Film Editing: Creating the “other”

In both F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin some of the finest executions of cinematic storytelling are achieved. It is through each director’s use of askew and straight-on placement of images, varying long, tight, low, and high angled shots that each director is able to successfully engage the audience and establish the protagonist as ‘hero’. Yet, more intriguing is the skillful manner in which both directors solidify the antagonist as the ‘other’ through careful film editing.
Through the manipulation of the camera and juxtaposition of shots when editing each director asserts their ability to engage the audience and create a false affinity for the protagonist while alienating the antagonist. Once reaching the city, the director chooses to edit-in one shot of the lady from the city as she waits in the country side for the farmer. She appears intently anticipating the farmers return ready to run away with him. Such a depiction after nearly forty minutes of viewing the husband and wife make-up and fall back in love not only asserts her isolation from the now ensuing love story of husband and wife but, this causes the viewer to blame the woman form the city for still wanting to steal the farmer from his wife, ignoring the role the farmer played in allowing her to feel this way. This image juxtaposed to tight shots of the husband and wife kissing, smiling, and staring into each others eyes enamored with each other, causes the audience to feel sympathy for the farmer since he has found true love once again. This sentiment stands to counter the lust he displayed for the woman from the city in what now seems to be the remote past but is actually the beginning of the same movie. This remote feeling is a direct result of the film editing process.
To further create the remote feeling and ‘otherness’ associated with the woman from the city one can look to Murnau’s the opening scene in Sunrise in which he initially depicts the woman from the city. This opening segment is composed of four shots in which the director initially uses a tight focus to introducing this character. She is briefly shown getting dressed and then soon juxtaposed with a following image of her wearing dark clothes leaving home in a long shot as the camera widens to capture how oddly placed this posh dressed city woman is in the country side. The camera then swoops and tightens in on her figure, drawing the audience in, as we see her from the perspective of rural farmers. The image we come to see of her remains throughout the film. She stands alone waiting for the farmer to answer her calls and for the remainder of the film we continue to see the woman from the city in isolated shots completely alone or with the farmer. Such depictions further the viewers negative feelings of ‘other’ attached to the woman from the city.
In Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin one continues to witness camera manipulation however, Eisenstein keenly and skillfully implements montage to alienate the antagonists and evoke an even greater sense of ‘otherness’ associated with the powerful czar and his fellow oppressors. In the fourth episode of Battleship Potmekin titled “The Odessa Steps” Eisenstein’s exceptional use of montage as a means to establish the ‘other’ is most obvious. Eisenstein creates remarkable tension in this scene by putting together wide shots of the terrified mob running down the steps with close-up shots showing what happens to people as they flee. Eisenstein operates juxtaposing the innocence of civilians, highlighting them with close-up shots of their faces and wounds against the faceless tyranny of the military ranks using wide and long depersonalizing shots of the soldiers. Through his continued splicing of imagery he is able to provide an emotionally stirring contrast between the perspectives of the horrified citizens and the faceless oppressor. Such technique effectively serves to influence the viewer’s concept of the czar and his military force as the ‘other’.
The art of film editing not only serves to engage the viewer to create fictitious reality in which the film fits but it allows the viewer to live within that reality and perceive that perspective as the only relevant one. In short, both F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise and Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin effectively execute the art of cinematic storytelling through their ability create the sense of the ‘other’ through their use camera manipulation and film editing.