In Excess: Sergei Eisentein's Mexico - Cineclub

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very moments in cultural history—the Soviet avant-garde, the Mexican Renaissance, the cultural left in the U.S., surrealism and Dadaism—became pivotal for the scholars and artists in the late 1960s and 1970s, and they turned to them for hidden clues and promises, and found them charged with mean ing that is yet to be resurrected. But that is an entirely different story. In my work, however, I am often infl uenced and guided by these scholars and thinkers, although from a more critical later perspective, in an attempt to historicize and question their reading of the 1920s. 30. Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 1982), reprinted in Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), 82. 31. As expressed in Russia by Alexander Shevchenko, one of the members of the Donkey Tail group that paved the way for many fi gures of Russian futurism as early as 1913: “Primitives, icons, lubki, trays, signboards, fabrics of the Orient . . . these are the models of real value and of beauty. . . . This initiation of the Orient is an inner and spiritual one. . . . Neo-primitivism is a profoundly national phenomenon.” Alexander Shevchenko, “Neo-primitivism: Its Theory, Its Potentials, Its Achievements,” in Art in Theory, 1900–1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 107. 32. As, once again, Shevchenko claims: “Asia has given us all the depth of its culture, its primitive nature, and Europe in its turn added some traits of its own civilization. Thus neoprimitivism is born of the fusion of Oriental traditions and the forms of the Occident.” Ibid. 33. Carlos Monsivais, foreword to Anita Brenner: A Mind of Her Own, by Susannah Joel Glusker (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), x. chapter one 1. Sergei Eizenshtein, Memuary, ed. Naum Kleiman (Moskva: “Trud” and Muzei kino, 1997), 2:345–46. Quoted in in Karetnikova and Steinmetz, Mexico According to Eisenstein, 166. 2. Olivier Debroise, “Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein: México y yo.” Unpublished manuscript. 3. The other two parts of the fi lm were dedicated to the muralist and art critic Jean Charlot, and to Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose prints inspired and informed the muralist project. 4. A movement in Mexico, seeking to advance Indian cultural values. 5. José Antonio Aguilar Rivera, The Shadow of Ulysses: Public Intellectual Exchange Across the U.S.-Mexico Border (New York: Lexington Books, 2000), 4. 6. George Stocking, Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology (New York: The Free Press, 1971), 232. 7. Though not a political radical, Vasconcelos to a great extent modeled himself on the fi rst commissar of the enlightenment of the fi rst Soviet government, Anatoly Lunacharsky, particularly because he shared Lunacharky’s emphasis on the importance of education to postrevolutionary state formation. notes to pages 15 – 24 : 183
See John Ochoa, “Jose Vasconcelos’ Exemplary Failures” (PhD diss., Yale University, 1993). 8. Olivier Debroise, Figuras en el trópico: Plástica Mexicana 1920–1940 (Barcelona: Océano, 1985), 68. 9. Genaro Fernandez Macgregor, ed., Antologia de Jose Vasconcelos (México: Ediciones Oasis, 1968), 33. 10. See Alicia Azuela de la Cueva, Arte y Poder: Renacimiento artistico y revolucion social. Mexico 1910–1945 (México: El Colegio de Michoacan, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2005), 121. 11. Ibid., 97–99. 12. Anita Brenner, Idols Behind Altars (New York: Payson and Clark, 1929; repr., New York: Dover, 2002). 13. Carlos García Mora, ed., La antropologia en Mexico: Panorama historica, la antropología en México. Panorama histórico (México, DF: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1987), 115. 14. I thank Olivier Debroise for urging me to pay closer attention to the difference between these two ideological programs in relation to Eisenstein. 15. Olivier Debroise, “La invencion del arte mexicano (1906–1940).” Unpublished manuscript, 30–55. 16. Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro, Del muro a la pantalla: S. M. Eisenstein y el arte pictórico mexicano (México: Universidad de Guadalajara, Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura y Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, 1997), 19. 17. Jean Charlot, The Mexican Mural Renaissance, 1920–1925 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 63. 18. It is hard not to notice the resonance of this title with the title of Eisenstein’s last collection of essays. 19. Adolfo Best Maugard, Método de dibujo: Tradición, resurgimiento y evolución del arte mexicano (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1923), 13. 20. Ibid., 9. 21. Azuela de la Cueva, Arte y Poder, 99. 22. Miguel Covarrubias, his drawings, his ethnographic work on ancient Mexico, and especially his book on the life and customs of Bali also infl uenced Eisenstein, who mentions them frequently in his writings of the 1940s. 23. Best Maugard, Método de dibujo, 14. 24. Quoted in Vega Alfaro, Del muro a la pantalla, 20. 25. Quoted in ibid., 21. 26. Quoted in Geduld and Gottesman, The Making and Unmaking of “Que Viva México!” 43. 27. James Goodwin, Eisenstein, Cinema, and History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 135. 28. Quoted in Charles Roberts Aldrich, The Primitive Mind and Modern Civilization (New York: Routledge, 1999), 78. 29. Brenner, Idols Behind Altars, 38. 30. The early foundations of this interest can be traced to discussions with Eisenstein’s friends among the prominent Soviet philosophers and scientists, in cluding Vygotsky, Marr, and Luria as early as the 1920s. A. R. Luria in 184 : notes to pages 25 – 35
Page 2 and 3:
IN EXCESS
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Masha Salazkina is assistant profes
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CONTENTS 1 2 3 4 Acknowledgments :
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Kern, Ilya Kliger, Brendan Moran, E
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which rearranges the material to cr
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Two books that deal with Eisenstein
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twentieth century modernism.” I w
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question, shared by all the authors
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dangerously close to Socialist real
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Trying to fi nd internal correspond
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etween roles), who either literally
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To this list of similarities I woul
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As a result of its revolution, Mexi
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of baroque excess and imagery to hi
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in a postrevolutionary Mexican disc
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the cultural ideology of postrevolu
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cultural relativism in anthropology
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vasconcelos and the arts: montenegr
Page 41 and 42:
Figure 1. Diego Rivera, Portrait of
Page 43 and 44:
and didactic application. Although
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young picador and his adulterous af
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twelve volumes of Frazer’s The Go
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static shots, this material lends i
Page 51 and 52:
Figure 3. Coatlicue. Olivier Debroi
Page 53 and 54:
Anita Brenner deserves a separate i
Page 55 and 56:
“Corn for the pre-Hispanic cosmol
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a reference to a god of corn, whose
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Figure 7. Shooting the burial of th
Page 61 and 62:
Figure 8. David Alfaro Siqueiros, E
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he worked on exactly at the time of
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2 ------------- “ SANDUNGA” ---
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mythical/utopian past, it is the do
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Figure 11. Alexandrov at camera, Te
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muted background of many shots of t
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for future Mexican productions.”
