October (film)

The story begins with a symbolic scene of the overthrow of the monument to the Russian Emperor from the pedestal. Street riots in Petrograd and a critical situation on the fronts. Soldiers and residents of Petrograd have nothing to eat, and the Provisional Government is unable to keep the situation in the city and country under control. Under these conditions, the Bolsheviks came to power. Party leader Vladimir Lenin arrives in a rebellious city and stands at the head of the uprising. The seizure of power by the Bolsheviks is under threat, because the troops of General Kornilov are approaching the capital.

Military units and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, standing on the side of the Bolsheviks, are forced to the Winter Palace . Simultaneously, delegates to the Congress of Soviets come to Petrograd. Representatives of the Bolshevik Party are elected to the presidium of the congress, and the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries are expelled from the hall. The uprising of the Bolsheviks ends with the capture of the Winter Palace and the termination of the powers of the Provisional Government . The ending of the film - Lenin's speech from the podium of the Second Congress of Soviets and the proclamation of the victory of the revolution.

After the great success of the Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein received the full confidence of the country's leadership and decided to remove a large-scale cinematographic canvas about the victory of the October Revolution . The initial versions of the “October” scenario included a historical chronicle of events from the February Revolution to the end of the civil war . As a result, the script had to be severely curtailed and the film ended with the events of October 1917 ^[2] .

The director was provided with significant resources: film, historical costumes, weapons. It was allowed to use military units as extras. Eisenstein was also allowed to make a film at the scene of the revolution - on the outskirts of the Winter Palace and directly in the interiors of the palace. The film’s consultants were the participants of the October events: Krupskaya and Podvoisky (he even played himself in the movie).

It was planned that the film would be released on the 10th anniversary of the revolution in 1927, but the filming was delayed and the picture was rolled in only in early 1928 ^[2] . Due to the changing political climate in the USSR in the final stages of editing the film, director Eisenstein was forced to remove from the film many revolutionaries: L. Trotsky , V. Antonova-Ovseenko , V. Nevsky ^{[3] [4]} .

Delighted with the music of Edmund Meisel , written for the European film “The Battleship Potemkin, ” Eisenstein invited the composer to write music for his “October”. However, in Moscow, the score of Meisel was considered too avant-garde, and in the USSR the film was released on screens with a different sound track; the music of the German composer voiced the October version shortened by about half an hour, intended for rental abroad ^[4]

In 1933, the film was finally removed from the rental.

In 2011, as a result of the joint work of German and Russian organizations, which lasted 5 years, it was possible to restore the original sound track "October", but only the score written by Maisel for a shortened version; for the full version of the film “missing” music was added by the German composer Bernd Tevez ^[4] .

In contrast to the “Battleship Potemkin”, the film, which completes the famous Eisenstein film trilogy, has a more pronounced ideological character. In 1927, Eisenstein, a recognized master, also became an art theorist. He has published several articles on the innovative method of cinema. His next film is an attempt to convey the concept of a new direction: a movie without a type (without main characters) and without a pronounced dramatic plot. The picture according to the plan of Eisenstein makes the director at the editing table. In general, in the USSR, the film was perceived positively by the critics, but the young director received many sharp remarks ^[2] .

Too much time and space in the picture is given to the figure of Kerensky and the allegorical opposition of people and interiors of the Winter Palace. Characteristic of the young Eisenstein's passion for experimentation and trickiness did not embellish the picture. According to Viktor Shklovsky , tinsel and symbolism overloaded the frame: “Eisenstein was entangled in ten thousand rooms of the Winter Palace, as the besiegers were confused in them” ^[2] .

The sequence of scene changes is caused not so much by the director's idea, as by an illustration of the historical and ideologically verified interpretation of the events of the October Revolution. It is difficult to call actors of the film actors - they are more likely counterparts of famous political figures. ^[five]

According to the memoirs of A. Gorodnitsky, “in the film“ October ”there were almost no professional actors. Lenin, for example, was played by Nikandrov, a cement factory worker, who had a portrait resemblance to him. They sewed a suit, a coat and a cap, and shaved his bald head on his head. In the role of Kerensky, a University student similar to him was also shot. Zinoviev played his real brother, and in the role of Trotsky was occupied by some kind of dentist, who also had a great resemblance to the hero. ” ^[6]

Among the first viewers of the film were those who found the film stilted and artificial. Vladimir Mayakovsky said about Nikandrov's “acting game”, who embodied the image of Lenin in the film:

It is disgusting to see when a person takes postures similar to Lenin and makes similar body movements - and behind this appearance there is a complete emptiness, a complete lack of thought. One comrade said quite correctly that Nikandrov did not look like Lenin, but like all the statues from him ^[7]

Despite such a frank ideological engagement of the picture, critics pay tribute to the innovative method of mounting the picture. Film critic Raul Hauzman called Eisenstein’s editing "intellectual" ^[8]

French critic Jean-Claude Cones wrote about the film:

The film simultaneously becomes both a story about the story and its component, in the sense that its editing, its storyboard, its aesthetics is a pure product of the revolutionary system both in the show of the revolution and in the exalted manner of this show ^[7]

The painting "October" is considered the first in the Soviet kinoleniniane and laid the tradition, which were successfully continued in the era of sound film.

• Vasily Nikandrov - Vladimir Lenin
• Nikolay Popov - Alexander Kerensky
• Edward Tisse - German soldier
• Nikolay Podvoisky - cameo
• Antonov-Ovseenko - Cameo
• Apfelbaum - Zinoviev
• Boris Livanov - Minister Tereshchenko
• Lyashenko - Minister
• Chibisov - Minister Skobelev
• Mikhalev - Minister Kishkin
• Smelsky - Minister Verderevsky

• Directors and scriptwriters: Sergey Eisenstein , Grigory Alexandrov
• Operator: Edward Tisse
• Artist: Vasily Kovrigin
• Director of the picture: Arkady Evgenievich Alekseev (pictured above G.Aleksandrov)

• The film "October" on the website "Mosfilm"
• Lenin in October
• Romanov O. "October" Eisenstein: between the artistic invention and the myth of the revolution