Dialectical Montage Theory

Sergei Eisenstein's theory that film meaning is produced not within individual shots but in the collision between shots — montage as intellectual argument through visual juxtaposition.

Dialectical montage: the collision of two shots creates a meaning that neither contains — thesis + antithesis = synthesis in visual form. Not merely editing for continuity but editing for ideological effect. Intellectual cinema: films can express abstract ideas through the juxtaposition of images (e.g., the Odessa Steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin). Influenced by Hegel's dialectic and Pavlov's reflex theory. The most theoretically sophisticated approach to film editing.