"Actor: Mikhail Kuznetsov"

• Eisenstein Collection Vol.1 | DVD | (13/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Strike (1925): In 1922 Lenin also had said that ""...of all of the arts for us the cinema was the most important."" In 1924 the Proletkult offered Eisenstein then 26 years of age the job of directing the first of eight episodes in the film series 'Towards the Dictatorship'. This brilliant and complex re-creation of the development of a 1912 factory strike in Tsarist Russia and its savage destruction by agents provocateurs police and mounted troops was an ideal vehicle for the youthful Eisenstein to express his desire to reflect the dialectic of the Russian revolution in the most comprehensive of art forms. Eisenstein had been developing the Kuloshov's 'montage' effect in editing and in this his first film he uses it with tremendous skill to enhance symbolism and achieve highly charged emotional responses to the strength energy and heroism of the working classes and the tragic events depicted. Strike is a truly visual and technical masterpiece which is at times overwhelming in its powerful portrayal of these events in history. Strike was the only film ever made in the series and it changed the direction of the soviet cinema for many decades to come. Battleship Potemkin (1925): Planned by the Soviet Central Committee to coincide with the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the unsuccessful 1905 Russian Revolution this film was developed by the 27 year-old Sergei Eisenstein from less than one page of script from a planned eight-part epic that was intended to chronicle a large number of revolutionary actions. Starting with the Potemkin's crew's refusal to eat maggot-infested meat the mutiny develops and their leader Vakulinchuk is shot by a senior officer. The officers are overthrown and when the Potemkin docks at Odessa crowds appear from all directions to take up the cause of the dead sailor and open rebellion ensues. What became the Czarist soldiers fire on the crowds thronging down the Odessa steps: the broad newsreel-like sequences being inter-cut with close-ups of harrowing details. Returning to sea the Potemkin's crew prepares the guns for action as the ship flying the flag of freedom steams to confront the squadron. When they finally meet theirs worst fears are allayed as with relief coupled with joy they are universally acclaimed. This film which was destined to become such an influential landmark in cinematographic history opened in Moscow in January 1926. It ran for only four weeks. October (1927): Commissioned by the October Revolution Jubilee Committee (Chairman Nikolai Podvolsky) for the tenth anniversary of the revolution Sergei Eisenstein's third major feature film ""October 1917"" is a marvelous reconstruction of the events from February leading up to the revolution and the Bolshevik's overthrow of the czarists and Kerensky's provisional government in 1917. True to the communist philosophy there were no main characters; the proletariat providing the 'heroic' star quality throughout. The ultimate victory belonging to the revolution. Eisenstein's skill and experimentation in using fast moving and rhythmic montage to produce telling metaphors and build and intensify sequences was not fully understood by the early Russian audiences; typical examples being the rapidly alternating images employed to create a machine-gun firing and the cross-cutting between power-hungry Kerensky and the statue of Napoleon. Outstanding for the period are the dynamic sequences illustrating the massacre in the vicinity of the St Petersburg bridges and the storming of the Winter Palace which feature a profusion of exciting cinematic techniques. Eisenstein's research was extremely thorough and he did not allow contemporary events to influence his production. The film's release was dela

• Ivan The Terrible - Part 2 | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1564 Ivan suddenly changed his methods of ruling and moved his family to his estate at Uglich outside Moscow. As a result of the pilgrimage to this country retreat by the populous of Moscow Ivan is persuaded to return to the city. Taking advantage of this mass support he now has the backing to make his rule more powerful and decisive than ever. The boyars were forced to to accept some drastic changes including the formation of wo different goverenments in Russia so that Ivan cou

• Ivan The Terrible - Part 1 | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £12.76   |  Saving you £3.23 (25.31%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sergei Eisenstein's two-part epic chronicling the life of the 16th Century Tsar Ivan Grozny is one of film's most artistic and absorbing creations. Over three years in the making ""Ivan the Terrible"" features an operatic score by the esteemed Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev. The story begins with Ivan's coronation at the age of sixteen. One month later contrary to custom that demanded he marry a foreing princess he marries Anastasia a Russian girl from the Romanov family - m

• Ivan The Terrible - Part 1 And Part 2 - The Boyars Plot | DVD | (12/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Sergei Eisenstein's saga of Czar Ivan IV continues with the struggle for power and the use of secret police, a controversial segment that caused the film to be banned by Stalin in 1946 (the film was not released until 1958). The predominantly black-and-white film features a banquet dance sequence in colour. Obviously the two parts must be viewed as a whole to be fully appreciated. Many film historians consider this period in Eisenstein's career less interesting than his silent period because of a sentimental return to archaic forms (characteristic of Soviet society in the 1930s and '40s). Perhaps it was just part of his maturity. --Bill Desowitz, Amazon.com

• Strike | DVD | (17/07/2000) from £19.65   |  Saving you £0.34 (1.73%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sergei Eisenstein's debut film is more than a landmark of Soviet cinema; it's easily one of the most thrilling and inventive films to emerge from the silent era of Russian film making. Eisenstein was a theatre director and stage designer with some very specific ideas about the cinema, and he put them into practice telling the story of a worker's strike in pre-Revolution Russia, portraying the struggle not of leader against leader, but of the proletariat against the factory owners, enlivened by a conspiratorial subplot involving a quartet of insidious spies sent to infiltrate the ranks of the workers. The subject matter is at times didactic and the acting often hammy and overwrought, but the technique is vibrant and the images striking. Eisenstein's compositions reflect the graphic boldness of contemporary poster art, mixing poetic realism with grotesque expressionism in a gripping style, and his famous montage editing style (to be perfected in his next film, Battleship Potemkin) is raw, experimental and energetic. Eisenstein's later films are more consistent and elegant, but none of them have the sheer cinematic invention and energy of this first film. The new score, composed and performed by the idiosyncratic Alloy Orchestra, combines a mix of martial and mood music on synthesiser with the driving percussion of drums, wood blocks, bells and wrecking yard of clanging metal objects--a dynamic soundtrack to one of the most auspicious directoral debuts ever. --Sean Axmaker