"Director: Sergei Eisenstein"

• Alexander Nevsky | DVD | (21/03/2000) from £11.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (66.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Alexander Nevsky, Sergei Eisenstein's landmark tale of Russia thwarting the German invasion of the 13th century, was wildly popular with home-grown audiences back in 1938, quite intentionally so, given the prevailing Nazi geopolitical advancement and destruction at the time. It can still be viewed as a masterful use of imagery and music, with the "Battle on the Ice" sequence as the obvious highlight. Unfortunately, the rest of the film pales in comparison. A great score by Prokofiev was effectively integrated by the Russian filmmaker, but stands on its own merit as well. --Bill Desowitz, Amazon.com

• October 1917 - Ten Days That Shook The World | DVD | (08/05/2000) from £3.98   |  Saving you £18.00 (904.52%)   |  RRP £19.99

  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

• 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

• Battleship Potemkin | DVD | (17/04/2000) from £8.98   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sergei Eisenstein's revolutionary sophomore feature has so long stood as a textbook example of montage editing that many have forgotten what an invigoratingly cinematic experience he created. A 20th-anniversary tribute to the 1905 revolution, Eisenstein portrays the revolt in microcosm with a dramatisation of the real-life mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin. The story tells a familiar party-line message of the oppressed working class (in this case the enlisted sailors) banding together to overthrow their oppressors (the ship's officers), led by proto-revolutionary Vakulinchuk. When he dies in the shipboard struggle the crew lays his body to rest on the pier, a moody, moving scene where the citizens of Odessa slowly emerge from the fog to pay their respects. As the crowd grows Eisenstein turns the tenor from mourning a fallen comrade to celebrating the collective achievement. The government responds by sending soldiers and ships to deal with the mutinous crew and the supportive townspeople, which climaxes in the justly famous (and often imitated and parodied) Odessa Steps massacre. Eisenstein edits carefully orchestrated motions within the frame to create broad swaths of movement, shots of varying length to build the rhythm, close-ups for perspective and shock effect, and symbolic imagery for commentary, all to create one of the most cinematically exciting sequences in film history. Eisenstein's film is Marxist propaganda to be sure but the power of this masterpiece lies not in its preaching but its poetry. --Sean Axmaker

• The Soviet Influence Volume 2: Potemkin / Drifters (DVD & Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (05/11/2012) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The second in the BFI's series exploring the influence of silent Soviet classics on British filmmakers of the 1930s. This edition presents one of the classics of world cinema, Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 Battleship Potemkin, in High Definition for the first time in the UK, and accompanies it with the world premiere High Definition release of John Griersons ground-breaking 1929 documentary Drifters.Drifters premiered at the Film Society on November 10, 1929, on the same bill as Battleship Potemkin, which was receiving its British premiere. Grierson had previously produced an English language version of Eisenstein's film for its American screening and the influence of Eisenstein is clearly revealed in Drifters.Battleship Potemkin has appeared in every Sight & Sound film poll since 1952 and, in 2010 Empire magazine voted it the 3rd greatest World Cinema film of all time. Drifters is presented with an all-new score composed by the talented young British musician Jason Singh.

• 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 | DVD | (21/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  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 (but was later released in 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.

• The Eisenstein Collection Vol.2 | DVD | (20/09/2010) from £26.19   |  Saving you £33.80 (129.06%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Collection Comprises: Bezhin Meadow (1937) Alexander Nevsky (1938) Ivan The Terrible Part 1 (1944) Ivan The Terrible Part 2: The Boyars Plot (1958)

• 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

• Russia In Revolt | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  No revolution has been portrayed on screen more vividly than that in St Petersburg (aka Petrograd) during October 1917, and if what we see in Russia in Revolt is not the truth as it happened, this box set confirms that fiction can be much more potent than fact. Sergei Eisenstein came of age as a director during this period, putting his innovations into practice and redefining history in the process. Strike (1924) was Eisenstein's first film. Its combination of physical impact and studio experimentation is still impressive, and if the abundance of symbolic images leads to visual overload, the feeling of a "them-against-us" confrontation still packs its punch. The Battleship Potemkin (1925) refines Eisenstein's thinking in 73 minutes of heightened realism that, as late as 1958, was still considered the finest film ever made. The 1905 Potemkin mutiny, the murder of sailor Vakulinchuk, the massacre on the Odessa steps, the triumphal return of the ship to port--these images made history as surely as if they were the real thing. A scrolling synopsis sets the scene, and extracts from Dmitry Shostakovich's symphonies heighten tension. October 1917 (1928), also known as "10 Days that Shook the World", charts the period leading from the Czar's abdication, through the months of indecisive Provisional Government to the Bolshevik storming of the Winter Palace. Eisenstein takes montage technique to new limits, as images of individuals and institutions overwhelm the viewer. The scrolling background story details events as they really were, and Shostakovich's music again sets the scene. Dating from 1927 Esfir Shub's The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty documentary uses archive footage from the Romanov tercentenary in 1913 to the Bolshevik takeover four years on. Here truth really is fashioned into myth. The musical score consists of a medley of Russian favourites, pounded out on an electric piano, making for a rather limited, though not inappropriate, soundtrack. The additional documentary essay is a useful overview, and the on-screen photo collection a valuable bonus. On the DVD: it's good to have Oleg Donskikh's DVD commentary on The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty disc, as he points out economies with the actualité on a scene-by-scene basis. Yuri Sivrin's continuous commentary is required listening as a guide to the film-maker's art, as well as for shutting out the bizarre electronic score which otherwise serves as backing. All four films have been digitally remastered, and the 4:3 aspect ratio has excellent clarity. Stylishly packaged, there's no better way into the absorbing world of Soviet film than this. ---Richard Whitehouse

• Eisenstein Collection Vol.2 | DVD | (12/11/2007) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  This DVD box set features the following films: Bezhin Meadow Alexander Nevsky: Nevsky was a warrior hero who fought the Teutons in 13th century Russia and helped forge the national identity. Classical composer Prokofiev wrote the score a collaboration which continued with Ivan parts1 and 2. It was regarded as a propaganda film for the Russian national spirit it found support from Stalin himself. Ivan The Terrible: The first half of Eisenstein's epic history of Ivan IV follows his life from his coronation as Tsar of all Russia to his marriage as well as his early battle campaigns against the Tartars and the increasing number of rivals plotting his overthrow. It's his most richly visual and textured but again it got him into trouble with authorities ironically accusing him of being anti-Stalin. Ivan The Terrible Part 2: The Boyars Plot: In his continuing saga of Ivan's reign Eisenstein dramatizes the poisoning of Ivan's wife the defection of his friends - one to the rival army the other joining the Church -and the plotting by his own aunt to put her own son on the throne. It also deals with the Tzar's descent into madness and the growing paranoia of the nobility. His first film in dazzling colour its climactic scenes have been unrivalled. Stalin had it banned fearing it to be a but it was finally released ten years after Eisenstein's death before he could start on the final part of his trilogy.