Armored cruiser Potemkin
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Armored cruiser Potemkin |
| Original title | Броненосец Потёмкин Bronenossez Potjomkin |
 | |
| Country of production | USSR |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 1925 |
| length | 63/70 (restored version) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sergei Eisenstein |
| script | Nina Agadzhanova |
| production | Jakow Blioch |
| music | Edmund Meisel (1925), Edison Studio (DVD 2017) |
| camera | Vladimir Popov, Eduard Tisse |
| cut | Sergei Eisenstein |
| occupation | |
| |
Armored cruiser Potemkin (Russian original title Броненосец Потёмкин / Bronenossez Potjomkin ; [ pʌtˈjɔmkin ]) is a silent film by director Sergei Eisenstein from 1925. It premiered on December 21, 1925 in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater as the official anniversary film to celebrate the 1905 revolution .
As a propaganda film , the Battleship Potemkin was supposed to evoke strong emotional reactions in the spirit of Soviet mass ideologies. In form and content, however, it goes far beyond simple propaganda and has won several awards as one of the most influential and best films of all time.
action
The plot is based very freely on the actual events of the Russian revolutionary year 1905 , the mutiny of the crew of the Russian warship Knjas Potjomkin Tavritscheski against their tsarist officers. The reference to a failed revolution in a propaganda film is conclusive if one takes the Leninist theory of revolution into account: The rebellious masses lacked the professional revolutionaries and the cadre party necessary for success , as would later prove to be the Bolsheviks . The character of Wakulintschuk is killed too early and is more likely to get into the revolutionary situation by accident than to be able to take on this role.
Sergei Eisenstein himself describes his work as a tragic composition in its most canonical form - a tragedy in five acts. Accordingly, five consecutive acts are clearly differentiated in this work by subheadings:
1. The beginning The sailors of the Potemkin are to be given rotten meat to eat. There is resentment; they refuse to touch the soup.
2. The uprising The captain decides to make an example and to have some sailors shot. After the guard has shown solidarity with the sailors, an uprising breaks out and the sailors take over the ship. One of the leaders, Wakulintschuk, is killed.
3. Mourning Vakulintschuk's body is laid out in a tent on the pier in Odessa ; the residents of the city mourn him and show solidarity with the sailors. You give them groceries.
4. The Odessa harbor stairs The tsarist army begins shooting at the crowd on the stairs. Panic breaks out and people begin to flee; there are many dead and injured.
5. The encounter with the navy The sailors bombard the Odessa theater, which houses the local government-loyal military, in order to support the population. They then advise whether to land for further aid. However, since a tsarist admiral squadron is already on the way against them, they decide to fight against them. But when the ships clash, the sailors of the Potemkin and those of the Admiral's squadron fraternize and the Potemkin can sail out to sea.
style
In principle, there is no stringent, well-composed plot , but this essentially corresponds to Eisenstein's approaches and views on film theory and generally to those of the cinema of the 1920s. The film theorist Siegfried Kracauer notes that Eisenstein's designation of the work as tragedy is misleading and that earlier designations as chronicle or newsreel are far more appropriate.
The action in Battleship Potemkin takes a back seat to the approach of Eisenstein's attraction assembly. Eisenstein's aim is to use montage to “work” the viewer with regard to a certain ideological conclusion, to evoke emotional affect reactions. As the media scientist Wolfgang Beilenhoff notes, the film was made in the context of Soviet mass utopias and constructed a mass of people based on equality . This is violently deconstructed in the famous staircase scene. Here compassion should be generated and affect should be evoked in the viewer.
The actors of the action are drawn accordingly schematically. Types dominate (sailor, officer, beggar, aristocrat, citizen, mother) instead of individualized persons. Only the first leader and at the same time the first martyr of the mutiny (Wakulintschuk) is drawn individually.
