The Eisenstein Reader

For the first time in one volume, this book presents in concise, chronological form, Sergei Eisenstein’s most significant work, including his famous theories of montage and articles on subjects as diverse as sound, film language and Russian history. The selection ranges from early writings on his silent masterpieces The Strike, October and The Battleship Potemkin, to later works, hatched in the hostile and paranoid environment of Stalin’s Soviet Union. Drawn from the acclaimed four-volume Selected Works, this collection, which includes a new introduction and explanatory notes by Richard Taylor as well as many illustrations, further illuminates the startling originality, diversity and power of the greatest and most flamboyant of all Russian film-makers. Legendary director Sergei Eisenstein has emerged as cinema’s most influential theorist and author of some of the most important aesthetic writings of the twentieth century.