Abstract
This article reviews aspects of Russian Formalist theory that appeared between 1914 and 1930 as applied to cinema, and argues that the period has bequeathed a rich legacy, facilitating the development of an original model for both the analysis and production of narrative film. The model, presented here as a multimodal, systemic-functional semiotic matrix, has its provenance in the history of Russian Formalism, and the influence of Formalism on the development of a multimodal systemic-functional semiotics as applied to cinema studies.