Few
figures in cinema history are as towering as Russian filmmaker and
theorist Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948). Not only did
Eisenstein direct some of the most important and lasting works of the
silent era, including Strike, October, and Battleship Potemkin, as
well as, in the sound era, the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and
Ivan the Terrible--he also was a theorist whose insights into the
workings of film were so powerful that they remain influential for
both filmmakers and scholars today.
Seagull
Books is embarking on a series of translations of key works by
Eisenstein into English. On
the Detective Story
presents Eisenstein's elaborate study, in four essays and fragments,
of the use of dialectical thinking in the creation of art and
literature. Drawing on major works from Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Balzac,
Gogol, Mayakovsky, Dostoevsky, and more, and ranging from folk tales
to contemporary detective stories, it shows the keenly analytic
quality of Eisenstein's mind when it turned to questions of creative
work.