Eisenstein used colour only once - one section of the second part of Ivan the Terrible (1945) - but his writings on colour span almost 20 years. The theoretical process which leads Eisenstein to deal with colour is related to the concept of Vertical Montage, developed around the 1930s and then defined in his 1940-41 publication Vertikal'nyj Montaz (Vertical Montage). We can presume this to be the first approach of Eisenstein to colour, which is then further developed in the years after Ivan the Terrible with a second research period in the years 1946-48.

These two stages of Eisenstein's research are developed in coherence with his cinema theory. From the beginning colour in film is considered - as previously with sound - an element that can enrich the complex polyphony of a film.¹

According to Eisenstein there is no reason for creating a hierarchy of expressive means within a film, in fact every expressive tool - cinematography, music, acting, etc. - must be used at its best. Eisenstein talks about an ensemble, and compares the film to the orchestra where we do not have a continuous tutti but the instruments play parts, interchange melodies, and keep within the same tonality. In every film we need to put an emphasis on the appropriate means of expression for the specific scene, according to its content, theme or overall concept of the work.

A consequence is that colour can only be used as a dramatic and dramaturgic element. As with music, colour is appropriate whenever it is necessary. This, as Eisenstein later explains, does not mean that colour must be used alternated to monochromatic segments. It means that colour must keep a low profile, must not be noticeable until its own moment. Colour will therefore avoid becoming prominent at the same time we hear a whispered line of dialogue, will avoid the green patch of a dress when the drama is focused on the lips of the pale and shivering heroin. In this case colour behaves like framing, which cuts out what is irrelevant, and uses composition as a means to isolate only the essential elements. For Eisenstein colour is also a specific case of editing within the shot.

When Eisenstein talks about the dramatic function of colour he implies two concepts: firstly, as one of the various voices which build up a polyphonic dramaturgy of film, organised and revealed through colour (as well as the other components); secondly, as an active element, which expresses the will of the director, in contrast with the found naturalness of the profilmic. The process of using colour makes the director aware of an "external" coloured world already given and existing that can be turned into something internal and non-existing, with the aim to serve the feelings and ideas of the artist.

Colour is therefore approached in the same way as editing. From the film shot with a single point of view to the decoupage and editing, we see the breaking up of the amorphous and neutral "daily reality" of an event in order to reassemble it in the way we see it, which, in turns comes from our ideology, our weltanschauung. It is in this way that a mere mirroring of reality becomes a conscious reflection of reality as history, nature, behaviour and becomes a dynamic and creative re-presentation of the world.

This attitude is clearly revealed in the audio-visual editing. The art of audio-visual editing begins when, after the stage of a pure reflection of what is visible and audible, the director rearranges the event by emphasising the essence of what he or she would like to communicate to the audience. The audio-visual cinema began - according to Eisenstein - when the creak of the boot was separated from the image of the boot and coordinated with the face of a man who, in an anxious state, listens to the creak. For Eisenstein it is important that the nexus we can establish with another event is thematically necessary and not 'naturalistically' related.

Also in the case of colour we need to be able to operate a "separation". The idea of an indissoluble connection between the colour of the object and its colour resonance must conform to the same separation operated with sound. Like the creak of the boot had to be separated from the image of the boot that caused it, we need to separate the idea of orange from the mandarin colour in order for the colour to be inserted in a system of means of expression consciously and efficiently directed...

The colour ambivalence and arbitrary relationships...

The Gillette razor...

¹ It will be harder with colour, because the colour is inherent in the object and you cannot separate the two as you can with sound. Therefore the filming requires a much greater sense of forethought.

Ivan the Terrible part I and II (colour section) is distributed on video by Tartan Video and is available through MovieMail, ring 01432 262 910.