The Cinematheque

Also known as The General Line, Eisenstein’s last silent picture is one of his most beautiful works—and one of his least seen (it was unavailable for The Cinematheque’s Eisenstein retrospective in 2012). The film dramatizes the collectivization of Soviet agriculture through the tale of Marfa, a peasant woman battling hostility and superstition in her efforts to modernize (and Sovietize) local farms. The use of an individual protagonist, rather than the ​“mass” hero, was a departure from Eisenstein’s usual practice. The ​“cream separator” sequence is celebrated; this visually-sophisticated film is throughout a remarkable display of overtonal, or polyphonic, montage, an advanced editing technique Eisenstein likened to symphonic music (or ​“the filmic fourth dimension”). Eisenstein interrupted production to make October; when he returned to the project, the political situation had changed and he was forced to re-edit.