Eisenstein in Guanajuato Page #8

the satisfaction of lechery.

PERA:
Sergei,

your secrets are safe with me.

And you can tell me everything

later in every detail,

but you must be careful.

Now, hold your excitement

and tell me things

our listener might want to hear.

Pera, I am sure

there is no secret listener.

It is you, Pera,

you are the secret listener.

You are two people.

PERA:
Sergei, you might be right.

I have probably

always been two people...

Your secretary, nurse, and bum-wiper.

(LAUGHS)

Pera, you have never wiped

my backside,

but Caedo...

PERA:
But Caedo has?

Sergei, shut up!

Pera, you are the only person

in the world

that I can tell

without holding anything back.

PERA:
That is both the best and

the worst thing you can tell me,

especially on a cold October morning

at five degrees below zero.

Now that I know you are well

and happy and working hard,

I wait for your next call.

I'm now going to

cry myself to sleep.

Good night, Sergei.

Take very good care

of yourself.

(LINE CLICKS)

(SNIFFS)

(PHONE DINGS)

(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)

Death...

Should always be ready

to take a call.

Found you, Eisenstein.

Is this filmmaking?

Of a kind.

Looking after your feet

is important.

Did you know that ignoring

your feet in old age

statistically brings on death?

Corns, chilblains, blisters.

In-growing toenails

cause walking problems.

Problems of balance

create falls,

which mean damaged hips,

broken bones,

which don't mend so good

after 60.

How old are you,

Mr Kimbrough?

Eisenstein,

I have a chiropodist

to tell me all that.

Oh, another mark

of American affluence.

Your average Russian wouldn't

know what a chiropodist was.

So look after your feet,

Kimbrough.

If not, collapse of mobility,

a downhill slide to permanent

horizontality without sex.

Pneumonia, bedsores,

depression, death.

Stay vertical as long

as you can, Kimbrough.

Look after your shoes

and look after your feet.

Upton has sent me

with an ultimatum.

You have 20 days left

on your visa, Mr Eisenstein.

God, Kimbrough!

Have you brought along

the Mexican Passport Office?

I'm afraid you'll have

to leave Mexico, sir.

In that time, you have enough

raw stock to finish the film

and a budget of $8,000.

That's 20 minutes a day

for 20 days.

Enough is enough.

We have to bring this thing

to an end.

"This thing?"

What to you, Mr Kimbrough,

is "this thing"?

A long, protracted,

irresponsible adventure

leading to nowhere.

Mary says Upton

has to tame

your disobedience

and extravagance.

Upton has collapsed and is sick

in hospital in Pasadena.

The doctors say

too much unnecessary stress.

He's been running around

on your behalf,

forever raising money to satisfy

your exorbitant demands.

I now take over.

Upton has lost his faith in you

and your integrity.

You have manoeuvred him,

used him.

He has empowered me

to close it down,

wrap it up, the end, full stop.

You're like a Negro.

Kind words and consideration

are not enough.

(CHUCKLES)

I thought I was a Red.

Now I'm also a Black?

And you also forgot, a Jew.

Being Russian is

the mildest of concerns.

You wear your prejudices

proudly on your sleeve, Mr Kimbrough,

a true Southern gentleman.

Upton is exhausted

by your hesitations

and delays and changes of plan

and the dubious company

you keep.

You have deliberately

packed filth in our luggage

sent through

United States Customs Authorities.

The police said it was the

vilest thing they'd ever seen...

Obscene and blasphemous drawings

of the Crucifixion.

I leave for Hollywood

on Wednesday.

The last of the rushes have

to be in by the 21st of December

when the contract terminates.

Amkino and Moscow

have said you must return

to New York.

You sail from New York

on the 17th of January.

You'll be arriving in Europe

by the 23rd.

Perhaps you can be back

in Moscow

by the 2nd of February.

You miss the connection,

you are on your own.

Mr Caedo is no longer

your guide here in Guanajuato.

He has been dismissed.

Mr Caedo,

in Mexico City, they talked

about ending your contract

at the end of this period.

It's best for his sake,

Eisenstein,

you should leave Guanajuato

immediately.

He has a wife and children.

I suggest

tomorrow morning! Oh!

All, cabrn.

Quieto, cabrn,

hijo de la chingada.

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

(BELL TOLLING)

(TOLLING CONTINUES)

(BELL TOLLS)

(BANGING ON PIPES)

(BELL TOLLS)

(BOMBASTIC MUSIC)

All right, Sergei.

Now you have

to give them back.

(SOLEMN MEXICAN MUSIC)

What were you thinking

of doing,

opening a restaurant

in Red Square?

(CHUCKLES)

Don't you have forks

in Moscow?

It was

my insurance policy...

An excuse to be arrested.

(SIGHS)

There.

Now I cannot leave

Guanajuato.

I cannot go home.

You must never separate

a Russian from his shoes.

(CHUCKLES)

I cannot leave you.

I cannot.

(SIGHS)

(GROANS)

(COUGHING)

(VOMITING)

(VOMITING)

(COUGHING)

Palomino loves well.

You were lonely.

You needed comforting.

You were like a lost child.

I love him.

I love him, too.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

(CHILDREN SINGING IN SPANISH)

We will come to say good-bye.

We want peace...

All of us.

And I am the one

to seal that peace.

You have to go now, Sergei.

Your time is up.

We want Palomino back.

He is not gonna spend

his time dreaming of Moscow.

Drive away.

This is the Day of the Dead,

and I am a dead man.

Drive slowly

to the edge of town.

This is a funeral cortege.

And when you reach

the edge of town,

drive like the Devil.

I need to leave Heaven

in a hurry.

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

NARRATOR:
Eisenstein left

Mexico two months later.

He had shot

some 250 miles of film,

which he was never allowed to edit.

Soviet laws made homosexuality

a punishable offence in 1936.

Homosexuals were sent to Siberia.

Ten years' hard labour for sodomy.

Eisenstein dies of heart attack

aged 50 in 1948,

banging on the radiator pipes

for over three hours

to arouse his neighbours,

a prearranged signal,

but they never heard him.

Day ten of my stay

in Guanajuato

is the 31st of October

and the eve

of the Day of the Dead.

In the West, my film October is called

The Ten Days That Shook

The World.

I...

Shall consider these ten days

as the ten days

that shook...

Eisenstein.

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