Hurray Mexico!

Hurray Mexico!

1932 · 88 min · ★ 7.1 · Documentary

Unedited film that Sergei Eisenstein, Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Eduard Tisse shot in Mexico 1931-32. This record only represents the 200,000-plus feet of unedited film that Sergei Eisenstein, Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Eduard Tisse shot in Mexico 1931/32 for Mary and Upton Sinclair and three American co-financiers. It was Eisenstein's vision to end up with movie about Mexico in six parts called "Calavera", "Sandunga", "Maguey", "Fiesta", "Soldadera", and "Epilogue". The project was canceled before it was completed due to cost overruns and months-delayed completion, and the producers refused to let Eisenstein attempt to edit anything from the material he had finished after Iosif Stalin called him back to the USSR. From this footage the following pictures were subsequently edited by other hands: Thunder Over Mexico (1933), Eisenstein in Mexico (1933), Death Day (1934), Time in the Sun (1940), and Que Viva Mexico (1979).

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Your Rating

Make it a double feature

2h 43m together

Hurray Mexico!

Battleship Potemkin

Both from Sergei Eisenstein.

More from Sergei EisensteinSee all →

Eisenstein en México

Eisenstein en México · 1984

Eisenstein en México

Inspired by the social changes that the Revolution brought to our country and the admiration he felt for Mexican art, the Russian filmmaker Sergei M. Eisenstein traveled to Mexico with the intention of filming a film mosaic that culminated in the most beautiful non-existent film. The details of this odyssey are exposed in this episode of the classic television series Those Who Made Our Cinema.

Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography

Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography · 1996

Sergei Eisenstein: Autobiography

MovieDocumentary

A free film adaptation of the director's memoirs. In form, this is the "stream of consciousness" that attracted Sergei Eisenstein after getting acquainted with the experiments of James Joyce. The outer outline of the film is a long foreign trip of the director, which began in 1929, during which he recalls his past life and considers creative ideas. The film is constructed as a free alternation of reality, dreams, and fantasies. The material for it is fragments from the films of Sergei Eisenstein and his fellow contemporaries, documentary footage depicting the director and his time. The wide coverage of the faces and events reflected in the film shows the special role of Sergei Eisenstein in the culture of the twentieth century…

Battleship Potemkin

Battleship Potemkin · 1925

Battleship Potemkin

MovieDramaHistory

A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot · 1958

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

MovieHistoryDrama

This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.

Strike

Workers in a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia go on strike and are met by violent suppression.

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

Ivan the Terrible, Part I · 1944

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

MovieDramaHistory

Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.

Sergei Eisenstein: Mexican Fantasy

Sergei Eisenstein: Mexican Fantasy · 1998

Sergei Eisenstein: Mexican Fantasy

MovieDocumentary

Eisenstein shot 50 hours of footage on location in Mexico in 1931 and 32 for what would have become ¡Que viva México!, but was not able to finish the film. Following two wildly different reconstruction attempts in 1939 (Marie Seton's 'Time in the Sun') and 1979 (Grigori Alexandrov's '¡Que viva México!') Kovalov has here compiled another hypothetical version of what Eisenstein's film might have been.

Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky · 1938

Alexander Nevsky

MovieDramaHistory

When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.

Every Day

Every Day · 1929

Experimental documentary focusing on a day in the life of city workers, featuring montage sequences and repetition to emphasise the monotony of routine office work.

October (Ten Days that Shook the World)

October (Ten Days that Shook the World) · 1928

October (Ten Days that Shook the World)

MovieDramaHistory

Sergei M. Eisenstein's docu-drama about the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Made ten years after the events and edited in Eisenstein's 'Soviet Montage' style, it re-enacts in celebratory terms several key scenes from the revolution.

¡Qué Viva México!

¡Qué Viva México! · 1979

¡Qué Viva México!

MovieDocumentaryDrama

Having 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 about 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 see.

Sentimental Romance

Sentimental Romance · 1931

Sentimental Romance

Romance sentimentale is a 1930 French film directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei M. Eisenstein. A short, experimental, slightly poetic montage of city and abstract images.

Misery and Fortune of Woman

Misery and Fortune of Woman · 1930

Misery and Fortune of Woman

MovieDramaDocumentary

This film shows contrasting views of women with problematic pregnancies and the outcomes resulting when they seek out a back-alley abortionist, a trained and licensed abortion provider in a clinic, or an obstetrician capable of performing a Caesarian Section. The full film appears to be lost, but shortened versions, including one with dialogue scenes added in Germany in 1935, can be found on the internet. Additionally, Eisenstein's role in making the picture remains unclear: did he direct some or all of it, just edit it, or merely leave it to Alexandrov and Tisse to make? Released in the USA 1930 in a 65 minute (5800 ft.) version with English intertitles and a music track under the title BIRTH.

The General Line

The General Line · 1929

The General Line

Also known as The Old and the New, The General Line illustrates Lenin’s stated imperative that the nation move from agrarian to industrial culture in an epic ode to farm-collectivization progress.

Bezhin Meadow: Sequences from an Unfinished Film

Bezhin Meadow: Sequences from an Unfinished Film · 1968

Bezhin Meadow: Sequences from an Unfinished Film

Bezhin Lug (Bezhin Meadow) was to be a Soviet film about a young farm boy whose father attempts to betray the government for political reasons by sabotaging the year's harvest, and the son's efforts to stop his own father to protect the Soviet state, culminating in the boy's murder and a social uprising. Assigned to Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein, the filming followed the same path as with his previous effort, "Que Viva Mexico", into cost overrun and over-shooting of footage. Furthermore, Eisenstein's usage of forbidden experimental film techniques outraged his government superiors, who ordered the film destroyed before it was even completed. All that survives are the first and last frames of each shot, preserved by Sergei Eisenstein’s wife, Pera Atasheva. The 1967 reconstruction, by Naum Kleiman of the Eisenstein Museum and Sergei Yutkevich of Gosfilmofond, places these frames in order, approximating the original film.

Death Day

Death Day · 1934

MovieDocumentary

During his adventure in Mexico, Sergei Eisenstein made footage of a Mexican "Death Day" celebration for inclusion in his "Que Viva Mexico!" film project. When the 200,000-plus feet of film he eventually exposed in Mexico was first attempted to be made into a feature film, "Thunder Over Mexico", the producers excluded the Death Day material for subsequent compilation as an independent short subject. Silent with music track and explanatory English intertitles.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter