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Anyone with a real interest in the art and artifice of
cinematic film could not have failed to have heard of Sergi
Eisenstein (1898-1948), one of the men who did the most to
create the modern language and theory of film and a major
contributor to the culture of the twentieth century. His greatest
contribution was the montage, a film technique which structures
the majority of his films. From a modern perspective this
has the unfortunate effect of dissipating the idea of a central
protagonist, leaving many of his films without a human focus
for his audience. However, much of modern cinema techniques
would be missing without the experimentation of Eisenstein.
Born
in Riga, Eisenstein witnessed the Russian revolution and its
ideals where to inform his film subjects. To celebrate the
ninetieth year since the revolution Tartan has released the
first of three box sets which contains three of his earliest
films: Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925)
and October (1927). This is a Soviet film maker, putting
forward Soviet ideals, which means that Eisenstein was not
above using propaganda methodology; obviously this means that
the church, state and ruling class are uniformly bad and are
often portrayed with all the subtlety of a pantomime villain.
One can only assume that the proletariat was thought to be
so uneducated that subtlety was not possible, leading to the
portrayal of anyone in authority as grotesque - making many
of the films seem heavy handed to a contemporary audience.
All
three films are silent except for an orchestral score, but
all appear to have had their speech screens redubbed as they
are noticeably crisper from the films themselves. The prints
have held up surprisingly well, though there is evidence of
artefacts, there doesn't seem to be any extensive print damage.
What minor damage there is does not detract from the films.
Given the age of the prints it's a wonder that they look as
good as they do. For those of you worried, given the films
ages, that everyone will be walking a tad too fast - like
the Keystone Cops and my copy of Metropolis - fear
not as the action takes place at the appropriate pace and
there is never a point at which the Benny Hill girls chasing
music ('Yakety Sax' by Randy Randolph and James Rich) intrudes
upon your consciousness.
Strike!
(1924) was the first film directed and partially written by
Eisenstein. It portrays a factory strike in 1912 tsarist Russia.
The film runs for one hour and twenty-eight minutes
When
a fellow worker commits suicide after being falsely accused
of theft, his work colleagues go on strike. To counteract
this, the bosses send in spies to determine who the trouble
makers are. Their eventual, terminal, solution to the problem
is to send in the troops to kill everyone.
The
film is cut into six episodes, many of which are used to contrast
the abject poverty of the workers in comparison to the factory
owner. Given that the film does not have access to many of
the techniques which would later become standard, like the
tracking shot (basically they had not been invented), it's
surprising just how well the editing, scene cutting and montage
work to keep the film pushing forward at a cracking pace.
Few, if any, of the shots look anachronistic. The style continues
to have all the subtlety of a jack hammer as we have endless
staccato shots of fat cats (yes they are very fat), liberally
interspersed with shots of the down trodden, yet noble, workers.
The
film comes in stereo, 5.1 or DTS and has a new score by Ed
Hughes and performed by the New Music Players, who were touring,
this year, with the score.
Battleship
Potemkin (1925) directed by Eisenstein has got to be one
of his most famous films, if nothing else for the shot of
the baby in the carriage bouncing down the Odessa steps, during
a massacre, which turns up as a homage in The Untouchables
and Naked Gun 33 1/3.
Abused
by their officers, the sailors on the Battleship Potemkin
finally revolt when their complaints about the maggot ridden
food are met with a firing squad. They rise up in revolt and
are joined by the people of Odessa. The response of the authorities
is to send in the army to kill everybody.
This
film, running at one hour fourteen minutes, is rightly thought
to be a classic of the silent era and a fundamental landmark
on the road to the full language of modern film. This print
comes with another Ed Hughes score as well as the option to
watch the film with a score by Nikolai Kryukov. The disc contains
an extra in the form of a feature looking at the recording
session for the new score. Once again the audio comes in stereo,
5.1 and DTS.
There
is little that one can add to a film, that hasn't already
been said before, that will not sound banal or repetitive,
except to say that if you are a true film buff then you have
to own this film.
The
last film in the set is October (Ten Days that shook
the World, 1927), directed by Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov.
It was specifically commissioned by the state to celebrate
the tenth anniversary of the Russian revolution. The state
wanted a realistic documentary style and they nearly got it,
though they were not really happy with the result as Eisenstein
could not help exercising the artist within him.
Tensions
between the ruling class and the proletariat eventually spill
over into revolution and a bloody struggle ensues to determine
Russia's future.
The
disc comes with an extra feature in the form of an alternative
score by Edward Meisel, strangely enough it is the only disc
in the set which does not have audio options, leaving you
with just stereo.
As
a political document it suffers the same heavy handedness
of his previous films, as a work of art it is flawed by its
need to work as propaganda, but as a historical document it's
quite priceless. This was filmed only ten years after the
revolution in the exact locations and often with people who
had been personally involved.
The
box set represents some of the most important films, not only
of the silent era, but of any era for here was born modern
cinema - any true fan will want a piece of this. My only concern
is that if you don't know that much about the history of cinema
then you may not understand their importance, a commentary
or feature would have gone a long way to opening these films
up to a wider audience.
 
Charles
Packer
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