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Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein. 1898-1948. Eisenstein: early biography. Born in Riga, Latvia, into the family of a prominent architect and engineer Father Jewish, mother Russian Graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineering in Saint Petersburg

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Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein

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  1. Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein 1898-1948

  2. Eisenstein: early biography • Born in Riga, Latvia, into the family of a prominent architect and engineer • Father Jewish, mother Russian • Graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineering in Saint Petersburg • In 1920, joined the Proletkult (“proletarian culture”) Central Workers’ Theatre in Moscow • Studied in the School for Stage Direction under Vsevolod Meyerhold in early 1920s

  3. Eisenstein Filmography • Strike 1923 • Battleship Potemkin (1925) • October (Ten Days that Shook the World) 1928 • The General Line (The Old and the New) 1929 • Que viva Mexico! (unfinished – abandoned 1932) • Bezhin Meadow (1935 – undistributed, destroyed) • Alexander Nevsky 1938 • Ivan the Terrible Pt. I 1944 • Ivan the Terrible Pt II (finished 1946, released only in 1958)

  4. Key Concepts in 1920s films, esp. Eisenstein • new cinematic language rejecting “literature” (narrative) and “theatre” (psychological realism of stage) • montage of attractions: collision (juxtaposing) of visual images to create a third meaning : (A + B = C) • typage: rejection of actors, preference for facial “types”

  5. Eisenstein and the Theatre • Worked under Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) • antirealist theatre • theatre of the grotesque • clowning, acrobatics • abstract, “constructivist” sets

  6. Eisenstein’s essay “Montage of Attractions” (1923) • “Montage of attractions”: cinema compared to theatre and circus • Tr.: “sequence of tricks” • first experiment in film: grotesque intermezzo inserted in play

  7. The Real versus Realism Avant-garde film rejected the “psychological realism” of Stanislavskian theatre. Eisenstein: “The Moscow Art Theatre is my deadly enemy. They string their emotions together to give a continuous illusion of reality. I take photographs of reality and then cut them up to produce emotions… I am not a realist, I am a materialist. I believe that material things, that matter gives us the basis of all our sensations. I get away from realism by going to reality.”

  8. Commedia dell’arte and the Grotesque • Jacques Callot (1592-1635): • French artist, engravings of Italian actors • Masks: Pantalone, Petrushka, dottore • Serious characters (innamorati): lovers joined at end of comedy, become heroic revolutionaries • For Russian theatre/film: source of grotesque – deformation of the human form, and expressive facial expression as mask

  9. Film Strike (1923) as a commedia dell'arte • First feature film, about workers’ strikes before the revolution • Serious heroes: revolutionaries • Dark comedy, the revolutionaries are suppressed. • Masks: factory managers, spies…

  10. October(1927) by Sergei EisensteinFirst non-documentary featuring Lenin

  11. Sergei Eisenstein’s October(Ten Days that Shook the World) (1927) • Based on book by John Reid • Made to commemorate 10th anniversary of Bolshevik seizure of Power • Historical inaccurate: the myth, not the literal truth • Political message conveyed visually • Film technique: editing • The narrative...what the story trying to tell?

  12. October: the events • Hardships of war • 23-27 February 1917 crisis • 15 March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicates • Confrontation between Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet (Workers' Council) • April 1917 Vladimir Lenin returns via the Finland Station • July Demonstrations broken up, Lenin goes into hiding • October 24-25 (7 November) 1917 • Storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd and removal of Provisional Government

  13. “Typage” as development of Mask inOctober(1927) • Typage (use of types): “Lenin” is played by a worker who looked similar. • No acting: simple gestures. • Lenin arrives at Finland Station

  14. Montage • Radical intercutting of unrelated shots to create emotional shock or intellectual impact. • Developed from “Kuleshov effect” • Early “shock” montage from Strike: • The killing of the workers and end of the strike.

  15. “Intellectual” montage • Montage of two shots to create comparison or metaphor: A + B = C • Intellectual Montage in October • “God and country” in • Montage of recognizable figures - anti-Communist leaders Kornilov and Kerensky - with dolls, e.g. Napoleon

  16. October • Sound through montage • the suppression of the workers’ July demonstration

  17. Eisenstein's October • Historically inaccurate: the myth, not the literal truth • Political message conveyed visually • Film technique: editing • Use of types: “Lenin” is a worker who looked similar. • No acting: simple gestures • Montage of faces, e.g. Kerensky, with dolls, e.g. Napoleon

  18. “Moving masses” in October

  19. October • Sound through montage - the suppression of the workers’ July demonstration

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