• Sergei Eisenstein, still from film clip used in Sergei Tretiakov’s Enough Stupidity in Every Wiseman, based on the play by Alexander Ostrovsky, directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Proletkult First Workers’ Theatre (premiere: April–May 1923). Copyright © A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, Moscow.

Film still of Sergei Eisenstein from Wiseman

From The Director's Prism: E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Russian Theatrical Avant-Garde by Dassia N. Posner

  • In this film still, Eisenstein, in blazer, tie, and cap, looks out at the viewer of the film. The background behind him is filled with a large poster that introduces the term "montage of attractions" and advertises the May 8, 10, 12, and 13 performances of Wiseman.

    Scholars and contemporaries disagree on the Wiseman premiere date. Gerould claims it opened on April 16, Shtraukh on April 26, Cavendish on April 28, and Zabrodin on May 8, the date handwritten into the poster in this image.*

    Gerould and Cavendish argue convincingly that the film clip of which this image was a part was its own mini-attraction––a filmed curtain call––rather than having been shown together with the other film "attractions" in the production.

    See book: p. 186, 187; figure 143

    *Daniel Gerould, "Eisenstein's 'Wiseman'." TDR 18.1 (March 1974): 73, 84; R. N. Yurnev, ed. Eizenshtein v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1974), 45; Phil Cavendish, "From 'Lost' to 'Found': The 'Rediscovery' of Sergei Eisenstein's Glumov's Diary and its avant-garde context." Kinokultura 41 (2013) [http://www.kinokultura.com/2013/41-cavendish.shtml]; V. V. Zabrodin, Eizenshtein: Popytka teatra (Moscow: Eizenshtein-tsentr, 2005), 148.

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  • Performing Arts
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  • Premiere: April–May, 1923
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