1928COMMUNISM & RUSSIA
THIS FILM WAS COMMISSIONED TO DIRECTOR SERGEI EISENSTEIN BY THE SOVIET CENTRAL COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF FESTIVITIES TO CELEBRATE THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. THE FILM MAKER CHOSE TO CAPTURE THE SPIRIT OF THE ERA BY FOCUSING ON ONE PLACE, AT ONE POINT IN TIME: PETROGRAD, BETWEEN FEBRUARY AND OCTOBER, 1917. THE RESULT IS, FROM ITS OPENING MOMENTS ON, A VISUALLY STUNNING FILM, AND A SYMPHONY OF NON-STOP RHYTHMIC EDITING FOR MONTAGE.
EISENSTEIN WAS ALLOWED COMPLETE ACCESS TO THE CITY OF PETROGRAD AND ITS POPULACE: HE EVEN WAS ABLE TO FILM AT THE CZAR'S WINTER PALACE. EISENSTEIN METRICULOUSLY RESEARCHED
THE PERIOD, USING NEWSREELS, NEWS REPORTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS, ACTUAL FOOTAGE OF THE EVENTS IN PETROGRAD SHOT BY FILM EDITOR ESTHER SHUB, AND JOHN REED'S BOOK, "TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD." NO PROFESSIONAL ACTORS WERE USED IN THIS FILM : VIA THE USE OF "TYPAGE." EISENSTEIN'S CASTING THEORY, ALL CHARACTERS FROM WORKER TO ARISTOCRAT WERE PLAYED BY APPROPRIATE TYPES, CULLED FROM THE POPULATION. QUITE A FEW HAD EVEN BEEN PARTICIPANTS IN THE HISTORY EISENSTEIN HAD SET OUT TO RECREATE.
ESSENTIALLY, THE FILM IS A RECOUNTING OF THAT HISTORY, FROM A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE. THE CZARISTS ARE SNIDE OLD MEN AND FRIVOLOUS, WELL-FED WOMEN: KERENSKY (THE HEAD OF THE COUNTRY'S PROFESSIONAL GOVERNMENT) IS A POWER-HUNGRY INCOMPETENT: WHILE THE BOLSHEVIKS ARE PASSIONATE, COMMITTED, HEROIC. THERE IS NO MAIN CHARACTER IN THIS FILM : NO ONE PERSON - NOT LENIN, NOT KERENSKY, NOT A MINISTER OR A BOLSHEVIK - IS SINGLED OUT AS THE SCENARIO UNRAVELS. THE HERO OF THE FILM, IF YOU WILL, IS THE PROLETARIAT. ITS TRIUMPH, ITS VICTORY, IS THE REVOLUTION.
IN SEQUENCE AFTER SEQUENCE EISENSTEIN ACHIEVES A STRIKING DRAMATIC EFFECT BY EMPLOYING VARIOUS CINEMATIC TECHNIQUES. IN SOME SCENES, IT IS CAMERA PLACEMENT : NOTE HIS USE OF CLOSE-UP, AND THE VARIETY OF ANGLES FROM WHICH HE MAKES HIS SHOTS. OR IT IS LIGHTING: OBSERVE THE STARK, EXPRESSIVE MANNER IN WHICH SO MANY OF THOSE SHOTS ARE LIT. OR IT IS THE MISE EN SCENE (THE COMPOSITION WITHIN THE FRAME). NOTE, FOR INSTANCE, HOW EISENSTEIN OFTEN WILL REPEAT THE SAME OBJECTS, THE SAME GEOMETRIC FORMS.
BUT THE KEY TO THE FILM'S DRAMATIC POWER IS MONTAGE, EISENSTEIN BRILLIANTLY EMPLOYS RAPID CUTTING IN THE REBELLION SEQUENCES: HE ALTERNATES SHOTS OF A MACHINE GUN AND A MAN'S FACE, WITH THE RESULTING EFFECT THE SEEMING RAT-TAT-TAT OF GUNFIRE - EVEN THOUGH NO GUN ACTUALLY IS FIRED.
