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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>By mistake, I sent this reply to Markus instead of to the whole
list. I hope he (and Chika?) will respond (have already responded?) here
instead…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Chika Kinoshita’s dissertation has an excellent
discussion, extending the work of Iwamoto Kenji and Yamamoto Kikuo, of the
introduction of montage theory between 1928 and 1931, generating what she calls
a “culture of montage” in Japan. She argues that Tokunaga
Sunao’s Taiyo no nai machi tries to find a literary equivalent to the
juxtaposition and simultaneity characteristic of the Soviet version of montage,
so a connection to The Factory Ship wouldn’t be surprising. Much of the
discussion of Eisenstein and others took place in mainstream journals, not only
the Prokino texts. That’s true of the US too: it’s amazing where
translations of Eisenstein’s essays turned up (Hound and Horn?!). It
seems the usual conduit for the translations was through German, which makes
sense. Yamamoto (Nihon eiga ni okeru gaikoku eiga no eikyo; for all its methodological
shortcomings I really like this book!) lists Kurahara Korehito’s articles
in Kinema junpo (March and April 1927) as the first accounts of Potemkin and
other montage films. Though his general point is that a lot of
“montage” in Japanese films (flash frames, etc) comes from European
filmmaking practices, while the dominant “influence” on Japanese
film in general came from Hollywood. As Markus says, a worthy topic for further
study…</span></span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I forgot to mention that it’s interesting, and perhaps not
wholly surprising, that Eisenstein’s essays were published during wartime,
and were still being advertised during the Pacific War. Not all writers on film
during wartime were nativist champions of cultural autochthony: people like
Ooya Soichi defended “Americanism” in the pursuit of a populist “People’s
film” and there are clear narrative and technical borrowings (Stagecoach,
midair photography) from Hollywood films. Also, some of the writing on formal
aspects of film as essential to a medium committed to total mobilization seems
to me to share Eisenstein’s “illiberal modernist”
understanding of the relation between screen and viewing subject. Speaking of
wartime film books … has anyone see the book on film performance (Eiga
engigaku dokuhon) with chapters by Itami, Kinugasa, Ozu and many others? Is it
as fascinating as it seems? Apparently Waseda has a copy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Michael<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Mark Nornes
[mailto:amnornes@umich.edu] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, October 23, 2007 1:41 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: eisenstein & montage in prole cinema<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>On Oct 23, 2007, at 12:18 PM, Anne McKnight wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><br>
<br>
<span class=apple-style-span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>But looking at the prole cinema materials that I have,
Eisenstein doesn't seem to feature much. I read of _Potemkin_ being banned by
the government, while essays and translations seem to focus on Pudovkin, and
the presentation of Soviet cinema by French scholars (whose work remains
untranslated in English to date). All this leads me to think that while people
hadn't perhaps seen _Potemkin_ in Japan, they both heard about it, and/or may
have seen it in Russia. Has anyone seen "story-plays" (eiga
monogatari) of _Potemkin_, for example? <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span>This is an interesting
question, and I'd love to see it researched by someone. Pudovkin does seem to
get all the glory when it comes to the Soviets. Sasaki Norio published a book
of his translations from Eisenstein (<i>Eiga no benshoho</i>) in 1931, and a
second collection was published in 1940 (believe it or not). Books of
Pudovkin's writings were published in 1930, 1935, and 1936, and all of those
got revised, updated versions published shortly thereafter. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Some magazines were known for doing photospreads and
scenarios of Soviet films; however, the only one I've seen for Eisenstein was
Zensen in one of the Prokino journals. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span>A couple things come to mind. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span>First, this is late. In fact,
long after the Kobayashi book. The proletarian film journals don't really start
until 1927-28, and I don't recall them writing much of anything about
Eisenstein—or Soviet cinema in general. You can see them here, in my
reprint series: </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/publications/cjsfaculty/filmprojournals.html">http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/publications/cjsfaculty/filmprojournals.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span>The earliest book is from
Murayama in 1928 (Puroretarian eiga Nyumon; <a
href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbx2322.0001.001">http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbx2322.0001.001</a>),
and that has almost nothing on Eisenstein. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>One place you might be able to find some things is the back
end of Puroretarian Eiga no Tenbo; look around page 247: <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=cjfs&cc=cjfs&idno=bbx2327.0001.001&q1=dlps&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=263">http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=cjfs&cc=cjfs&idno=bbx2327.0001.001&q1=dlps&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=263</a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Second, those first journals are mostly about screenwriting
because they didn't see production within their grasp. Pudovkin wrote some
fairly practical things about screenwriting, and I think the first book translated
was on that. This could explain the preponderance of his writings. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Third, also because this is all happening late, the
criticism of Eisenstein and Vertov's formalism has probably started affecting
Japan. Formal experiments like Iwasaki's Asphalt Road were criticized, so it
would make sense that Eisenstein's films were overlooked in favor of Pudovkin's
more pedestrian style of montage. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Fourth, this involves translation, and from a fairly unusual
language. You never know how personal predilection of the translator=gatekeeper
plays into this.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Of the articles I've read on montage by Iwamoto and others,
I don't recall a discussion of this. But I have always wondered what was going
on. <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Markus<o:p></o:p></p>
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