{{data hominis|
imago= Sergei Eisenstein with skull.jpg |
nomen vulgare=''Сергей Михайлович Ейзенштейн''|
capitulum= |
natus=  23 Ianuarii 1898  |
obiit= 11 Februarii 1948 | 
ubi natus = Rigae in Lettonia|
ubi obiit= Moscuae}}
thumb|Sergius Eisenstein in pittacio Russico depictus
'''Sergius Michaelis filius Eisenstein''' (Sovieticus.

==Vita==
Sergius Eisenstein natus est Calendarii Gregoriani) anno Petropolitano studebat. Ab anno Exercitus Rubri laborabat. Ab anno 1920 in theatris Moscuae favebat operi. Anno 1923 primum spectaculum suum moderavit. Principia nova organizationis ludi scaenici elaborabat.

Anno 1925 in lucem edita est pellicula cinematographica ''Operistitium'' («Стачка»), ubi Eisenstein primo in cinematographia populum revolutionarium monstravit sicut vim, magnam valorem in historia habentem. Quas ideas evolvit in eodem anno creato opere suo cinematographico notabilissimo de rebellione in navi ''Potiomkin'' («Потёмкин»), quae anno 1905 accidit. In pellicula ''Mensis Octobris'' («Октябрь»), anno 1927 creata, Sergius Eisenstein (cuius collaboratores fuere moderator Gregorius Alexandrov et operator Eduardus Tisse) eventa revolutionis anni 1917 depinxit. Anno 1929 complevit pelliculam ''Vetum et Novum'' («Старое и Новое»), primam pelliculam cinematographicam Sovieticam de cooperatione et collectivizatione in rure.

Annis Civitates Foederatas Americae et Mexicum visitavit.  Creabat pelliculam cinematographicam nomine ''Vivat Mexicum!'' («Да здравствует Мексика!»), quae tamen non completa est.

Sergius Eisenstein fuit moderator anno XIII accidit. 

Ultima pellicularum cinematographicarum, quas Eisenstein creavit, est tragoedia ''Ioannes Severus'' («Иван Грозный»), duas partes habens, quarum prima anno 1945 et secunda anno 1958 in lucem edidit.

Sergius Eisenstein non solum erat moderator, etiam erat theoreticus artis. E.g., conceptionem “cinematographi intellectualis” sicut synthesem artis et scientiae proposuit. Multa opera theoretica de cinematographia creavit. Praeter illa, certa alia opuscula et memorias scripsit. Eisenstein etiam erat delineator ingeniosus.

Ab anno 1928 Eisenstein docebat in schola specializata cinematographica (quae decem annos post facta est institutum cinematographicum). 

Vir ille Praemio Staliniano (annis 194 saepe critica ideologica officiali affectabantur.

{{Infobox Actor
| name = Sergei Eisenstein
| image = Sergei Eisenstein portrait1.jpg
| imagesize = 240px
| birthname = Sergei Mikhailovich Eizenshtein 
| birthdate = January 23, 1898
| location = Riga, Russian Empire
| yearsactive = 1923-1946
| deathdate = 
| deathplace = Moscow, Soviet Union
| spouse = Pera Atasheva (1934-1948)
}}

'''Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein''' (; Soviet Russian film theorist noted in particular for his Strike'', ''Battleship Potemkin'' and ''October'', as well as historical epics ''Alexander Nevsky'' and ''Ivan the Terrible''. His work vastly influenced early film makers owing to his innovative use of and writings about montage.

==Biography==
===Early years===
thumb|Young Sergei with his parents Mikhail and Julia Eisenstein.
Eisenstein's father Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein, who was Russian Orthodox family, was the daughter of a wealthy merchant.<ref></ref> Julia left Riga the year of the 1905 Revolution, bringing Sergei with her to St. Petersburg.<ref></ref> Sergei would return at times to see his father, who later moved to join them around 1910.<ref></ref> Divorce followed this time of separation, with Julia deserting the family to live in France.<ref></ref> At the Petrograd Institute of Civil Engineering, Sergei studied architecture and engineering, the profession of his father.<ref></ref> At school with his fellow students however, Sergei would join the military to serve the revolution, which would divide him from his father. In 1918 Sergei joined the Japanese- he learned some three hundred LEF.<ref></ref> Eisenstein's first film, ''Glumov's Diary,''<ref></ref> was also made in this year.

