Sergei Eisenstein: A Biography by Oksana s> Bulgakowa (review)

Abstract

550 SEER, 8 i, 3, 2003 Bulgakowa,Oksana. Sergei Eisenstein. A Biography. Translatedby Anne Dwyer. Potemkin Press, Berlin and San Francisco, CA, 200 I. Xi + 290 pp. Illustrations. Chronology. Bibliography. Notes. Index. $25.00 (paperback). MORE than fiftyyears afterhis death, Sergei Eisenstein (i 898- I948) remains Russia'smost famousfilmdirector.Although hisfilmographyis short(onlysix completed films),the bibliographyof workswrittenby and about him and his movies is long indeed. Therefore Oksana Bulgakowa'snew biography, first published in German in Berlin to honour Eisenstein's centenary, was approachedwith a degree of scepticismby this reader.What could she tell us about Eisensteinthatwe do not alreadyknow from his own autobiographyor from reminiscences by Ivor Montagu, Vladimir Nizhnyi, Marie Seton, and Viktor Shklovskii?Or from books and articles by scholars and critics like David Bordwell,Ian Christie,RostislavJurenev,Jay Leyda,HerbertMarshall, Leon Moussinac, RichardTaylor,Neia Zorkaiaand many, many others? Through meticulous archivalexcavation and a thorough knowledge of the voluminous secondary material, Bulgakowa has written the definitive biography of the mercurial director. It differs from previous works both in intention and execution. Although Bulgakowa has founded her scholarly reputationon hertheoreticallysophisticatedanddense analysesof Eisenstein's filmsand filmtheory,shehas writtena rigorouslytraditionalbiography.Some may argue that this lucid, balanced, and objective biography is tootraditional especiallygiven that its subjectis a greatavant-gardeartistwho had a famously complicated life. But the straightforwardchronological form is necessaryto penetratethe layersof myth, half-truth,rumour,and obfuscationl that obscured Sergei Eisensteinduringhis lifetime as well as in the more than half centurysince his death. The Eisenstein that emerges in these pages is not much differentfrom the one we haveknown:a brilliant,emotionallyinsecure,narcissistic'Renaissance man' who was as much intellectualas artist.There are, however, many new nuances that arise from Bulgakowa'sextensive research.Particularlyinteresting is to learn how truly accidental the belated discovery of Eisenstein's artistictalent was. Despite his protestationsto the contrary,he owed much to the influence of his maligned mother, an ambitious artistic dilettante who encouraged him and introducedhim to members of Petrograd'sculturalelite when he was in his teens. It is even more interestingto learn how profoundly apoliticalhe was. This greatestof Russianrevolutionarydirectorswas completely uninterestedin the historical drama of his times, not only the 'Great War' (until he was inconivenientlydrafted),but also the revolutions and civil war that followed. Eisenstein'spolitical disengagement lasted throughout the I920s. Bulgakowa convincinglydemonstratesthat his legendaryworksfrom thisperiod Strike, Battleship Potemkin, and October--drew their inspirationnot from any sense of commitment to the aims of the revolution but from his single-minded passion for artistic experimentation. As his contemporary critics charged, Eisenstein really was a 'formalist' in every sense of the term. Only later, during the 1930s, did Eisenstein become genuinely interested in NMarxism.This interest resulted, however, from his restless intellect, certainly REVIEWS 55I not from a sense of social justice. Although he was little concerned with material possessions, he was not above jockeying for favours, especially with regardto living space and holiday trips.And while he was concerned with the impactof artisticorthodoxyand censorshipon hisown work,he neverevinced any particularempathy for those in the Soviet culturalcommunity who were persecuted or arrestedduring the purges. This is not to say that Bulgakowa paints a negative or revisionistportraitof the director;his many accommodations with the Stalinist regime always seem more naive than conniving. Art was all that matteredto him. Also fascinating is Bulgakowa's account of Eisenstein's peregrinations through Europe, the US, and Mexico, from I929 to I932. In the company of his close friend and co-director Grigorii Aleksandrov and his cameraman Eduard Tisse, and an ever-changing cast of admirers and hangers-on, Eisenstein managed to get half-way round the world without any money, banking on his childlike charm and celebrity, as much as his talent. It is arguable that the debacle in Mexico, his encounter with the mercenary and puritanical Upton Sinclair, and the desecration of QuevivaMexico!shocked and disappointedhim as much as anythingin his Soviet experience. This isnot to deny thatthe 'shelving'of IvantheTerrible, part 2, was a terrible blow, one that certainlyhastened his death at the age of fiftyfrom a massive heart attack.What Bulgakowa'sstory highlights is that Eisenstein truly died alone in 1948, spirituallyas well as physically.Unlike other oppressedSoviet artistsof his cohort, he had admirers...