Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin:

Over the weekend I decided to watch a short clip of the film Battleship Potemkin it was the scene where the Cossacks are coming down the stairs and it contrasts the different reactions of the people. Form the opening of the sequence showing lots of close ups and the peasants faces and then the change in the scene to have the Cossacks coming and shooting everyone down. The scene is not really anything at all to do with the genre that I am researching although the murder of all these people could be considered a crime but it is really useful in displaying the technical aspects. Again there is a problem with the scene is that it is a film from the 1920’s which means that some of the techniques used would not be relevant to modern day filming. What I mean by this is that in the sequence the 180 degree rule is broken.

What is good about the film is the simplicity of it. Well what is shown might not be considered simple but it was a way that the director seemed to want to translate a kind of stage theatre performance which has emphasis on certain characters features while also maintaining an idea of uniformity. The peasants are all shown in a close up or two shot with expressions of joy on their face and then there are a lot of abrupt cuts between all the different images almost like someone strung a bunch of pictures together rather than have a fluid film. There is then the change in the atmosphere of the film which was one of joy to one of horror and worry as all the Cossacks come down the Odessa Steps. The camera shows the faces of the peasants again using a close up or again a two shot. There is then a long shot of the young boy when he is shot and slowly trampled with emphasis on urgency as more and more people walk over the boy. The film is very light which is strange because a film that has such dark content would usually have dim lighting and would be really dark. There is then a contrast between the evil that is occurring and also the light of the film.

The film is quite fast paced and made to shock the audience because there is so much cold hearted murder and it is just cruel such as the build in tension when the pram is rolling down the steps and no one is stopping it until it is stopped by an evil Cossack who is shown from a low angle and shows him slashing his sword across where the audience is presuming the baby would be. Another shocking factor which is shown in a kind of tracking shot is when the mother lets go of her sons hand and continues walking down the steps. Then the long shots the son with his arms outstretched and the mother with her arms outstretched and then when she picks up her son and walks toward the Cossacks almost using her son as a human shield.  

Eisenstein’s film is so famous because it is the father film of a lot of more modern editing it was one of the first films that were edited in this particular way. The way it was edited is montage, it was one of the first films to use a montage sequence. 

I did decide to look at this clip because it was really useful to get an insight into the really thought provoking style of film. It is the idea that evil is allowed to prevail and no one does anything to stop the cruelty that is occurring. But it is also a film that shows that even though the film was trying to show the peasants as uniform heroes because of their belief in communism but they the antagonists are to individual to all be seen as uniform but the antagonists who are the Cossacks are all very uniform. It is almost the idea that all evil is the same but all good is different.

I used this film to give me an idea into the way that I can make my own film thought provoking. (Not that I assume I can equal Eisenstein)