Post by Mattsby on Jul 11, 2018 21:01:49 GMT
I began writing this out on the Last Movie Watched thread but decided to make it its own thread.
I recently watched Battleship Potemkin (1925) for the first time!
If you go to film school you'll learn about Sergei Eisenstein and Kuleshov, Soviet montage theory, "Kuleshov Effect", all that good stuff. Until recently, I had only seen clips of their films. Last month I watched Kuleshov's By the Law ('26) which I loved, and way, way, way prefer over Potemkin. By the Law opened in the Soviet Union almost the exact same day as Potemkin was opening in the US (where the former was never formally released)..... the Kuleshov only has 700 votes on IMDb (what the hell?), the Eiseinstein has 46,000. And I was thinking: you could probably draw a line from the smaller and psychologically complex By the Law to Bergman, Polanski, etc; alternatively you can take Potemkin to the "prestige" picture, the blockbuster, all the way to bumptious Dunkirk.....
To me Potemkin has one phenomenal, gutting sequence (and popularly parroted): the Odessa steps. It's incredibly shot and shocking to this day. But before and after that sequence.....eh! It's really just extravagant agitprop, big and simplistic, empty. You can almost picture Eisenstein behind the camera, madly nodding, yelling "yes! yes!"
I don't mean to knock the film too much, it's one of the better Silent dramas I've seen. But, especially in terms of my own personal taste, it's not even close how much I prefer the Kuleshov - which is on Youtube btw!
OK, so there's my coffee-prompted post! Thoughts on these two and their inequitable rate of esteem and influence on cinema? Feel free to mention any other lesser-known Silents that you feel deserve more credit !!
I recently watched Battleship Potemkin (1925) for the first time!
If you go to film school you'll learn about Sergei Eisenstein and Kuleshov, Soviet montage theory, "Kuleshov Effect", all that good stuff. Until recently, I had only seen clips of their films. Last month I watched Kuleshov's By the Law ('26) which I loved, and way, way, way prefer over Potemkin. By the Law opened in the Soviet Union almost the exact same day as Potemkin was opening in the US (where the former was never formally released)..... the Kuleshov only has 700 votes on IMDb (what the hell?), the Eiseinstein has 46,000. And I was thinking: you could probably draw a line from the smaller and psychologically complex By the Law to Bergman, Polanski, etc; alternatively you can take Potemkin to the "prestige" picture, the blockbuster, all the way to bumptious Dunkirk.....
To me Potemkin has one phenomenal, gutting sequence (and popularly parroted): the Odessa steps. It's incredibly shot and shocking to this day. But before and after that sequence.....eh! It's really just extravagant agitprop, big and simplistic, empty. You can almost picture Eisenstein behind the camera, madly nodding, yelling "yes! yes!"
I don't mean to knock the film too much, it's one of the better Silent dramas I've seen. But, especially in terms of my own personal taste, it's not even close how much I prefer the Kuleshov - which is on Youtube btw!
OK, so there's my coffee-prompted post! Thoughts on these two and their inequitable rate of esteem and influence on cinema? Feel free to mention any other lesser-known Silents that you feel deserve more credit !!
