Battleship Potemkin
Battleship Potemkin (Russian: Броненосец «Потёмкин», romanized: Bronenosets Potyomkin), sometimes rendered as Battleship Potyomkin, is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm.[1] Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers.
For the battleship, see Russian battleship Potemkin. For the album, see Battleship Potemkin (album). For the poster, see Battleship Potemkin (poster).Battleship Potemkin
- Nina Agadzhanova
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Intertitles; uncredited:
- Nikolai Aseyev
- Sergei Tretyakov
Jacob Bliokh
- Aleksandr Antonov
- Vladimir Barksy
- Grigori Aleksandrov
- Eduard Tisse
- Vladimir Popov
(uncredited)
- Uncredited:
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Grigori Aleksandrov
- 21 December 1925
71 minutes
- Silent film
- Russian intertitles
In 1958, the film was voted on Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. Battleship Potemkin is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time.[2][3][4] In the most recent Sight and Sound critics' poll in 2022, it was voted the fifty-fourth-greatest film of all time, and it had been placed in the top 10 in many previous editions.[5]
Production[edit]
On the 20th anniversary of the first Russian revolution, the commemorative commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee decided to stage a number of performances dedicated to the revolutionary events of 1905. As part of the celebrations, it was suggested that a "... grand film [be] shown in a special program, with an oratory introduction, musical (solo and orchestral) and a dramatic accompaniment based on a specially written text".[7] Nina Agadzhanova was asked to write the script and direction of the picture was assigned to 27-year-old Sergei Eisenstein.[8]
In the original script, the film was to highlight a number of episodes from the 1905 revolution: the Russo-Japanese War, Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1907, revolutionary events in St. Petersburg and the Moscow uprising. Filming was to be conducted in a number of cities within the USSR.[9]
Eisenstein hired many non-professional actors for the film; he sought people of specific types instead of famous stars.[10][9]
Shooting began on 31 March 1925. Eisenstein began filming in Leningrad and had time to shoot the railway strike episode, horsecar, city at night and the strike crackdown on Sadovaya Street. Further shooting was prevented by deteriorating weather, with fog setting in. At the same time, the director faced tight time constraints: the film needed to be finished by the end of the year, although the script was approved only on 4 June. Eisenstein decided to give up the original script consisting of eight episodes, to focus on just one, the uprising on the battleship Potemkin, which involved just a few pages (41 frames) from Agadzhanova's script. Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov essentially recycled and extended the script.[11] In addition, during the progress of making the film, some episodes were added that had existed neither in Agadzhanova's script nor in Eisenstein's scenic sketches, such as the storm scene with which the film begins. As a result, the content of the film was far removed from Agadzhanova's original script.
The film was shot in Odessa, at that time a center of film production where it was possible to find a suitable warship for shooting.
The first screening of the film took place on 21 December 1925 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the 1905 revolution at the Bolshoi Theatre.[12][13] The premiere was held in Moscow on 18 January 1926, in the 1st Goskinoteatre (now called the Khudozhestvenny).[14][15]
The silent film received a voice dubbing in 1930, was restored in 1950 (composer Nikolai Kryukov) and reissued in 1976 (composer Dmitri Shostakovich) at Mosfilm with the participation of the USSR State Film Fund and the Museum of S.M. Eisenstein under the artistic direction of Sergei Yutkevich.
In 1925, after sale of the film's negatives to Germany and reediting by director Phil Jutzi, Battleship Potemkin was released internationally in a different version from that originally intended. The attempted execution of sailors was moved from the beginning to the end of the film. Later it was subjected to censorship, and in the USSR some frames and intermediate titles were removed. The words of Leon Trotsky in the prologue were replaced with a quote from Lenin.[15] In 2005, under the overall guidance of the Foundation Deutsche Kinemathek, with the participation of the State Film Fund and the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the author's version of the film was restored, including the music by Edmund Meisel.[16]
The battleship Kniaz Potemkin Tarritcheski, later renamed Panteleimon and then Boretz Za Svobodu, was derelict and in the process of being scrapped at the time of the film shoot. It is usually stated that the battleship Dvenadsat Apostolov was used instead, but she was a very different design of vessel from that of the Potemkin, and the film footage matches the battleship Rostislav more closely. The Rostislav had been scuttled in 1920, but her superstructure remained completely above water until 1930. Interior scenes were filmed on the cruiser Komintern. Stock footage of Potemkin was used to show her at sea, and stock footage of the French fleet depicted the waiting Russian Black Sea fleet. Anachronistic footage of triple-gun-turret Russian dreadnoughts was also included.[17][9]
In the film, the rebels raise a red flag on the battleship, but the orthochromatic black-and-white film stock of the period made the color red look black, so a white flag was used instead. Eisenstein hand-tinted the flag in red in 108 frames for the premiere at the Grand Theatre, which was greeted with thunderous applause by the Bolshevik audience.[15]
The film is composed of five episodes:
Eisenstein wrote the film as revolutionary propaganda,[18][19] but also used it to test his theories of montage.[20] 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 emotional response, so that the viewer would feel sympathy for the rebellious sailors of the Battleship Potemkin and hatred for their 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",[21] but the film was also released in a number of international venues, where audiences responded 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.[22][23][24] 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."[24][25] He was even interested in getting Germans to make a similar film. Eisenstein did not like the idea and wrote an indignant letter to Goebbels in which he stated that National Socialistic realism did not have either truth or realism.[26] The film was not banned in Nazi Germany, although Heinrich Himmler issued a directive prohibiting SS members from attending screenings, as he deemed the movie inappropriate for the troops.[24] The film was eventually banned in some countries, including the United States and France for a time, as well as in its native Soviet Union. The film was banned in the United Kingdom longer than was any other film in British history.[27]
Critical response[edit]
Battleship Potemkin has received acclaim from modern critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall 100% approval rating based on 49 reviews, with a rating average of 9.20/10. The site's consensus reads, "A technical masterpiece, Battleship Potemkin is Soviet cinema at its finest, and its montage editing techniques remain influential to this day."[50] Since its release Battleship Potemkin has often been cited as one of the finest propaganda films ever made, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time.[22][51] The film was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.[3] Similarly, in 1952, Sight & Sound magazine cited Battleship Potemkin as the fourth-greatest film of all time; it was voted within the top ten in the magazine's five subsequent decennial polls, dropping to number 11 in the 2012 poll and number 54 in 2022.[52]
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.[53] It ranked #3 in Empire's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.[54] 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".[55]
Directors Orson Welles,[56] Michael Mann[57] and Paul Greengrass[58] placed Battleship Potemkin on their list of favorite films, and director Billy Wilder named it as his all-time favourite film.[39]