a classic of its time

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2009)

What new can be said about a film that was commented by some of the most famous critics and was taken as inspiration by some of the most remarkable directors in the history of cinema? Even if one sees it for the first time it has good chances to recognize scenes or themes that were taken over by many other movies that followed.
The new version that was shown by the European cultural TV chain ARTE brings a few new elements beyond the reconditioning of the film. It has a new musical score which is very well fit to the rhythm and action building that Eisenstein mastered so well. It also features an odd color addition that aims to emphasize the red of the flag raised by the revolutionary on the crusader which was an idea that I liked less. Most important it includes a prologue written by Leon Trotsky which was part of the original version screened in the Soviet Union in 1925, but which was censored shortly after, as Trotsky fell into Stalin's disgrace and than flew Soviet Russia in exile.
Many scenes of the film keep their beauty and magic until today. The port of Odessa filmed in the morning fog by Eduard Tisse would be an impressionist masterpiece if it was a painting. The scenes of the shooting on the stairs or of the naval encounter in the final are exquisitely built and edited. Yet also the weak parts of the film are being made clear by the renovation and new screening - characters are stereotypes, and they serve a propaganda cause. For a viewer who has lived in the Communist system the political context and the background of the invented or deformed history put in the service of the enrolled messaging cannot escape.
Esthetically 'Potyomkin' is and will always be a masterpiece. The message it carries is clearly dated.