¡SERGEI EISENSTEIN MÉXICO! Exotic Travelogues

ABOUT THE EVENT:

Sergei Eisenstein travelled to Mexico December 1930 to experience firsthand its “geographical, ethnological, cultural and historical diversity” and to make a feature film. After shooting tons of beautiful 35mm footage, drawing hundreds of sketches and writing volumes of critical texts, he departed April 1932 without a completed project. This digital edition explores his unfinished cinema work available in partially edited fragments realized by others. The content and quality of the different releases vary greatly due to many factors none of which reflect poorly on Eisenstein. Viewed together with newly created interviews and reflections, the short and long films form a magnificent magical testament dedicated to the spirit of unbound creativity.

Film notes by Ian Christie and Bruce Posner

ABOUT THE FILMS:

“Time in the Sun,” 1940, Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Alexandrov and Eduard Tissé, 61 Mins, Kino Lorber

After Sol Lesser’s early compilations carved from the Mexican footage, “Time in the Sun” was a first attempt to do justice to what its director, Marie Seton, believed was Eisenstein’s vision. Having spent time with him in Yalta in 1934 and heard his rapturously account of the group’s experiences in Mexico, she resolved in 1938 “to reconstruct the dream in order that it might not be entirely lost.” Seton and her collaborators effectively molded the material into a conventional ethnographic documentary that foregrounded the exotic customs and costumes which Eisenstein had Tissé and Alexandrov film copiously. “Time in the Sun” largely follows the sequence of “novellas” or episodes set in different regions and eras that he had sketched for the benefit of his sponsors and the Mexican Government. Seton’s commentary also draws heavily on one of his key inspirations, Anita Brenner’s “Idols Behind Altars,” emphasizing the “Indian spirit” that had survived Spanish invasion and dictatorship. But with its conventional music, and tentative dramatization in the marriage sequence set in Tehuantepec and the climactic revenge drama at Tetlapayac Hacienda, it hardly seems to fulfill Eisenstein’s aspirations. We know he was bitterly disappointed when he finally saw it in 1946, but we are no closer to knowing what he might have created from this spectacular material. Based on Anita Brenner’s “Idols Behind Altars” (1929), Franz Blom’s “The Conquest of Yucatan” (1936), and writings researched by Samuel A. Datlowe and Marie Seton.

FORMAT: DCP

Mexican Symphony: “Zapotec Village” / “Idol Of Hope” / “The Conquering Cross,” 1941, Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 45 Mins, Kino Lorber

Three rare travelogues “Zapotec Village,” “The Conquering Cross” and “Idol of Hope” are presented in the projection order indicated by Bell & Howell Filmosound Library in 1941. Missing are “Mexican Marches,” “Spaniard and Indian” and “Land and Freedom.” The entire series of six short, one-reel and two-reel, nonfiction ethnographic films were edited with footage recycled from the earlier THUNDER OVER MEXICO, EISENSTEIN IN MEXICO, “Death Day” and “Time in the Sun.” The travelogues were shaped into dapper and informative educational compilations, heavy on voice-over narration, that report on Mexican Indian life, cultural and historic backgrounds, and exotic scenic locations. Equally apparent throughout, and incorporated to great effect, appears much footage shot by Eisenstein but not previously seen or currently possible to view elsewhere. The hybrids could be projected, grouped together one-after-the-other, to form a composite feature-length documentary “Mexican Symphony.” The newly minted Eisenstein films play benignly symphonic in form and presentation.

FORMAT: DCP

“The Disaster in Oaxaca,” 1931, Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 16 Mins, Kino Lorber

A month after Eisenstein’s group had entered Mexico in December 1930, the southern province of Oaxaca was devastated by a magnitude 8 earthquake which destroyed its capital. The Russians hired a plane to fly to Oaxaca, to film the damage and its aftermath, apparently hoping to capture material ahead of newsreel companies. The footage of shattered buildings, displaced inhabitants and the funeral of a child eloquently documented the scale of the disaster that killed over one hundred people. Quickly edited by Eisenstein, it was shown in Mexican theaters, and a copy was sent to the USSR, no doubt to prove that the Russians were gainfully employed after their fruitless year in Hollywood. Tissé’s filming may be largely functional, but Eisenstein’s montage pointedly contrasts the ruined houses of the rich with those of the poor, and includes several sequences that anticipate the religious themes which would preoccupy him during his time in Mexico: notably life-size religious statues being rescued from a ruined church, as if emphasizing their powerlessness, and a silhouetted angel sculpture hanging over a jagged void captioned “the angel of death.”

FORMAT: DCP