Sergei Eisenstein

 Sergei Eisenstein



Strike (1925)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

October (Ten Days That Shook the World) (1927)

Old and New (1929)

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944)

Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1958)






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7. October (Ten Days That Shook the World) (1927)


For the 10th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution, Sergei Eisenstein created a piece of Soviet propaganda that fictionally recounted the events. Now that he was a master of the Soviet Montage, he cranked the volume up to 11 with "October (Ten Days That Shook the World." Eisenstein was able to use intellectual montage to create a hindsight perspective. The film itself is a testament to how film can present a opinionated representation of historical events. 




6. Old and New (1929)


Not everyone in the Soviet Union was on board with Communism in the 1920s, especially rural farmers. With "Old and New," Eisenstein crafted a simple story of a group of individualized farmers who form a communal farm collective. Eisenstein compares the 'old' methods of farming with the 'new' collective methods.




5. Alexander Nevsky (1938)


In 1938, on the eve of World War II, the Soviets were feeling the pressure from Nazi Germany. To prepare the Soviet people for oncoming war, Eisenstein created his war epic, "Alexander Nevsky." Eisenstein's mastery of visual language allowed him to render a sense of unity in the film, which spilt out from the screen to audiences. Think about the film as a form of 'hype video.' 




4. Battleship Potemkin (1925)


Often considered Sergei Eisenstein's best film, "Battleship Potemkin" certainly proves to be the most important. Expanding his montage theory he employed in "Strike" the same year, Eisenstein constructs a revolution on screen, and at the same time implores you to do the same. Most known for its "Odessa Steps" sequence, this is often the film shown on day 1 of film school. A director had never before used intellectual editing to manipulate emotion. Not only this, but Eisenstein used editing to also INSTILL emotion. This revolutionary concept proved to be birth of modern cinema as we know it.




3. Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944)


How exactly do you criticize Joseph Stalin right to his face? Well, if you're Sergei Eisenstein, you construct a story that demonstrates the victorious rise of Stalin's favorite Russian ruler, Ivan the Terrible. However, through this rise also comes deceit. Through careful crafting of a mystical visual language, Eisenstein was able to communicate abstract ideas via visual movement, mise-en-scene, and interpretive perceptive design. What came together was a masterful rendition of the rise of a historical Russian monarch, along with veiled interpretations of the inevitable fallouts of his tyranny.





2. Strike (1925)


Many believe that "Battleship Potemkin" was the ignition point for the Soviet Montage movement. This was mainly because "Potemkin" became a global sensation after its release. However, it was Sergei Eisenstein's first film, "Strike" that exercised his theories. Using editing, Eisenstein formed consecutive images that created abstract concepts. With this, he was able to craft a film critiquing Western capitalism, while bolstering the need for collective communism. These broad ideas were communicated through the precise editing together of images that conveyed politically charged concepts. 





1. Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1958)


Joseph Stalin loved "Ivan the Terrible Part I" so much that he awarded it the Stalin Prize. With "Ivan the Terrible, Part II," on the other hand, he banned it. In the last years of his life, Eisenstein constructed a film that expands the visual elements of the first film to extreme levels. Part II becomes a bizarre and unruly tapestry of images, brilliant constructed by Eisenstein. While the first part is mainly a historical epic, this film takes a deeper plunge into the darker elements of the human soul. Ivan's quest for power turns into an examination of humanity's desires for protection from a dangerous world, clinging desperately to the safety and comforts we so desperately desire - all of this as a means to return to the womb to shield us from the reaches of death.


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