As part of Eye Filmmuseum's programme Eye on Art and as a preamble to the gallery exhibition Sergei Eisenstein | The rhythm of ecastasy: the sex drawings, 1931–1948 (July 12–August 4), a screening of Sergei Eisenstein's unfinished film ¡Que viva México! (Alexandrov's 1979 version) will be screened on June 25, from 19:15 to 21:00. The screening will be introduced by gallery curator Sergi Rusca.
¡Que viva México! is one of the most intriguing films by Sergei Eisenstein. Shot between 1930 and 1932 in México, it was struck by financial hardship and censorship, leaving it unfinished and edited into different versions throughout time. Eisenstein intended to direct ‘a big poem about life and death’, covering three thousand years of Mexican history, yet he did not achieve to complete it the way he would have intended it. Having received different readings and interpretations with time, Qué viva México! is an open-ended film to continuously revisit Eisenstein’s work.
Eisenstein was a prolific and passionate drawer. During his stay in México, Eisenstein made a great number of drawings: some in connection to the film he was shooting, others explicitly erotic and sexual, in which all taboo is lifted and comically subverted. His drawings draw from a vast array of literary, folkloric, and personal references, and denote an interest in approaching sexuality and eroticism unabashedly.