Eisenstein at 100

Summary

The great Russian filmmaker and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein has become the subject of renewed interest a century after his birth. A decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, with fresh material on his life and art now consequently available, a more complex picture of Eisenstein is emerging. This collection -- featuring the work of major film theorists and Russian scholars -- offers the first post-Soviet reconsideration of Eisenstein's contribution to world cinema.

The contributors address themes previously avoided by Soviet critics, such as sexuality, religion, gender, and politics, in The Battleship Potemkin, October, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible. Of particular concern here is Eisenstein's struggle with Soviet censorship, which resulted in a tenuous balance between the pressures of the state and his goals as an artist. Essays explore the manner in which Eisenstein's later theoretical writings reveal continuity with the better-known earlier work, issues of historical revisionism, and the relationship between autobiography and the films.

Rath

Acknowledgments

vii

A Note on Transliteration

Introduction: Rethinking Eisenstein

(12)

Al LaValley

Barry P. Scherr

Part One EISENSTEIN'S THEORY AND PRACTICE: NEW PERSPECTIVES

Eisenstein, Socialist Realism, and the Charms of Mizanstsena

(25)

David Bordwell

The Evolving Eisenstein: Three Theoretical Constructs of Sergei Eisenstein

(14)

Oksana Bulgakowa

Maintaining, Blurring, and Transcending Gender Lines in Eisenstein

(13)

Al LaValley

The Circle and the Line: Eisenstein, Florensky, and Russian Orthodoxy

(12)

Rosamund Bartlett

Eisenstein's October: On the Cinematic Allegorization of History

(14)

Hakan Lovgren

Part Two EISENSTEIN AND CULTURAL INTERACTIONS: AN ANXIOUS INFLUENCE

Eisenstein: Lessons with Hollywood

(18)

James Goodwin

Censorship, Culture, and Codpieces: Eisenstein's Influence in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s

109

(12)

Ian Christie

Viktor Shklovsky: The Good and Awkward Friend

121

(8)

Nikita Lary

Once in a Lifetime: Eisenstein and His Associates as Literary Prototypes in a Novel

129

(7)

Lev Kassil

Omry Ronen

Eisenstein: Barometer of the Thaw

136

(12)

Josephine Woll

In the Name of the Father: The Eisenstein Connection in Films by Tarkovsky and Askoldov

148

(13)

Andrew Barratt

Eisenstein and Tarkovsky: A Montage of Attractions

161

(8)

Vida T. Johnson

Visual Patterning, Vertical Montage, and Ideological Protest: Eisenstein's Stylistic Legacy to East European Filmmakers

169

(24)

Herbert Eagle

Part Three RECONTEXTUALIZING THE LATE FILMS: HISTORY, FILM, AND POLITICS

A History of Bezhin Meadow

193

(14)

Peter Kenez

Alexander Nevsky: Film without a hero

207

(20)

Barry P. Scherr

The Politics of Bewilderment: Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible in 1945

227

(26)

Joan Neuberger

The Power of Grammar and the Grammar of Power: The Childhood Scenes in Ivan the Terrible

253

(15)

Alexander Zholkovsky

Ivan the Terrible: Eisenstein's Rules of Reading

268

(24)

Yuri Tsivian

Ivan the Terrible and ``The Juncture of Beginning and End''

292

(13)

Anne Nesbet

About the Contributors

305

(4)

Index

309

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