Pages
54
Files
Download Full Text (5.1 MB)
SJSU Faculty Member
Karl Toepfer
Description
This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.
Publication Date
2026
Document Type
Article
Publisher
Vosuri Media
City
San Francisco
Keywords
Czech Cinema, Gustav Machaty, Erotic Imagery, Erotic Cinema, Czech Poetism, Sergei Eisenstein, Montage Theory, Ecstasy
Disciplines
Film and Media Studies | Fine Arts | History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology | Language Interpretation and Translation | Modern Literature | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Photography | Slavic Languages and Societies | Theatre and Performance Studies
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Toepfer, Karl E., "Ideology and Iconography in Gustav Machatý’s Ecstasy (1933)" (2026). Open Educational Resources. 25.
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/oer/25
Included in
Film and Media Studies Commons, Fine Arts Commons, History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Language Interpretation and Translation Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Photography Commons, Slavic Languages and Societies Commons, Theatre and Performance Studies Commons
