Stalin, Eisenstein, Walt Disney and Ivan the Terrible (1992)

https://www.cliomuse.com/stalin-disney-eisenstein--ivan-the-terrible.html

by samclemens • 2 years ago

81 18 2 years ago

Eisenstein• 2 years ago

It shouldn't be too surprising that Eisenstein admired Disney's work.

For those that haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching Eisenstein's 'Strike'. An overlooked masterpiece which was the birth of the montage.

Here is a link (it is public domain):

* https://youtu.be/Yw6aMqBjGKQ?si=HRXpOYZZleeSkV4C

baxtr• 2 years ago

Nice username!

csb6• 2 years ago

Alexander Nevsky is another great movie that he directed. The Battle of the Ice was the prototype for a lot of epic movie battles.

neonate• 2 years ago

http://web.archive.org/web/20240625202720/https://www.cliomu...

vgel• 2 years ago

Reading the transcript of Stalin, Molotov, etc's conversation with Eisenstein was really interesting. Even if you disagree with their analysis and what they're doing, it's clear they know the period very well--it's hard to imagine modern politicians speaking on history like that.

ineedaj0b• 2 years ago

I think there’s quite a few politicians and commentators who could give even handed overviews.

Gotcha interviews and soundbites garner more clicks. Anyone with a solid mind would avoid speaking near any source that would ‘leak’ their opinions.

pvg• 2 years ago

It's hard to imagine a modern head of state incapable of delivering that level of basic national mythology/history. There's probably the occasional counterexample but this is common enough to regularly pop up in available transcripts of national leaders meeting to this day.

riehwvfbk• 2 years ago

You don't follow the news much, do you? Good for you :)

foobarian• 2 years ago

The thing I found most interesting were the side-topic comments about former rulers and their politics. Some of it comes off very nationalistic.

placebo• 2 years ago

"Eisenstein asked whether there were some more instructions regarding the film.

Stalin. I am not giving you instructions but expressing the viewer's opinion."

Yeah, right...

rob74• 2 years ago

"The viewer's opinion" (singular), not "the viewers' opinion" (plural). So he was only expressing his opinion as a viewer - not that that would have mattered less than any direct instructions...

OTOH, the translation is not that good, so I'm not sure the distinction I mentioned is intentional. For instance, what does this phrase even mean:

Stalin pointed to Cherkasov that he had the capacity for incarnation and that we have still the capacity to incarnate the artist Khmelev.

Plus mentioning various French kings called "Ludwig", which are actually "Louis" in English...

azangru• 2 years ago

A caption to a figure in the article reads "Georgi Molotov ... 'the great survivor', was one of Stalin's key enforcers for decades". Wasn't Molotov's name Vyacheslav? [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov

gilleain• 2 years ago

Perhaps they meant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Malenkov ?

hmmm, except that does not look like Malenkov who does not seem to have worn glasses or had a moustache ..

simonebrunozzi• 2 years ago

I thought the same. Not sure if this is correct or not.

dh2022• 2 years ago

The guy in the picture to the left of Stalin is indeed Molotov, as the picture from Molotov's Wikipedia entry shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov

The_Colonel• 2 years ago

It's an interesting facet of Stalin's personality that he was a big movie nerd. Many of his "parties" ended with binge-watching movies with other high level party members (who were pretty much forced to be there).

topherjaynes• 2 years ago

Oh wow this threw me back to film school. There is a great book by Ester Leslie called Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde that walks through the overlap in animation and the avant-garde movement. It's very in-depth read if you liked this article

throw4847285• 2 years ago

"Great artist admired other great artist." Not really breaking news. I think the work of Disney and his team of animators has long been recognized as brilliant. There's no need for the chip on the shoulder.

The idea of Eisenstein as a live action animator is very cool though. I've only seen Battleship Potemkin, but even from that I see what the writer of this piece means. It took an admirer of animation to think that creatively about editing, and to make the move from realism to something more/less.

Fun fact: my grandfather was a dyed in the wool commie, and he saw Battleship Potemkin probably 1,000 times. My grandmother could not understand how he could watch it over and over again, but even after one viewing, I get it. It's thrilling.

Stalin, Eisenstein, Walt Disney and Ivan the Terrible (1992)

Related Stories