Capital Celluloid 2012 - Day 134: Sun May 13

Strike (Eisenstein, 1924): Ritzy Cinema, Brixton 8pm

Here's the introduction to what promises to be quite a show: As part of studioSTRIKE’s Bread and Roses Film Festival, The Cabinet of Living Cinema will perform a live score to Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal work, STRIKE (1924), alongside Srđan Keča’s award-winning film, MIRAGE (2011). Few words can prepare the uninitiated for Eisenstein’s cinema. Scenes of exhilarating editing, cinematic innovation and surreal vaudeville depict the epic struggle between proletariat and capitalist. MIRAGE, a calmer, but equally powerful take on inequality, depicts Dubai’s migrant workers poignantly juxtaposed with the swimming pools and golf of the wealthier inhabitants. The Cabinet’s live score, performed using strings, guitar, hammer dulcimer, trombone, percussion and an array of foley sound effects, will feature Russian and Soviet folk and classical music alongside the Cabinet’s contemporary take on silent film scoring.


Chicago Reader review:
'The story of a strike by Russian workers circa 1912 and its brutal suppression by the authorities, this 1924 film by the 26-year-old Sergei M. Eisenstein was his first full-blown feature. Though flawed and schematic, it's nonetheless a mighty achievement for a young man with primitive equipment and no extensive training in filmmaking. Masterfully photographed by Edouard Tisse ("the Swede"), the film lays the groundwork for Eisenstein's great Potemkin.'
Dan Druker
Here is an extract.

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