Sergey Eisenstein: Director’s interpretation of Alexander Rzheshevsky’s screenplay Bezhin Meadow

Abstract

This article examines the interpretation of Alexander Rzheshevsky’s screenplay Bezhin Meadow by Sergey Eisenstein. Comparison of different versions of the script reveals the emergence of the film’s conception and changes of the narrative made during the transition from the screenplay to the shooting script. Special attention was given to Eisenstein’s interpretation of the three key episodes of the future film: siege of the church, highway episode, and defeat of the church. The reduction of narrative distance and the growth of the scale of an event are exemplified are exemplifies by the scene of the siege of the church. From this point of view the shelling of peasants from the church and the subsequent assault evoke episodes from Battleship “Potemkin” and October. The interpretation of the highway episode is based on the use of visual and aural counterpoint. Eisenstein finds the equivalent of the spoken word through the use of the contrasting montage that combines images with speech, noise and music. Eisenstein strengthens the role of religious reminiscences in the central episode of the defeat of the church while showing the destruction of religious objects. Each of these episodes in a way or another implies violence and oriented to the expression of traumatic experience. In this sense Rzheshevsky’s screenplay echoed Eisenstein’s creative preoccupations. It made possible the depiction of historical events in such a way that history itself becomes a substitute for this experience. The study of the narrative in the screenplay allows us to reconstruct the content of the unfinished and forbidden film.