The first book to treat both Döblin's novel and the film adaptations of
it, which it does while also articulating theories of literary and film
montage.
Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz and its film adaptations by
Jutzi and Fassbinder are canonical works of literature and cinema, and
yet there is no monograph that treats all three. This omission is even
more striking since Döblin's novel is seen as the most famous example of
literary appropriation of film montage aesthetics. Mario Slugan
addresses this glaring oversight by considering montage in experiential,
historic, stylistic, and narratological terms. Starting from the novel
argument that montage is best understood as a perceptual experience
rather than as a juxtaposition of meaning, Slugan proposes that it was
the perceived experiential similarity with Dada photomontage and Soviet
montage films rather than any semantic contrast that made contemporary
critics identify Berlin Alexanderplatz as the first novel to appropriate
film montage. It was the perceived relative absence of montage in the
filmings of the novel, moreover, that significantly contributed to their
contemporary dismissals as failed adaptations. Slugan argues that both
Jutzi's and Fassbinder's films nevertheless present innovative types
ofboth visual and sound montage. These, in turn, allow for the
articulation of medium-specific traits of film montage as opposed to
those of literary montage, including the organization of time and space,
the use of ready-made material, and the relation of montage to the
figure of the narrator.
Mario Slugan is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at the Centre
for Cinema and Media Studies, Ghent University.
