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THE FILM SINCE THEN
Eisenstein arrived in Hollywood and forthwith set about drafting scripts. For all the ministrations of Montagu, it was clear from the start that neither side spoke the same language. Eisenstein's address to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on the proper size and shape of the screen1 fell on puzzled ears, and his draft scripts for An American Tragedy and Sutter's Gold seemed to have frightened the studio. It is difficult to understand why, since these were the ablest visualisations of literary material known to U.S. connoisseurs, and though both were penetrating examples of social analysis they did not call on the workers to arise. Perhaps it was their very completeness and detail that left the masters of Paramount at sea. At any rate, both films were re-written and filmed by others, and Eisenstein's contract was terminated.2
He had already made arrangements to produce a film in Mexico for the resourceful Upton Sinclair, who had secured sufficient independent financial backing to give the great Soviet artist his head. Eisenstein did more; he took the bit between his teeth and consumed more than two years in shooting hundreds of thousands of feet of film south of the Rio Grande.3 Beyond being ' an epic of Mexican history ', no one, and this includes those closest to Eisenstein, seems to be quite sure what Que Viva Mexico was exactly intended to be. It was known that the film was to touch upon all the periods of Mexican history from the Aztecs till to-day, and anyone familiar with Eisenstein's work could safely assume that this epic panorama would not be allowed to sprawl out in episodes but would have a design and shape of its own, however grandiose. Speculation on the outcome was cut short when Sinclair announced that his financial resources were exhausted, that
1 September 17th, 1930; reprinted (in Close Up, Vol. 8, No. 1, March 1931, The Dinamic Square.
2 Cf . contributions to the programme issued in connection with the Memorial Performance of Eisenstein's Work, May 2nd, 1948, published by the Film Section of the Society for Cultural Relations with U.S.S.R., London, in association with the British Film Academy and the National Film Library.
3 Op. cit, pp. 17-23. Marie Seton puts the total footage at 150,000.
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