Matt Darriau’s Paradox Trio will play a live score to Eisenstein’s classic BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN at (le) poisson rouge
(le) poisson rouge
158 Bleecker St.
Sunday, October 3, $10-$12, 10:00 pm
212-228-4854
www.lepoissonrouge.com
Sergei M. Eisenstein’s classic BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN has had its fair share of scores over the years, and on Sunday night it will be getting the Paradox Trio treatment as part of (le) poisson rouge’s Unsilent Film Series. Matt Darriau, Brad Shepik, Rufus Cappadocia, and Seido Salifoski will be playing such instruments as the kaval, the gaida, Balkan strings, and dumbeks to Eisenstein’s dramatic tale of revolution in Russia. In addition, Vision Fugitive composers Elias (Constantopedos), Lydia (Ainsworth), and Shruti (Kumar) will play live to scenes from René Laloux’s 1973 animated film LA PLANÈTE SAUVAGE (FANTASTIC PLANET).
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
Sergei M. Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN might be a seminal silent classic that changed the nature of filmmaking, but it is also still a vastly entertaining movie regardless of its cinematic influence and worldwide importance. Divided into five episodes — Men and Maggots, Drama at the Harbour, A Dead Man Calls for Justice, The Odessa Staircase, and The Rendez-vous with a Squadron — the film tells the based-on-fact story of a mutiny on board a sailing vessel, the result of unfair treatment of the workers, a microcosm of the Russian Revolution of 1905 that later led to the bigger revolution of 1917. The film is like an editing primer, its approach to montage causing its own revolution at the time, particularly during the unforgettable Odessa Steps sequence, in which Eisenstein’s cuts manipulate the action in powerful, emotional ways that were new to cinema. The film also features the best mustaches in the history of movies.