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
September
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