Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin returns: a silent classic with a new Pet Shop Boys soundtrack
Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin has long been a fixture on film and cultural studies syllabuses, often cited as one of the defining turning points in the leap from moving pictures to cinema as we know it. This year the film is receiving a new Blu-ray release, accompanied by CD and vinyl editions of a soundtrack written by the Pet Shop Boys.
Shot in 1925, the film quickly gained legendary status. Critics likened its visual force to Picasso and Caravaggio, with every frame pored over for its revolutionary style. Eisenstein’s eye was so radical that the film has been studied shot by shot ever since.
Despite the completeness of each image, together they move with furious dynamism, propelling the story forward on what Eisenstein himself described as a cathartic slope. No wonder the “Odessa steps” sequence has become one of cinema’s most enduring images — as powerful today as it was a century ago.
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One of the most remarkable scenes. Photo:
The plot is deceptively simple: sailors on the Potemkin mutiny after being served maggot-infested meat. The ringleaders are condemned to death, but their comrades intervene, throwing the officers overboard.
During the uprising the sailor Vakulenchuk is killed, and in one of the most haunting sequences of the film, seemingly the whole of Odessa attends his funeral. The Tsar’s troops open fire on the crowd gathered on the steps, while the sailors refuse to join in the slaughter. The closing image shows a red flag of revolution flying from the ship’s mast.
When first shown, this silent film was screened to Beethoven’s symphonies. Its first official score came in 1926 from Austrian composer Edmund Meisel, followed by Nikolai Kryukov in the 1950s and Dmitri Shostakovich in the 1970s.
The famous pram tumbling down the steps remains one of cinema’s most devastating shots.
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If, like the recently “cancelled” rapper Oxxxymiron, you were under the impression that synth-pop was a kind of priesthood, think again. It is, of course, the genre most often associated with Pet Shop Boys — the duo behind the 1980s dancefloor anthem It’s a Sin. In 2005 Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe added their names to Eisenstein’s long musical legacy with the album Battleship Potemkin. Their live premiere, staged in Trafalgar Square in 2004, drew an audience of 25,000. Now their score will be available on vinyl and as part of the Blu-ray release of Eisenstein’s masterpiece.
From 22 August, Battleship Potemkin. Music by Pet Shop Boys will be screened in cinemas across the UK and Ireland. London screenings begin on 5 September at BFI Southbank, running for a week. Tickets are still available.
Cover photo: Afisha.London / Midjourney
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