Expressive Visual Effects from Silent to Sound Film

It is often assumed that with the introduction of synchronized sound, ‘silent-style’ visual effects largely disappeared as an expressive device. However, sound films continued to render abstract ideas by means of multiple exposure and split screen mattes. The resulting composites, which I call montage shots, do not seek to represent physical realities within the diegesis. Instead, they are clearly recognizable as formal devices that encourage viewers to forge conceptual connections between simultaneously presented images. The case of montage shots attests to a far greater consistency between silent and sound aesthetics than is usually acknowledged. It reveals how early sound films cultivated and expanded silent cinema's modes of expressivity, but also relegated them to discrete non-mimetic episodes. Attention to alternative approaches to expressive visual effects also allows us to rethink the instance of the Hollywood montage sequence, which became a staple of American filmmaking for decades to come.