Film Information

Coming soon to Blu-ray

ALL NEW RESTORATION
SERGEI EISENSTEIN'S BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
With THE Original Meisel Orchestral Score

TWO-DVD BOXED SET

Odessa - 1905. Enraged with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship's loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable - mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors' revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar's Cossacks. When ruthless White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema history is born.

For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 masterpiece has remained the most influential silent film of all time. Yet each successive generation has seen BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN subjected to censorship and recutting, its unforgettable power diluted in unauthorized public domain editions from dubious sources. Until now. Kino is proud to join the Deutsche Kinematek in association with Russia's Goskinofilm, the British Film Institute, Bundesfilm Archive Berlin, and the Munich Film Museum in presenting this all new restoration of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. Dozens of missing shots have been replaced, and all 146 title cards restored to Eisenstein's specifications. Edmund Meisel's definitive 1926 score, magnificently rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in 5.1 Stereo Surround, returns Eisenstein's masterwork to a form as close to its creator's bold vision as has been seen since the film's triumphant 1925 Moscow premiere.

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
From the Series "The Year 1905"
Russia 1925 B&W/Color 69 Min. Full-frame (1.33:1)
Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein
Screenplay by N.F. Agadzhanova-Shutko
Head Cinematographer: Eduard Tisse
Music by Edmund Meisel (1926)
Courtesy of Ries & Erler, Berlin
Adaptation and Instrumentation by Helmut Imig
Performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra (2005)
Restored under the direction of Enno Patalas in collaboration with Anna Bohn
Presented in association with Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum fur Film und Fernsehen
supported by Bundesarchiv, Berlin; British Film Institute, London; Gosfilmofond, Moscow; Film Museum, Munich
Licensed by Transit Film
Copyright 2007 Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek

for visual and aural quality, the Kino disc is now the one to beat.- Dave Kehr, The New York Times>

"By restoring missing shots and title cards as well as Eisenstein's original scenes and music, 'Battleship Potemkin' has re-emerged in all of its original glory and fervor." - Pop Matters

The film retains its visceral power, particularly in its two set-pieces, the rebellion aboard the Potemkin and that famed steps sequence, which is now bloodier than it has ever been...This package is a must-have for schools and libraries, but it also will do quite well with avid collectors and alternative outlets. This version of the film supplants all previous releases and is an important acquisition for a well-stocked foreign-film section. - Video Business

There's nothing quite like "Potemkin" and it has been wildly influential. There is hardly a war documentary that does not borrow from it, and you can find direct quotations in films as disparate as Brian De Palma's "Untouchables" and Woody Allen's "Love and Death." Eisenstein himself never again approached its mixture of formal purity, revolutionary ardor and wild-eyed experimentalism. No sympathy for the Soviet Union is required to marvel at the film's wonders, and the new print is revelatory. - Tim Page, The Washington Post

• "Tracing Battleship Potemkin," a 42-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film
• The restored film with newly-translated English intertitles
• The restored film with original Russian intertitles (and optional English subtitles)
• The original 1926 Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra, presented in 5.1 Stereo Surround
• Photo gallery