THIS IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF EISENSTEIN'S UTILIZATION OF WHAT HE CALLED INTELLECTUAL MONTAGE. IF MONTAGE MAY BE DEFINED AS THE EDITING OF TWO PIECES OF FILM TO PRODUCE AN IDEA OR POINT OF VIEW (WHICH IS NOT COMMUNICATED WHEN EITHER SHOT IS VIEWED BY ITSELF.) INTELLECTUAL MONTAGE TAKES THIS CONCEPT TO A HIGHER PLANE. HERE, NEW MEANINGS ARE DERIVED THAT ARE NOT JUST EMOTIONAL BUT ABSTRACT, AND INTELLECTUAL. FOR EXAMPLE, EISENSTEIN CUTS FROM A SHOT IF KERENSKY TO ONE OF A STATUE OF NAPOLEON: HE FOLLOWS SHOTS OF THE WORD "GOD" AND A CHRIST FIGURE WITH A SERIES OF PRIMITIVE IDOLS. THE RESULTING EFFECTS ARE, RESPECTIVELY, A DEBUNKING OF KERENSKY AND A CHASTIZING OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS: INTELLECTUALIZATIONS, COMMUNICATED IN AN ABSTRACT, SYMBOLIC MANNER.
THE FINAL CONTENT OF THIS FILM WAS INFLUENCED BY EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE SOVIET UNION WHILE THE FILM WAS IN PRODUCTION. A FIGHT FOR POWER WITHIN THE COMMUNIST PARTY WAS BEING WAGED: THIS CULMINATED IN THE SOLIDIFYING OF HIS POSITION BY STALIN, AND THE ELIMINATION OF HIS OPPOSITION, LED BY TROTSKY. IN HIS RETELLING OF EVENTS, EISENSTEIN WAS NOT DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THESE FORCES. AS THE SCHEDULED DATE OF THE FILM'S PREMIERE NOVEMBER 7, 1927 NEARED, TROTSKY'S SCHEME CAME TO LIGHT. AT THE LAST MINUTE, EISENSTEIN WAS ORDERED TO EXTENSIVELY RE-EDIT THE FILM: HE ELIMINATED ALMOST ONE-QUARTER OF THE FILM'S SCHEDULED LENGTH. NEVERTHELESS, TROTSKY STILL APPEARS IN THIS FILM ALBEIT ANONYMOUSLY AND EVER-SO-BRIEFLY.
THIS FILM WAS NOT WELL-RECEIVED IN THE SOVIET UNION. THIS RESPONSE WAS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE POLITICAL TURMOIL ACCOMPANYING THE FILM'S POST-PRODUCTION. EISENSTEIN'S USE OF INTELLECTUAL MONTAGE (WHICH, AT THE TIME, CONFUSED AUDIENCES AND CRITICS): AND EVEN FOR HIS CASTING. IN THE LATER CASE, THE WORKER CHOSEN TO REPRESENT LENIN MAY HAVE RESEMBLED THE MAN, BUT HE DID NOT COMMUNICATE LENIN'S CHARACTER WITH ANY GREAT DEPTH. EISENSTEIN, HOWEVER, WAS ATTEMPTING TO PORTRAY LENIN NOT AS AN INDIVIDUAL, A PERSONALITY, BUT IN A MORE OBJECTIVE MANNER: AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PROLETARIAT. THIS APPROACH, ACCORDING TO EISENSTEIN, WAS "THE METHOD OF LEAST INTERFERENCE WITH THE NATURAL COURSE AND COMBINATIONS OF EVENTS."
THE FILM WAS RELEASED IN THE U.S. AND ENGLAND IN 1928 AS "TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD." NOT SURPRISINGLY, MANY OF THE MONTAGE SEQUENCES WERE DELETED. FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REVOLUTION, GRIGORI ALEXANDROV (WHO WAS EISENSTEIN'S CHIEF ASSISTANT ON "STRIKE," "BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN," "OCTOBER" AND "THE GENERAL LINE") RECREATED EISENSTEIN'S ORIGINAL CUT, WORKING FROM THE FILM MAKER'S NOTES. (EISENSTEIN HAD OF COURSE DIED IN 1948.) AN ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE WAS COMPOSED BY SHOSTAKOVICH.
THE FINAL WORD ON THIS FILM SHOULD COME FROM ITS CREATOR. "FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF CONSTRUCTION," EISENSTEIN WROTE, THIS FILM IS BY NO MEANS FLAWLESS. IT'S JUST THAT IN THIS FILM THAT IS SO MUCH OF THE 'PEOPLE,' OF THE 'MASSES,' I ALLOWED MYSELF TO EXPERIMENT. DESPITE THE FACT THAT MY EXPERIMENTS ARE SELDOM APPRECIATED (GERMANY UNDERSTOOD NOT A SINGLE ONE!). THEY WERE ENOUGH TO BREAK THE COMPOSITION OF THE WORK AS A UNITY. BUT, ON THE OTHER HAND, THEY WERE ALSO ENOUGH TO ALLOW ME TO MAKE DEDUCTIONS WHICH ARE VERY, VERY FAR REACHING."