In this film, which is intentionally kept in the style of communist propaganda , Eisenstein tested his theories of film montage , with practice having an effect on the theory formation. In the extreme penetration of form and content, down to the smallest detail, the film ultimately goes beyond simple propaganda. The early Russian filmmakers at the Kuleshov School experimented with the effect films had on audiences. Eisenstein edited the film in such a way that it should evoke the strongest possible emotional response. The aim was to arouse sympathy for the rebellious sailors and antipathy towards the tyrannical superiors. The plot is kept simple in order to make it clear to the audience which actors they should sympathize with.
reception
Eisenstein's film was a huge success. Armored cruiser Potemkin was very well received by the Russian audience and was demonstrated at selected locations around the world, where the audience also responded positively. Held in the style of propaganda, the film was enthusiastically received and made Eisenstein world famous as a director.
The most famous scene is the massacre on the stairs to the port of Odessa : Tsarist soldiers march in rhythmic steps down a seemingly endless staircase while they fire into a crowd that tries to escape down the stairs. The stroller slips away from an injured nurse and trundles down without being stopped.
This scene was later imitated countless times in films. One of the most famous tributes is found in Brian De Palma's version of The Untouchables (1987). Woody Allen also alluded to this scene in his film Bananas ; also Terry Gilliam in Brazil , where the stroller is being replaced by a floor cleaner with tubes. Original scenes of the massacre on the stairs were used for the video for the song Intervention (2007) by the indie band Arcade Fire . It finally found its way into Frank Castorf 's staging of Wagner's tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival 2013, where a pram loaded with a sack of potatoes descends a long staircase at Götterdämmerung . Although the scene is fictional in this form, it made the Potemkin Stairs of Odessa famous.
In 1957 Francis Bacon painted his picture Study for the Nurse in the Battleship Potemkin , which hangs in the Frankfurt Städel . He was so impressed by the cry of the nurse on the stairs, which is shot in the eye, that it inspired him to write his famous painting Pope Innocent X.
Armored cruiser Potemkin has been named one of the most influential films of all time and has been named "best film of all time" several times, including in the 1950s by the British cinema magazine Sight & Sound and in 1958 at the World Exhibition in Brussels .
In 2003, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, in cooperation with numerous filmmakers, created a film canon for work in schools and included this film in their list.
criticism
“A hitherto unknown rhythm and dynamics of the editing make the revolutionary film a particularly haunting work that polemically contrasts the rulers and the ruled and tries to lead the viewer through the path of emotions to political knowledge. Interesting not only in terms of film history , but also as a teaching piece for cinematic agitation . "
music
The first own film music was composed by Edmund Meisel in 1926 for the German version. The film had previously been shown without original music, only with compilations from works by classical composers such as Beethoven and Tchaikovsky . Eisenstein wanted every generation to compose their own music for his film.
In 1930 Meisel produced a complete sound version for the film, which also contains noises and brief dialogues. The entire composition was recorded on five needle-tone discs and played in the cinema in sync with the film. The obligatory subtitles of the film could thus be omitted.
In 1950 Nikolai Kryukov composed the music for a new version of the film. In 1976, excerpts from symphonies by Shostakovich were used for a version restored in the Soviet Union, the “anniversary version” . In 1985 the American composer Chris Jarrett wrote a piano accompaniment for the film for his live performances. He's still touring today with a newer version of it.
In 1985, Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen was commissioned to write an orchestral version of the original music by Edmund Meisel for the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie , as the original was essentially preserved in the form of a piano reduction. At the same time, Enno Patalas from the Munich Film Museum made a reconstruction of the film sequence on the basis of this piano reduction . This new version of the film and the music premiered in the opening week of the Cologne Philharmonic and was then played in the Gasteig in Munich and in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt . The Italian television in Switzerland ( RTSI ) produced a television version under the direction of Schlingensiepen. Excerpts of the sound recording were published on the label edel and later awarded the German Record Critics' Prize (quarterly list).