''October'' (aka ''Ten Days That Shook The World'') as part of a grand tenth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution of 1917. The critics of the outside world praised them, but at home, Eisenstein's focus in these films on structural issues such as camera angles, crowd movements and montage, brought him and likeminded others, such as Pudovkin and Dovzhenko, under fire from the Soviet film community, forcing him to issue public articles of self-criticism and commitments to reform his cinematic visions to conform to socialist realism's increasingly specific doctrines.

===Time abroad===
In the autumn of 1928, with ''October'' still under fire in many Soviet quarters, Eisenstein left the Soviet Union for a tour of Europe, accompanied by his perennial film collaborator Grigori Aleksandrov and cinematographer Eduard Tisse. Officially, the trip was supposed to allow Eisenstein and company to learn about sound motion pictures and to present the famous Soviet artists, in person, to the capitalist West. For Eisenstein, however, it was also an opportunity to see landscapes and cultures outside those found within the Soviet Union. He spent the next two years touring and lecturing in Berlin, Zurich, London, and Paris.<ref></ref> In 1929, in Switzerland, Eisenstein supervised an educational documentary about abortion directed by Edouard Tissé entitled ''Frauennot - Frauenglück''.<ref></ref> In late April 1930, Jesse L. Lasky, on behalf of Paramount Pictures, offered the opportunity to make a film in the United States.<ref></ref> He accepted a short-term contract for $100,000 and arrived in Hollywood in May 1930. However, this arrangement failed. Eisenstein's idiosyncratic and artistic approach to cinema was incompatible with the more formulaic and commercial approach of American studios. Eisenstein proposed a biography of munitions tycoon Sir Basil Zaharoff and a film version of ''Arms and the Man'' by George Bernard Shaw, and more fully developed plans for a film of ''Sutter's Gold'' by Jack London,<ref></ref> but on all accounts failed to impress the studio's producers.<ref></ref> Paramount then proposed a movie version of Theodore Dreiser's ''An American Tragedy''.<ref></ref> This excited Eisenstein, who had read and liked the work, and had met Dreiser at one time in Moscow. Eisenstein completed a script by the start of October 1930,<ref></ref> but Paramount disliked it completely and, additionally, found themselves intimidated by Major Frank Pease,<ref></ref> president of the ''Hollywood Technical Director's Institute''. Pease, an anti-semite and anti-communist, mounted a public campaign against Eisenstein. Seventeen days later, on 23 October 1930 by "mutual consent", Paramount and Eisenstein declared their contract null and void, and the Eisenstein party were treated to return tickets to Moscow, at Paramount's expense.<ref></ref>
thumb|Eisenstein holding a skull made of sugar. Skulls and skeletons appeared in ''[[¡Qué viva México!'' depicting the Day of the Dead festival.]]
Eisenstein was thus faced with returning home a failure. The Soviet film industry was solving the sound-film issue without him and his films, techniques and theories were becoming increasingly attacked as 'ideological failures' and prime examples of formalism. Many of his theoretical articles from this period, such as ''Eisenstein on Disney'' have surfaced decades later as seminal scholarly texts used as curriculum in film schools around the world. Eisenstein and his entourage spent considerable time with Charlie Chaplin,<ref></ref> who recommended that Eisenstein meet with a sympathetic benefactor in the person of American socialist author Upton Sinclair.<ref></ref> Sinclair's works had been accepted by and were widely read in the USSR, and were known to Eisenstein. The two had mutual admiration and between the end of October 1930, and Thanksgiving of that year, Sinclair had secured an extension of Eisenstein's absences from the USSR, and permission for him to travel to Mexico to make a film to be produced by Sinclair and his wife, Mary Craig Kimbrough Sinclair, and three other investors organized as the Mexican Film Trust.<ref></ref>

On November 24, Eisenstein signed a contract with the Trust "upon the basis of Eisenstein's desire to be free to direct the making of a picture according to his own ideas of what a Mexican picture should be, and in full faith in Eisenstein's artistic integrity".<ref></ref>  The contract also stipulated that the film would be "non-political", that immediately available funding came from Mrs. Sinclair in an amount of "not less than Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars",<ref name = "Geduld & Gottesman, p. 22"></ref> that the shooting schedule amounted to "a period of from three to four months",<ref name = "Geduld & Gottesman, p. 22" /> and most importantly that "Eisenstein furthermore agrees that all pictures made or directed by him in Mexico, all negative film and positive prints, and all story and ideas embodied in said Mexican picture, will be the property of Mrs. Sinclair..."<ref name = "Geduld & Gottesman, p. 22" />  A codicil to the contract, dated 1 December, allowed that the "Soviet Government may have the [finished] film free for showing inside the U.S.S.R."<ref></ref>  Reportedly, it was verbally clarified that the expectation was for a finished film of about an hour's duration.
thumb|left|Eisenstein behind the camera directing ''¡Qué viva México!'' on the Quetzalcoatl pyramid at Teotihuacán.

