Sergej Ejzenštejn

22.01.1898, Riga - 11.02.1948, Moskva

 

Director
Eisenstein was a Russian director, screenwriter and film theoretician. He began his career in the Moscow theatre group Proletkult under Vsevolod Meyerhold guidance. He began by directing theatre plays and, after some time, entered a career in film. This, in turn, led him to write numerous essays on topics such as the editing of attraction, clashing scenes, associative editing and intellectual film. In 1924, he made his first film Strike (Stachka), followed by the masterpiece The Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin, 1925), which made him world famous. Although he later made October (Oktyabr, 1928), The Battleship Potemkin remains the last film over whose production he had complete control. Despite the fact that he was always politically connected and favored Stalin’s regime, he had many problems with censorship, and managed to finish only seven films, leaving many of his projects unfinished. After the film Old and New/The General Line (Staroye i novoye, 1929), he made ˇQue Viva Mexico! (1932) in Mexico. Due to a lack of financial resources, he never finished this film, and left the recorded material in the US. His other films include Aleksandr Nevsky (Aleksandr Nevsky, 1938), Ivan the Terrible, Part One (Ivan Groznyj I, 1945) and Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyar's Plot (Ivan Groznyj II: Boyarsky zagovor, 1958). Eisenstein died at the age of fifty. He never completed his trilogy about Ivan Groznyj.

Filmography

-Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyar's Plot (Ivan Groznyj II: Boyarsky zagovor, 1958).
-Ivan the Terrible, Part I (Ivan Groznyj I, 1945)
-Aleksandr Nevsky (Aleksandr Nevsky, 1938)
-ˇQue Viva Mexico! (1932) (unfinished)
-Old and New/The General Line (Staroye i novoye, 1929)
-October (Oktyabr, 1928)
-The Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin, 1925)
-Strike (Stachka, 1924)


Films by this director

The Battleship Potemkin

(Bronenosets Potyomkin, USSR, 1925)

Directed by: Sergej Ejzenštejn
PHOTOGRAPHY: Eduard Tisse, Vladimir Popov
Synopsis:

This classic film contains the famous scene of the slaughter at the steps of Odessa. Considered Eisenstein’s finest film, it is included in many critic’s lists of the best films of all time. The central theme of this film is the mutiny on the Potemkin battle cruiser.

b/w, silent, 72'

Old and New/The General Line

(Staroye i novoye, USSR, 1929)

Directed by: Sergej Ejzenštejn
PHOTOGRAPHY: Eduard Tisse
Synopsis:

This film tells the story of a peasant girl who fights against greed and superstition, and shows the effects of mechanization and collectivization on the Soviet farms. Eduard Tisse did the stunning camera work.

b/w, silent, 125'

Aleksandr Nevsky

(1938)

Directed by: Sergej Ejzenštejn
PHOTOGRAPHY: Eduard Tisse
Synopsis:

This is Eisenstein’s first sound film. Sergei Prokofiev composed the original music for it. The story takes place in the 13th century, when Russian prince, Aleksandar Nevski, collects his army and fights against Germanic tribes.

b/w, 112 minuta

Que Viva Mexico

(¡Que viva Mexico!, USSR, 1932/1979)

Directed by: Sergej Ejzenštejn
PHOTOGRAPHY: Eduard Tisse
Synopsis:

Planiran u šest epizoda, film je kroz prolog (dokumentarne zapise o svetom gradu Maya), četiri epizode (Sandunga, o ljubavi mladog indijanskog para, Fiesta, prikaz koride i vjerske procesije, Maguey, gušenje pobune seljaka, i La Soldadera, priču o ženi koja je sudjelovala u revoluciji) te epilog (koji bi prikazivao povorku na Dan mrtvih) trebao pružiti fresku Meksika, prikazujući pritom individualne sudbine, narodne običaje, društveno-političke okolnosti, dok je svaka epizod...

b/w, silent, 88'

October 1917

(Oktjabr, USSR, 1927)

Directed by: Sergej Ejzenštejn
PHOTOGRAPHY: Eduard Tisse
Synopsis:

Tzv. februarskom/veljačkom revolucijom 1917. srušena je carska vlast u Rusiji. Nova vlada na čelu s Kerenskim ne popušta zahtjevima boljševika pa se oni, pod vodstvom Vladimira I. Lenjina, odlučuju preuzeti vlast napadom na Zimski dvorac u Petrogradu. Realiziravši film, poznat i pod nazivom Deset dana koji su protresli svijet, u čast desetogodišnjice tzv. Oktobarske/Listopadske revolucije i prema narudžbi vlasti, Ejzenštejn je do krajnjih granica isku&s...

b/w, silent, 115'
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