In 2004 the Pet Shop Boys set the film to music with the Dresden Symphony Orchestra ; this was produced by Sven Helbig . Torsten Rasch orchestrated the music. So far, this version has been performed live in London, Segovia, Frankfurt, Bonn, Berlin, Hamburg and Dresden. The soundtrack was released in 2005 under the title Battleship Potemkin . In 2017 Edison Studio set the film to music for Cineteca di Bologna Potemkin DVD.
Censorship in Germany
The film was to come out in German cinemas in 1926. However, the distribution company Prometheus Film changed it even before the censorship submission by shortening and changing the subtitles in order to anticipate possible editions. At the instigation of the Ministry of Justice and the Reichswehr Ministry, all scenes in which officers were thrown overboard by rebel sailors were cut out. There were also detailed arrangements for the scenes at and on the Odessa Staircase, the aim of which was to prevent the dead or dying and the legs of people climbing over injured people from being seen. Even the entire complex of scenes with the stroller is missing in this version. At times, the showing of the film, which ran with great success in many cities in Prussia until July 1926 , was completely banned. In the summer of 1926, for example, the Stuttgart police headquarters announced that they would forbid the performance because “the changes that were made did not reduce its irritating effects, which endanger the state, public order and security”. His supporters - including Lion Feuchtwanger , Klabund , Max Liebermann , Heinrich Zille , Leopold Jessner , Alfred Kerr , Hans J. Rehfisch and Johannes R. Becher - achieved the lifting of the ban through journalistic actions and demonstrations, albeit at the cost of further cuts and changes the wording of the subtitles.
Herbert Ihering criticized the distorting effect of these cuts in the Berliner Börsen-Courier :
“You are still marching down the stairs. But are they still shooting? You can hardly see it. Does someone fall? It is already over. [...] It is the best testimony to the value of the film and the worthlessness of the processing that with the destruction of human sentiments, the artistic effect is also gone. "
Trivia
- Strictly speaking, the German title Panzerkreuzer Potemkin is a translation error. The original name Bronenossez Potjomkin and the technical parameters indicate that the Knjas Potjomkin Tawritscheski was a ship of the line (battleship). The Russian term Eskadrenny Bronenossez means "squadron armored ship " properly translated. In Russia this was the official name of a ship of the line until 1907, which was called the Lineiny Korabl (ship of the line) after 1907 . Accordingly, Bronenossez Potjomkin should have been translated as "Armored Ship Potjomkin" or perhaps "Ironclad Potjomkin". The term Bronenosny Kreiser was used for the designation "armored cruiser" in Russia .
- A movie poster for the German-speaking audience was designed in 1966 by graphic designer Hans Hillmann . It shows the pictogram-like stylized silhouettes of two gun barrels of an armored cruiser. Due to its formal simplicity and graphic conciseness, Hillmann's black and white draft is one of the best-known film posters.
- A detailed description of the entire film - which, however, bears the title "Battleship Orlow" - can be found in Lion Feuchtwanger's novel Success . Here the strong effect on the audience is shown aptly.
- In the film The Casanova Project with Alfred Edel , the look of the stairs in the Eisenstein film is discussed in detail and controversially ("Armored cruisers have no stairs!").
Restored version
A restored, uncut version (Berlin version) with a length of 70 minutes was performed at the 55th Berlinale 2005. It contains, among other things, a longer version of the massacre on the stairs of Odessa, revised subtitles and an introduction by Leon Trotsky , who fell victim to censorship. For this version of the film, Edmund Meisel's music was reworked by Helmut Imig with dramaturgical advice from Lothar Prox. The German Film Orchestra Babelsberg played under the direction of Helmut Imig. This version was also shown on January 27, 2008 in the Lichtburg Essen . To this day it has been performed repeatedly, e.g. B. in the Babylon cinema in Berlin.
In January 2009 it was performed in six Swiss cities (Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Geneva, St. Gallen and Zurich) as part of “60 Years of Clubhouse Concerts” with the participation of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow . The film opened with Shostakovich's 11th Symphony , which deals critically with the revolutionary history of Russia, conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev . The film was not accompanied by Meisel's original music, but with excerpts from Shostakovich's 4th and 11th symphonies, arranged by Armin Brunner and conducted by Frank Strobel .
