Black Girl by Ousmane Sembene Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstien

Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstien and Black Girl by Ousmane Sembene

In the movie “Battleship Potemkin,” Eisenstein used the filmmaking technique called tertium quid, representing the connection of individual scene parts to create a bigger picture. It was not only about the combination of the images but also the message to be disseminated to the target audience.

Based on montage theory, the development of suspense and rhythm created rationality in which concepts and linkages seemed to be connected impeccably. For instance, in the historical scene of Odessa’s steps sequence, the distinct individuality of the moments that came out as fear and terror was shown in a sequence not thought of before. The emotional climax was developed with the help of montage and is an example of mise-en-scene in the history of cinema.

The jump cuts showing thematic stiffness between people flowing up and down and throes falling from the Odessa stairs was a visual experience. The stretching of a seven-minute scene with the tension of visual cuts that appear to work flawlessly takes away the audience’s perception of time so long that it would have seemed longer in any other scene in any other movie.

However, the speedy progress of the scene with image alteration was a brilliant idea by Eisenstein, creating an outcome so magnificent that it had a connection with the audience’s feelings, emotionally and ideologically. Also, it should be noted that the entire film has used the montage technique with a mise-en-scene presence of items within the scenes that represent one emotion, theme, or another, connected with the main goal of the movie that shows the revolution of the working class.

On the other hand, the mise-en-scene presented in another masterpiece, “Black Girl” by Ousmane Sembene, cannot be ignored. The sense of identity and the related confusion is shown throughout the film, which follows the theme of cultural discrimination, appropriation, and postcolonial experience of mistreatment and patriarchy.

Diouana is wearing a particular dress when she is seen at the airport but is scolded by the mistress at whose house she started working. The mistress asks her to put an apron on her dress as if she wants to clothe her true identity. She sees a picture of herself from a long time ago where she was wearing clothes she liked before wearing those which she is now forced to wear while working.

When Diouana is shown committing suicide, she is naked and seems to be free of her identity in any form. Taking the dress off looked like she was letting go of her burden of the identity she wanted to be and what others wanted her to be. The mise-en-scene technique used in the scenes connected with the display of the clothes the character is wearing portrays the loss of identity in the times of post-independence and French colonialism.

Also, the connection of montage editing could be seen when Diouana is lonely and thinks in the voice-over tactic that has anyone thought of her or called her, and this is where the point-of-view scene takes us into her head, her thoughts of her life which is thrilling to watch. This is where the audience knows that it is her story and a dramatic imposition of a monologue in French for giving powerful contextual existence to Diouana’s character.