The Cinema of Eisenstein [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

David Bordwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1993

Director of classics, theorist of montage, master of the mass epic, purveyor of Soviet realism in the midst of perilous political reality: Sergei Eisenstein is possibly the key figure in film history. In "The Cinema of Eisenstein" David Bordwell takes the full measure of this filmmaker's accomplishments. Bordwell gives a complete account of Eisenstein's distinctive contributions to the art, theory and history of cinema. He takes the reader from the first silent film, "Strike", made in the upheaval of postrevolutionary Russia, through "Potemkin" and "Ten Days That Shook the World" and on to "Alexander Nevsky" which won the Order of Lenin, to the last banned part of the diptych "Ivan the Terrible". Discussing each in detail, Bordwell points out the traces of various artistic currents of the times, from Marxist Modernism to Socialist Realism to Symbolist poetics, as well as the changing influence of Soviet politics. He guides the reader through Eisenstein's theoretical writings, including major texts that have only recently appeared in English. With close attention to the texture of the filmmaker's thought and work, Bordwell uncovers new depths of artistry and implications for the the

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sergei Eisenstein is arguably the most important single figure in the history of movies. He was certainly the most versatile. The director of the masterpieces Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein also wrote ground-breaking essays on film art and taught classes on motion picture production. In this thoughtful, clear, and beautifully organized book, David Bordwell describes Eisenstein's development as a filmmaker, essayist, and teacher, demonstrating how each of his occupations comments upon and elucidates the other. Playing the role of Eisenstein's biographer, historian, interpreter, and critic, Bordwell has composed one of the clearest and most complete views available of this difficult but exciting genius. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Bordwell (film studies, Univ. of Wisconsin) offers an academic piece on the work of famed Russian director Sergei Eisenstein, whose silent film Battleship Potemkim (1925) is considered by many to be the best film ever made. The book's title may be taken in its broadest sense, for it examines not only Eisenstein's movies but also his work as theorist and teacher, as well as his place in contemporary cinematic thought. While each of his films is discussed in-depth, equal space is given to the other aspects of his film career. Wisely, the author doesn't present Eisenstein as working in the vacuum of a Communist society but relates the changing Soviet artistic, philosophic, and academic theories that unquestioningly influenced his continually evolving film poetics. For academic and subject collections.
- Marianne Cawley, Kingwood Branch Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; illustrated edition edition (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674131371
• ISBN-13: 978-0674131378
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,584,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa. His books include The Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer (University of California Press, 1981), Narration in the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (Princeton University Press, 1988), Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Cinema of Eisenstein (Harvard University Press, 1993), On the History of Film Style (Harvard University Press, 1997), Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000), Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (University of California Press, 2005), The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006), and The Poetics of Cinema (Routledge, 2008). He has won a University Distinguished Teaching Award and was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Copenhagen. His web site is www.davidbordwell.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Film Freak's Guide to the Great Eisenstein, June 6, 2000

By 

Douglas J. Levy - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cinema of Eisenstein (Paperback)

David Bordwell, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, has produced as complete and insightful a guide to the cinemagraphic artistry of Sergei Eisenstein as any film lover could hope for. In addition to covering the director's life and "rehabilitation" to rightful prominence years after his death, Dr. Bordwell spends measured time dissecting and describing Eisenstein's theories of montage and "Social Realist" cinema in a most understandable and fluent way. For anyone who has marveled at the dramatic power of the "Odessa Steps" sequence in "The Battleship Potempkin" or the heroic sweep of "Alexander Nevsky," this book will take you behind the scenes and reveal how these masterworks were made, and why. Very readable, and filled with hundreds of illustrations from films both completed and unmade, "The Cinema of Eisenstein" will satisfy the serious movie-goer and the student of Soviet cultural history. A compendious bibliography and suggested reading list is included. Comrades, get this book!