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However, this visual specifi city,
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The ornate dresses and decorations,
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cinema, in which spectacle is usual
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the patriarchal social norms and th
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of Rivera embodying the Tehuanas an
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alternative to the horrors and deca
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has a matriarchal society next to t
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At the same time, neither the Sovie
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Figure 16. Image from “Sandunga.
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own observations and experiences in
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appear in their place may be seen a
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It is obvious that “Sandunga” c
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Figure 17. Eduard Tisse, Sergei M.
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3 ------------- “ GOING ALL THE W
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eligious, sexual, and artistic. Bot
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Figure 20. Sergei Eisenstein, Mexic
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audience of early cinema, especiall
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and statues, now as the mother of t
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A bullfi ght is a perfect attractio
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of his femininity. The positioning
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Eisenstein always strives for in hi
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the Virgin with his mother because
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Figure 22. Hacienda Tetlapayac, sum
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Figure 24. Sergei M. Eisenstein and
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in the period from 1919 through the
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the political implication of this m
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Figure 25. Sergei M. Eisenstein and
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Figure 26. Image from “Maguey.”
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He conceived the whole fi lm as a c
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Figure 27. Image from “Maguey.”
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While accompanying the crew on thei
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the image of the bisexual gods, and
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the two genders. Thus identity, bot
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announces that he is in love, and t
Page 143 and 144: phenomena in general: “The proble
Page 145 and 146: fullest and most fl exible realizat
Page 147 and 148: it as transference from the sexual
Page 149 and 150: efl ex; i.e., nondiscarded stimulus
Page 151 and 152: The obvious success of the visual i
Page 153 and 154: artists. They turned to lubok for r
Page 155 and 156: Figure 32. Image from the “Epilog
Page 157 and 158: epresentation of death in the fi lm
Page 159 and 160: search of a form of resistance to v
Page 161 and 162: fi lms, however, particularly Potem
Page 163 and 164: various commodities of the modern e
Page 165 and 166: aroque artists employed the allegor
Page 167 and 168: of natural time; but it also stands
Page 169 and 170: “the principle” (or, later, “
Page 171 and 172: sector can neither absorb completel
Page 173 and 174: striking as it was in the period be
Page 175 and 176: cement to sell and happened to comm
Page 177 and 178: Figure 35. Image from the “Epilog
Page 179 and 180: had located in the mechanization of
Page 181 and 182: only sees the corpse from the outsi
Page 183 and 184: In a similar leap, allegedly, he tr
Page 185 and 186: Figure 40. Frida Kahlo, Girl with D
Page 187 and 188: which he kept as a “souvenir” i
Page 189 and 190: attempts to comfort, papering over
Page 192 and 193: NOTES introduction 1. In 1950, Kenn
Page 196 and 197: particular did research on orally b
Page 198 and 199: 27. We will return to this observat
Page 200 and 201: horses. Here the revolutionary idea
Page 202 and 203: 40. Katherine Anne Porter, The Coll
Page 204 and 205: chapter four 1. Geduld and Gottesma
Page 206 and 207: Mexico, 1923-1940 (Valencia: IVAM C
Page 208 and 209: BIBLIOGRAPHY works by sergei eisens
Page 210 and 211: Ivanov, Viacheslav. Ocherki po isto
Page 212 and 213: Beltran, Neftali. Poesia. México:
Page 214 and 215: Hanssen, Beatrice. Walter Benjamin
Page 216: Trexler, Richard. Sex and Conquest:
Page 219 and 220: aroque aesthetic (cont.) Viva Méxi
Page 221 and 222: death (cont.) Mexico, 145; spectacl
Page 223 and 224: “Epilogue” (cont.) focus, 144;
Page 225 and 226: jicaras, 44-45 Jiménez, Agustin, 1
Page 227 and 228: modernism (cont.) 149; fascination
Page 229 and 230: “Psychology of Composition” (Ei
Page 231 and 232: Strike, 6, 51, 100, 102, 107 “sup
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