ESC
Qué viva Mexico!

Qué viva Mexico!

Film¡Que viva Mexico!*
FormatDVD
Region1
Runtime85 min.
AudioDolby Digital 2.0
SubtitlesEnglish
LanguagesRussian
Aspect Ratio1.33:1
ColorBlack & White
Video StandardNTSC
PackagingKeep case
Catalog NumberK202
Barcode738329020224
BrandKino On Video
DistributionKino International Corp.
Manufactured ByKino International Corp.
TerritoryUnited States
NotesHaving revolutionized film editing through such masterworks of montage as Potemkin and Strike, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein emigrated west in hopes of testing the capabilities of the American film industry. Quickly ostracized from Hollywood, Eisenstein, Grigory Alexandrov and photographer Eduard Tisse (at the urging of author Upton Sinclair) wandered south of the border where they began filming a highly stylized documentary on the people and volatile social climate of Mexico. Unfortunately, a lack of funds prohibited the film's completion and the famed director was unable to edit the film. In 1979, by referring to Eisenstein's extensive notes and sketches, Alexandrov assembled the most definitive version of the film-as close to Eisenstein's vision as one is ever likely to come. A blend of the ethnographic, the political, the scenic and the surreal, Que Viva Mexico! is nothing short of brilliant and remains superior to the legion of films it strongly influenced: Welles' It's All True, Jodorowsky's El Topo and the works of Sergio Leone. With sequences devoted to the Edenic land of Tehuantepec, the savage majesty of the bullfight, the struggles of the noble peon and the hypnotic imagery of the Day of the Dead, Que Viva Mexico is a vivid tapestry of Mexican life which (thanks to Alexandrov's careful restoration) takes its rightful place alongside Eisenstein's other legendary works. Also included on this DVD are Romance Sentimentale (1930), an attempt to apply Soviet montage theories to sound/visual editing, and on amazing rediscovery: Misery and Fortune of Woman (1929). Intended to encourage legal and sanitary birth/abortion clinics in Europe, this remarkable film is also a stunning dramatization of the plight of working class women, displaying all the earmarks of Soviet montage and the distinctive genius of Segei Eisenstein.