The Battleship Potemkin
Encyclopedia
The Battleship Potemkin , sometimes rendered as The Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 silent film
directed by Sergei Eisenstein
and produced by Mosfilm
. It presents a dramatized version of the mutiny
that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin
rebelled against their officers of the Tsar
ist regime.
The Battleship Potemkin has been called one of the most influential propaganda film
s of all time, and was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. The film is in the public domain
in some parts of the world.
Eisenstein wrote the film as a revolutionary propaganda
film, but also used it to test his theories of "montage
". The revolutionary Soviet filmmakers of the Kuleshov
school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect of film editing
on audiences, and Eisenstein attempted to edit the film in such a way as to produce the greatest emotion
al response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy
for the rebellious sailor
s of the Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their cruel overlords. In the manner of most propaganda
, the characterization is simple, so that the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize.
Eisenstein's experiment was a mixed success; he "was disappointed when Potemkin failed to attract masses of viewers", but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded more positively. In both the Soviet Union and overseas, the film shocked audiences, but not so much for its political statements as for its use of violence, which was considered graphic by the standards of the time. The film's potential to influence political thought through emotional response was noted by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
, who called Potemkin "a marvelous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik
after seeing the film," The film was not banned in Nazi Germany
, although Himmler
issued a directive prohibiting SS
members from attending screenings, as he deemed the movie inappropriate for the troops.
The most celebrated scene in the film is the massacre of civilians on the Odessa
Steps (also known as the Primorsky or Potemkin Stairs
). In this scene, the Tsar
's soldiers in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, firing volleys into a crowd. A separate detachment of mounted Cossack
s charges the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. The victims include an older woman wearing Pince-nez
, a young boy with his mother, a student in uniform and a teenage schoolgirl. A mother pushing an infant in a baby carriage falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd.
The massacre on the steps, which never took place, was presumably inserted by Eisenstein for dramatic effect and to demonise the Imperial regime. It is, however, based on the fact that there were widespread demonstrations in the area, sparked off by the arrival of the Potemkin in Odessa Harbour, and both The Times
of London and the resident British Consul reported that troops fired on the crowds with accompanying loss of life (the actual number of casualties is unrecorded). Roger Ebert
writes, "That there was, in fact, no czarist massacre on the Odessa Steps scarcely diminishes the power of the scene ... It is ironic that [Eisenstein] did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa steps is often referred to as if it really happened."
The scene is perhaps the best example of Eisenstein's theory on montage, and many films pay homage to the scene, including Terry Gilliam's Brazil
, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather
, Brian De Palma's The Untouchables
, Tibor Takacs' Deathline
, Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box, George Lucas's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
, Chandrashekhar Narvekar's
Hindi film Tezaab
, Shukō Murase's anime Ergo Proxy
and Peter Sellers
' The Magic Christian
. Several films spoof it, including Woody Allen's Bananas
and Love and Death
, "Australia
", Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker's Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (though actually a parody of The Untouchables), Soviet-Polish comedy Deja Vu
, Jacob Tierney
's The Trotsky
and the Italian comedy Il secondo tragico Fantozzi
.
The 2011 November 7th Parade in Moscow also features an homage to the film.
The Irish born painter Francis Bacon
(1909–1992) was profoundly influenced by Eisenstein's images, particularly the Odessa Steps shot of the schoolmistress's broken glasses and open mouthed scream. The open mouth image appeared first in his Abstraction from the Human Form, in Fragment of a Crucifixion
, and other works including his famous Head series.
The Russian born photographer and artist Alexey Titarenko
paid tribute to the Odessa Steps shot in his series "City Of Shadows" (1991-1993) by using crowd of desparate people on the stairs near subway station in Saint Petersburg
to demonize Soviet regime and as a symbol of human tragedy.
After its premiere in the Soviet Union, Potemkin was shown in the United States
. It was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by its German distributors. A written introduction by Leon Trotsky
was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul of Joseph Stalin
. The film was banned in West Germany, Britain (until 1954 and X-rated
until 1978), France, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal. It was even banned in the Soviet Union for a short period when the Comintern
, under Stalin's Socialism in One Country
policy, ceased promoting world revolution
.
