SERGEI M EISENSTEIN

tors would like to warmly thank Jane Gaines for having made this conference
possible and Nico Baumbach and Luka Arsenjuk for having organized it. The
organizerswereresponsibleforsecuringthefirsttranslationinEnglishofEisenstein’sNotes,atranslationfinancedbyColumbiaUniversityandmadeavailablein
the public domain. This was the second international event to take place under
theauspicesofThePermanentSeminarontheHistoriesofFilmTheories.
A second presentation of Eisenstein’s Notes took place during the conference
“S.M. Eisenstein. Histoire, Généalogie, Montage,”organized onMay 28, 2011, at
the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris by the Centre de Recherche en
Esthétique du Cinéma et des Images (CRECI). The editors would like to warmly
thank Philippe Dubois for having made this conference possible and Benjamin
Léonforhisvaluablecontributiontoitsorganization.
Eisenstein’sNoteshavesubsequentlybeendiscussedonseveralotheroccasions
(lectures, seminars, journées d’études, conferences, journal publications), and the
editors would like to thank all those that have contributed to these important
exchanges. A special thanks from Antonio Somaini to Vinzenz Hediger and the
Goethe Universität Frankfurt for the invitation to present the Notes on June 17,
2014,withintheprogramoftheKracauerLecturesseries,toLeonardoQuaresima
for the various invitations to the Udine International Film Studies Conference,
and to all the friends, colleagues, and students with whom these materials have
been discussed over the last few years. Besides the authors of the critical essays
here published, these include Francesco Casetti, Alessia Cervini, Emanuele Coccia,
Gérard Conio, Pietro Conte, Roberto De Gaetano, Ruggero Eugeni, Filippo
Fimiani, Olga Kataeva, John MacKay, Carmelo Marabello, Angela Mengoni, Philippe-Alain
Michaud, Massimo Olivero, Dominique Païni, Andrea Pinotti, Gian
Piero Piretto, Francesco Pitassio, Marie Rebecchi, Laurence Schifano, Elena Vogman,andGeorgWitte.
Thisbookis publishedbyAmsterdam University Pressinaserieswhosetitle –
“Film Theory in Media History” – could not be more appropriate for Eisenstein’s
Notes for a General History of Cinema: Naum Kleiman and Antonio Somaini thank
the series editors (Oliver Fahle, Vinzenz Hediger, and Trond Lundemo), the editorial
board, as well as Jeroen Sondervan of Amsterdam University Press for havinginvitedustopublishthebookinsuchanappropriatecontext.
Finally, Antonio Somaini would like to warmly thank Naum Kleiman for his
invaluable friendship and for his constant, generous support, over the last four
decades,totheentireinternationalcommunityofthescholarsworkingonEisenstein
and on the history of Russian and Soviet cinema. Without his crucial contribution,
this publication of yet another important part of Eisenstein’s oeuvre
wouldhavenotbeenpossible.
Naum Kleiman and Antonio Somaini
8 acknowledgements