Eisenstein

Today one of the greatest directors in movie history (I think). A great modernist (one of the last and of Kafkian greatness), who's work shared a similar dialectic as that in the works of Marx. Forget about Orson Welles, cause this is Eisenstein! Poetic, political, philosophical and provocative.

Quote: "In painting the form arises from abstract elements of line and color, while in cinema the material concreteness of the image within the frame presents - as an element - the greatest difficulty in manipulation."

Bezhin lug (or "Bezhin Meadow")

Plot: A Soviet farmer son, who is working at a Kolchos is killed by his father, who wants to burn the fields of the Kolchos to damage the Soviet Society. (IMDB).



Aleksandr Nevskiy

Plot: It is the 13th century, and Russia is overrun by foreign invaders. A Russian knyaz', or prince, Alexander Nevsky, rallies the people to form a ragtag army to drive back an invasion by the Teutonic knights. This is a true story based on the actual battle at a lake near Novgorod. (IMDB)



Oktyabr

Plot: In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year. Lenin returns in April. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin's arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government (IMDB)