By the 4th of December, 1930, Eisenstein was en route to Mexico by train, accompanied by Alexandrov and Tisse. Later he produced a brief synopsis of the six-part film which would come, in one form or another, to be the final plan Eisenstein would settle on for his project. The title for the project, ''¡Qué viva México!'', was decided on some time later still. While in Mexico Eisenstein mixed socially with Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera. Eisenstein admired these artists as much as Mexican culture in general, they inspired Eisenstein to call his films, "moving frescoes".<ref></ref> After a prolonged absence, Stalin sent a telegram expressing the concern that Eisenstein had become a deserter.<ref></ref> Under pressure, Eisenstein blamed Mary Sinclair's younger brother, Hunter Kimbrough -- who had been sent along to act as a line producer -- for the film's problems.<ref></ref> Eisenstein hoped to pressure the Sinclairs to insinuate themselves between him and Stalin, so Eisenstein could finish the film in his own way. The furious Sinclair shut down production and ordered Kimbrough to return to the U.S. with the remaining film footage and the three Soviets to see what they could do with the film already shot, estimates ranging from 170,000 lineal feet with "Soldadera" unfilmed,<ref></ref> to an excess of 250,000 lineal feet.<ref></ref> For the unfinished filming of the "novel" of Soldadera, without incurring any cost, Eisenstein had secured 500 soldiers, 10,000 guns, and 50 cannons from the Mexican Army.<ref></ref> but this was lost due to Sinclair's canceling of production.

When Eisenstein arrived at the American border, a customs search of his trunk revealed sketches and drawings of Jesus caricatures amongst other material of a lewd pornographic nature.<ref></ref><ref></ref> Eisenstein's re-entry visa had expired,<ref name = "Geduld & Gottesman, p. 288"></ref> and Sinclair's contacts in Washington were unable to secure him an additional extension. Eisenstein, Alexandrov and Tisse were, after a month's stay at the U.S.-Mexico border outside Laredo, Texas, allowed a 30-day "pass" to get from Texas to New York,<ref name = "Geduld & Gottesman, p. 288" /> and thence depart for Moscow, while Kimbrough returned to Los Angeles with the remaining film. Eisenstein toured the American South, on his way to New York. In mid-1932, the Sinclairs were able to secure the services of Sol Lesser, who had just opened his own distribution office in New York, Principal Distributing Corp.. Lesser agreed to supervise post-production work on the miles of negative &mdash; at the Sinclairs expense &mdash; and distribute any resulting product. Two short feature films and a short subject — ''Thunder Over Mexico'' based on the "Maguey" footage,<ref></ref> ''Eisenstein in Mexico'', and ''Death Day'' respectively — were completed and released in the United States between the autumn of 1933 and early 1934.

===Late work===
thumb|Eisenstein directing actor [[Boris Zakhava in ''Bezhin Meadow''.]]
Eisenstein never saw any of the Sinclair-Lesser films, nor a later effort by his first biographer, Marie Seton, called ''Time In The Sun''.<ref></ref> He would publicly maintain that he had lost all interest in the project. Eisenstein's foray into the west made the now-staunchly Stalinist film industry look upon him with a more suspicious eye, and this suspicion would never be completely erased in the mind of the Stalinist elite. He apparently spent some time in a Soviet mental hospital in Kislovodsk in July 1933,<ref></ref> ostensibly a result of depression born of his final acceptance that he would never be allowed to edit the Mexican footage which was turned over by Sinclair to Hollywood editors, who would irreparably alter the negatives.<ref></ref>He was subsequently assigned a teaching position with the film school GIK (now Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography) where he had taught earlier and in 1933 and 1934 was in charge of writing curriculum.<ref></ref> Eisenstein married filmmaker and writer Pera Atasheva (1900-1965) in 1934<ref></ref> and remained so until his death in 1948. In 1935, he began another project, ''Bezhin Meadow'', but it appears the film was afflicted with many of the same problems as ''Que Viva Mexico'' &mdash; Eisenstein unilaterally decided to film two versions of the scenario, one for adult viewers and one for children; failed to define a clear shooting schedule; and shot film prodigiously, resulting in cost overruns and missed deadlines. Even though Soviet film executive Boris Shumyatsky encouraged Sinclair in undermining Eisenstein <ref></ref> it was derailed not as much as Bezhin Meadow by the Soviet film industry, but by its American backers. <ref></ref>   
thumb|left|[[Nikolai Cherkasov as Ivan the Terrible in Eisenstein's film of the same name.]]
The thing which appeared to save Eisenstein's career at this point was that Stalin ended up taking the position that the ''Bezhin Meadow'' catastrophe, along with several other problems facing the industry at that point, had less to do with Eisenstein's approach to filmmaking as with the executives who were supposed to have been supervising him. Ultimately this came down on the shoulders of Boris Shumyatsky,<ref></ref> "executive producer" of Soviet film since 1932, who in early 1938 was denounced, arrested, tried and convicted as a traitor, and shot. (The production executive at Film studio Mosfilm, where Meadow was being made, was also replaced, but without further executions.)

