STATEMENT ON SOUNDSergi Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, & Grigori Alexandrov

The whole world now speaks of the ‘silent’ that has found its voice

We who work in the USSR recognize the practical implementation of sound cinema is not feasible in the near future

It’s opportune to make a statement

Contemporary cinema, operating through visual images, has a powerful effect on the individual & rightfully occupies one of the leading positions in the ranks of the arts

Great influence is montage

The significant features

Strengthen & broaden the montage methods of influencing the audience

Easy to distinguish the insignificance of color & stereoscopic cinema in comparison with the great significance of sound

Sound is a double-edged invention , will be along the line of least resistance, i.e. in the filed of the satisfaction of simple curiosity

Commercial exploitation of the most saleable goods, i.e. of talking pictures – those in which the sound is recorded in a natural manner

The danger comes accompanied by the loss of innocence, purity of the initial concept of cinema’s possibilities can only intensify its use for ‘dramas of high culture’ & other photographed presentations of a theatrical orderSound used in this way will destroy the culture of montageDetrimental to montage which operates not with fragments but through the juxtaposition of fragmentsOnly the contrapuntal use of sound vis-à-vis the visual fragment of montage will open up new possibilities for the development & perfection of montage

The first experiments in sound must aim at a sharp discord with the visual images

will result consequently in the creation of a new orchestral counterpoint of visual & sound images

The first blind alley

Intertitle & all the vain attempts to integrate it into montage composition as a unit of montage

The second blind alley

comprises explanatory sequences (e.g. long shots) which complicate the composition of the montage & slow down the rhythm

Sound, treated as a new element of montage

Contrapuntal method of structuring a sound film not only does not weaken the international nature of cinema but gives to its meaning unparalleled strength & cultural heights

With this method of construction the sound film will not be imprisoned within national markets

Speeding the idea contained in a film throughout the whole globe, preserving its world-wide viability