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lism the director envisaged. Since the ending of the Cold War, it should be possible
to view Potemkin from an historical perspective, yet the film s critical reputation
has waned over this period. One reason may be that the left-wing revolutionary
impulse has dissipated among the student generation since the 1960s. More simply,
perhaps we are less willing to accept crude propaganda of whatever hue.
Irrespective of whether anybody has been converted to the Soviet cause by
watching Potemkin, the film has a reputation for being dangerous, judging by the
attitudes of censors. It fits the precepts of the Futurist Manifesto of Social Change,
which proclaimed war as the only health-giver of the world .31 The mutiny pro-
claims this spirit of change, but the manifesto dates from 1910 and the First World
War shattered the Futurist ideals. This gives the film its piquant flavour: the technical
innovations might point forward, yet its ethos and subject matter look back a gen-
eration. The years before 1914 were marked by a frenzy of artistic experimentation
in Europe, with Fauvism, Cubism and localized groupings such as Les Apaches in
France and the Blue Riders in Germany. Dada, Surrealism and jazz were prominent
among postwar developments. Eisenstein was a polymath: a writer, stage director,
artist and designer who spoke English, French and German and was at home in
this artistic firmament. His work appeared in Documents, the journal founded in
34 " Movie Greats
1929 by Georges Bataille and his circle, which carried forward many of the ide-
als of Futurism.32 Russia was on the fringes of the European cultural scene before
the First World War, with Impressionism remaining popular when elsewhere it had
been overtaken by newer movements. The 1917 revolution increased Russia s artis-
tic isolation. Constructivism, with its precept of using art for social purposes, was
popular in post-revolutionary Moscow and pervades the film, even if the authorities
were turning against the movement by 1925. There are elements of Cubism in the
fractured images of fleeing crowds on the Odessa Steps, while the didactic address
to the audience brings to mind Alfred Jarry and Bertolt Brecht, albeit without their
irony. Like Un chien andalou, Potemkin is of interest because it is experimental, but
this is incidental to its quality.
Eisenstein based the film on an incident during the 1905 revolution, but Wenden
reveals the licence taken in the interests of propaganda. In reality, the officers were
as hesitant and uncertain as the crew, who showed scant interest in the Odessa uprising.
Eisenstein also ignored the ultimate failure of the crew s stand. On a point of detail,
the crowd surged up the steps, their intention being to reach the fashionable shopping
areas.33 The film s reversal of this serves dramatic rather than propagandistic ends.
Grace notes how the depersonalization of the soldiers on the steps is achieved by
placing the camera above them, while the citizens are photographed from lower lev-
els.34 Photographing the crowd surging up the steps rather than down would render
the camera angles less effective in portraying their panic.
One incident which stands out is the well-dressed businessman shouting Kill
the Jews. He is a putative member of The Black Hundred, a virulently anti-Semitic
society. Jews comprised 30 per cent of Odessa s population and were unpopular
for controlling 90 per cent of the export trade in grain, though the reaction of the
crowd fails to make this clear. Not is there any hint that the riots had an anti-Semitic
element.35 The film is not an accurate record of the failed 1905 revolution, but a
celebration of revolutionary ideals. It provides a glimpse of Russian attitudes in the
1920s, filtered through Eisenstein s internationalist sensibility and the promptings
of his political masters. These conflicting demands mean that the result may not be
typical of either.
The film s crude propaganda and lack of humanity remain stumbling blocks.
A lesser-known film about strikers facing the militia is Adalen 31 (Bo Widerberg,
Sweden, 1969). I recall the total concentration the confrontation commanded in a
crowded cinema on the film s opening British run. It is doubtful whether Potemkin
could hold today s audiences in the same way: restlessness and sniggers are more
likely responses. Yet one viewer s comment gives pause for thought. Dr William
Boehart of Mölln in Germany comments: I had seen the film before in offside uni-
versity cinemas with canned music and on tape, but I never realized what an impact
the film can have. It simply blows your mind. The live music turned it into a totally
different experience. 36 Context may not be everything, but it counts for a lot.
4
The 39 Steps (GB, 1935):
Romance on the Run
Production company: Gaumont British
Producer: Michael Balcon
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Source: John Buchan (novel: The Thirty-Nine Steps)
Screenplay: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay
Photography: Bernard Knowles
Art direction: Albert Jullion, Oscar Werndorff
Music: Hubert Bath, Jack Beaver, Charles Williams
Editor: Derek N. Twist
Cast: Robert Donat (Richard Hannay), Lucie Mannheim (Annabella Smith), John
Laurie (Crofter), Peggy Ashcroft (Crofter s wife), Godfrey Tearle (Professor
Jordan), Madeleine Carroll (Pamela), Wylie Watson (Mr Memory)
Synopsis
Richard Hannay is alone in London. His visit to a music hall coincides with a fight in
the auditorium. Outside, he encounters Annabella Smith, who invites herself to his
flat. There she reveals that her mission is to stop foreign agents from stealing British
military secrets and that she caused the disturbance in order to evade her enemies.
The presence of watchers in the street lends credence to her story. She mentions the
thirty-nine steps without explaining what they are and insists that she must go to
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