What I found most interesting about Sergei Einstein’s Dialectic Approach to Film Form was its relationship between conflict and art. Einstein set out to analyze and fully explicate his dialectic for film art by stating that these factors are essential when creating film and art in general. In his view, the conflict would involve social mission, nature, and methodology. These factors are crucial because they provide an outlet for creating art contradictory to the natural world. More specifically, a piece of art’s (in this case, a film) social mission aims to bring contradictions between life and art to the fore. By forging essential concepts through the abstract nature of art, one can engage with various topics and matters of concern in an evocative manner. In this case, the film’s desired outcome should involve polarization through producing passionate reactions within the audience. When this occurs, the film fulfills its goal of conveying a message to the spectator authentically and creatively. The nature of art displays a conflict between existence within the world and the creative process. Combined, they provide a level of insight into the piece, which is unique and necessary for understanding how we view our environment. Thus, the final element of Einstein’s dialectic was the art’s overall methodology. Within this reading, he examined film’s montage and how this correlates with a film’s methodology. Fundamentally, the power that comes from montage is not found within the sequential nature of motion pictures or images within cinema but in these images’ relation to one another within an overall story. 

Alternatively, the most fascinating aspect of Andre Bazin’s Myth of Total Cinema was the notion of film progression to achieve a fundamental goal. In attempting to alter and creatively interpret the outside world within the art form that is most true to life, the artist has the freedom to convey an overall profound and genuinely free message. When creating a film, the artist can formulate an illusion through sight and sound, which can conjure passion within the spectator. Importantly, this desire to create a formal representation of reality drives the advancement of film progression. In attempting to gain a realistic representation of life, cinema will continually advance toward the unattainable goal of total immersion. Despite film being the most realistic art form, proper or “perfect” representations of life through motion pictures will never be genuinely perfect since this and all art forms are still separated from reality. This idea of total cinema drives technological advancement, funding, and the overall progression of film as a medium.