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Battleship Potemkin
1925 Drama / History
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Credits
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Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
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Script: Nina Agadzhanova, Nikolai Aseyev, Sergei M. Eisenstein, Sergei Tretyakov
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Photo: Vladimir Popov, Eduard Tisse
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Cast: Aleksandr Antonov (Grigory Vakulinchuk),
Vladimir Barsky (Commander Golikov),
Grigori Aleksandrov (Chief Officer Giliarovsky),
Ivan Bobrov (Young Sailor),
Mikhail Gomorov (Militant Sailor),
Aleksandr Levshin (Petty Officer),
N. Poltavseva (Woman With Pince-nez),
Konstantin Feldman (Student Agitator),
Prokopenko (Mother Carrying Wounded Boy)
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Country: Soviet Union
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Language: Russian
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Runtime: 66 min; B&W; silent
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Aka: Bronenosets Potyomkin; Potemkin; Броненосец Потёмкин
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Summary
1905. Throughout Russia, discontent is spreading amongst the
working classes. The spirit of revolution is in the air.
Aboard a battleship off the coast of Odessa, sailors object to eating
the rotten meat they are given. To quell a mutiny, the officers
in command of the ship order marines to open fire on a group of the
rebellious sailors. The marines refuse and a battle between
sailors and officers ensues. Ordinary people in the port of
Odessa gather to cheer the victory of the sailors aboard Potemkin - but
they are mercilessly gunned down by Tsarist troops. Armed
battleships are then sent in pursuit of Potemkin...
Review
There’s a certain irony in the fact that a piece of blatant Communist
propaganda has become one of the most highly rated and influential
films in history. A landmark of Twentieth Century cinema, Battleship Potemkin was originally
commissioned by the Communist Central Committee as part of a cycle of
films to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the failed 1905
uprising. Its director, Sergei Eisenstein, saw this as an ideal
opportunity to apply his well-developed theory of montage, and the resulting film - a
spectacularly effective fusion of cinematic art and documentary-style
reportage - instantly established him as one of the foremost cineastes
of his generation.
Eisenstein’s montage techniques are now well understood and widely
applied by most filmmakers but, when he first began using them in the
mid-1920s, they were to revolutionise the art of cinema.
Previously, editing was the pretty mundane process of cut-and-splice by
which a film was assembled from a large number of shots, rather like an
enormous jigsaw puzzle. Eisenstein developed editing into an art
in its own right - the art of montage
- through several techniques which were intended to maximise a film’s
impact on its spectator.
The most familiar of Eisenstein’s montage techniques is rhythmic montage, by which the
temporal sense is skewed for a specific purpose. This is achieved
either by having a fast sequence of short shots (so time appears to go
more quickly, creating suspense and tension) or by a slow sequence of
longer shots, maybe repeating the same shot from different angles (so
time appears to be slowing down, inviting inward-reflection).
Another technique which has great importance in Eisenstein’s work is dialectic (or intellectual) montage. Here, two seemingly
unrelated images are juxtaposed to create an impression that is not
present in these two images. Dialect theory had a great impact on the
thinking of many Communist intellectuals and has been used as a
basis for many theories in areas as diverse as psychology, sociology,
biology and history. The fundamental idea of dialectics is that
two conflicting forces (thesis and antithesis) will result in something
new (the synthesis). Essentially, things happen as a result of
two things bouncing into one another.
The result of applying these montage techniques is that a film loses
its objectivity and becomes a highly subjective art form. Just as
a stylised painting can sometimes trigger a stronger emotional response
than a photograph of the same subject, a montage-treated film can have
a far greater sense of realism for a spectator, even if it is a less
accurate portrayal of reality. Montage is intended to engage our
emotions, and so the experience of watching the film feels richer, more
natural, and more likely to change the way we think. It is not
hard to see how useful this would be to the makers of propaganda
films. Film montage is a very effective means of achieving
psychological manipulation of the masses.
Battleship Potemkin gives us
Eisenstein’s most explicit, and most effective, use of his montage
techniques. The film is nothing less than an unfettered
celebration of Communist ideology, rejoicing in the power of ordinary
workers to change history for their advantage. As in Eisenstein’s
earlier film Strike (1925),
the hero is not an individual but a collective mass of humanity,
unnamed brothers coming together in their millions to overthrow a
system that has no legitimacy. Eisenstein’s use of montage makes
this an extraordinarily emotional work in which it is impossible for the spectator not to
empathise with the revolutionary cause.
The massacre on the Odessa steps is a perfect example of Eisenstein’s
dialectic montage, and this is probably why it is one of the most
memorable sequences ever committed to celluloid (even if it is entirely
fictitious). Shots of women, children and cripples are rapidly
inter-cut with shots of the Tsar’s armed troops. Again and again,
we see the tormented, fearful faces of the victims, but all we see of
their killers are their boots and their guns. The dialectic is
simple but effective. Innocence versus brutality. Light
versus darkness. Us versus them.
So powerful is this scene that at the end of it the spectator is left
reeling with shock and anger - just as Eisenstein had intended.
© James Travers 2008
Eisenstein’s five principles of montage are:
Metric Montage:
The joining together of several shots so as to make the best use of a
predetermined number of frames. Tension is increased by
shortening each shot whilst keeping the total length of the piece fixed.
Rhythmic Montage:
Shots are joined in a way that accentuates or conflicts with the action
in the frame - e.g. many short shots together suggest fast movement;
breaking the rhythm of the action will create tension.
Tonal Montage:
Exploits the emotional meaning contained in the shots to evoke a deeper
reaction in the audience than the surface impression achieved with
metric and rhythmic montage.
Overtonal Montage:
The synthesis of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage to achieve a more
abstract effect.
Dialectic (Intellectual) Montage:
The juxtaposition of conflicting shots to evoke an intellectual or
emotional reaction which is not contained in the individual shots.
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