the cossack) with shot 2 (the woman); the
violent act isn't shown but is conjured up in our minds.  of course this
whole sequence is built upon these kinds of spatial disjunctions, but why i
wouldn't call them  "jump cuts" is because the term jump cut refers to a
purposeful break in space-time continuity, whereas this kind of dialectical
montage, despite its being constructed, as i said, upon an *actual* spatial
disjunction in shooting, it is cut together to create an *apparent*
continuity.  anyway, earlier we did see this same woman in close-up as she
watches the baby carriage bump down the steps (again, this narrative link is
assumed by the editorial structure: baby carriage -- woman looking horrified
-- baby carriage). in this sequence of shots i noticed that there *is* a jump
cut in the shot of the woman, but my sense is that this resulted from a tear
and subsequent repair of the film, rather than an intentional break in
continuity.
-- [log in to unmask] (Renata Jackson, NYU Cinema Studies)
 
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