Film Form

The film artist’s job was to learn his principles from a profound investigation of all arts and all levels of life, to measure these principles against an unfaltering understanding of himself, and if he then did anything less than create—with bold, living works that moved their audiences to excitement and understanding—he was neither good artist nor positive member of society.

His fatal attack, on the night of February 10, 1948, interrupted him at work; when he was found the next morning, before him were his last words—an unfinished essay on color, its use in the unfinished Ivan the Terrible.

Eisenstein’s immense knowledge was poured not only into six finished films but also, directly and indirectly, into an incalculable number of pupils.