James Joyce and Siergei Eisenstein : a story of one meeting

This article considers the affinity, influences, and theoretical or ideological connections between two pioneers of 20th century – James Joyce, a novelist, poet, and one of the most important writers of Modernism, and Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian film director, film theorist, and author of the theory of montage practically illustrated in his movies. The author tries to describe the kinship between the stylistics of Joyce’s and Eisenstein’s works. Eisenstein’s theories of montage are very important for the study of Joyce, taking into account Joyce’s visions based on elements of film technique and the Modernist reception of the cinema, and his use of methods analogous to film montage. The meeting of the two creators in 1929 was a significant moment for both of them. Eisenstein stressed the connections between Joyce’s texts and his own work, which were meaningful in his search for ways to demonstrate the cinema’s links to other forms of art.