October: Ten Days That Shook the World
| October: Ten Days That Shook the World |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Grigori Aleksandrov Sergei Eisenstein |
| Written by | Grigori Aleksandrov Sergei Eisenstein John Silas Reed (book) |
| Starring | Vladimir Popov Vasili Nikandrov Layaschenko |
| Music by | Dimitri Shostakovich |
| Cinematography | Vladimir Nilsen Vladimir Popov Eduard Tisse |
| Release date(s) |  20 January 1928 2 November 1928 (NYC only) |
| Running time | 104min (Sweden) 95 min (USA) |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Silent film Russian (original intertitles) |
October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Russian: Октябрь (Десять дней, которые потрясли мир); translit. Oktyabr': Desyat' dney kotorye potryasli mir) is a Soviet silent film premiered in 1928 by Sergei Eisenstein, sometimes referred to simply as October in English. It is a celebratory dramatization of the 1917 October Revolution. The title is taken from John Reed's book on the Revolution, Ten Days That Shook The World.
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[edit] Cast
- Vladimir Popov — Aleksandr Kerensky
- Vasili Nikandrov — Vladimir I. Lenin
- Layaschenko — Konovalov
- Chibisov — Skobolev
- Boris Livanov — Terestsenko
- Mikholyev — Kishkin
- N. Podvoisky — Bolshevik
- Smelsky — Verderevsky
- Eduard Tisse — German Soldier
- Yuri Sazonov - Munist
[edit] Production
October was one of two films commissioned by the Soviet government to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution (the other was Vsevolod Pudovkin's The End of St. Petersburg). Eisenstein was chosen to head the project due to the international success he had achieved with The Battleship Potemkin in 1925 . Nikolai Podvoisky, one of the troika who led the storming of the Winter Palace was responsible for the commission. The scene of the storming was based more on the 1920 re-enactment involving Lenin and thousands of Red Guards, witnessed by 100,000 spectators, than the original occasion, which was far less photogenic. This scene is notable because it became the legitimate, historical depiction of the storming of the Winter Palace owing to the lack of print or film documenting the actual event, which led historians and filmmakers to use Eisenstein's recreation. This illustrates October's success as a propaganda film.[1]
[edit] Style
Eisenstein used the film to further develop his theories of film structure, using a concept he described as "intellectual montage", the editing together of shots of apparently unconnected objects in order to create and encourage intellectual comparisons between them. One of the film's most celebrated examples of this technique is a baroque image of Jesus that is compared, through a series of shots, to Hindu deities, the Buddha, Aztec gods, and finally a primitive idol in order to suggest the sameness of all religions; the idol is then compared with military regalia to suggest the linking of patriotism and religious fervour by the state. In another sequence Alexander Kerensky, head of the pre-Bolshevik revolutionary Provisional Government, is compared to a preening mechanical peacock.
[edit] Soundtrack
In 1966, Dimitri Shostakovich wrote a new soundtrack for the film, which later appeared as a tone poem 'October' Op.131 where Shostakovich's famous 'Partisan' theme makes an appearance.[2] This soundtrack is the one used on most DVD releases of the film.
[edit] Responses
The film was not as successful or influential as Potemkin. Eisenstein's montage experiments met with official disapproval; the authorities complained that October was unintelligible to the masses, and Eisenstein was attacked—for neither the first time nor the last—for excessive "formalism". He was also required to re-edit the work to expurgate references to Trotsky, who had recently been purged by Stalin.
In spite of the film's lack of popular acceptance, film historians consider it to be an immensely rich experience—a sweeping historical epic of vast scale, and a powerful testament to Eisenstein's creativity and artistry.[citation needed] Vsevolod Pudovkin, after viewing the film, remarked, "How I should like to make such a powerful failure."[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Taylor, Richard. Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Croom Helm Ltd., 1979. 93-94.
- ^ Bolshevik Festivals, 1917–1920 by accessed 7 December 2008
- ^ Taylor, Richard. Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. London: Croom Helm Ltd., 1979. 101
[edit] External links
- October: Ten Days That Shook the World at the Internet Movie Database
- October: Ten Days That Shook the World is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
- October: Ten Days That Shook the World at AllRovi
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