Film concert Bronenosets Potyomkin / Battleship Potemkin (2005 Enno Patalas reconstruction / 1925 Edmund Meisel score / 2005 Teatro Comunale, Bologna)

Sergei Eisenstein: Bronenosets Potyomkin / Battleship Potemkin (SU 1925). The 1950 Nikolai Kryukov soundtrack release poster.

Panssarilaiva Potjomkin / The Battleship Potyomkin. SU 1925. D: Sergei Eisenstein. 70’. The 2005 reconstruction curated by Enno Patalas with Anna Bohn. A project of die Kulturstiftung des Bundes supervised by SDK – Filmmuseum Berlin. The original 1925 score by Edmund Meisel conducted by Helmut Imig and performed by Orchestra del Teatro Comunale. Saturday 2 July 2005, Teatro Comunale (Largo Respighi, 1), Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. German subtitles, e-subtitles in Italian and English. 

This is the third version I see of the film with the Meisel score. I remember the MoMA print with Meisel on the soundtrack. In 1987 I saw a concert at the London Film Festival to the Meisel score, and now this. 

The problem is always that the score was written to a changed German version of the film, which spells trouble for the musical arrangement to the very carefully constructed film which follows the five act structure. Yes, it’s successful, yet I also appreciate the 1950 Kryukov original composition (the most memorable of them all) and the 1975 Shostakovich compilation scores. 

It was difficult to judge the quality of the restoration because in this screening there was no black, either because of the orchestra light or for some other reason (loss of black in the digital intermediate?). I confess that as for the content, I did not spot the differences with the exception of the Trotsky motto.