January 22, 1898
He was born in Riga, into a family of an architect. Sergei Eisenstein — director. Author of the legendary "Battleship Potemkin".
You can't start working on a film without a clear idea of why; without knowing what feelings and passions you want to speculate on.
No more mental agility is required than when designing the most utilitarian reinforced concrete structure.
The mother was the daughter of the owner of the Neva Shipping Company. Thanks to her dowry, the family lived in prosperity, had servants, and entertained high-ranking officials.
With the beginning of the First Russian Revolution, at the age of 8, he left with his parents to Paris — I saw a movie there for the first time.
At 17 he entered Petrogradsky Institute of Civil Engineers. After the February Revolution, he served as a policeman. In 1918, he joined the Bolsheviks and voluntarily enlisted in the Red Army. During breaks between battles, he staged amateur performances and designed sets for plays. Mayakovsky, painted propaganda trains.
The revolutionary whirlwind gave me the most precious thing in life—it made me an artist. If not for the revolution, I would never have shattered the traditions—from father to son to engineer.
In 1921, he got a job at the First Workers' Theatre of Proletkult. At the same time, he studied directing courses with Meyerhold.
One of the first films, a silent propaganda film about the execution of rebellious workers, “Strike,” ended with the credits: “Remember, proletarian!”
Following his success on screen, the government commissioned him to film the movie "1905." Due to time constraints, he decided to recreate only one event on screen—the mutiny on the battleship "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky" in Odessa. In 1925, the premiere was a success at the Bolshoi Theatre. The innovative filming, vivid metaphors, unusual composition of the shot, and editing rhythm brought worldwide fame (in 1958, film scholars from 26 countries at an exhibition in Brussels recognized it as "the best film of all time").
In 1927, for the tenth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, he made the film "October." In it, he created the first on-screen image of Lenin in cinema history—at the time, the very possibility of playing the leader was questionable. He cast a factory worker for the lead role (due to his physical resemblance).
In 1929, Eisenstein was sent to Europe "to master sound film technology." The assignment lasted nearly three years and ended in Mexico: after running out of funds to film his latest epic, American writer Upton Sinclair asked the USSR for help, but was met with a harsh response from Stalin.
Eisenstein lost the trust of his comrades in the Soviet Union. He is considered a deserter who broke with his country.
(Stalin)
In 1932, after returning to the USSR, he fell into disgrace.
Consider Eisenstein, who is striving to regain his position as the USSR's leading cinematographer. If he achieves his goal thanks to the cultural propaganda machine's carelessness, his victory will be seen as a reward for all future deserters.
(Stalin to the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee, Lazar Kaganovich)
Filming of his movie "Bezhin Meadow" - based on the true story of the murder Pavlika Morozova — interrupted because of mysticism and departure from socialist realism.
He was also banned from teaching - he was a professor at VGIK.
Another work, "Alexander Nevsky," also rewritten several times, was a success and released. The Russian people's struggle against foreign invaders in the 13th century was depicted as a timely warning against German aggression. For it, Eisenstein received the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Prize.
Patriotism is our theme
In 1940 he was appointed artistic director of Mosfilm.
In 1941, on Stalin's personal orders, he spoke at a rally of representatives of the Jewish people and signed a collective appeal "To the Jews of the World!" During the Great Patriotic War, during the evacuation in Alma-Ata, He made the film "Ivan the Terrible" and received his second Stalin Prize for it.
But the film's sequel, "The Boyar Conspiracy," was banned. He was deeply concerned about the film's fate. In 1946, at a ball in honor of the Stalin Prize winners at the Cinema House, he suffered a heart attack.
He died in 1948 in Moscow, at 50, from a heart attack.
In our life, truth always triumphs, but life is often not enough
