Eisenstein in Guanajuato

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🎙️ EPISODE 427: 03.22.22 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎-𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 RANKING GREENAWAY 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 There is a Peter Greenaway film called Walking to Paris, allegedly completed in 2017 or 2018, that still hasn't seen the light of the day 1. It's about a 27-year-old Constantin Brâncusi, who walked from Bucharest to Paris in 1904 as a preparation and prelude to becoming one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. This seems deeply connected to the narrative thread and subject matter of all his films from 2007's Nightwatching on. I look forward to seeing it one day and hope we get even more Greenaway movies after that. But, for now, the final film chronologically speaking is Eisenstein in Guanajuato, a heartfelt love letter to one of his greatest influences, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, director of silent picture classics such as Strike, Battleship Potemkin and October.

This being Greenaway, it's far from your typical biopic, taking a magnitude of license with the retelling of the venerated filmmaker's travels to Mexico in 1931 after being shunned by Hollywood, and his fascination and embrace of the vastly different culture.

Regardless of how accurate or true any of this was to real life, it should be recognized for its portrayal of homosexuality in a completely no-bullshit way. Eisenstein's infamous asexuality is disputed and the complicated affair with his Mexican guide, Palomino Cañedo, is presented as such. However, the critical take that both this story and the representation of Eisenstein is woefully inaccurate can't be ignored. Critic David Robinson wrote that no one who knew the director "would recognise the Eisenstein they [see] in Greenaway’s Guanajuato" [SOURCE]. Is this more Greenaway fan fiction? ² Not simply imagining some truth hidden in a painting (as in Nightwatching) or imploding a preexisting work (like with Prospero's) but directly inventing an onscreen persona for a real historical figure. It's actually a fascinating and freeing mode, in my opinion, which has been used in a variety of films recently, from Inglorious Bastards to Being John Malkovich. In this sense, the films become just as much about Greenaway as they do his subjects.

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FOOTNOTES:

1. UPDATE! After writing/reviewing this, the trailer dropped for this mythical film with a tenative release date set for November 2022. Watch here. [BACK]

2. For what it's worth, Greenaway seems more than adament about his version of these events in this interview. [BACK]

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 427B - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 427D ⫸

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Eisenstein in Guanajuato is a 2015 biographical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Starring Elmer Bäck as Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein, alongside Stelio Savante, Lisa Owen, Maya Zapata, Luis Alberti, Jakob Öhrman, Rasmus Slätis, and Raino Ranta. It was released on February 11, 2015.