A brief biography of Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei Eisenstein Сeргей Михайловин Эйзeнштeйн, (1898-1948) Soviet director, pioneer of world cinema, Meritorious Artist of the Russian Federation (19350), Doctor of Arts (1939), Professor. Born on January 22, 1898 in a family of architects in Riga, his father's family was Jewish. He graduated from the Riga Practical School in 1915 and entered the St. Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineering. Later, he decided to engage in plastic arts and transferred to the Art School in October 1917. When the revolution broke out, he joined the Red Army and built fortifications. At the same time, he actively participated in the literary and artistic activities of the army. In 1920, he went to work at the Workers' Theater of the First Proletarian Cultural Association in Moscow as an artist and director in the film adaptation of Jack London's novel. Performance of the play "The Mexican". From 1921 to 1922, he entered the advanced director class directed by B. Meyerhold. In 1922, he published his first programmatic aesthetic manifesto in the magazine "Left-wing Art Front". "Vaudeville Montage" caused a long-term debate and had a profound impact on the development of the entire film art.

Eisenstein wrote A. Ostrovsky's script "The Wise Man" in 1923. The short film "Gromov's Diary" was made during "Every Thought Is Possible", which was inserted into the stage play and broadcast. In 1924, he completely transferred to the film industry. The director's first film "Strike" (1925) was published by "Pravda" " is regarded as "the first truly proletarian film". He replaced the general "plot" in previous films with "vaudeville montage", crowd scenes, type actors, and location shooting, such as when he showed the tsar suppressing workers' strikes. The effect of inserting the slaughterhouse plot of cattle is shocking. The individual protagonists, star performances and settings reflect his documentary style. The film "Battleship Potemkin" (1925) further developed the ideological theme of "Strike". Tendencies and aesthetic principles. The film shaped Push

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, he accepted the commission to shoot the film "October". This is based on the "Shock" by American journalist John Reed. "Ten Days in the World". In this film, he used the principles of rational cinema to not only reproduce a series of events from February to October 1917, but also to reveal the meaning of these events. After 1928, he continued to complete the film "General Line" that was interrupted by "October" and revised it as "Old and New" (1929) with Shostakovich's music. The title of the film was released. This is the first film in the Soviet Union to show the comprehensive image of the people who moved forward in history. The stone lions, Odessa stairs and other scenes in the film are important historical themes. The combination of perfect rhythm and editing made this work a classic of world cinema. At the 1958 Brussels International Film Festival, "Battleship Potemkin" was rated by international film critics as one of the 12 best films since its release. The first.

In 1928, Eisenstein published an article "The Future is Sound Film" (co-authored), in which he boldly predicted the emergence of sound films, that is, the "counterpoint" of pictures and sounds. prospects. From 1929 to 1932, he visited Europe and the United States with photographer Э.К. Kissey and assistant director Г.В. Alexanderlov. He made a short film "Sentimental" (1930) in France, where he experimented with sound-picture counterpoint. Later, at the invitation of the American Paramount Company, he went to Hollywood to adapt Sandela's novel "Sutter's Gold" and Theodore Dreiser's novel "American Tragedy". However, the producers were exposed to acute social issues in both cases. People were deterred, and he did not agree to make modifications according to the factory requirements and could not complete it. In 1932, with funding from the American writer Upton Sinclair, he went to Mexico to shoot the epic film "Viva Mexico", which spanned Mexico's 2,000-year history, but it was not completed. In this film, he explores the movement, rhythm and structure of a single shot. The 80,000-meter negative of this film was never sent to Moscow during Eisenstein's lifetime. Many people have edited more than 10 films based on its materials, such as "Mexican Storm" and "Tragic Carnival", which have been screened around the world. Until 1979, through the efforts of all parties, more than 60,000 meters of film were gathered in Moscow. Alexander Love, a famous director and Eisenstein's assistant at the time, edited it into a complete film. It won an honorary gold medal at the 1979 Moscow International Film Festival. Quality award. After returning to China in 1932, he filmed "Bai Jing Prairie". When it was about to be completed, he was criticized for using a poetic approach to describe realist life, and was criticized for making formalist mistakes, and his success failed. After self-examination, he taught in the Directing Department of the Soviet State Film Institute in Moscow. The methods he formulated for directing internship classes laid the foundation for the teaching of film directors.

Later, at Stalin's request, when he was filming "Alexander Nevsky" (1938), he connected the narrative structure of the film with ancient legends and folktales, and processed the film's images. It is intertwined with ancient Russian murals and architectural art, and combines the two with Sergey Prokofiev's music in a counterpoint or correspondence. Among them, the battle on the ice lake has become a classic in the history of world cinema.

This time he won the Stalin bonus. The 3-part film "Ivan the Terrible" (Episodes 1 and 2, 1945, the third episode was not completed) was the last film he directed. He also received the Stalin bonus. During the war with Iraq In terms of Emperor Fan’s explanation, he started from A. С． Pushkin drew inspiration from his historical drama "Boris Godunov", while structurally drawing on and surpassing the experience of the world's classic artists. This multi-voice film, especially the scene of the Guards' banquet and the sound and color montage in the second episode, have made it one of the peaks of world cinema and made a great contribution to the development of film art. In February 1946, he died on the set of the film due to angina pectoris.

Eisenstein's film theory has conducted many groundbreaking studies in the fields of the overall structure of the film, montage, sound and picture frame, single-shot picture structure, color and film history. In addition, his works on the nature of artistic passion, artistic methods, reception psychology, etc. also occupy a particularly important position in his theoretical legacy. The Soviet Union published the "Collected Works of Eisenstein" (6 volumes); the film circles around the world paid considerable attention to his artistic theory. Most critics believe that perhaps no one in the history of cinema has surpassed his understanding of cinema.