Synopsis:
1917, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), October Revolution: the February Revolution ended the imperial dynasty of the Romanovs and the fall of the Tsar. This creates a situation of extreme tension between the proletariat and the government, respectively with the Bolsheviks representing the labor force on one hand and Menshevik and revolutionary Socialist Party, representing the state, on the other. The popular destruction of the statue of Tsar Alexander III contrasts with the establishment of a provisional government, led by the revolutionary socialist Kerenskij. The latter does not disdain the luxurious privileges of the former Tsarist regime and wants to maintain relations with the Allies and the conflict resumes: war factories resume production, the State is in political and economic crisis, wars and hunger are rampant, feeding popular discontent that more and more welcomes the revolutionary leninian ideologies. Therefore, the days of July sanctioned a Bolshevik manifestation suffocated by the provisional Government and the tension preceding a civil war is hovering. The attempt of governmental repression of the Bolsheviks is shown with various expedients: individuals of the wealthy classes who attack and kill a soldier of the people by stabbing him with umbrellas and even laughing during the act, the newspaper Pravdna, symbol of Bolsheviks, is thrown in the Sennaja and finally a horse, also symbolizing the workers, is pulled up by a drawbridge of the river and from the top falls there. This last sequence symbolizes in particular the division of the party of workers, created between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, and the will to create the same division between the Government and the proletariat. Thus, Kerensky's haughtily conservative pride is mocked, which also reintroduces the death penalty, while the Bolsheviks are repressed and forced into hiding: Lenin himself is confined to the countryside near the finnish border. So, General Kornilov, in the name of God and homeland, seeks to resolve the political crisis by marching on Petersburg in order to overthrow the provisional government and return to the Tsar's regime, but in response the Bolsheviks increase the number of supporters and organize defenses of their revolution, allied with the dissidents of the army, a pact sealed and accompained by the footsteps of the popular dance Lezginka. Then, on October 10th, the Congress decide for the insurrection, in support of the leninian ideologies hampered by the Mensheviks, fixing the date of taking power between the night of 24th and the morning of October 25th. Kerensky prepares for the siege with troops formed by the female Death Battalion and the Cossacks, but the latter defending their neutrality about the conflict. After this period of political clashes and climate of cold tension, the light signal fired by the warship Aurora sanctions the stealth introduction of the Bolsheviks in the Winter Palace and the subsequent insurrection and taking of the same. The occupants are suppressed and arrested, many of whom are also surprised to try to steal valuable objects from the palace as silverware and symbols of the former Tsarist regime. Finally, definitively defeating the provisional Government and repressed the coup d'état of Kornilov, the Bolsheviks are celebrating in laughter and applause for victory and Lenin.
Comment:
A historical documentary that uses the symbology to express the opinion of propaganda in favor of the Bolshevik Revolution. A manifesto that exposes the fight against the conservative regime and reflects the discontent of the working class and the skepticism expressed with regard to outdated conceptions. The protagonists of the events are painted characterically to suggest a juxlacing to their representative faction: Lenin is literally the voice of discontent, forced to silence and wait for the auspicious moment, while it is parallel denigrated the solitary chess game of Kerensky (his attempted takeover of power) and seen as an arrogant act that approaches him to the presumption of Napoleon and the peacock, thereby exposing himself to the same attempted counter-coup of Kornilov, Determined to reinstate the Tsarist regime (the statue of Alexander III is reintroduced in rewind after its destruction in the initial scenes). Symbols, these, which demonstrate the propaganda will of Ejzenstejn and explain the ideology behind his cinema, used as a means to divulge socialism and denigrate its opponents, painting them as evil forces that hinder the wishes of the people. In support of his own position, the director alternates with the history metaphors associated with events or characters, the use of intellectual editing imposes on the viewer the conceptual link of images, which differentiates Ejzenstejn's documentary style and dissociates it from a willingness to exhibit objective and detached in bringing the facts back. Innovative technical and editing techniques, used as an expressive medium and not purely as a style exercise, make this historical film a significant didactic medium reflecting a chaotic period of crisis in the history of the formation of the Soviet Union.
