ABSTRACT
These very interesting reflections by Francesco Casetti help explain how, by taking stock of Eisenstein as a theoretician of cinema and also as a theoretician of art, we can discern his complexity as well as the importance of his multifaceted æuvre.2 There are innumerable starting points from which to reconstruct the Eisensteinian mosaic. Chronologically, the first is the six volumes of the Selected Works, published in Moscow between 1964 and 1971 and running to more than three thousand pages. These obviously contain writings of uneven quality, drawn from the different periods of Eisenstein’s career. Alongside articles written for particular occasions, this edition includes such pillars of his thought as Direction, Non-Indifferent Nature, Colour, On Stereoscopic Cinema, Memoirs, as well as his reflections on montage dating from 1937-41, collected into the articles ‘Montage 1937’, ‘Montage 1938’ and ‘Vertical Montage I, II, III’.