Today, the film is widely available in various DVD editions. However, in 2004, a three-year restoration of the film was completed. Many excised scenes of violence were restored, as well as the original written introduction by Trotsky. The previous titles, which had toned down the mutinous sailors' revolutionary rhetoric, were corrected so that they would now be an accurate translation of the original Russian titles in the film.
The original score was composed by Edmund Meisel
. A salon orchestra performed the Berlin premiere in 1926. The instruments were flute/piccolo, trumpet, trombone, harmonium, percussion and strings without viola. Meisel wrote the score in twelve days because of the late approval of film censors. As time was so short Meisel repeated sections of the score. Composer/conductor Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen has reorchestrated the original piano score to fit the version of the film available today.
Nikolai Kryukov
composed a new score in 1950 for the 25th anniversary.
In 1986 Eric Allaman
wrote an electronic score for a showing that took place at the 1986 Berlin Film Festival. The music was commissioned by the organizers who wanted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the picture's German premiere. The score was played only at this premiere and has not been released on CD or DVD. Contemporary reviews were largely positive apart from negative comment because the music was electronic. Allaman also wrote an opera about Battleship Potemkin, which is musically separate from the film score.
In its commercial format, on DVD
for example, the film is usually accompanied by classical music added for the 50th anniversary edition re-released in 1975. Dmitri Shostakovich
and Nikolai Kryukov
are two composers whose works have been used.
In 2007 Del Rey & The Sun Kings also recorded this soundtrack. It is commercially available on CD and DVD.
In an attempt to make the film relevant to the 21st century, Neil Tennant
and Chris Lowe
(of the Pet Shop Boys
) composed a soundtrack in 2004 with the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra. Their soundtrack, released in 2005 as Battleship Potemkin
premiered in September 2004 at an open-air concert in Trafalgar Square
, London
. There were four further live performances of the work with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Germany in September 2005 and one at the Swan Hunter
ship yard
in Newcastle upon Tyne
in 2006.
The avant-garde jazz ensemble Club Foot Orchestra
has also re-scored the film, and performed live accompaning the film.
For the 2005 restoration of the film, under the direction of Enno Patalas
in collaboration with Anna Bohn, released on DVD and Blu-ray, the Deutsche Kinemathek
- Museum fur Film und Fernsehen, commissioned a re-recording of the original Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Babelsberg Orchestra, conducted by Helmut Imig.
In 2011 the most recent restoration was completed with an entirely new soundtrack by members of the Apskaft group. Contributing members were: AER20-200, awaycaboose, Ditzky, Drn Drn, Foucault V, fydhws, Hox Vox, Lurholm, mexicanvader, Quendus, Res Band, -Soundso- and speculativism. The entire film was digitally restored to a sharper image by Gianluca Missero (who records under the name Hox Vox). The new version is available at the Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/ApskaftPresentsTheBattleshipPotemkin
at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. Similarly, in 1952, Sight and Sound magazine cited The Battleship Potemkin as the fourth greatest film of all time and has been voted within the top ten in every poll ever since.
In 2007, a two-disc, restored version of the film was released on DVD. Time
magazine's Richard Corliss
named it one of the Top 10 DVDs of the year, ranking it at #5.
Ranked #3 in Empire
magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
In April 2011, Battleship Potemkin was re-released in UK cinemas, distributed by the British Film Institute
. On its re-release, Total Film
magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "...nearly 90 years on, Eisenstein’s masterpiece is still guaranteed to get the pulse racing."
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
directed by Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
and produced by Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
. It presents a dramatized version of the mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin
Russian battleship Potemkin
The Potemkin was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. The ship was made famous by the Battleship Potemkin uprising, a rebellion of the crew against their oppressive officers in June 1905...
rebelled against their officers of the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
ist regime.
The Battleship Potemkin has been called one of the most influential propaganda film
Propaganda film
The term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
s of all time, and was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. The film is in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
in some parts of the world.
Film style and content
The film is composed of five episodes:- "Men and MaggotMaggotIn everyday speech the word maggot means the larva of a fly ; it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachyceran flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and Crane flies...
s" (Люди и черви), in which the sailors protest at having to eat rotten meat; - "Drama on the deck" (Драма на тендре), in which the sailors mutiny and their leader, Vakulinchuk, is killed;
- "A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Мёртвый взывает) in which Vakulinchuk'sGrigory VakulinchukArtillery Quartermaster Grigory Meketovich Vakulinchuk was a Ukrainian sailor in the Russian Navy. He was born in Velki Koroventsi . He served on the Russian battleship Potemkin....
body is mourned over by the people of OdessaOdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
; - "The Odessa StaircasePotemkin StairsThe Potemkin Stairs , is a giant stairway in Odessa, Ukraine. The stairs are considered a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea and are the best known symbol of Odessa....
