The Different Faces of Sergei Eisenstein

Die verschiedenen Gesichter des Sergej Eisenstein

Eisenstein is celebrated either as the last Leonardo da Vinci of modernity or attacked as Faustus, Faustus who made a pact with the devil. Whichever is the case, neither friends nor foes are able to resist the powerful draw of Eisenstein's work. He was a person of complexity who was understood in very different ways, as a generous cosmopolitan and a stingy hermit, a cynic and yet a highly sensitive, vulnerable being. The film deals with a number of phases in Eisenstein's life, and tries to get away from the orthodox image of him by using new material to shed a different light on his biography.