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Montage, Découpage, Mise en scène: Essays on Film Form
Montage, découpage, mise en scè these three French terms are central to debates around film history and aesthetics in every language, yet the precise meaning of each and especially their relations with one another remain a source of confusion for many. In this unique volume, film scholars Laurent Le Forestier, Timothy Barnard and Frank Kessler examine in lively, readable prose the history of these concepts in film theory and criticism and their genesis and development in practice during cinema’s foundational first half-century and beyond—from early cinema to the modern mise en scène criticism of the 1950s and 60s by way of silent-era explorations of the theory and practice of montage and the early sound period’s counter example of découpage. Each 30,000-word essay serves as an essential guide for students and specialists alike, combining historical overview with fresh ideas about film aesthetics today, drawing on the writings of a broad range of modern-day and historical figures, both well-known (Bazin, Eisenstein) and perhaps unfamiliar to the reader before now.
Frank Kessler explores the origins of mise en scène in 19th-century theatre and its place in the contemporary digital cinematic landscape by way of the auteur theories of French film criticism of the 1950s and 60s and mise en scène and sound in the cinema. Kessler’s three-pronged historical, theoretical and practical approach fills a major gap in the literature on cinematic mise en scène.
Timothy Barnard, in the only discussion of découpage in English, surveys a broad range of writings—including those of André Bazin, for whom découpage was central—which see a film’s ‘relations between shots’ not as the work of editing, with which it is regularly confused, but rather of the camera’s formal treatment and sequencing of the mise en scène.
Laurent Le Forestier’s premise is that montage must always be considered in light of the time and place in which it operates and studied in relation to other arts and social phenomena. As a form of thought, montage speaks to constantly fluctuating realities. His study of the concept’s odyssey and transformations lays the foundation for what could become a utopian total history of montage.
"A beta-version of this brilliant idea for an affordable text on film form had already demonstrated its worth in my classroom. And now we have this enlarged edition, in which three scrupulous scholars—genuine philologists of film theory—have brought precision and nuance to the way we talk about the most powerful yet befuddling art of the twentieth century. ‘Montage’, ‘Découpage’, ‘Mise en scène’. . . . To grasp the complexities of such nearly mystical terms may be the swiftest, securest way for students—for anyone—to understand and articulate what counts in how early, classical and modernist films look and sound. An uncommon, and uncommonly useful book in the film studies discipline."
— Dudley Andrew, R. Seldon Rose Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University
"How handy to have, in a single volume, ‘mise en scène’ correctly shorn of its unnecessary hyphens and treated by Frank Kessler as a particular way station in the developments of film criticism and film theory, ‘montage’ illuminated historically and kaleidoscopically by Laurent Le Forestier, and most importantly (because most in need of clarification for Anglo-Americans), ‘découpage’ extensively and definitively redefined by Timothy Barnard."
— Jonathan Rosenbaum
Frank Kessler explores the origins of mise en scène in 19th-century theatre and its place in the contemporary digital cinematic landscape by way of the auteur theories of French film criticism of the 1950s and 60s and mise en scène and sound in the cinema. Kessler’s three-pronged historical, theoretical and practical approach fills a major gap in the literature on cinematic mise en scène.
Timothy Barnard, in the only discussion of découpage in English, surveys a broad range of writings—including those of André Bazin, for whom découpage was central—which see a film’s ‘relations between shots’ not as the work of editing, with which it is regularly confused, but rather of the camera’s formal treatment and sequencing of the mise en scène.
Laurent Le Forestier’s premise is that montage must always be considered in light of the time and place in which it operates and studied in relation to other arts and social phenomena. As a form of thought, montage speaks to constantly fluctuating realities. His study of the concept’s odyssey and transformations lays the foundation for what could become a utopian total history of montage.
"A beta-version of this brilliant idea for an affordable text on film form had already demonstrated its worth in my classroom. And now we have this enlarged edition, in which three scrupulous scholars—genuine philologists of film theory—have brought precision and nuance to the way we talk about the most powerful yet befuddling art of the twentieth century. ‘Montage’, ‘Découpage’, ‘Mise en scène’. . . . To grasp the complexities of such nearly mystical terms may be the swiftest, securest way for students—for anyone—to understand and articulate what counts in how early, classical and modernist films look and sound. An uncommon, and uncommonly useful book in the film studies discipline."
— Dudley Andrew, R. Seldon Rose Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University
"How handy to have, in a single volume, ‘mise en scène’ correctly shorn of its unnecessary hyphens and treated by Frank Kessler as a particular way station in the developments of film criticism and film theory, ‘montage’ illuminated historically and kaleidoscopically by Laurent Le Forestier, and most importantly (because most in need of clarification for Anglo-Americans), ‘découpage’ extensively and definitively redefined by Timothy Barnard."
— Jonathan Rosenbaum
- GenresFilm
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 7, 2020
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March 13, 2026
bazin's "the evolution of the language of cinema" could also have been the title of this, but so could it be "the evolution of disagreements concerning the language of cinema". a book split into three separate long essays each taking on a key element of film form. even merely defining each concept proves tricky, as definitions evolve, mutate, facets come into being while others go extinct. translation (as all three originate as french terms) and very often mistranslation becomes a fascinating stumbling block. to varying degrees does each essay : a) clarify the concept at hand b) elucidate its evolution and c) fruitfully integrates it into conversation with the other two terms and the a) and b) arrived at by the other essays. if i was giving out grades i may say...mise en scene B , decoupage A, montage C. the montage essay i would almost say felt perfunctory, since in defining decoupage (in preceding essay) a fair bit of contrasting it with montage (defining it by that contrast) was already done. i would also say on a formal level , rhetorical level , in terms of advancing an argument , the decoupage essay was by far the most effective , even exciting to read, advancing as it did by a clear regimen of providing and unpacking quotes from primary sources and tracking the stops and starts of the evolution of the term that way.
in any case, highly useful book one wishes would grace any "intro to film" class going forward. astonishingly has in its purview all the original sources i remember those types of classes covering or could conceivably include plus more while more importantly, picking and pulling the relevance and irrelevance out of each to arrive at a vastly more clarified understanding.
in any case, highly useful book one wishes would grace any "intro to film" class going forward. astonishingly has in its purview all the original sources i remember those types of classes covering or could conceivably include plus more while more importantly, picking and pulling the relevance and irrelevance out of each to arrive at a vastly more clarified understanding.
Displaying 1 of 1 review