Eisenstein in Guanajuato

Jun 18 2015 Unrated 1h 45m
Biography, Comedy, Drama

In 1931, following the success of the film Battleship Potemkin, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, to shoot a new film. Freshly rejected by Hollywood, Eisenstein soon falls under Mexico’s spell. Chaperoned by his guide Palomino Cañedo, the director opens up to his suppressed fears as he embraces a new world of sensual pleasures and possibilities that will shape the future of his art.

Plot

The venerated filmmaker Eisenstein is comparable in talent, insight and wisdom, with the likes of Shakespeare or Beethoven; there are few - if any - directors who can be elevated to such heights. On the back of his revolutionary film Battleship Potemkin, he was celebrated around the world, and invited to the US. Ultimately rejected by Hollywood and maliciously maligned by conservative Americans, Eisenstein traveled to Mexico in 1931 to consider a film privately funded by American pro-Communist sympathizers, headed by the American writer Upton Sinclair. Eisenstein's sensual Mexican experience appears to have been pivotal in his life and film career - a significant hinge between the early successes of Strike, Battleship Potemkin, and October, which made him a world-renowned figure, and his hesitant later career with Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and The Boyar's Plot.

Written by

Peter Greenaway

Directed by

Peter Greenaway

Production Countries

Mexico, Finland, France, Netherlands, Belgium

Production Companies

ZDF/Arte, YLE, VPRO, Mollywood, Potemkino, Edith Film Oy, Paloma Negra Films, Submarine, Fu Works

Languages

Español, English

Awards

2 wins & 10 nominations total

Scores
# of Votes
3,229
Average Rating
6.3 out of 10
Metascore
60
Popularity
NA