Sergei Eisenstein
Biography
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage." He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1924), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1927), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). His work profoundly influenced early filmmakers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage.
Known For & Full Filmography19 Titles
Movie - 1925, 2h 15m • as Odessa Citizen
A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • as Himself
Eisenstein shot 50 hours of footage on location in Mexico in 1931 and 32 for what would have become ¡Que viva México!, but was not able to finish the film. Following two wildly different reconstruction attempts in 1939 (Marie Seton's 'Time in the Sun') and 1979 (Grigori Alexandrov's '¡Que viva México!') Kovalov has here compiled another hypothetical version of what Eisenstein's film might have been.
Movie - 1929, 2h 15m • as Policeman
Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.
Movie - 1940, 2h 15m • as (archive footage)
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.
Movie - 1996, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A free film adaptation of the director's memoirs. In form, this is the "stream of consciousness" that attracted Sergei Eisenstein after getting acquainted with the experiments of James Joyce. The outer outline of the film is a long foreign trip of the director, which began in 1929, during which he recalls his past life and considers creative ideas. The film is constructed as a free alternation of reality, dreams, and fantasies. The material for it is fragments from the films of Sergei Eisenstein and his fellow contemporaries, documentary footage depicting the director and his time. The wide coverage of the faces and events reflected in the film shows the special role of Sergei Eisenstein in the culture of the twentieth century…
Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A reflective documentary on the life and legacy of Sergei Eisenstein, examining his films and the era in which he worked. Conceived as a companion to "Sergei Eisenstein. Foreword," the film serves as a concluding meditation on the great director’s influence.
Movie - 2000, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
The true story of Mei Lanfang, China's greatest opera star; a husband and father whose world-wide fame came from the portrayal of women. His fascinating life was the basis for the feature film Farewell My Concubine.
Movie - 1923, 2h 15m • as Sergei Eisenstein
Filmic insert to Eisenstein's modernized, free adaptation of Ostrovskiy's 19th-century Russian stage play, "The Wise Man" ("Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty"). The anti-hero Glumov tries to escape exposure in the midst of acrobatics, derring-do, and farcical clowning. Several members of Eisenstein's troupe at the legendary "Proletkult" stage theatre in Moscow briefly appear in this little film.
Movie - 1931, 2h 15m • as Self (uncredited)
A German reporter visits Hollywood and is escorted through the MGM Studio by a German nobleman, who is working there as an extra. They meet and speak to several actors, primarily Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford and Heinrich George. Then they meet Adolphe Menjou, who rehearses a long scene in German. A final scene shows stars arriving at a film premiere, including Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer and Wallace Beery.
Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A documentary exploring the childhood of filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in Riga, examining how the multicultural city and his early encounters with art shaped the future pioneer of Soviet cinema.
Movie - 2017, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
As a teenager, Sergei Eisenstein signed his drawings with "Sir Gay". Mark Rappaport sees clear signs of his sexual preferences throughout the Russian’s film oeuvre. Numerous asides illustrate how Hollywood productions likewise frequently played with nods and winks and typical motifs from gay culture.
Movie - 1963, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
“The Magic Beam” is a film essay woven together from newsreels and documentary material from different decades, fragments of hundreds of non-fiction and fiction Soviet films of the 1910s-1960s.
Movie - 2023, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
What could have happened – what should have happened – if two giants in film history, like Greta Garbo and Sergei Michajlovič Eisenstein, could have declared their love for each other? The world's most famous actress, an honorary Russian citizen of cinema for her many performances; the world's most radical director, who could have immortalized her face in one of his famous close-ups? Sphinx Garbo did not want to be alone: she just wanted to marry the great Sergei. Perhaps she could have played Trotsky or Pancho Villa in one of his films. Perhaps their friends Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney and Josef von Sternberg would have approved their love. Maybe they could have had a child together. Maybe all this could still have happened, in a Mark Rappaport film.
Movie - 1958, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
Documentary made for the 60th anniversary of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein.
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
A documentary biography of Russia's greatest filmmaker.
Movie - 1941, 2h 15m • as С.Эйзенштейн
On August 24, 1941, a meeting of “representatives of the Jewish people” was convened.
Movie - 1984, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Inspired by the social changes that the Revolution brought to our country and the admiration he felt for Mexican art, the Russian filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein traveled to Mexico with the intention of filming a film mosaic that culminated in the most beautiful non-existent film. The details of this odyssey are exposed in this episode of the classic television series Those Who Made Our Cinema.
Movie - 1933, 2h 15m • as Self
The story of Russian director Sergei M. Eisenstein in Mexico trying to film his unfinished ¡Que Viva Mexico! - Da zdravstvuyet Meksika! (1979).
Movie - 1998, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Eisenstein is celebrated either as the last Leonardo da Vinci of modernity or attacked as Faustus, Faustus who made a pact with the devil. Whichever is the case, neither friends nor foes are able to resist the powerful draw of Eisenstein's work. He was a person of complexity who was understood in very different ways, as a generous cosmopolitan and a stingy hermit, a cynic and yet a highly sensitive, vulnerable being. The film deals with a number of phases in Eisenstein's life, and tries to get away from the orthodox image of him by using new material to shed a different light on his biography.