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Sergei Eisenstein was born on January 23, 1898. The "boy from Riga" in Latvia was one of the most influential filmmakers and theorists of the twentieth century. Influenced by the Soviet avant garde of the early twenties, he became one of the leading practioners and theorists of constructivist aesthetics.

In his essay A Dialectical Approach to Film Form, Eisenstein articulated the doctrine which underlies many of his theories relating to montage. The juxtaposition or montage of shots can be calculated and manipulated in a number of different ways to achieve a variety of effects. Eisenstein lists four 'definite' categories of montage: rhythmic montage, tonal montage, metric montage and his final, most controversial form, intellectual montage. Any of these forms of montage can operate simultaneously within any given sequence.