Eisenstein Rediscovered

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Eisenstein Rediscovered Edited by Ian Christie and Richard Taylor London and New York Contents Illustrations ix Notes on contributors xi General editors' preface xv Acknowledgements xvii Note on transliteration and translation ixx Introduction: rediscovering Eisenstein 1 Ian Christie I Eisenstein studies today: text and context 1 Arguments and ancestors 33 Naum Kleiman 2 Jay Leyda and Bezhin Meadow 41 David Stirk and Elena Pinto Simon 3 Eisenstein's early films abroad S3 Kristin Thompson 4 Recent Eisenstein texts 64 Introduction: Eisenstein at La Sarraz 64 Richard Taylor Imitation as mastery 66 Sergei Eisenstein Some personal reflections on taboo 71 Sergei Eisenstein II Eisenstein's roots 5 Eisenstein and Russian Symbolist culture: an unknown script of October 79 Yuri Tsivian viii Contents 6 Eisenstein's theatre work 110 Robert Leach 7 Eisenstein's Pushkin project 126 Hdkan Lovgren 8 Eisenstein and Shakespeare 140 N. M. Lary 9 Graphic flourish: aspects of the art of mise-en-scene 151 Arun Khopkar III The practice of theory 10 Eisenstein as theoretician: preliminary considerations 167 Edoardo G. Grossi 11 The essential bone structure: mimesis in Eisenstein 177 Mikhail Yampolsky 12 Eisenstein and the theory of 'models'; or, how to distract the spectator's attention 189 Myriam Tsikounas 13 Eisenstein and the theory of the photogram 200 Francois Albera 14 The frame and montage in Eisenstein's 'later' aesthetics 211 Michael O'Pray Notes 219 Index 255 Illustrations Frontispiece: Eisenstein as a child i 1 Shooting Potemkin xx 2 A discarded scene from The General Line 7 3 Meisel's score for The Battleship Potemkin 10 4 A screen-test for Ivan the Terrible Part 3 13 5 Eisenstein in Mexico 21 6 "The Death of King Duncan' drawing 22 7 "The Building to be Built' diagram 26 8 'Les Dons' drawings 28 9 Eisenstein at La Sarraz 37 10 Rehearsing Die Walkure 38 11 Directing Vitya Kartashov in Bezhin Meadow 47 12 Directing the grandmother in Bezhin Meadow 47 13 Tisse filming Bezhin Meadow 48 14 Soviet Potemkin box-office announcement 54 15 German publicity for October 61 16 'Makes people jealous!' 72 17 Ivan the Terrible 74 18 The Provisional Government in October 83 19 Uzume and Christ in October 89 20 Jump-cut in October 91 21 Sailor in October 93 22 Erotic metaphor in October 94 23 Kerensky in October 99 24 The peacock in October 99 25 Tsar's portrait in October 100 26 Chamber-pot in October 100 27 The Tsar as huntsman in October 101 28 The Mexican 111 29 Wise Man 113 30 Gas Masks 116 31 Eisenstein, Tretyakov and Mei-Lan-fan 121 x Illustrations 32 Drawing for The Love of a Poet 132 33 Yuri Tynyanov 136 34 The Last Judgement mural from Ivan Part 3 138 35 Bartholomew Fair stage design 141 36 Lady Macbeth costume design 145 37 'The Death of King Duncan' drawing 149 38 Vsevolod Meyerhold 158 39 Ivan the Terrible shooting diagram 163 40 Eisenstein with LEF group members 171 41 Eisenstein meets Mickey Mouse 175 42 Eisenstein in a Mexican museum 183 43 'Day of the Dead' in Que Viva Mexico! 188 44 Workers in The Strike 191 45 The quarterdeck of the Potemkin 193 46 The standard-bearer in October 196 47 Collage by Eisenstein 201 48 Ballet mecanique 205 49 Impatience 209 50 Ivan the Terrible 216.

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1 History Is Made in the Dark 4: Alexander Nevsky: The Prince, the Filmmaker and the Dictator In May 1937, Sergei Eisenstein was offered the opportunity to make a feature film on one of two figures from Russian history, the folk hero Ivan Susanin (d. 1613) or the mediaeval ruler Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263). He opted for Nevsky. Permission for Eisenstein to proceed with the new project ultimately came from within the Kremlin, with the support of Joseph Stalin himself. The Soviet dictator was something of a cinephile, and he often intervened in Soviet film affairs. This high-level authorisation meant that the USSR’s most renowned filmmaker would have the opportunity to complete his first feature in some eight years, if he could get it through Stalinist Russia’s censorship apparatus. For his part, Eisenstein was prepared to retreat into history for his newest film topic. Movies on contemporary affairs often fell victim to Soviet censors, as Eisenstein had learned all too well a few months earlier when his collectivisation film, Bezhin Meadow (1937), was banned. But because relatively little was known about Nevsky’s life, Eisenstein told a colleague: “Nobody can 1 2 find fault with me. Whatever I do, the historians and the so-called ‘consultants’ [i.e. censors] won’t be able to argue with me”.i What was known about Alexander Nevsky was a mixture of history and legend, but the historical memory that was most relevant to the modern situation was Alexander’s legacy as a diplomat and military leader, defending a key western sector of mediaeval Russia from foreign foes.
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Pages from 610151
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Dynamic Typicality Geil, A. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Published in Sergei M. Eisenstein: Notes for a General History of Cinema Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Geil, A. (2016). Dynamic Typicality. In N. Kleiman, & A. Somaini (Eds.), Sergei M. Eisenstein: Notes for a General History of Cinema (pp. 333-346). (Film Theory in Media History). Amsterdam University Press. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:26 Sep 2021 7. Dynamic Typicality Abe Geil Eisenstein references his famous method of typage (tipazh) just once in his Notes for a General History of Cinema. With an anachronistic juxtaposition of the sort that pervades these texts, Eisenstein marks “a direct transition” from the “enthusiasm for an element of crudité” found in Degas’s paintings of bathing women to “the aesthetics’ of typage in all its ‘unattractiveness.”1 If the Notes appear to have noth- ing more to say about typage per se, it is worth recalling that for Eisenstein the significance of typage exceeds its narrow definition as a technique for casting nonactors as social types.
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