Eisenstein classic is part of Icons film series at the Rubin Museum
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925)
Cabaret Cinema
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, September 17, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org/cabaretcinema
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. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is available in numerous versions with slightly different intertitles and soundtracks; although we’re not sure which one will be shown at the Rubin Museum on September 17 (introduced by Russian writer Alex Galper) as part of its latest K2 Friday night CabaretCinema series, Icons, you can rest assured that it will be a thrilling experience, especially if you’ve never seen the film before.