Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925/Kino International Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: B- Film: A-
Long
after the failure of the Russian Revolution, Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship
Potemkin (1925) continues to define the political movement up to the 1960s
when the Stalin regime and Cuban Missile Crisis made it the time capsule it has
now become. However, 85 years later, it
is still one of the most important films ever made, with maybe the most
imitated sequence (The Odessa Steps Sequence) in film history and remains one
of the most powerful, innovative, successful silent films of all time as well
as one of the most successful films of any kind ever made.
Yet, too
few people have seen the original, but now, Kino International has issued it in
the High Definition Blu-ray format and it is the first time many will be able
to see the film as close to a 35mm presentation as possible. That is great news for a film so important
that it should be available in a high quality copy and this version offers the
restored 2005 print in a way even DVD cold not deliver.
As I have
noted before, this is a Communist/Socialist propaganda film that was censored
in many countries for being considered too subversive at the time, possibly
causing riots among workers, it has long since endured as a work of art above
ideology. Between the graphic pattern
design of its shots, the matching of those shots with others and its
ever-influential editing, the film is one of those rare silent films people
have encountered one way or another without knowing it.
Watching
it before, I have always been impressed with the way it was shot, edited and
despite what would be considered an older style of acting for the camera, the
film shows work still ahead of its time that keeps it from becoming somehow
becoming totally dated, energy and impact that keeps it alive long after the
new country it supported (The Soviet Union) collapsed and helped to solidify
that cinema was a force unto itself that would be as important as any ideology
or political event of the 20th Century.
One of
the ways this is so is because of editing developed by Soviet filmmakers and
Eisenstein developed what he called montage theory, which he knew how to apply
immediately and gave all of Soviet Cinema its distinction for decades to
come. No doubt this single film helped
make Marxism a permanent discourse in the thinking of the world, but it was not
just because a camera was being shaken around to falsely approximate a
documentary or would-be realist feel or the editing is a series of mindless
cuts that is announces it is smart when it is about nothing.
Potemkin offers editing that says
something, got it banned for decades in many countries before the USSR imploded
and shows that the true point of editing is to create impact, not just more
cutting. In this first full century of
multi-media, it is ironic that though the ideology that made the film a classic
failed, the actual film could still teach billions what editing is really about
85 years later.
And what
of the film and its story of an ideological uprising that works? As long as there is any kind of highly
abusive elite running rampant, the film will always be relevant in its story of
how the officers of the title boat eventually ban together with others to
overthrow the abusers after a murderous incident that builds momentum that
cannot be stopped. Of course, it does
this on the strength of melodrama, overgeneralization, some overacting and
assumes the audience is populist enough to buy into it. Yet, even commercial U.S. films from the
Reaganzied cinema of the 1980s to the blockbuster digifests of today works the
same way when you think about it, even if it has to be more sophisticated about
its approach and far more shallow in its result (a hidden right of center
agenda designed to convince audiences to consume mindlessly). Both are meant to put the masses in their
place, but the difference is films like Potemkin do not hide behind
anything.
Its
international counterparts of the time (D.W Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation (1915), Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will (1935)) celebrate building triumphs on false
moralism, racism and genocide, with the latter film being forced (too cleverly
for our own good) to do what Griffith did in a sneakier way. Potemkin says and shows that
ideological revolution can cause just as much change as a violent one, though
it only implicitly admits the bloodshed of the Russian Revolution and that is
what shocked and scared so many worldwide including those who were in any power
elite. No film in any way had said this
before and that is why it will always remain an all-time classic.
But at
the heart of its success is an exercise in pure cinema that cannot be denied
and one that most filmmakers wish they could pull off, but never will.
The 1080p
1.33 X 1 digital black and white High Definition image (bookended on the sides
by black bars) was lensed by Eisenstein’s great Director of Cinematography Eduard
Tissé, sometimes spelled Edouard. For
years, we have had to suffer through endless horrible prints of the film, a
disaster in the world of silent cinema that has only befallen two other hit
silent classics: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis
and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu,
ironically all handled in the United
States by Kino International in their best
possible forms. Now, Kino has issued Potemkin
on Blu-ray and WOW, what an improvement over the often awful prints we have had
to suffer through outside of Kino’s own release. As a film scholar, I can attest to the fact
that the only time I have seen images from the film have been in the better
books on the subjects of film, filmmaking, film editing and Eisenstein. This transfer has frames even better than
many of those publications.
The print
may show its age from the worn condition of what was the best possible
surviving material and there may be some other print flaws, but the detail,
depth and natural flow of the image (it does not have the clichéd choppy silent
projection that really came in part out of later screenings of silent film on
sound projectors speeding the images up in a way never intended), resulting in
the images looking like footage as natural as the latest HD evening news
broadcast. Video Black is a plus, making
this look like a real black and white film.
In some ways, it is the first time as many will have seen the film as
close to as intended as possible, proving silent film lives!
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix is new performance of the original
1926 Edmond Meisel score by the Deutsches Filmarchestra that is sonically fine
with a soundfield as good as DTS MA mix as the many Classical Blu-rays we have
covered (and still cover) from the Naxos-distributed family of music
labels. Not even DVD could deliver
lossless sound this good and with Blu-ray, you can really experience the impact
of an orchestra (with the proper home theater system) that was only previously
possible with a film screening and actual orchestra accompaniment. Of course, it is a silent film and it is as
powerful that way, but fans and film scholars will be impressed.
Extras
include a booklet with tech information, illustrations, essay on the film by Bruce
Bennett, Photo Galleries and 42-minutes-long documentary Tracing The Battleship Potemkin.
Kino just
announced the Metropolis Blu-ray
that is even longer than their great DVD set (reviewed elsewhere on this site)
and Nosferatu cannot be far
behind. The implications for Silent
Cinema in this is incredible (they issued Buster Keaton’s The General as their first Blu-ray) and is turning out to be one of
the great artistic bright spots in Blu-ray so far. Battleship Potemkin is a great chapter
in that too.
- Nicholas Sheffo
