Conference examines legacy of great Russian film maker

Posted 10/23/98

On Nov. 13-15, Dartmouth College will host an unprecedented gathering of scholars to discuss the work of the Russian film maker Sergei Eisenstein, one of the most influential people in the history of film.

Titled "Eisenstein at 100: A Reconsideration," the conference asks to what extent a world that has witnessed the decay and collapse of the Soviet Union can still value the work of Eisenstein, who worked under official Soviet auspices and produced films that ostensibly upheld Soviet revolutionary ideals.

"Eisenstein glorified both the revolution and the Soviet state, but he did so in a personal and often ambiguous manner that soon caused the authorities to view him with suspicion," said Barry Scherr, associate dean of the faculty and a professor of Russian. "The complex interactions between the creative artist and those in power will be a central topic of the conference." Scherr and Professor of Film Studies Albert LaValley are the conference's co-organizers.

In his relatively short life (1898-1948), Eisenstein directed some of film history's masterpieces, such as The Battleship Potemkin (1925) and Alexander Nevsky (1938) and pioneered the use of "film montage," or the juxtaposition in a single sequence of shots from different perspectives. On Nevsky, he collaborated with Sergei Prokofiev, who composed the score, to create one of film making's most powerful interactions of sound and image. He also taught film making and wrote essays on the art form.

The Dartmouth conference brings together scholars both of film and of Russian studies, addressing both Eisenstein's films and his writing. No other conference has ever brought together so many of the leading European and North American scholars who have written about Eisenstein, Scherr said.

Speakers include David Bordwell, one of the leading film scholars in the United States and the author of the 1994 book, The Cinema of Eisenstein; Ian Christie, an Oxford University professor who has written extensively on Russian film, particularly that from the pre-World War II era; James Goodwin, another major Eisenstein scholar and the author of book, Eisenstein, Cinema, and History; Vyacheslav Ivanov, one of Russia's leading linguists and literary scholars, who knew Eisenstein personally and taught courses in Russia on Eisenstein's aesthetic theory; and Naum Kleiman, who, as curator of Moscow's Eisenstein Museum, has been responsible for the restoration of Eisenstein's films and has helped publish authoritative editions of his writings.

All events are open to the public and all except the screening of Strike are free admission. The conference consists of the following events:

Friday, Nov. 13

10 a.m., Ankeny Classroom, Murdough Center: "Eisenstein from a Post-Soviet Perspective," with presentations by Rosamund Bartlett, University of Manchester; Albert LaValley, Dartmouth; Hakan Lovgren, Stockholm; and Barry Scherr, Dartmouth.

3 p.m., Ankeny Classroom, Murdough Center: "Re-examining the Lost Years," with presentations by Steven Hill, University of Illinois; James Goodwin, UCLA; Peter Kenez, University of California, Santa Cruz; and Naum Kleiman, The Eisenstein Museum, Moscow.

7:30 p.m., Loews Auditorium, Hood Museum: Screening of rare films by Eisenstein.

Saturday, Nov. 14

9 a.m., 1 Rockefeller Hall: "New Perspectives on Ivan the Terrible," with presentations by Anne Nesbet, University of California, Berkeley; Alexander Zholkovsky, University of Southern California; and Joan Neuberger, University of Texas.

11:30 a.m., 1 Rockefeller Hall: "Eisenstein and His Era," with presentations by Myriam Tsikounas, Universite Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paris, France; Omry Ronen, University of Michigan; Nikita Lary, York University, England; and Ian Christie, Oxford University, England.

3 p.m., 1 Rockefeller Hall: "Discoveries and Concepts," with presentations by Yuri Tsivian, University of Chicago; Oksana Bulgakowa, Berlin; and David Bordwell, University of Wisconsin.

7:30 p.m., Spaulding Auditorium: Screening of Eisenstein's 1924 film, Strike, with commissioned score by the Alloy Orchestra.

Sunday, Nov. 15

9:30 a.m., 1 Rockefeller Hall: "The Legacy," with presentations by Vyacheslav Ivanov, UCLA and Moscow State University; Andrew Barratt, University of Otago, New Zealand; Josephine Woll, Howard University; and Herbert Eagle, University of Michigan.