ABSTRACT
Few film directors venture into film theory, but Sergei Eisenstein was passionately interested in understanding how films worked – specifically, how they moved audiences. In 1917, when he was only nineteen years old, the Bolshevik party seized power in Russia and created a communist state. Although there was considerable debate about the role of art in the new society, many politicians and artists believed that it had a duty to promulgate a new set of political beliefs among the public. Several young directors, notably Lev Kuleshov and Vsevelod Pudovkin, began to write about the most effective ways to shape audience's experiences. This led them toward issues that had philosophical implications. Eisenstein, in both his theoretical essays and filmmaking practice, moved farthest in this direction.
