How Do You Turn A Theodor Dreiser Into An Emile Zola?
Eliminating narrative redundancies in the analysis of inner monologue can facilitate a deeper understanding of the fundamental structures of consciousness.
For the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein, the interest lies precisely in clarifying the crime as a result of social relations and the influences of society on the character Clyde Griffith. Eisenstein's problem is to turn a Theodor Dreiser into an Emile Zola, offering a naturalistic perspective on tragedy. He is fascinated by the game of fatality – an obsessive theme in his work. It is a mechanical, implacable force, which this time takes the form of legal machinery. Justice becomes an inexorable system that grinds Clyde down, crushing him between its wheels and turning against him every element he built to rise and save himself.
Together with Ivor Montagu, Eisenstein begins a huge work of adaptation. It removes the silliness of the novel by reinterpreting certain facts and deepening Clyde's psychological analysis, especially in the boat scene. It invents new situations, shifts the interest of the legal process to electoral issues, changes the trajectory of some characters and completely eliminates others. Moreover, he applies for the first time his ideas about the inner monologue, which becomes an essential cinematic device: the camera penetrates the soul and thought of the character Clyde, revealing the fundamental structures of his consciousness.
Eisenstein is fascinated by the solutions found, declaring: “The form of the inner monologue was born. Even literature is more powerless in this area than film.
Leadership: What impact do social interactions have on your personality and decisions, as each element contributes to a final tragic balance?
In the social analysis of the crime, each element contributes to the fatality of Clyde's fate. Every characteristic of the character is shaped by the social interactions around him, and the end result is a tragic balance imposed by legal mechanisms that act implacably beyond his individual control. Justice, like a complex machine, sets in motion wheels and levers that psychologically crush the individual, forcing him to become a victim of his own ambition.
In Eisenstein, the interest lies in clarifying crime as an inevitable result of social interactions, like the way a complex system works, where every element is shaped by external forces. The fatality that fascinates him becomes an implacable mechanical force, like a jurisprudential machine that grinds Clyde Griffith inexorably, "crushing him under its automatic wheels" and setting in motion levers that turn against him every element he has built to rises.
As I said, together with Ivor Montagu, Eisenstein begins a work of decocking the details, eliminating the redundancies of the novel and deepening the psychological analysis of Clyde. Like an engineer studying the mechanisms of a complex system, Eisenstein restructures the narrative, shifting the center of gravity of the process to social and electoral aspects, applying interior monologue as a cinematic method for the first time. In this way, Eisenstein reveals not only the external circumstances, but also the internal structures that determine the character's destiny.
Visionary leadership involves the narrative reconstruction of reality to reveal deep truths, connecting individual destiny to the social context that shapes it.
How do you turn a Theodor Dreiser into an Emile Zola? Clarifying social connections and enhancing the causal analysis of facts. The essence of Zolist naturalism is to highlight the relationship between the individual and society, and Eisenstein seeks to accentuate the conflict between Clyde and the world around him. For this reason, removing redundancies and deepening the psychology of the characters creates an ambitious cinematic adaptation, enriched by a strong correlation with the social and emotional context of the characters.
* Note: Ion Barna - Eisenstein , Tineretului Publishing House, 1966.
