BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN screening at FOMO Cinema Tbilisi

Sergei Eisenstein | 1925 | USSR | 1h15m | Presented with English subtitles

BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is one of the foundational works of world cinema, especially with regard to film editing. Eisenstein takes the 1905 mutiny aboard the Potemkin and shapes it into something far larger than a reconstruction of events. The film moves with absolute purpose. Sailors revolt against brutality, the people of Odessa gather in solidarity, and repression answers with massacre. What gives the film its power is not psychological complexity in the usual sense. It’s the way Eisenstein turns bodies, crowds, gestures and collision into pure cinematic argument.

By 1925, Soviet cinema was already becoming one of the places where film form was being pushed hardest, and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN remains the clearest example of that ambition. Eisenstein’s montage theory is inseparable from the film’s impact. Meaning doesn’t sit inside individual shots. It’s produced through their arrangement, through contrast, acceleration and shock. The Odessa Steps sequence became the most famous expression of that idea, and later filmmakers have quoted it so often that it now feels almost mythic. But the film’s achievement isn’t confined to one scene. Its whole structure is built around momentum, collective action and the transformation of political revolt into cinema.

There’s propaganda here, of course, and openly so, but the film’s place in cinema history doesn’t rest on agreement with its politics. It rests on form, on the sheer confidence of its construction, and on the fact that almost a century later its editing still feels urgent. So many later films owe something to Eisenstein, whether they admit it or not.

NOTE: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is being presented as film 1 in our Soviet Sunday Film Program. You can also catch Georgian classic VEDREBA (aka THE PLEA) with a discounted double pass. To learn more please visit this page.

FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: FOMO Cinema Lounge Bar opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 02:00,.serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments including coffee and tea, as well as fresh hot popcorn! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol from outside allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to the first floor. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/