" (Одесская лестница), in which Tsarist soldiers massacre the Odessans; and - "The Rendez-Vous with a SquadronSquadron (naval)A squadron, or naval squadron, is a unit of 3-4 major warships, transport ships, submarines, or sometimes small craft that may be part of a larger task force or a fleet...
" (Встреча с эскадрой), in which the squadron tasked with stopping the Potemkin instead declines to engage, and its sailors cheer on the rebellious battleship.
Revolutionary propaganda
Revolutionary propaganda means dissemination of revolutionary ideas.While the term propaganda bears a mostly negative connotation in modern English language, this did not exist in the early 20th century, when the word "propaganda" was first coined...
film, but also used it to test his theories of "montage
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
". The revolutionary Soviet filmmakers of the Kuleshov
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov was a Soviet filmmaker and film theorist who taught at and helped establish the world's first film school .-Career:...
school of filmmaking were experimenting with the effect of film editing
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
on audiences, and Eisenstein attempted to edit the film in such a way as to produce the greatest emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
al response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy
Sympathy
Sympathy is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings. Also known as empathic concern, it is the feeling of compassion or concern for another, the wish to see them better off or happier. Although empathy and sympathy are often used...
for the rebellious sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...
s of the Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their cruel overlords. In the manner of most propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, the characterization is simple, so that the audience could clearly see with whom they should sympathize.
Eisenstein's experiment was a mixed success; he "was disappointed when Potemkin failed to attract masses of viewers", but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded more positively. In both the Soviet Union and overseas, the film shocked audiences, but not so much for its political statements as for its use of violence, which was considered graphic by the standards of the time. The film's potential to influence political thought through emotional response was noted by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, who called Potemkin "a marvelous film without equal in the cinema ... anyone who had no firm political conviction could become a Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
after seeing the film," The film was not banned in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, although Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
issued a directive prohibiting SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
members from attending screenings, as he deemed the movie inappropriate for the troops.
The Odessa Steps sequence
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
Steps (also known as the Primorsky or Potemkin Stairs
Potemkin Stairs
The Potemkin Stairs , is a giant stairway in Odessa, Ukraine. The stairs are considered a formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea and are the best known symbol of Odessa....
). In this scene, the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
's soldiers in their white summer tunics march down a seemingly endless flight of steps in a rhythmic, machine-like fashion, firing volleys into a crowd. A separate detachment of mounted Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s charges the crowd at the bottom of the stairs. The victims include an older woman wearing Pince-nez
Pince-nez
Pince-nez are a style of spectacles, popular in the 19th century, which are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, to pinch, and nez, nose....
, a young boy with his mother, a student in uniform and a teenage schoolgirl. A mother pushing an infant in a baby carriage falls to the ground dying and the carriage rolls down the steps amidst the fleeing crowd.
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London and the resident British Consul reported that troops fired on the crowds with accompanying loss of life (the actual number of casualties is unrecorded). Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
writes, "That there was, in fact, no czarist massacre on the Odessa Steps scarcely diminishes the power of the scene ... It is ironic that [Eisenstein] did it so well that today, the bloodshed on the Odessa steps is often referred to as if it really happened."
Treatment in other works of art
The scene is perhaps the best example of Eisenstein's theory on montage, and many films pay homage to the scene, including Terry Gilliam's Brazil
Brazil (film)
Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...
, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, Brian De Palma's The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1987 film)
The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime-drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet. Based on the book The Untouchables, the film stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness. It also stars Robert De Niro as gang leader Al Capone and Sean Connery as Irish-American...
, Tibor Takacs' Deathline
Deathline
Deathline is a 1997 science fiction, action film starring Rutger Hauer and Yvonne Sciò. It was also released under the titles Redline and Armageddon. It is the first film between Rutger Hauer and Mark Dacascos. A Canadian - Dutch co-production it was filmed mainly in Hungary...
, Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box, George Lucas's Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is a 2005 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It is the sixth and final film released in the Star Wars saga and the third in terms of the series' internal chronology....
, Chandrashekhar Narvekar's
N. Chandra
N. Chandra , born Chandrashekhar Narvekar, is an Indian producer, writer and director, known for his dark and loud films such as Ankush, Pratighaat, Tezaab and Narasimha, made as a film editor in the beginning of his career...
Hindi film Tezaab
Tezaab
Tezaab , released on 11 November 1988, is an Indian Hindi movie. This was the movie that gave actress Madhuri Dixit her first big break and reaffirmed Anil Kapoor's status, after a successful Mr India .The film was directed by N. Chandra. The music is by Laxmikant-Pyarelal...
, Shukō Murase's anime Ergo Proxy
Ergo Proxy
is a science fiction suspense anime television series, produced by Manglobe, which premiered across Japan on 25 February 2006 on the WOWOW satellite network. It is directed by Shukō Murase, with screenplay by Dai Satō et al.. Ergo Proxy has been described as dark science fiction mystery with...
and Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
' The Magic Christian
The Magic Christian (film)
The Magic Christian is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with noteworthy appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same...
. Several films spoof it, including Woody Allen's Bananas
Bananas (film)
Bananas is a 1971 comedy film written by Mickey Rose and Woody Allen, directed by Allen, and starring himself and Louise Lasser. Parts of the plot were based on the book Don Quixote, U.S.A. by Richard P. Powell. It was filmed on location in New York City, Lima , and various locations in Puerto...
and Love and Death
Love and Death
Love and Death is a 1975 comedy film by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, Love and Death is a satirical take on Russian epic novels. Coming in between Sleeper and Annie Hall, Love and Death is in many respects an artistic transition between the two...
, "Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
", Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker's Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (though actually a parody of The Untouchables), Soviet-Polish comedy Deja Vu
Deja Vu (1988 film)
Déjà Vu is a 1988 Soviet-Polish comedy thriller that takes place in Soviet Odessa in 1925 and spoofs a lot of gangster films.- Plot :The plot takes place in 1925. One of Chicago mobsters Mik Nich flees to Soviet Odessa to escape the revenge of other mobsters. Mob leaders send the best hit-man...
, Jacob Tierney
Jacob Tierney
Jacob Daniel Tierney is a Canadian actor, film director and screenwriter.Tierney was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of veteran producer Kevin Tierney...
's The Trotsky
The Trotsky
The Trotsky is a 2009 Canadian comedy film directed by Jacob Tierney.-Plot:Montreal West high school student Leon Bronstein believes that he is the reborn incarnation of Marxist/Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky. Shortly after he starts to work in his family's clothing factory, he attempts to unionize...
and the Italian comedy Il secondo tragico Fantozzi
Il secondo tragico Fantozzi
Il secondo tragico Fantozzi is an Italian comedy film released in 1976. It is the second film in the saga of the unlucky clerk Ugo Fantozzi, played by its creator, Paolo Villaggio....
.
The 2011 November 7th Parade in Moscow also features an homage to the film.
The Irish born painter Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
(1909–1992) was profoundly influenced by Eisenstein's images, particularly the Odessa Steps shot of the schoolmistress's broken glasses and open mouthed scream. The open mouth image appeared first in his Abstraction from the Human Form, in Fragment of a Crucifixion
Fragment of a Crucifixion
Fragment of a Crucifixion is a 1950 painting by Irish-born artist Francis Bacon and one of his many works based on iconography of the Crucifixion of Jesus. Its two distressed figures are at the end of a bloody struggle, with one positioned at the point of kill. The dying animal's scream forms the...
, and other works including his famous Head series.
The Russian born photographer and artist Alexey Titarenko
Alexey Titarenko
Alexey Viktorovich Titarenko is a Soviet and Russian photographer and artist.-Biography:At age 15, he became the youngest member of the independent photo club Zerkalo [Mirror]...
paid tribute to the Odessa Steps shot in his series "City Of Shadows" (1991-1993) by using crowd of desparate people on the stairs near subway station in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
to demonize Soviet regime and as a symbol of human tragedy.
