In 1926, Sergei Eisenstein returned to Leningrad to direct Oktyabr (October,1927) and the city where he had lived through the first eight months of the Revolution was put at his disposal. History seethes across the screen in October with the crowd as hero; except for Lenin, Kerensky and Trotsky, there are no such individual characters in the original uncut version of the film. The powerfully reconstructed torrent of history is constantly impinged upon by Eisenstein's addition of impressions and ideas as his quest to inspire the audience to think.
With it's suspending historical action, the film weaved in a series of visual commentaries ; for example. the crow pulling apart the statue of the czar, which eventually jumps back together. Kerensky's rise to power as the head of provisional government in July 1917 is conveyed with comic effect as explosive subtitles indicate his ascending rank are intercut with shots of him climbing the stairs of the Winter Palace - at precisely the same pace.
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| Einstein er I mean Eisenstein's Theory,.. |
A virtual encyclopedia of imagery, October battled the majority of spectators. The release of the film was delayed for a full five months, when Eisenstein, who had been enmeshed in his work, leaned that Trotsky had fallen from power and that every shot indicating his presence had to be cut.