Peterborough Arts Cinema: October

Thursday 26th October at 7:30pm
John Clare Theatre

In documentary style, events in Petrograd are re-enacted from the end of the monarchy in February of 1917 to the end of the provisional government and the decrees of peace and of land in November of that year. Lenin returns in April. In July, counter-revolutionaries put down a spontaneous revolt, and Lenin’s arrest is ordered. By late October, the Bolsheviks are ready to strike: ten days will shake the world. While the Mensheviks vacillate, an advance guard infiltrates the palace. Anatov-Oveyenko leads the attack and signs the proclamation dissolving the provisional government.

Note: 
Eisenstein’s montage experiments met with official disapproval; the authorities complained that October was unintelligible to the masses, and Eisenstein was attacked—for neither the first time nor the last—for excessive “formalism”. He was also required to re-edit the work to expurgate references to Leon Trotsky, who had recently been purged by Joseph Stalin.

Directors:
Grigory Aleksandrov & Sergei Eisenstein

Starring:
Boris Livanov, Nikolay Popov, Vasili Nikandrov

Rating:  PG
Year:  1928
Country:  Russia
Length:  95mins