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Sergei Eisenstein Quotes

American capitalism finds its sharpest and most expressive reflection in the American cinema.

American capitalism finds its sharpest and most expressive reflection in the American cinema.

Sergei Eisenstein
Reflection, Cinema, Film
Sergei Eisenstein (1964). “Film form: essays in film theory, and The film sense”

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 Eisenstein
Men, Directors, Film

It is art's task to make manifest the contradictions of Being

Sergei Eisenstein
Art, Tasks, Contradiction
Sergei Eisenstein (2014). “Film Form: Essays in Film Theory”, p.58, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Language is much closer to film than painting is.

Sergei Eisenstein
Painting, Language, Film
Sergei Eisenstein (2014). “Film Form: Essays in Film Theory”, p.78, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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?

Sergei Eisenstein
Ideas, Two, Cinema
Sergei Eisenstein (2014). “Film Form: Essays in Film Theory”, p.78, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Books are attracted to me. They make a beeline for me, and stick to me. I have been so fond of them that at last they have begun to reciprocate. In my hands books burst like ripe fruit. Like magic flowers they unfold their petals to show me the vital thought, the suggestive word, the confirming quotation, the decisive illustration.

Sergei Eisenstein
Flower, Book, Illustration

For example, in painting the form arises from abstract elements of line and color, while in cinema the material concreteness of the image within the frame presents - as an element - the greatest difficulty in manipulation.

Sergei Eisenstein
Color, Example, Cinema
Sergei Eisenstein (2014). “Film Form: Essays in Film Theory”, p.78, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Even in a less exaggerated description, any verbal account of a person is bound to find itself employing an assortment of waterfalls, lightning rods, landscapes, birds, etc.

Sergei Eisenstein
Bird, Lightning, Landscape
Sergei Eisenstein (2014). “Film Form: Essays in Film Theory”, p.77, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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