1917, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), October Revolution: the February Revolution ended the imperial dynasty of the Romanovs and the fall of the Tsar. This creates a situation of extreme tension between the proletariat and the government, respectively with the Bolsheviks representing the labor force on one hand and Menshevik and revolutionary Socialist Party, representing the state, on the other. The popular destruction of the statue of Tsar Alexander III contrasts with the establishment of a provisional government, led by the revolutionary socialist Kerenskij. The latter does not disdain the luxurious privileges of the former Tsarist regime and wants to maintain relations with the Allies and the conflict resumes: war factories resume production, the State is in political and economic crisis, wars and hunger are rampant, feeding popular discontent that more and more welcomes the revolutionary leninian ideologies. Therefore, the days of July sanctioned a Bolshevik manifestation suffocated by the provisional Government and the tension preceding a civil war is hovering. The attempt of governmental repression of the Bolsheviks is shown with various expedients: individuals of the wealthy classes who attack and kill a soldier of the people by stabbing him with umbrellas and even laughing during the act, the newspaper Pravdna, symbol of Bolsheviks, is thrown in the Sennaja and finally a horse, also symbolizing the workers, is pulled up by a drawbridge of the river and from the top falls there. This last sequence symbolizes in particular the division of the party of workers, created between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, and the will to create the same division between the Government and the proletariat. Thus, Kerensky's haughtily conservative pride is mocked, which also reintroduces the death penalty, while the Bolsheviks are repressed and forced into hiding: Lenin himself is confined to the countryside near the finnish border. So, General Kornilov, in the name of God and homeland, seeks to resolve the political crisis by marching on Petersburg in order to overthrow the provisional government and return to the Tsar's regime, but in response the Bolsheviks increase the number of supporters and organize defenses of their revolution, allied with the dissidents of the army, a pact sealed and accompained by the footsteps of the popular dance Lezginka. Then, on October 10th, the Congress decide for the insurrection, in support of the leninian ideologies hampered by the Mensheviks, fixing the date of taking power between the night of 24th and the morning of October 25th. Kerensky prepares for the siege with troops formed by the female Death Battalion and the Cossacks, but the latter defending their neutrality about the conflict. After this period of political clashes and climate of cold tension, the light signal fired by the warship Aurora sanctions the stealth introduction of the Bolsheviks in the Winter Palace and the subsequent insurrection and taking of the same. The occupants are suppressed and arrested, many of whom are also surprised to try to steal valuable objects from the palace as silverware and symbols of the former Tsarist regime. Finally, definitively defeating the provisional Government and repressed the coup d'état of Kornilov, the Bolsheviks are celebrating in laughter and applause for victory and Lenin.
Comment:
A historical documentary that uses the symbology to express the opinion of propaganda in favor of the Bolshevik Revolution. A manifesto that exposes the fight against the conservative regime and reflects the discontent of the working class and the skepticism expressed with regard to outdated conceptions. The protagonists of the events are painted characterically to suggest a juxlacing to their representative faction: Lenin is literally the voice of discontent, forced to silence and wait for the auspicious moment, while it is parallel denigrated the solitary chess game of Kerensky (his attempted takeover of power) and seen as an arrogant act that approaches him to the presumption of Napoleon and the peacock, thereby exposing himself to the same attempted counter-coup of Kornilov, Determined to reinstate the Tsarist regime (the statue of Alexander III is reintroduced in rewind after its destruction in the initial scenes). Symbols, these, which demonstrate the propaganda will of Ejzenstejn and explain the ideology behind his cinema, used as a means to divulge socialism and denigrate its opponents, painting them as evil forces that hinder the wishes of the people. In support of his own position, the director alternates with the history metaphors associated with events or characters, the use of intellectual editing imposes on the viewer the conceptual link of images, which differentiates Ejzenstejn's documentary style and dissociates it from a willingness to exhibit objective and detached in bringing the facts back. Innovative technical and editing techniques, used as an expressive medium and not purely as a style exercise, make this historical film a significant didactic medium reflecting a chaotic period of crisis in the history of the formation of the Soviet Union.