Soviet Union, 1928, 116 min., Silent with English Intertitles.
Writer-Directors: Sergej Eisenstein, Grigorij Aleksandrov, Cinematography: Ėduard Tissé, Music: Edmund Meisel, Cast: Nikolaj Popov, Vasilij Nikandrov, Boris Livanov, Ljaščenko, Čibisov, Nikolaj Podvojskij, Ėduard Tissé
Introduction by Fareed Majari, director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, and a reception follow the screening
For the 10th anniversary of the Russian Revolution Eisenstein re-enacted the 10 days that shook the world. Using thousands of extras the then 29-year-old shooting star of Soviet cinema tells the story of the events that led to the fall of the house of the Romanovs. “He was looking for “types” rather than prominent actors.
Then, he sounds the charge at the Winter Palace, this time for real, in order to deliver the desired images of the revolution.” (Source: Alexander Schwarz, Filmmuseum München)
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (1898- 1948) was the most influential Soviet film director. He was one of Meyerhold‘s students and started out at the Proletkult Theater in Moscow, where he developed new structures of theatrical narration. As a film director his quest for a new language of cinema, according to Lenin the most important art form, resulted in a new and innovative use of editing, rhythm and framing.
His work at the Mosfilm studios led to a series of revolutionary-historical films, such as Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925), October (1927). On the eve of World War II he directed the patriotic historical epos Alexander Nevski (1938). After the war he wrote and helmed the shooing of Ivan the Terrible (1945, part 2 posthumously in 1958, part 3 only as a fragment), which drew severe criticism from the communist party.
Edmund Meisel (1894 – 1930) was an Austrian-born composer who rose to prominence for the scores for Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin and October as well as for Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927).
$1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1.
Back
