An absolutely iconic moment from a classic movie. Many silent movies of the 1920s lose their resonance for modern viewers. This segment of Eisenstein's movie retains its power:
Here's what prompted this blog post - a "real life" incident this week:
The scene on the steps was parodied in this rather tasteless advertisement:
And spoofed in a movie ""Il Secondo Tragico Fantozzi":
It was central in "The Untouchables" (1987), as a tribute rather than a parody:
After you've seen all the others, watch the opening scene of "Naked Gun 33 1/3:
After assembling those I discover that someone has made a montage of the Odessa Steps (with and without prams).
Here's a clip one of my favorite "tributes" by Zbigniew Rybczynski called "Steps" (1987): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsfyAjwQL0w . Basic story line is that new Russian technology allows people to actually participate in the film, and a sampling of Americans are selected via computer to participate. More info is located here: http://www.zbigvision.com/StepsFilm.html
ReplyDeleteVery clever. Bizarre, but very clever.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I'm not sure the "Untouchables" version is so much a tribute as an "Eat your heart out, Eisenstein!"
ReplyDelete(At some point, somebody should count the number of steps in the staircase, then the number of steps the carriage goes down in the closeups. I'd bet it was about twice as many.)
And the "Naked Gun" version almost tops De Palma.
(Does anybody wonder what happened to the fourth baby in the latter?? O.J. catches only three of 'em.)
There's an homage in Brazil too, towards the end, if I remember correctly.
ReplyDeleteGaucho, you're right. There's a list of some of the adaptations in Wiki:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin