Crew

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Co-director/producer: Grigory Alexandrov

Director of photography: Edouard Tissé

Reconstructions

Qué viva México, 1979: Grigory Alexandrov and Nikita Orlov

Mexican Fantasy, 1998: Oleg Kovalov

The following film analysis is mainly based on the 1979 reconstruction of the original film by Grigory Alexandrov, the co-director of the film in 1931 (see Seton, p. 228) and Nikita Orlov, based on the original print materials now owned by Mosfilm Studios. Alexandrov had worked with Eisenstein on earlier films such as October (Leyda, p. 223). Also included is a brief discussion of Oleg Kovalov’s creative re-writing of the film footage entitled Mexican Fantasy and released in 1998.

Plot

The film – though never completed by Eisenstein – was to consist of six separate sections, which are described below. I: Prologue: Images of Mayan pyramids, followed by a funeral. II: Tehuantepec: This first novella is set in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region in southern Mexico and home to a matriarchal society. Concepción finally obtains the last gold coin necessary to marry the man of her dreams, Abundio. We see the marriage preparations and the ceremony. III: The Fiesta: This novella focuses on the drama of the colonisation of the Aztecs by the Spanish, as recorded in various dance ceremonies and, subsequently, the pilgrimage. This sequence was based on footage taken of the Corpus Christi festival in Tetlapayac in 1931 (Seton, p. 205). Next we focus on a different type of fiesta, the bullfight, and in particular David Lisiaga, the Mexican bullfighter, and the Picador, Baronito. The bullfighters are much admired by the women during the bullfight, and, afterwards, take their young ladies out on boats, heavily festooned with flowers, and bearing the title ‘¡Qué viva México!’ inscribed on them. IV: The Maguey Cactus: This novella is set in the State of Hidalgo at the beginning of the twentieth century during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. It was filmed in the Tetlapayac ranch, part of an old Spanish plantation belonging to don Julio Saldívar, eighty miles or so to the south-east of Mexico City (Seton, p. 195). María and Sebastián are soon to marry, but there is a rule that every girl about to marry must be introduced to the landowner. While visiting the ranch, Sebastián is pushed to one side, and María ends up getting raped.