EDITED BY NAUM KLEIMAN & ANTONIO SOMAINI SOMAINI & ANTONIO KLEIMAN NAUM BY EDITED FILM THEORY FILM THEORY IN MEDIA HISTORY IN MEDIA HISTORY SERGEI M. EISENSTEIN NOTES FOR A GENERAL HISTORY OF CINEMA EDITED BY NAUM KLEIMAN & ANTONIO SOMAINI An iconic figure in twentieth-century cinema, Ser- NAUM KLEIMAN is a film his- gei M. Eisenstein directed landmark films such torian. He was previously cura- as Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible and tor of the Eisenstein Memorial authored a vast body of theoretical texts. This is Apartment and director of the the first English-language edition of his recently Cinema Museum in Mos cow. rediscovered notes for a “general history of cine- He has participated in recon- ma.” In these, Eisenstein presents a fascinating structions of Eisenstein’s films genealogy of the media and art forms that preced- and unfinished books and has ed the birth of cinema and accompanied its first edited several volumes of his decades. Cinema is presented as a medium in con- texts. Since 2013 he serves as stant flux and as heir to an expansive tradition, the chief-editor of the journal ranging from Dionysian mysteries to death masks Kinovedcheskie Zapiski. and mummies, from wax museums to dioramas and panoramas, pursuing a breathtaking trajectory ANTONIO SOMAINI is Profes- SERGEI M. EISENSTEIN “from Dionysus to television.” Eisenstein’s notes are sor of Film, Media, and Visual accompanied by a series of previously unpublished Culture Theory at the Universi- critical essays by internationally recognized Eisen- té Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. stein scholars. He has published extensively on the work of Eisenstein and Vertov, Benjamin and Kracauer, Balázs and Moholy-Nagy. ISBN 978-90-896-4283-7 AUP.nl 9 789089 642837 Sergei M. Eisenstein Film Theory in Media History explores the epistemological and theoretical foundations of the study of film through texts by classical authors as well as anthologies and monographs on key issues and developments in film theory. Adopting a historical perspective, but with a firm eye to the further development of the field, the series provides a platform for ground-breaking new research into film theory and media history and features high-profile editorial projects that offer resources for teaching and scholarship. Combining the book form with open access online publishing the series reaches the broadest possible audience of scholars, students, and other readers with a passion for film and theory. Series editors: Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), Weihong Bao (University of California, Berkeley, United States), Dr. Trond Lundemo (Stockholm University, Sweden). Editorial Board Members: Dudley Andrew, Yale University, United States Raymond Bellour, CNRS Paris, France Chris Berry, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom Francesco Casetti, Yale University, United States Thomas Elsaesser, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Jane Gaines, Columbia University, United States André Gaudreault, University of Montréal, Canada Gertrud Koch, Free University of Berlin, Germany John MacKay, Yale University, United States Markus Nornes, University of Michigan, United States Patricia Pisters, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Leonardo Quaresima, University of Udine, Italy David Rodowick, University of Chicago, United States Philip Rosen, Brown University, United States Petr Szczepanik, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic Brian Winston, Lincoln University, United Kingdom Film Theory in Media History is published in cooperation with the Permanent Seminar for the History of Film Theories. Sergei M. Eisenstein Notes for a General History of Cinema Edited by Naum Kleiman & Antonio Somaini Translations from Russian by Margo Shohl Rosen, Brinton Tench Coxe, and Natalie Ryabchikova Amsterdam University Press This book is published in print and online through the online OAPEN library (www.oapen.org) OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initia- tive to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The OAPEN Library aims to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research by aggre- gating peer reviewed Open Access publications from across Europe. Cover design: Suzan Beijer Lay-out: JAPES, Amsterdam ISBN 978 90 8964 283 7 (paperback) ISBN 978 90 8964 844 0 (hardcover) e-ISBN 978 90 4851 711 4 NUR 670 Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0) The authors / Amsterdam University Press B.V., 2016 Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise). Table of Contents Acknowledgements 7 Editorial Criteria 9 Naum Kleiman and Antonio Somaini Foreword 13 Naum Kleiman Cinema as “Dynamic Mummification,” History as Montage: Eisenstein’s Media Archaeology 19 Antonio Somaini Part One Notes for a General History of Cinema Sergei M. Eisenstein 1. The Heir 109 2. Dynamic Mummification: Notes for a General History of Cinema 119 3. Revelation in Storm and Thunder 207 4. In Praise of the Cine-chronicle 225 5. The Place of Cinema in the General System of the History of the Arts 241 6. Pioneers and Innovators 247 Part Two Essays 1. What Renders Daumier’s Art so Cinematic for Eisenstein? 