In 2007, Transit Classics released the "world's best version" with the music of Edmund Meisel with the addition of bonus material.
literature
- Sergei M. Eisenstein : Writings. Volume 2: Battleship Potemkin ( Hanser 135 series ). Edited, translated and commented by Hans-Joachim Schlegel . Hanser, Munich et al. 1973, ISBN 3-446-11793-8 .
- Hans-Joachim Schlegel: The armored cruiser Potemkin begins its journey. Unknown texts about the Moscow Potemkin premiere sixty years ago ( Kinemathek. Issue 67, ISSN 0173-3710 ). Compiled, translated and commented by: Freunde der Dt. Kinemathek, Berlin 1985.
- Rainer Fabich : Battleship Potemkin. In: Rainer Fabich: Music for the silent film. Analyzing description of original film compositions . Lang, Frankfurt et al. 1993, ISBN 3-631-45391-4 , pp. 237-276 (= Europäische Hochschulschriften, Series 36: Musicology, Volume 94, also a dissertation at the University of Munich 1992).
- Christine Engel : The stairs of Odessa. The key scene in Eisenstein's armored cruiser Potemkin , in: Gerhard Paul (Hrsg.): The century of images. Picture atlas . Volume 1. 1900 to 1949 . Göttingen: V&R, 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-30011-4 , pp. 316–323
- Robert Rosentreter : Armored cruiser Potjomkin. The ship. The riot. The film. Koch, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-86436-012-1 .
Web links
- Battleship Potemkin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Battleship Potemkin in the online movie database
- Icon of the Soviet revolutionary film , essay by Andreas Zellhuber in: FilmGeschichte (s) of the 19th and 20th centuries ( University of Augsburg )
- Henning Sietz: Mutiny on the "Potjomkin" ( Memento from February 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- Download the film from the Internet Archive
- Comprehensive, comparative study of the censorship of the armored cruiser Potemkin in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia ( Memento from May 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Film restoration Bronenosec Potemkin / Battleship Potemkin ( Memento from February 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum for Film and Television , published in autumn 2007 in AGR Coleccionistas de cine under ", El acorazado Potemkin" ("On the restoration of battleship Potemkin ").
- ^ Certificate of release for the armored cruiser Potemkin . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2007 (PDF; test number: 19 519-a V / DVD).
- ^ Battleship Potemkin. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 29, 2017 .
- ↑ A complete set of these needle-tone records was found in the Technisches Museum Wien . [1]
- ↑ D-sign.it: Libri, DVD & Gadgets - Cinestore. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
- ↑ The ban on showing the "Potemkin" film. In: Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 22209/1926, July 14, 1926, p. 8 above. (Online at ANNO ). .
- ^ Battleship Potemkin. Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF eV, November 3, 2008, accessed on February 4, 2013 .
- ^ The newspaper Salzburger Wacht of August 3, 1926, p. 3. Via the Austrian National Library
- ↑ FB Habel : Cut up films. Censorship in the cinema. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-378-01069-X , p. 77.
- ↑ Bernd Loose, Bernd Oesterle: The great book of warships. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01854-3 .
- ↑ Jens Müller: Revolutionary film posters. Image of the film poster by Hans Hillmann at einestages . In: Spiegel Online
- ↑ https://dirtypictures.phpbb8.de/deutschtumelei-f30/das-casanova-projekt-arnold-hau-t8168.html
- ↑ http://www.berlinale.de/de/archiv/jahresarchive/2005/02_programm_2005/02_Filmdatenblatt_2005_20053720.php
- ↑ 60 years of clubhouse concerts: successful first half of the season
- ↑ 60 years of clubhouse concerts: successful first half of the season
- ↑ epd Film 10/2007, p. 59.