In the midst of the Russian Revolution of 1905, the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutiny against the brutal, tyrannical regime of the vessel's officers. The resulting street demonstration in Odessa brings on a police massacre.
In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy. The ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions.
Director:
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Stars:
Maria Falconetti,
Eugene Silvain,
André Berley
In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in ... See full summary »
Directors:
Grigoriy Aleksandrov,
Sergei M. Eisenstein
Stars:
Boris Livanov,
Nikolay Popov,
Vasili Nikandrov
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director:
Fritz Lang
Stars:
Brigitte Helm,
Alfred Abel,
Gustav Fröhlich
During the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.
Director:
Sergei M. Eisenstein
Stars:
Nikolay Cherkasov,
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya,
Serafima Birman
Based on the historical events the movie tells the story of a riot at the battleship Potemkin. What started as a protest strike when the crew was given rotten meat for dinner ended in a riot. The sailors raised the red flag and tried to ignite the revolution in their home port Odessa.Written by
Konstantin Dlutskii <ked@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
In the Imperial squadron near the end of the film, we see close-ups of triple gun turrets of Gangut-class dreadnought. It is possibly made this way to show the power of Imperial fleet, but this is an anachronism, for battleships of 1905 were much smaller pre-dreadnoughts, with twin turrets only, just like "Potemkin". "Ganguts" entered service in 1914. See more »
Pankreutzer Potemkine, the Kino International restoration of , overseen by and with support from film museums in Berlin, London, and Moscow, premiered at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival. This version was released on DVD in 2009 and Blu-ray in 2010, and theatrically in New York City and in the film archives' circuit in the USA and Canada. See more »
Battleship Potemkin is a celluloid masterpiece. The direction of
Eisenstein is truly a sight. The film chronicles a ship of disgruntled
sailors who are tired of being mistreated by their superior officers.
Eventually, the sailors finally have enough of the abuse and send the
officers packing. During this time period, there was a shortage of film
stock in the Soviet Union. The goverment wanted to get their message
out to the people so they started a National Film Company and one of
the members was Sergei Eisenstein. The films were shot on miniscule
budgets and the shortage of film stock forced Eisentein to be careful
and selective with the footage that he shot. In the end, Eisenstein had
to reuse footage in order to make a feature length picture.
The most famous of the action set pieces in this film is the much
talked about massacre on the steps. This scene was spoofed in Bananas
and most recently in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. If you want to
learn film-making, I strongly advise you to watch Battleship Potemkin.
It's one of the essentials.
A+