Technique of Film Editing, Reissue of 2nd Edition, 2nd Edition

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The term montage has been loosely employed in so many different contexts as to need defi nition. It was used

by early Russian directors as a synonym for creative editing and is still used in France to denote simply cutting .

The term montage sequence as used in British and American studios means something more specifi c and lim-

ited: it refers to the quick impressionistic sequence of disconnected images, usually linked by dissolves, super-

impositions or wipes, and used to convey passages of time, changes of place or any other scenes of transition.

It is with this last kind of sequence that we are here concerned.

The very pedigree of the word bears witness to the fact that the modern montage sequence owes its origin

to early Russian experiments and was gradually evolved to its present form. The only thing it still has in com-

mon with early Russian fi lms is that both use short, disconnected strips of fi lm. But there the affi nity ends:

where the Russians conceived their fi lms in terms of expressive shot juxtapositions, the montage sequence as

commonly used to-day makes its points through the cumulative effect of series of images. Where the Russian

sequences proceeded by steps like: shot A contrasts with shot B (the juxtaposition giving rise to a new con-

cept), is further illuminated by shot C . . . etc., the modern montage sequence aims at saying: shot A plus shot

B, plus shot C . . . plus shot X, when seen together, imply a transition of events from A to X. Since the aim of

the modern montage sequence is to convey a series of facts which together will convey a state of transition,

individual shot juxtapositions become unimportant — even misleading — and are therefore largely ironed out

by the use of dissolves.

All this is simply to point out that the similarity between Russian montage and the modern montage

sequence ends, once it has been admitted that both use strings of rapidly following shots. The modern mon-

tage sequence, as most commonly used, is merely a convenient way of presenting a series of facts which are

necessary to the story but which have little emotional signifi cance. It is used to convey facts which it would

be cumbersome to show in full or which, though essential to the story, do not merit detailed treatment.

Take an example. Towards the end of Carol Reed’s The Third Man , Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) has to

try to convince Holly Martins (Joseph Gotten) that the police know Martins ’ friend Harry Lime (Orson

Welles) to be guilty of various crimes. Martins is loath to believe this of his friend and Calloway therefore has

Chapter 6

Montage Sequences