Sergei
Eisenstein is considered as Russian as vodka, but technically, he was born in
Riga when Livonia was a governorate of the Russian Empire. He is responsible
for some of the most successful propaganda films of all time, but some of his later
films were also banned by Stalin. He was already a complicated figure before
Peter Greenaway came along with a film suggesting Eisenstein engaged in a
passionate affair with a male lover during his ill-fated Mexican venture. That
relationship is somewhat fictional, but there is plenty of scholarship
regarding his closeted sexuality. Of course, such contentions are highly controversial
in today’s rabidly homophobic Russia. Once again, the Putin regime follows in
the Soviet tradition. As Greenaway notes, during the Stalinist years, homosexuality
was punishable with a term of hard labor in a Siberian gulag. That would give
the Soviet auteur good reason to hide his sexuality in Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato (trailer here), which opens this Friday
in New York.
Eisenstein
shot plenty of film in Mexico, but it would be left to others to edit it
together into the some kind of order. Frankly, we will not see him shoot much
of anything, because he is too preoccupied with Palomino Cañedo, a leftwing comparative
religion professor serving as Eisenstein’s personal escort—very personal. Smarting
from Hollywood’s rejection, Eisenstein came to Mexico to shoot Que Viva Mexico, a supposedly non-ideological
celebration of post-revolutionary life in the county, as well as its folk customs,
produced by Eisenstein’s American admirers, including Upton Sinclair. However,
the film became a spiraling disaster worthy of Orson Welles.
Whether
entirely true or not, Greenaway’s screenplay certainly explains how Eisenstein
completely lost control of the project. We quickly get a sense Eisenstein has
long tried to deny his orientation, which gives rise to a host of hang-ups and
self-esteem issues. This being a Peter Greenaway film, there are also plenty of
Full Monty shots, exposing the source of some of Eisenstein’s insecurities to
the full view of the audience.
Like
most Greenaway films, Guanajuato is dazzling
both in its visual presentation and its erudition. Greenaway clearly draws on
an intimate familiarity with Eisenstein’s work, but while he often incorporates
archival photos and film stills in his Greenawayesque collages, Greenaway is
never groaningly obvious in his homages. We never see Eisenstein stop to stare
at a staircase and shake his head, as if to say “nope, can’t use that one.”
However, the most impressive aspect of the film is the razor sharp dialogue, in
which we can hear Eisenstein subtly suggest a disconnect between the Soviet
promise and the Soviet reality, while never explicitly critiquing Stalin’s
dictatorship.
Finnish
actor Elmer Bäck (co-star of The Spiral)
is an eerie dead-ringer for Eisenstein and bold enough to let it all hang out for
considerable stretches of time. Mr. Bäck does not have a lot of secrets left
after this one—nor does Luis Alberti, who is nearly as exposed as Cañedo. Frankly,
there romantic chemistry is a bit questionable, but Eisenstein’s assorted
angsts are completely convincing.
