SUBJECTS

Indigenous peoples -- Mexico -- Drama, Mexico -- Civilization -- Drama, Mexico -- History -- Drama

Que Viva Mexico!

(Da zdravstvuet Meksika!)
(Thunder over Mexico)

Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Alexandrov
USSR, 1931/1979

Film to Table dinner follows

After the screening, enjoy a Film to Table dinner at Babette, the cafe at BAMPFA. Join an intimate group of fellow filmgoers for a four-course, prix-fixe meal in a convivial, dinner-party atmosphere. Purchase dinner tickets in advance at babettecafe.com (film tickets must be purchased separately).

Que Viva Mexico! also screens on April 4 (with a lecture by Anne Nesbet) as part of the series In Focus: Eisenstein and His Contemporaries.

In 1931, Eisenstein shot some fifty hours of film in Mexico, intended for a six-part episodic epic combining documentary and fiction to portray Mexican history and culture from the pre-Columbian era to the current day. Lack of funds, problems with backers (including novelist Upton Sinclair), and a denied visa sent Eisenstein back to Russia, the project unfinished. The version we present here was edited by Eisenstein’s frequent collaborator Grigori Alexandrov based on Eisenstein’s original conception; filled with memorable images, it is the closest thing to a “definitive” Que Viva Mexico! that exists today.

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Sergei Eisenstein
Cinematographer
  • Eduard Tissé
Language
  • Russian
  • with English e-titling
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • 90 mins
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View Que viva Mexico! documents  

Que viva Mexico (program note), Pasadena Filmforum, 1983

Sergei Eisenstein (article), American Film Institute, 1981

Eisenstein's enchilada (review), Village Voice, J. Hoberman, 1980

In a lean year, Soviets dust off Eisenstein epic for fest circuit (article), Variety, 1979

Reviews from Moscow film festival (review), Variety, Gene Moskowitz, 1979

Sergiusz Eisenstein - artysta i mysliciel (booklet), Filmoteka Polska, 1979

S.M. Eisenstein (booklet), Premier Plan, 1962

Famous foreign films: Thunder over Mexico (program note), Roosevelt University Film Society, Ed Hoff, 1957

Eisenstein's images and Mexican art (article), Sight and Sound, Marie Seton, 1953

Eisenstein film new feature on Europa's screen (article), Philadelphia Evening Ledger, Henry T. Murdock, 1933

Displaying 10 of 18 publicly available documents.


View all Que viva Mexico! documentation on CineFiles.

Preceded By

Bezhin Meadow
(Bezhin lug)

Sergei Eisenstein, USSR, 1936

Based in part on a short story by Turgenev, in part on a true story of one Pavel Morozov, Soviet boy-hero, Bezhin Meadow was to be an exuberant tale of the clash between peasant farmers of the Czarist era and the youthful supporters of the emerging collectivist movement. Its production halted by official opprobrium and Eisenstein’s illness, the rushes destroyed during World War II, the film exists today only in this photomontage outline reconstructed by Naum Kleiman.

FILM DETAILS 
Language
  • Russian
  • with live English translation
Print Info
  • B&W
  • Digital
  • 35 mins