Slavko Vorkapich Montage Sequences

Slavko Vorkapich (Serbian, 1894–1976) created some of the most spectacular Hollywood film montage sequences when montage was emerging as a sophisticated new filmmaking technique. This selection of Vorkapich sequences includes excerpts from films made between 1928 and 1950 that demonstrate Vorkapich’s mastery of film montage. 

Montage is a quick succession of shots designed to artfully manipulate time while advancing a film’s plot. It first appeared in European films made in the 1920s by innovators like Sergei Eisenstein and Abel Gance. These directors would place montage sequences at key moments within their films to add layers of meaning to their narratives. During this time, Vorkapich, a skilled visual artist and recent immigrant to the United States, was living in Hollywood and had managed to find work in the fast-growing film industry. In 1927, Vorkapich began working with the French director, Robert Florey, and together they created the highly regarded American avant-garde short The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra (1928). Vorkapich was largely responsible for the remarkable visual design of the film, which led to opportunities with major film studios, who would hire Vorkapich to create his signature experimental montage sequences to add to the excitement of over twenty releases made between 1928 and1944.

Vorkapich’s sequences harnessed the power of film juxtaposition by combining striking imagery with rapid cutting to create “symphonies of visual movement.” Vorkapich enjoyed creative freedom to build his sequences, but sometimes his work was so extreme that the studios felt the need to tone things down for the final edit. The sequences on this program survive in their original state because they were saved by Vorkapich himself and represent his pure vision before further studio cuts were made. A few of the sequences are from otherwise lost films and represent the only extant surviving footage. The final film on the program, Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome, was made at a later time and is reported to be a project created with students while he was a teacher at the University of Southern California. 

This compilation was curated by Bruce Posner and produced by David Shepard for the Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894–1941 DVD boxset.

Please note: Some sequences portray imagery of war violence. 
 

List of the excerpts:  
Skyline Dance from Safety in Numbers (Victor Schertzinger, US 1930)  
Money Machine from The Wolf of Wall Street (Rowland V. Lee, US 1928) (lost film with just this sequence surviving)  
Prohibition from Sins of the Fathers (Ludwig Berger, US 1928) (a print is reported to exist)  
Total Warfare from The President Vanishes (William A. Wellman, US 1934)  
The Furies from Crime Without Passion (Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, US 1934)  
Battle of Vitoria from The Firefly (Robert Z. Leonard, US 1937)  
Dora from David Copperfield (George Cukor, US 1935)  
Liberty from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, US 1939)  
Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (Slavko Vorkapich, US ca. 1950)