¡Qué viva México!

"¡Qué viva México!" (Russian: Да здравствует Мексика!) is a film project begun by the Russian avant-garde director Sergei Eisenstein. It would have been an episodic portrayal of Mexican culture and politics from pre-Conquest civilization to the Mexican revolution. Production was beset by difficulties and was eventually abandoned. Jay Leyda and Zina Voynow call it his "greatest film plan and his greatest personal tragedy". [Harvnb|Leyda|Voynow|1982|p=61] Eisenstein left for Mexico in December 1930, sponsored by Upton Sinclair and his wife Mary Kimbrough Sinclair.

The footage that Eisenstein shot has been used for several others ("Thunder Over Mexico", "Eisenstein in Mexico", "Death Day", and "Time in the Sun"). The title "¡Qué viva México!" refers to the reconstruction made by Grigory Alexandrov. [Harvnb|Bordwell|1993|p=287]

Eisenstein and Mexico

In the early twentieth century, many intellectuals and artists associated with the European avant-gardes were fascinated by Latin America in general, and by Mexico in particular: for the French artist and leader of the Surrealist movement André Breton, for instance, Mexico was almost the incarnation of Surrealism. [citation|last=Castleberry |first=May| chapter=America Fantastica: Art, Literature, and the Surrealist Legacy in Experimental Publishing, 1938–1968| url=http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2006/AmericaFantastica/index.html|title=MoMa: The Museum of Modern Art|accessdate=2008-05-10] And as film historian David Bordwell notes, "like many Leftists, Eisenstein was impressed that Mexico has created a socialist revolution in 1910". [Harvnb|Bordwell|1993|p=19] His fascination with the country dated back at least to 1921, when at the age of twenty-two "his artistic career started with a Mexican topic" as he put on a theatrical version of the Jack London story "The Mexican" in Moscow. [Harvnb|Karetnikova|1991| p=5. Ronald Bergan states that Eisenstein was merely the set designer, and dates the production to 1922, but equally emphasizes that Mexico had "gripped [Eisenstein's] imagination" ever since his involvement with this play (Harvnb|Bergan|1997|p=217).] Film scholar Inga Karetnikova details this production as a classic example of avant-garde aesthetics, an exercise in form rather than documentary realism; but "indirectly," she argues, "he did recreate the Mexican atmosphere". Above all, he saw in the Mexican revolution an instance of a "zealous idealism" that was also "close to Eisenstein, just as it was to the entire generation of Soviet avant-garde of the early 1920s". [Harvnb|Karetnikova|1991| pp=5, 6]

Some years later, in 1927, Eisenstein had the opportunity to meet the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who was visiting Moscow for the celebrations of the Russian revolution's tenth anniversary. Rivera had seen Eisenstein's film "The Battleship Potemkin", and praised it by comparing it to his own work as a painter in the service of the Mexican revolution; he also "spoke obsessively of the Mexican artistic heritage", describing the wonders of Ancient Aztec and Mayan art and architecture. [Harvnb|Karetnikova|1991| pp=8-9] The Russian director wrote that "the seed of interest in that country . . . nourished by the stories of Diego Rivera, when he visited the Soviet Union . . . grew into a burning desire to travel there". [Qtd. in Harvnb|Karetnikova|1991| p=10]

Plot summary

Original vision

"¡Qué viva México!" was left unfinished by Eisenstein, and in any case was never envisaged in terms of a single linear plot. However, the film was highly structured, and was to consist of four "novellas" or "scenarios" plus a prologue and epilogue. [Harvnb|Leyda|Voynow|1982|p=61] As Bordwell notes, the precise order and content of these episodes "was constantly changing", but "the overall film would trace the history of Mexico from precolonial times through Spanish conquest to contemporary times". [Harvnb|Bordwell|1993|pp=202-203] Each episode have its own distinct style, be "dedicated to a different Mexican artist", and would "also base itself on some primal element (stone, water, iron, fire, air)".Harvnb|Bordwell|1993|pp=203] The soundtrack in each case would feature a different Mexican folk song. [Harvnb|Eisenstein|1972| p=28] Moreover, each episode would tell the story of a romantic couple; and "threading through all parts was the theme of life and death, culminating in the mockery of death".

Alexandrov's reconstruction

In Alexandrov's reconstruction, which attempts to be as faithful as possible to Eisenstein's original vision, the film unfolds as follows:

;PrologueSet in the time of the Maya civilization in Yucatan.

;SandungaLife including marriage and motherhood in Tehuantepec. [Harvnb|Eisenstein|1972| p=35]

;MagueyAbout the pulque industry under the rule of Porfirio Díaz. [Harvnb|Eisenstein|1972| p=47]

;FiestaDepicting bullfighting in the Spanish colonial era. [Harvnb|Eisenstein|1972| p=69]

;SoldaderaStory of the woman soldiers involved in the Mexican Revolution. [Harvnb|Eisenstein|1972| p=78]

;EpilogueShowing Mexico at the time of filming, and the celebration of the Day of the Dead.

Notes

References

*citation|last=Bergan| first=Ronald | title=Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict | place=London | publisher=Little, Brown| year=1997| isbn=0-316-87708-5.
*citation|last=Bordwell|first=David |author-link=David Bordwell |title=The Cinema of Eisenstein |place=Cambridge, MA| publisher= Harvard University Press |year= 1993 |isbn=978-0674131385.
*citation|last=Eisenstein |first=Sergei |author-link=Sergei Eisenstein|title=Que Viva Mexico! |place=New York |publisher=Arno |year= 1972 |isbn=978-0405039164.
*citation|editor1-last=Geduld |editor1-first=Harry M.| editor2-first= Ronald |editor2-last=Gottesman |title= Sergei Eisenstein and Upton Sinclair: The Making & Unmaking of Que Viva Mexico!| place=Bloomington, IN| publisher= Indiana University Press |year=1970 |isbn=978-0253180506.
*citation|last=Karetnikova| first=Inga| title=Mexico According to Eisenstein | place=Albuquerque | publisher=University of New Mexico Press | year=1991| isbn=0-8263-1257-8. In collaboration with Leon Steinmetz.
*citation|last=Leyda |first=Jay |author-link= Jay Leyda |title=Kino: A History Of The Russian And Soviet Film |place=New York |publisher= Macmillan |year= 1960 |oclc=1683826.
*citation|last1=Leyda | first1=Jay |first2= Zina |last2=Voynow |title=Eisenstein At Work |place=New York |publisher= Pantheon |year= 1982 |isbn=978-0394748122.
*citation| last=Seton |first=Marie |title=Sergei M. Eisenstein: A Biography |place=New York |publisher=A.A. Wyn |year=1952| oclc=2935257.