Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict

Now back in print, this acclaimed biography reassesses a titan of early cinema based on new material released after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict tells the dramatic story of one of world cinema’s towering geniuses and principal theorists. Ronald Bergan details Eisenstein’s life from his precocious childhood to his explosion onto the avant-garde scene in revolutionary Russia, through his groundbreaking film career, his relationships with authors and artists such as James Joyce and Walt Disney, and his untimely death at age fifty. Eisenstein’s landmark films, including The Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible, are still watched, admired, and taught throughout the world.

Drawing upon material recently released from the Soviet archives after the breakup of the USSR and from Eisenstein’s personal letters, diaries, and sketches, Bergan shines a new light on the influence of Eisenstein’s early life on his work, his homosexuality, and his keen interest in the West. This book is the definitive biography of an influential director who saw film as the synthesis of all the arts and whose work displayed a passionate and profound grasp of art, science, philosophy, and religion.

About the Author

Ronald Bergan, film historian, critic, and lecturer, is a regular contributor to the Guardian. The author of numerous film biographies, including Jean Renoir and Katharine Hepburn, published by Arcade, he held the chair in film at Florida International University in Miami and lectured at the Sorbonne, the British Institute in Paris, and the University of Lille. He now lives in Prague, where he teaches at the famed FAMU film school.

Reviews

“A comprehensive and thoughtful biography.”—The New York Times

"An admirable biography . . . Bergan is first rate . . . his enthusiasm for the man and his work is infectious.”—Times Literary Supplement

“Excellent, well-researched and highly readable.”—Evening Standard

“Accessible, cogent biography . . . excellent and eye-opening book.”—Sight and Sound

“Mr. Bergan’s lucid book is a reminder of both how great a director Eisenstein was and how much greater his achievement might have been, by showing the gap that existed between the magisterial wreckage of his surviving work and the even more astonishing concept of cinema which he was never fully permitted to realise.”—Economist

“Carefully researched and highly readable.”—Guardian

“Highly recommended, approachable and jargon-free.”—Time Out

“Lively and engaging . . . always interesting and well-informed . . . film buffs should thank Bergan.”—Sunday Telegraph

“Bergan recreates the freshness of modernism . . . full of interesting material.”— Sunday Times

“An excellent biography.”—Literary Review

“Well-researched . . . It is to Bergan’s credit that he brings to us in all his complexity a man he clearly admires and places his work in its historical context as a way of explaining rather than apologising for it.”— Observer

“Bergan’s impressive, accessible book”—Scotland on Sunday