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Battleship Potemkin: The Sounds of Silents

Presented by Coolidge Corner Theatre at Coolidge Corner Theatre

December 19, 2011

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Sergei Eisenstein, having already made a splash in the Soviet Union for his first film, Strike, was quickly requisitioned by the Russian revolutionary leadership to make a new film that was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the famous Potemkin uprising. V.I. Lenin had hailed this revolt as the first proof that Russian troops could be counted on to join the proletariat in overthrowing the old czarist regime - and thus a high water mark in the October Revolution.

The crew Potemkin, coming home from a war with Japan, become mutinous due to the poor quality of rations. The ship's officers - hoping to avoid a full mutiny - order the rebellious crew shot. One crew, Vakulinchuk, cries out, "Brothers! Who are you shooting at?'' The firing squad lowers its guns, but when an officer unwisely tries to enforce his command, a full-blown mutiny explodes.

Onshore, news of the uprising reaches citizens who have long suffered under czarist repression. They send food and water out to the battleship in a flotilla of skiffs. The ruling regime catches wind of this and orders its army to suppress the citizens. In one of the most famous sequences ever put on film, czarist troops march down a long flight of steps, firing on the citizens who flee before them in a terrified - and terrifying - tide. Countless innocents are killed. The massacre is ultimately encapsulated in the image of a woman shot dead trying to protect her baby in a carriage - which then bounces down the steps, out of control. News of the uprising reaches the Potemkin, which speeds toward Odessa to put an end to the massacre.

Battleship Potemkin has become one of the touchstones in film history and one of the landmarks of silent cinema. The Coolidge has once again joined forces with the composers and musicians of the Berklee College of Music's Department of Film Scoring to present an original score for the fully restored version of Eienstein's most famous film.