A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content. Battleship Potemkin is renowned for its dynamic compositional strength and editing of such frame-perfect precision that it’s hard not to be swept along. The set-piece massacre on the Odessa Steps still packs a sledgehammer punch.
First revealed at a free outdoor live performance and screening in front of an estimated 25,000 people in London’s Trafalgar Square on 12 September 2004, Pet Shop Boys’ score, performed with the Dresdner Sinfoniker conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer with orchestrations by Torsten Rasch, blends electronic beats with orchestral grandeur to create a rousing contemporary cinematic experience.
Credits
Russia 1925
73min
Certificate U
DCP
Dir Sergei Eisenstein
Silent, with music by Pet Shop Boys
Special double bill event
5 September
Pet Shop Boys double bill with It Couldn’t Happen Here and Neil Tennant Q&A, BFI Southbank, London
Special centenary screenings
August
22 August
Broadway, Nottingham
Chichester Film Festival
Edinburgh Filmhouse
Garden Cinema, London
Picturehouse Central
Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
25 August
Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge
City Screen, York
Curzon Canterbury Westgate
Curzon Kingston
Curzon Knutsford
Curzon Soho
Curzon Victoria
Duke’s at Komedia, Brighton
Ealing Picturehouse, London
The Cameo, Edinburgh
Epsom Picturehouse
Finsbury Park Picturehouse, London
Greenwich Picturehouse
Hackney Picturehouse, London
Harbour Lights, Southampton
Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool
Cinema City, Norwich
Phoenix Picturehouse, Oxford
Ritzy Picturehouse, London
Phoenix Cinema, Leicester
28 August
Curzon Bloomsbury
29 August
The Arzner, London
30 August
Bonington Theatre, Nottingham
Dukes Lancaster
Pictureville Cinema (National Science and Media Museum), Bradford
IFI Dublin
The Dukes, Lancaster
September
2 September
Storyhouse Chester
6 September
Exeter Phoenix
Triskel Arts Centre
DCA Dundee
7 September
The Chiswick Cinema
Cine Lumiere
Depot Lewes
Regent Street Cinema, London
Totnes Cinema
BFI IMAX, London
Cromarty Cinema
Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford
8 September
Eden Court, Inverness
12 September
Derby Quad
14 September
Mareel Shetland
15 September
Electric Palace, Harwich
16 September
Brewery Arts Centre Kendal
20 September
Warwick Arts Centre
Riverside Studios, London
24 September
Glasgow Film Theatre
25 September
Leigh Film Factory
27 September
Electric Picture House Wotton
October
13 October
The Royal Cinema, Faversham
26 October
Light Cinema Addlestone
Light Cinema Banbury
Light Cinema Bolton
Light Cinema Bradford
Light Cinema Cambridge
Light Cinema Huddersfield
Light Cinema New Brighton
Light Cinema Redhill
Light Cinema Sheffield
Light Cinema Sittingbourne
Light Cinema Stockport
Light Cinema Thetford
Light Cinema Walsall
Light Cinema Wisbech