Battleship Potemkin / Бронено́сец «Потёмкин»
USSR 1925
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, drama, 69 min, fr subtitles, 16+
Written by Nina Agadzhanova-Shutko & Sergei Eisenstein
With Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ivan Bobrov
Odessa - 1905. Enraged by the deplorable conditions on board the armoured cruiser Potemkin, the ship's loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable - mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors' revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar's Cossacks. When ruthless White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema history is born.
The monumental Odessa Steps sequence incarnates Eisenstein´s theory of dialectical montage, which – not unlike the Marxist view of history – operates as a perpetual conflict in which a force (thesis) and a counterforce (antithesis) collide to produce a totally new and greater phenomenon (synthesis). The sequence gains its full impact when the viewer’s mind combines individual, independent shots and forms a new, distinct conceptual impression that far outweighs the shots’ narrative significance. Swallow your reservations about the outlived ideology of this “political film”; the creative and emotional energy of Battleship Potemkin will leave you speechless.
The film will be accompanied live by the Polish 6-member group Pasimito.