Silent film classic gets orchestral treatment
Sergei Eisenstein’s silent film classic «Battleship Potemkin» acquires a sound dimension tonight for a screening at Thessaloniki’s Kolossaion Cinema (150 Vassilissis Olgas) that will be accompanied by the Thessaloniki State Orchestra. The projection is the latest in a series of silent film and music evenings featuring the northern city’s state orchestra. It will perform a score that was composed by Edmund Meisel in Berlin in 1926, especially for Eisenstein’s film. The Thessaloniki State Orchestra will be conducted by Christof Escher. There is an interesting story behind the music Meisel wrote for the silent classic. The score had gone astray for a considerable number of years, but when found, was rated as a work that equaled the genius of the actual film for which it was composed. The Russian film director first presented «Battleship Potemkin» in Moscow in December, 1925, on the anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution. The film depicts real events from the revolution, including a revolt by the Russian battleship Potjomkin Tawritscheski against the Czar’s military forces. The Russian film director sub-divided his silent epic, or tragedy, in his own words, into five parts with the objective of generating an intense emotional response from viewers. A landmark work in the history of film, «Battleship Potemkin» is also widely regarded as one of the leading political films of the early 20th century.
