Focusing on the concept of mise en scène, the essay explores how to unify various staging elements into a coherent narrative. Eisenstein distinguishes between mise en jeu, mise en geste, and mise en cadre, emphasizing the importance of conveying deeper meanings through concrete actions, gestures, and shot composition. Although unfinished at his death, this work has been reconstructed for its first English publication, offering insights into Eisenstein's vision of film as a structured art form that balances rhythm and clarity against the pitfalls of formlessness.
Few figures in cinema history are as towering as Russian filmmaker and theorist Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948). Not only did Eisenstein direct some of the most important and lasting works of the silent era, including Strike, October, and Battleship Potemkin, as well as, in the sound era, the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible--he also was a theorist whose insights into the workings of film were so powerful that they remain influential for both filmmakers and scholars today. Seagull Books is embarking on a series of translations of key works by Eisenstein into English. A fascinating memoir in two volumes, Beyond the Stars--first published by Seagull in 1995 and now available again. Begun as Eisenstein approached fifty, it is full of the famous names of his era, including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, John Dos Passos, Jean Cocteau, and many more; at the same time, it is a serious book of inquiry about film as a medium, offering countless reflections by Eisenstein on his own work and that of other movie pioneers.
Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948) was a film-maker, theorist and teacher of film. This edition of his memoirs has been translated from the definitive Russian text by William Powell and annotated by Richard Taylor, an authority on Soviet cinema.
Few figures in cinema history are as towering as Russian filmmaker and theorist Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948). Not only did Eisenstein direct some of the most important and lasting works of the silent era, including Strike, October, and Battleship Potemkin, as well as, in the sound era, the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible--he also was a theorist whose insights into the workings of film were so powerful that they remain influential for both filmmakers and scholars today. Seagull Books is embarking on a series of translations of key works by Eisenstein into English. On Disney, which was begun in 1940 but was never finished, was part of a series of essays Eistenstein wrote on masters of cinema; for Eisenstein, Walt Disney offered a way to think about how such impulses and animism and totemism survived in modern consciousness and art. This edition presents the original, unfinished essay along with material on Disney that Eisenstein worked on in subsequent years but never succeeded in integrating with the original.
Presents a master-class turning a short story into an effective film ... analyses in painstaking detail two parallel scripts made out of the same story [Nikolai Shpikovsky's Banner (Znamia) as Leonid Leonov's Feast at Zhimunka (Pir v Zhirmunke)], and ... explains why one works better. [Also imagines at length adapting Ambrose Bierce's The Affair at Coulter's Notch. Describes excitation and compression of the plot through the use of imagery as found in: Honore Daumier's and Michelangelo's depiction of movement, and the works of writers Tolstoy, Edgar Lee Masters, Ford Madox Ford, and more]-- Summary form back cover [and cataloger]
Few figures in cinema history are as towering as Russian filmmaker and theorist Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948). Not only did Eisenstein direct some of the most important and lasting works of the silent era, including Strike, October, and Battleship Potemkin, as well as, in the sound era, the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible--he also was a theorist whose insights into the workings of film were so powerful that they remain influential for both filmmakers and scholars today. Seagull Books is embarking on a series of translations of key works by Eisenstein into English. On the Detective Story presents Eisenstein's elaborate study, in four essays and fragments, of the use of dialectical thinking in the creation of art and literature. Drawing on major works from Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Balzac, Gogol, Mayakovsky, Dostoevsky, and more, and ranging from folk tales to contemporary detective stories, it shows the keenly analytic quality of Eisenstein's mind when it turned to questions of creative work.
The book explores Sergei Eisenstein's significant impact on cinema, highlighting his renowned films like Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible, as well as his theoretical and philosophical contributions to the art form. It features a new translation of his essay on Orozco, offering insights into Eisenstein's thoughts on visual storytelling and artistic expression. This edition provides a comprehensive look at his legacy as both a filmmaker and a thinker in the realm of cinema.
"Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), creator of such masterpieces as Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, was perhaps the greatest of all film directors. He wrote his autobiography in 1946, two years before his death, and it is a work of major importance in the light it sheds on his personality and mercurial genius. Vivid, eccentric and free-ranging, Immoral Memories is written in a style reminiscent of the brilliant visual effects of montage and dynamic progression that characterize its author's film-making technique. He recounts his life in Russia from the time of the Revolution, during which he served in the Bolshevik army as a volunteer, his travels in the West and his encounters with a remarkable medley of individuals during his long career. He gives us unique insights, too, into his triumphs and tribulations. His disappointments and despair were exemplified by the banning of the film Ivan the Terrible, Part II, which was not released until fifteen years after his death. And he never expected his autobiography to be published in Russia. Yet in answer to his query "Has there been life" he replied that there had been "life lived acutely, joyously, tormentedly, at times even sparkling, unquestionably colourful, and such a life that, I suppose, I would not exchange for another""--Publisher's description.
Book documents from the definitive Russian texts the complex course of Sergei
Eisenstein's writings during the revolutionary years in the Soviet Union. It
presents Eisenstein the innovative aesthetic thinker, socialist artist and
humourist, passionately engaged in the debates over the art forms of the
future.
