Match Cut Directors Consensus - Sergei Eisenstein

[Ezee E]

http://www.filmint.nu/files/fckeditor/Image/Features/Eisenstein-3.jpg

Sergei Eraserhead wonders if anyone else saw any of his movies besides Battleship Potemkin.

[dreamdead]

Strike! - 7
Potemkin - 7.5
October - 8.5
Ivan the Terrible Part 1 -- 7.5

I have Ivan the Terrible p. 1 & 2 on tap for this week, though. Periodic updates to follow.

[Ezee E]

Battleship Potemkin - 7.5

Although I really can't recall much outside of the famed sequence.

[Boner M]

Battleship Potemkin - 7.5

Although I really can't recall much outside of the famed sequence.
Ditto this.

I have October, Strike and a few others readily available to me, but I don't know if I wanna prioritise them. Sorry Sergei.

[B-side]

Glumov's Diary- 5
Battleship Potemkin- 7.5
Ivan the Terrible Pt. I- 7
Ivan the Terrible Pt. II- 7

[Philosophe_rouge]

Battleship Potemkin 8

[Mysterious Dude]

Strike - 9.5
Battleship Potemkin - 9.5
October - 9.5
Alexander Nevsky - 7
Ivan the Terrible, Part I - 7
Ivan the Terrible, Part II - 7.5
Que viva Mexico! - 6

[Grouchy]

Battleship Potemkin - 9

[Spinal]

Battleship Potemkin - 8
Alexander Nevsky - 6.5
Ivan the Terrible I - 8

[ContinentalOp]

Strike - 8
Battleship Potemkin - 8

I'm going to seek out October.

[baby doll]

Battleship Potemkin (1925) [7]
October: 10 Days That Shook the World (1928) [7]
Alexander Nevsky (1937) [4]
Ivan the Terrible, Parts 1 and 2 (1944-46) [10]

[Qrazy]

Strike - 7
Battleship Potemkin - 7.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part I - 9
Ivan the Terrible, Part II - 7.5

[Raiders]

Battleship Potemkin (1925) 8.0
Alexander Nevsky (1938) 5.5
Ivan the Terrible Pt. 1 (1944) 7.5
Que Viva Mexico! (1979) 8.0

[Kurosawa Fan]

Battleship Potemkin - 8.5

[monolith94]

Strike - 9.5
Battleship Potemkin - 10
Romance Sentimentale - 9.5
Alexander Nevsky - 8.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part I - 8.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part II - 8
Que viva Mexico! - 9

[Eleven]

Battleship Potemkin - 8
October - 6
Que Viva Mexico! - 6.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 - 9
Ivan the Terrible, Part 2 - 7

Still want to see Nevsky.

[Yxklyx]

Love the hair!

Strike - 9
Potemkin - 8
October - 6
Romance sentimentale - 5
Alexander Nevsky - 6
Ivan the Terrible: Part I - 8
Ivan the Terrible: Part II - 7

[Derek]

Battleship Potemkin - 8.5
October - 7.5
Alexander Nevsky - 5.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part I - 9.0
Ivan the Terrible, Part II - 8.0

Strike has been near the top of my queue for almost a year. I think it's still available on instant watch so I'll try to get to it this week.

[Melville]

Strike - 8
Battleship Potemkin - 8.5
October - 8
Alexander Nevsky - 4.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part I - 7.5
Ivan the Terrible, Part II - 10

[StanleyK]

The Battleship Potemkin - 9.5
October - 7.5
The General Line - 8.5
Alexander Nevsky - 5
Ivan the Terrible Part I - 9
Ivan the Terrible Part II - 7.5

Kind of surprised that no one has seen The General Line, and also by the relatively low scores for Nevsky.

[Duncan]

Strike - 10
Battleship Potemkin - 7.5
October - 7.0
Alexander Nevsky - 6.0
Ivan the Terrible: Part I - 8.5
Ivan the Terrible: Part II - 10

[Spaceman Spiff]

Awesome picture.

Anyways, not a big fan.

Strike - 4.0
Battleship Potemkin - 7.5

[B-side]

Getting Strike right now. I'll edit it in.

[dreamdead]

October rather rules. Sure, all of the intertitles smack of propaganda of the most blatant variety, but the visual style of the film is just amazing, with loads of montage continually building the story's momentum. And the fact that Lenin is so small a part in this film is itself interesting, and worthy of study. So although Eisenstein sets his critique of the capitalist system, the visual orchestration is phenomenal.

Strike will be next, and Ivan will be the last film tackled of his for me.

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

Strike - 7
Que Viva Mexico - 10
Romance Sentimentale - 6.5
Alexander Nevsky - 7.5
Ivan the Terrible pt 1 - 9.5
Ivan the Terrible pt 2 - 8

[Dead & Messed Up]

Strike - 7
Battleship Potemkin - 9

[dreamdead]

Up until the last ten minutes or so, I was ready to argue that Strike! was better than Potemkin. But then Eisenstein goes for the jugular and it doesn't quite work, as the intercutting between the cattle and the slaughter of the workers doesn't quite come off as clarifying the worker's struggle. It adequately displays the way that the company dictators perceive the workers, but there's no artistry, no grace, in the comparison. And there were several scenes here that had a shock of awe in their composition that it's unfortunate the film ends there at that muddled comparison.

Only need to get to the two Ivan's next. Part 2 has me interested, considering Melville's score there...

[Amnesiac]

I've only seen the Odessa Steps sequence from Potemkin (numerous times), as well as October and Strike.

I can't recall the latter two all that well at all but I remember being the most impressed with Strike, and recalling that the score they used on the DVD was quite infectious.

[dreamdead]

The last ten minutes of Ivan Part 1 are awesome framed, with all og the operatic magnificence and bravado that the figure of Ivan commands, with his head looming over all of the Russian people. And though the film lacks some of Eisenstein's memorable montage theorizing, the drama ends up being effective at portraying how quickly an insular political vision can become.

I won't get to part 2 until later this week, but I'll post thoughts here regardless...

[Ezee E]

RESULTS:
1. Ivan the Terrible Part 1 - 8.3 (15)
2. Battleship Potemkin - 8.21 (21)
3. Ivan the Terrible Part 2 - 8.125 (12)
4. Que Viva Mexica - 7.9 (5)
5. Strike - 7.82 (11)
6. October - 7.44 (9)
7. Alexander Nevsky - 5.75 (16)
= 7.77

Glumov's Diary - 5 (1)
The General Line - 8.5 (1)
Romance Sentimentale - 6.6 (3)

WTF? - Kurious Jorge for seeing several Eisenstein films but being the only one that has not seen Battleship Potemkin.

[Duncan]

Ivan the Terrible Part 1 over Part 2? That's kinda weird.

[dreamdead]

Ivan the Terrible Part 1 over Part 2? That's kinda weird.

Indeed. Though the first film has the legendary shot of Ivan's head in supreme close-up as the masses walk beneath him, the second part's pure distinctiveness and narrative development--focused on both flashback and on experiments of color together in the narrative--allow Eisenstein to further develop a non-montage specific aesthetic, one which grants him legitimacy as he tracks attempts at coups and Ivan's uncompromising brutality in response to such threats. It's a film where I wish the proposed third part could have at least started filming.