Isabel Villaseñor

Eisenstein shot 50 hours of footage on location in Mexico in 1931 and 32 for what would have become ¡Que viva México!, but was not able to finish the film. Following two wildly different reconstruction attempts in 1939 (Marie Seton's 'Time in the Sun') and 1979 (Grigori Alexandrov's '¡Que viva México!') Kovalov has here compiled another hypothetical version of what Eisenstein's film might have been.

Having revolutionized film editing through such masterworks of montage as Potemkin and Strike, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein emigrated West in hopes of testing the capabilities of the American film industry. Quickly ostracized from Hollywood, Eisenstein, Grigory Alexandrov, and photographer Eduard Tisse (at the urging of author Upton Sinclair) wandered south of the border, where they began filming a highly stylized documentary about the people and volatile social climate of Mexico. Unfortunately, a lack of funds prohibited the film's completion, and the famed director was unable to edit the film. In 1979, by referring to Eisenstein's extensive notes and sketches, Alexandrov assembled the most definitive version of the film; as close to Eisenstein's vision as one is ever likely to see.

As was common in Diaz's Mexico, a young hacienda worker finds his betrothed imprisoned and his life threatened by his master for confronting a hacienda guest for raping the girl. This film is the first of several attempts to make a feature-length motion picture out of the 200,000-plus feet of film shot by Sergei Eisenstein, on photographic expedition in Mexico during 1931-32 for Upton Sinclair and a cadre of private American producer-investors. Silent with music and English intertitles.