![]() ![]() October becomes known as the story of the 1917 uprising, but without Trotsky, on Stalin’s orders. But, of course, this story is almost well known enough to be a companion-text to the film. So the film, intended to create a certain impression of the workers’ struggle, and of Lenin’s leadership, loses a fragment of what truth remains inside the propaganda. ![]() On the day of the premiere, Stalin himself entered Eisenstein’s editing room, and ordered that all scenes involving Trotsky be excised. ![]() A new documentary about Soviet art history, Revolution: New Art or a New World, recounts a familiar anecdote about Eisenstein’s October (1928), a stirring re-enactment of the 1917 revolution. The government involvement is often painfully clear, but that in its turn provides its own commentary on the events as presented on screen. And even if you don’t mistake reconstruction for documentary fact, these films provide their own window on history. If you are a silent film aficionado you will have seen how Soviet cinema is constantly re-presenting events from its own recent past. And while Hollywood epics are known to take liberties with the facts, some movies seem to be more immediate sources. Who among us can honestly say they haven’t got their history from the movies? Sometimes, at least. ![]()
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