Distribution, censorship and restoration
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by its German distributors. A written introduction by Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. The film was banned in West Germany, Britain (until 1954 and X-rated
X-rated
In some countries, X is or has been a motion picture rating reserved for the most explicit films. Films rated X are intended only for viewing by adults, usually legally defined as people over the age of 17.-United Kingdom:...
until 1978), France, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal. It was even banned in the Soviet Union for a short period when the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, under Stalin's Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country
Socialism in One Country was a theory put forth by Joseph Stalin in 1924, elaborated by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and finally adopted as state policy by Stalin...
policy, ceased promoting world revolution
World revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...
.
Today, the film is widely available in various DVD editions. However, in 2004, a three-year restoration of the film was completed. Many excised scenes of violence were restored, as well as the original written introduction by Trotsky. The previous titles, which had toned down the mutinous sailors' revolutionary rhetoric, were corrected so that they would now be an accurate translation of the original Russian titles in the film.
Soundtracks
To retain its relevance as a propaganda film for each new generation, Eisenstein hoped the score would be rewritten every 20 years.The original score was composed by Edmund Meisel
Edmund Meisel
Edmund Meisel was an Austrian-born composer. He wrote the score to Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis , The Battleship Potemkin , and other films of Sergei Eisenstein. Meisel was one of the more important and pioneering figures in film music...
. A salon orchestra performed the Berlin premiere in 1926. The instruments were flute/piccolo, trumpet, trombone, harmonium, percussion and strings without viola. Meisel wrote the score in twelve days because of the late approval of film censors. As time was so short Meisel repeated sections of the score. Composer/conductor Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen has reorchestrated the original piano score to fit the version of the film available today.
Nikolai Kryukov
Nikolai Kryukov
Nikolai Vyacheslavovich Kryukov is a Russian artistic gymnast. A three-time Olympian, he was also the World Artistic Gymnastics All-Around Champion at the 1999 World Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China.-External links:*...
composed a new score in 1950 for the 25th anniversary.
In 1986 Eric Allaman
Eric Allaman
Eric Allaman is an American composer who has worked in , Television, Theater and Ballet. His career as a film composer began when he co-composed the score to Ridley Scott’s, “Legend” with Tangerine Dream...
wrote an electronic score for a showing that took place at the 1986 Berlin Film Festival. The music was commissioned by the organizers who wanted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the picture's German premiere. The score was played only at this premiere and has not been released on CD or DVD. Contemporary reviews were largely positive apart from negative comment because the music was electronic. Allaman also wrote an opera about Battleship Potemkin, which is musically separate from the film score.
In its commercial format, on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
for example, the film is usually accompanied by classical music added for the 50th anniversary edition re-released in 1975. Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
and Nikolai Kryukov
Nikolai Kryukov
Nikolai Vyacheslavovich Kryukov is a Russian artistic gymnast. A three-time Olympian, he was also the World Artistic Gymnastics All-Around Champion at the 1999 World Gymnastics Championships in Tianjin, China.-External links:*...
are two composers whose works have been used.
In 2007 Del Rey & The Sun Kings also recorded this soundtrack. It is commercially available on CD and DVD.
In an attempt to make the film relevant to the 21st century, Neil Tennant
Neil Tennant
Neil Francis Tennant is an English musician, singer and songwriter, who, with bandmate Chris Lowe, makes up the successful electronic dance music duo Pet Shop Boys.-Childhood:...
and Chris Lowe
Chris Lowe
Chris Lowe is an English musician, who, with colleague Neil Tennant, makes up the pop duo Pet Shop Boys.-Childhood:...
(of the Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
) composed a soundtrack in 2004 with the Dresden Symphonic Orchestra. Their soundtrack, released in 2005 as Battleship Potemkin
Battleship Potemkin (album)
Battleship Potemkin is a 2005 album of electronic and orchestral music written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe from Pet Shop Boys. The music on the album is performed by Pet Shop Boys and the Dresdner Sinfoniker...
premiered in September 2004 at an open-air concert in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. There were four further live performances of the work with the Dresdner Sinfoniker in Germany in September 2005 and one at the Swan Hunter
Swan Hunter
Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which...
ship yard
Ship Yard
Ship Yard is a rail yard on the Richmond District in Richmond, Virginia. It is just east of Triple Crossing. Ship Yard is not often used for putting together trains, but is more for storing empty cars, especially boxcars....
in Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in 2006.