Eisenstein was thence able to ingratiate himself with Stalin for 'one more chance', and he chose, from two offerings, the assignment of a biopic of ''Alexander Nevsky'',  with music composed by Sergei Prokofiev.  This time, however, he was also assigned a co-scenarist, Pyotr Pavlenko,<ref name = "Bordwell, p. 27"></ref> to bring in a completed script; professional actors to play the roles; and an assistant director, Dmitry Vasiliev, to expedite shooting.<ref name = "Bordwell, p. 27" /> The result was a film critically received by both the Soviets and in the West, which won him the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Prize.<ref name = "Bordwell, p. 28"></ref> It was an obvious allegory and stern warning against the massing forces of Nazi Germany, well-played and well-made. This was started, completed, and placed in distribution all within the year 1938, and represented not only Eisenstein's first film in nearly a decade, but also his first sound film. Unfortunately, within months of its release, the mercurial Stalin entered into his infamous pact with Hitler, and ''Nevsky'' was promptly pulled from distribution. Thwarted again on the morning of triumph, Eisenstein returned to teaching and was assigned to direct Richard Wagner's ''Die Walküre'' at the Bolshoi Theatre.<ref name = "Bordwell, p. 28" /> Eisenstein had to wait until Hitler's double-cross sent German troops pouring across the Soviet border in a devastating first strike, to see "his" success receive its just, wide distribution and real international success. 
thumb|[[Faina Ranevskaya as Princess Staritskaya in a screen test for ''Ivan the Terrible, Part I'' (1942).]]

With the war approaching Moscow, Eisenstein was one of the many filmmakers based who was evacuated to Alma-Ata, where he first considered the idea of making a film about Czar Ivan IV. Eisenstein corresponded with composer Sergei Prokofiev from Alma Ata, and was joined by him there in 1942.  Prokofiev composed the score for Eisenstein's film and Eisenstein reciprocated by designing sets for an operatic rendition of ''War and Peace'' that Prokofiev was developing.<ref></ref> Eisenstein's film, ''Ivan The Terrible, Part I'', presenting Ivan IV of Russia as a national hero, won Stalin's approval (and a Stalin Prize),<ref></ref> but the sequel, ''Ivan The Terrible, Part II'' was not approved of by the government. All footage from the still incomplete ''Ivan The Terrible: Part III'' was confiscated, and most of it was destroyed<ref></ref> (though several filmed scenes still exist today). Eisenstein's health was also failing, he was struck by a heart attack during the making of this picture, and soon died of another at the age of 50.<ref></ref> He is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

==Theory==
Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books &mdash; particularly ''Film Form'' and ''The Film Sense'' &mdash; explain the significance of montage in detail. His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":

#Metric<ref></ref>
#Rhythmic<ref></ref>
#Tonal<ref></ref>
#Overtonal<ref></ref>
#Intellectual<ref></ref> 

Eisenstein taught film making during his career at GIK where he wrote the curricula for the directors' course,<ref></ref> his classroom illustrations are reproduced in Vladimir Nizhniĭ's ''Lessons with Eisenstein.'' Exercises and examples for students were based on rendering literature such as Honoré de Balzac's ''Le Père Goriot''.<ref></ref> Another hypothetical was the staging of the Haitian struggle for independence as depicted in Anatolii Vinogradov's ''The Black Consul'',<ref></ref> influenced as well by John Vandercook's ''Black Majesty.''<ref></ref> Lessons from this scenario delved into the character of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, replaying his movements, actions and the drama surrounding him. Further to the didactics of literary and dramatic content, Eisenstein taught the technicalities of directing, photography, and editing; while encouraging his students' development of individuality, expressiveness, and creativity.<ref></ref> Eisenstein's pedagogy, like his films, were politically charged and contained quotes from Vladimir Lenin interwoven with his teaching.<ref></ref>