Everyone’s favorite arthouse grump Peter Greenaway is back with another new film, and a starry premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. The first trailer has arrived for "Eisenstein In Guanajuato," his look at one of cinema’s greatest artists, and the act of moviemaking itself.
Finnish actor Elmer Back (“The Spiral”) takes the lead role, supported by Luis Alberti, Stelio Savante, and Lisa Owen, in the film that follows the director’s life-changing ten days in 1930s Mexico as he attempts to make "Que Viva Mexico." Here’s the official synopsis:
Eisenstein in Guanajuato is a feature film about the world’s greatest filmmaker, with Finnish actor Elmer Back Elmer Pekk (The Spiral) playing the title role of the Soviet film-director Sergej Eisenstein. Eisenstein’s talent, insight and wisdom can surely be measured with that of Shakespeare and Beethoven, and his films Strike, Pantserkruiser Potjomkin and October established his fame. The film Eisenstein in Guanajuato tells of how Eisenstein, curious about Guanajuato’s Museum of the Dead, spends ten days in that Mexican city in 1931 whilst he was trying to make the film Que Viva Mexico. His sensual and emotional experiences with sex and death in those ten days influence his later films, introducing a much greater sympathy for the human condition in his cinema.
This looks like a particularly visually impressive effort from Greenway, with Back certainly embracing the role of Eisenstein with some relish. No word yet on if or when this movie will find its way stateside, but this trailer is an intriguing taste for sure. Watch below.
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