Product Description
Special Features: - Newly conceived scores to Strike and Battleship Potemkin in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1. Composed by Ed Hughes. Performed by New Music Players. Conducted by Patrick Bailey. - Behind the scenes footage of new soundtrack recording sessions - Alternative historical soundtracks for Battleship Potemkin (Kryukov and Meisel)
About the Director
The masterful auteur of the silent era and most noted film-maker of the communist regime, Soviet-born Sergei Eisenstein invented much of the visual language used by directors today. This Revolution Trilogy confirmed Eisenstein s status as a pioneer of avant-garde cinema. STRIKE (1925) Taking an historical event from 1912, Eisenstein applies the new Soviet propaganda ideals of the heroic worker with his own theories of avant-garde art. Following the suicide of a sacked factory worker, his colleagues hold a peaceful strike, but their bosses retaliate with savage force. Capturing the brutality with power and immediacy, Eisenstein s visuals move from the slaughter of cattle to the butchery of the Cossack army, simultaneously inventing and breaking cinematic rules. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) Widely considered to be Eisenstein s masterpiece and the film responsible for putting Soviet Cinema on the international map, this thrilling film centres around the mutiny of the Russian navy during the 1905 revolution. Treated with contempt by their superiors and working under abusive conditions, the crew of the Battleship Potemkin s uprising win the support of the people of Odessa with tragic consequences. A powerful series of montages and imagery unfolds over five episodes leading up to the fictional but legendary Odessa steps sequence which has been mimicked in films as diverse as The Untouchables and Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. OCTOBER (1928) With art being used by the Soviet state for propaganda, Eisenstein was commissioned by the authorities to celebrate the tenth anniversary of 1917 s October Revolution. However, his presentation of the events through experiments in editing and camera angles, rather than by using traditional narrative, managed to link religious leaders with pagan idols and the army. It won international praise, except back home where Eisenstein once again fell foul of the Soviet authorities, accused of not using the language of the masses.
