Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein
«Battleship Potemkin»

In his famous silent film, Eisenstein celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the mutiny on the czarist battleship Potemkin before the port of Odessa in 1905. His classical dividing of the film into five acts, and the bravado involved in his presenting a sense of rhythm and editing unheard of until then, transforms the work to a penetrating vehicle of political agitation. It accomplishes an intense separation of the ruling class and the ruled, with bold effects, and with the intention of leading its viewers toward a sense of political recognition.
Einstein’s masterpiece polarized the Weimar Republic like hardly any other film. For inciting so much public attention, «Battleship Potemkin» was reviewed several times by Germany’s Board of Censors, and was shortened, licensed, banned. While, on the one side, many prominent intellectuals voiced boisterous protests against the film’s banning; on the other side, various local officials were opposed to granting the film a screening license. There were alternating demonstrations and protests. Not until its enormous success in Germany was the real «victory march of the battleship» set in motion around the world. Finally, at the Brussels World’s Fair of 1958, a panel of international critics elected «Battleship Potemkin» the «Best Film of All Time».