Eisenstein in Guanajuato
NARRATOR:
In 1931, the Russianfilm director Sergei Eisenstein
travelled to Mexico to make a film.
It was tentatively to be called
iQue viva Mexico!
Eisenstein had a worldwide fame
based on the reputation of only three films,
all made in Soviet Russia.
Strike, a violent tale of civilian unrest
viciously crushed by authority,
The Battleship Potemkin, a violent account
of a naval mutiny over rotten meat,
and October, a violent celebration
of the Russian Revolution.
(GLASS SHATTERING)
In the West, the film October
was called Ten Days That Shook The World.
(FLIES BUZZING)
This present film might be called
Ten Days That Shook Eisenstein.
(FLY BUZZING)
(CLASSICAL MUSIC)
(FLY BUZZING)
I arrive accompanied by flies.
They have been with me ever since
I brought them with me from Moscow.
(FLY BUZZING)
I recognise them.
They are Soviet flies, spy flies...
Russian accents,
a growling, gruff, ill-mannered buzz.
They have bloodshot eyes, like me.
Do I have bloodshot eyes?
Do I have bloodshot eyes?
Do I have bloodshot eyes?
Do I have bloodshot eyes?
Of too much looking. Too much...
Too much looking.
- Diego.
- Sergei, my friend!
- You're welcome.
- Grazie.
- Frida.
- Sergei.
- Bienvenido.
- Encantado.
Jorge Palomino Caedo.
Your Guanajuato guide.
Sergei Eisenstein.
Sometimes a Russian film director
or Russian film director retired.
Ah. This is Aleksandrov.
Always an actor.
- Frida.
- Grisha.
And this is Eduard Tisse, cameraman.
The cameraman.
- Frida.
- Tisse.
Please take the suitcases.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Hey, look.
(OMINOUS MUSIC)
(WHISTLING)
(ORCHESTRA PLAYING)
(EXHALES SHARPLY)
Put all the red books over there.
All the books with
the blue markers over there.
All American books under the bed.
(SPEAKING SPANISH)
(SQUEAKING)
(AIR HISSING)
- Can I help?
- There is a trick, isn't there?
What am I doing wrong?
I expect nothing.
We don't have showers in Moscow.
In fact, we don't have showers in Russia.
Baths, Turkish baths.
And wash basins.
Sometimes we have running water.
Sometimes we have water.
Sometimes we have just the empty taps.
Sometimes we have to
break the ice in the tank.
Often...
We don't wash.
- (PALOMINO LAUGHING)
- What are you laughing about?
A Russian body. Very white.
We rarely see the Sun in Moscow,
and we never undress in public.
- Then I can't be public.
- Public enough.
That's his.
PALOMINO:
And a very well-fed body.Pea-soup, pickled cabbage,
salty bacon, sour milk, turnips?
When we can get it.
See you at breakfast?
Tortillas, tamales, chicken burritos,
chimichangas, sopecitos,
huarachitos, pan de muerto...
Hey! Warm water?
Being naked in public?
Or a response to an amiable young man?
Signor Prick, behave!
He's handsome, it's true. (CHUCKLES)
And he's seen you, it's true.
But you are a foreigner
with a Russian passport,
a limited visitor's visa,
and very little sexual experience.
You would be woefully disadvantaged.
Besides, you are here to make a film with me,
and I need your frustrations
to feed my imagination.
No dissipation.
It leads to a dilution of energy.
(EXHALING RAPIDLY)
I am a boxer
for the freedom of cinematic expression.
I have never had my shoes shined for me.
We don't do those sorts of things
any more in Soviet Russia.
You're in Mxico.
Why don't you try it?
-( SPEAKING SPANISH)
- S.
(EXHALES DEEPLY)
(CHUCKLES)
I'm behaving like a colonial grandee.
Shining shoes is tantamount to kissing feet.
Who kisses feet any more?
Do I tip him heavily
to cover up my bourgeois guilt?
No.
If you tip him, news of your generosity
will be around the town in five minutes.
And your shoes will never be yours again.
They will be a host to fortune.
You have come here for something
other than shiny shoes.
What are you looking for?
I came to Mexico to make a movie.
I came to Mexico
because my very first
theatre production in Moscow
was called The Mexican.
I came to Mexico because
you had a successful revolution
I came to Guanajuato
because you have here
a Museum Of The Dead.
Maybe I have to make a film
called Museum Of The Living.
Those are my excuses.
What are your excuses?
I live here. I have a family here.
I teach in Mexico City, and I teach here.
And what do you teach?
I studied as an anthropologist.
And now I teach comparative religion.
This is a Roman Catholic country.
How come you are allowed
to talk about other religions?
(SIGHS)
Roman Catholicism of Mxico
is generous and all-embracing.
Pantheistic.
A bit of everything. Old and new.
They just take what they need.
So much so, we should call it
Mexican Catholicism.
They customised it.
We have pre-Columbian equivalents
for everything
the Roman Catholics dreamed up.
Certainly, we invented
blood sacrifices before you did.
Christianity adopted us.
We did not adopt Christianity.
(BELL TOLLING)
It's Gideon. His name is Gideon.
He was born blind.
And the bells have made him deaf.
There is a problem.
They have been searching
through your books
and found pornography.
Are you a pornographer?
I didn't think so up till now.
One of the hotel maids arranging your books
has taken some photographs,
but she is underage.
Her mother found the photographs
and complained to the hotel.
I am sure it can be sorted out.
Stay in sight of your bodyguards.
(BELLS TOLLING)
(BELLS CONTINUE TOLLING)
(DOOR RATTLES)
(UPBEAT MUSIC)
(GOAT BLEATING)
(CHILDREN LAUGHING)
(GOATS BLEATING)
MAN:
It's OK, boys.(DOG BARKING)
(ECHOING) Sergei!
(ECHOING) Sergei!
(ECHOING) Mxico!
(ECHOING) Mxico!
(ECHOING) Guanajuato!
(RETCHING)
(VOMITING)
(RETCHING)
Vomit and sh*t pour out of you in floods.
I should not be here.
I should be back in Russia,
being constipated.
In Moscow, you can go for a week
without shitting once.
(COUGHING)
(SPITS)
Sergei? It's me. It's me, Caedo. It's me.
Ugh.
Come on. Let's go, let's go.
It's just me, Caedo. Hey, it's OK. Shh.
- Come on.
- Ugh.
(GRUNTS)
- Stop it, stop it, stop it.
- (COUGHING)
(METALLIC CLANGING)
(HUMMING)
Close your eyes, close your eyes.
You know...
You know, I sat like the Tsar
on the throne of the Winter Palace.
But the Tsar did not have running water.
You Mexicans don't have tsars,
but you do have running water.
What is that noise?
Someone banging on the pipes.
Oh!
Come on.
(GRUNTING)
(EXHALES)
OK. OK, hey.
- Wake up.
- (MUMBLING)
(GRUNTS)
Come on, come on.
(BOTH GRUNTING)
(EXCLAIMS)
It's the 22nd of October.
Someone is banging on the pipes
to commemorate the start
of the Russian Revolution.
(CHUCKLES)
No. It's the hotel plumber fixing the hot water.
Go to sleep.
The hot water of the Revolution.
(CHUCKLES)
We shall all be cleansed
with the hot water of the Revolution.
(BANGING)
Watch him carefully.
Or you'll have Stalin on your backs.
Stalin's reach is very long.
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"Eisenstein in Guanajuato" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 12 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/eisenstein_in_guanajuato_7513>.
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