Battleship Potemkin: Special Edition

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN ON BLU-RAY

 

Kino International will release Sergei Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) on Blu-ray, with the original Edmund Meisel orchestral score, now rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.

Kino’s Blu-ray edition of this classic Soviet film will be released on April 20, 2010, with a SRP of $34.95. 

As special features, this Blu-ray edition brings the 42-minute documentary Tracing the Battleship Potemkin, about the making and restoration of the film, as well as two versions of the film: one with English intertiles and another with the original Russian cards (with optional English subtitles). 

Odessa – 1905. Enraged with the deplorable conditions on board the armored cruiser Potemkin, the ship’s loyal crew contemplates the unthinkable – mutiny. Seizing control of the Potemkin and raising the red flag of revolution, the sailors’ revolt becomes the rallying point for a Russian populace ground under the boot heels of the Czar’s Cossacks. When ruthless White Russian cavalry arrives to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, the most famous and most quoted film sequence in cinema history is born.

For eight decades, Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 masterpiece has remained the most influential silent film of all time. Yet each successive generation has seen BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN subjected to censorship and re-cutting, its unforgettable power diluted in unauthorized public domain editions from dubious sources.

Until now. Kino is proud to join the Deutsche Kinematek in association with Russia’s Goskinofilm, the British Film Institute, Bundesfilm Archive Berlin, and the Munich Film Museum in presenting this all-new restoration of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. Dozens of missing shots have been replaced, and all 146 title cards restored to Eisenstein’s specifications.

Edmund Meisel’s definitive 1926 score, magnificently rendered by the 55-piece Deutches Filmorchestra in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, returns Eisenstein’s masterwork to a form as close to its creator’s bold vision as has been seen since the film’s triumphant 1925 Moscow premiere.

SPECIAL FEATURES

“Tracing the BattleshipPotemkin,” a 42-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film

The restored film with newly-translated English intertitles

The restored film with original Russian intertitles (and optional English subtitles)

The original 1926 Edmund Meisel score, performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Photo galleries

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

From the Series “The Year 1905”

Russia   1925   B&W/Color   71 Min.  

Full-frame (1.33:1)

Directed by Sergei M. Eisenstein

Screenplay by N.F. Agadzhanova-Shutko

Head Cinematographer: Eduard Tisse

Music by Edmund Meisel (1926)

Courtesy of Ries & Erler, Berlin

Adaptation and Instrumentation by Helmut Imig

Performed by the Deutsches Filmorchestra (2005)

Restored under the direction of Enno Patalas in collaboration with Anna Bohn

Presented in association with Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen supported by Bundesarchiv, Berlin; British Film Institute, London;

Gosfilmofond, Moscow; Film Museum, Munich

Licensed by Transit Film  © 2007 Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek     Music (P)

Ries & Erler

About Kino Lorber

Kino Lorber is the newly formed company that combines the resources, staffs and libraries of Lorber Films, Alive Mind and Kino International, bringing together industry leaders Richard Lorber and Donald Krim to create a new leader in independent film distribution.