255 Ada Ackerman 2. “The Heritage We Renounce”: Eisenstein in Historio-graphy 267 François Albera 3. The Notes for a General History of Cinema and the Dialectic of the Eisensteinian Image 289 Luka Arsenjuk 5 4. Act Now!, or For an Untimely Eisenstein 299 Nico Baumbach 5. Pathos and Praxis (Eisenstein versus Barthes) 309 Georges Didi-Huberman 6. Eisenstein’s Absolutely Wonderful, Totally Impossible Project 323 Jane Gaines 7. Dynamic Typicality 333 Abe Geil 8. Archaeology vs. Paleontology: A Note on Eisenstein’s Notes for a General History of Cinema 347 Vinzenz Hediger 9. Point – Pathos – Totality 357 Mikhail Iampolski 10. Distant Echoes 373 Arun Khopkar 11. “Synthesis” of the Arts or “Friendly Cooperation” between the Arts? The General History of Cinema According to Eisenstein 385 Pietro Montani 12. Eisenstein’s Mummy Complex: Temporality, Trauma, and a Distinction in Eisenstein’s Notes for a General History of Cinema 393 Philip Rosen 13. Sergei Eisenstein and the Soviet Models for the Study of Cinema, 1920s-1940s 405 Masha Salazkina and Natalie Ryabchikova Bibliography 415 Notes 429 Index of Names 525 Contributors 541 6 table of contents Acknowledgements The preparation of this book has taken several years, and the editors, Naum Klei- man and Antonio Somaini, would like to thank all those who have contributed in different ways to its publication. First of all, our thanks go to the authors of the thirteen critical essays which help locate Eisenstein’s Notes for a General History of Cinema within the context of his oeuvre, as well as within the history of film and media theories: Ada Acker- man, François Albera, Luka Arsenjuk, Nico Baumbach, Georges Didi-Huberman, Jane Gaines, Abe Geil, Vinzenz Hediger, Mikhail Iampolski, Arun Khopkar, Pie- tro Montani, Philip Rosen, and Masha Salazkina with Natalie Ryabchikova. Second, our thanks go to all those who have worked with us on the transcrip- tion and the organization of Eisenstein’s Notes, and on the preparation of the editorial apparatus that accompanies them: Artëm Sopin, Natalie Ryabchikova, and Vera Kleiman for their contribution to the establishment of the six texts of the Notes; and François Albera, our coeditor on the French edition of the Notes, for his contribution to the commentary and the footnotes. Margo Shohl Rosen and Brinton Tench Coxe, with a further contribution by Natalie Ryabchikova, have translated Eisenstein’s texts from Russian to English; Franck Le Gac, with a further contribution by Michael Cramer, has translated from French to English the texts by François Albera and Georges Didi-Huber- man, while Manuela Pallotto has translated from Italian to English the text by Pietro Montani and Mihaela Mihailova has translated from Russian to English the text by Mikhail Iampolski. Abe Geil has made a final revision of Eisenstein’s texts, while Michael Cramer made a final revision of several of the critical essays. Olga Kataeva has contributed to the final phase of the editorial work, and has helped us, together with Natalie Ryabchikova and Massimo Olivero, in establish- ing the rich bibliography contained in this volume. The Index of names, finally, has been prepared by Natacha Milovzorova. The first presentation, outside Russia, of Eisenstein’s Notes for a General History of Cinema took place during the conference “Eisenstein – Cinema – History,” or- ganized on September 30 and October 1, 2010 at Columbia University in New York City. It was sponsored by two seminars, “Cinema & Interdisciplinary Inter- pretation” and “Sites of Cinema” as well as by the Harriman Institute. The edi- 7 tors would like to warmly thank Jane Gaines for having made this conference possible and Nico Baumbach and Luka Arsenjuk for having organized it. The organizers were responsible for securing the first translation in English of Eisen- stein’s Notes, a translation financed by Columbia University and made available in the public domain. This was the second international event to take place under the auspices of The Permanent Seminar on the Histories of Film Theories. A second presentation of Eisenstein’s Notes took place during the conference “S.M. Eisenstein. Histoire, Généalogie, Montage,” organized on May 28, 2011, at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris by the Centre de Recherche en Esthétique du Cinéma et des Images (CRECI). The editors would like to warmly thank Philippe Dubois for having made this conference possible and Benjamin Léon for his valuable contribution to its organization. Eisenstein’s Notes have subsequently been discussed on several other occasions (lectures, seminars, journées d’études, conferences, journal publications), and the editors would like to thank all those that have contributed to these important exchanges.