The avant-garde jazz ensemble Club Foot Orchestra
Club Foot Orchestra
The Club Foot Orchestra is a music ensemble founded in 1983 by Richard Marriott. After a brief career playing dramatic, complex music in San Francisco clubs, they became known for their equally dramatic and complex scores for classic silent movies. The ensemble got their name from a performance art...
has also re-scored the film, and performed live accompaning the film.
For the 2005 restoration of the film, under the direction of Enno Patalas
Enno Patalas
Enno Patalas is a German film historian, collector, and expert film preservationist. A former head of the Munich Film Museum, his restorations include silent films such as Metropolis, M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder and Die Nibelungen, all directed by Fritz Lang...
in collaboration with Anna Bohn, released on DVD and Blu-ray, the Deutsche Kinemathek
Deutsche Kinemathek
Die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen is a major German film archive, based in Berlin. Until the opening of a permanent display on television in the Filmmuseum Berlin on 1 June 2006, it was known as the Deutsche Kinemathek....
- Museum fur Film und Fernsehen, commissioned a re-recording of the original Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Babelsberg Orchestra, conducted by Helmut Imig.
In 2011 the most recent restoration was completed with an entirely new soundtrack by members of the Apskaft group. Contributing members were: AER20-200, awaycaboose, Ditzky, Drn Drn, Foucault V, fydhws, Hox Vox, Lurholm, mexicanvader, Quendus, Res Band, -Soundso- and speculativism. The entire film was digitally restored to a sharper image by Gianluca Missero (who records under the name Hox Vox). The new version is available at the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
http://www.archive.org/details/ApskaftPresentsTheBattleshipPotemkin
Critical reaction
Since its release, The Battleship Potemkin has often been renowned as one of the finest propaganda films ever made and considered amongst the greatest films of all time. The film was named the greatest film of all timeFilms that have been considered the greatest ever
While there is no general agreement upon the greatest film, many publications and organizations have tried to determine the films considered the best. The films mentioned in this article have all been mentioned in a notable survey – be it a popular poll or critics' poll...
at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. Similarly, in 1952, Sight and Sound magazine cited The Battleship Potemkin as the fourth greatest film of all time and has been voted within the top ten in every poll ever since.
In 2007, a two-disc, restored version of the film was released on DVD. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
named it one of the Top 10 DVDs of the year, ranking it at #5.
Ranked #3 in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.
In April 2011, Battleship Potemkin was re-released in UK cinemas, distributed by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
. On its re-release, Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "...nearly 90 years on, Eisenstein’s masterpiece is still guaranteed to get the pulse racing."
Cast
- Aleksandr Antonov — Grigory VakulinchukGrigory VakulinchukArtillery Quartermaster Grigory Meketovich Vakulinchuk was a Ukrainian sailor in the Russian Navy. He was born in Velki Koroventsi . He served on the Russian battleship Potemkin....
- Bolshevik Sailor - Vladimir Barsky — Commander Golikov
- Grigori AleksandrovGrigori AleksandrovGrigori Vasilyevich Aleksandrov or Alexandrov was a prominent Soviet film director who was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1947 and a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973...
— Chief Officer Giliarovsky - Ivan Bobrov — Young Sailor Flogged While Sleeping (as I. Bobrov)
- Mikhail Gomorov — Militant Sailor
- Aleksandr Levshin — Petty Officer
- N. Poltavseva — Woman With Pince-nezPince-nezPince-nez are a style of spectacles, popular in the 19th century, which are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, to pinch, and nez, nose....
- Konstantin Feldman — Student Agitator
- Beatrice VitoldiBeatrice VitoldiBeatrice Vitoldi was a Soviet film actressShe was most famous for her only film role as the mother with the baby carriage in the Eisenstein film The Battleship Potemkin and as the first permanent Soviet ambassador in Italy. Beatrice Vitoldi was born in 1895 in Salerno in Italy...
- Woman with the baby carriage
External links
- View Online on Google VideoGoogle VideoGoogle Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...
Monument in Odessa, explanation of the mutiny - The Battleship Potemkin watchable and downloadable with Esperanto subtitles
- .re_potemkin: a copyleft crowdsourcing free/open source cinema project_ , a remake
- 2011 version with new soundtrack
- Battleship Potemkin at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(full-length film)