¡Qué Viva México!

The later-assembled version of the Mexican film Sergei Eisenstein could not finish. Eisenstein went to Mexico in 1930 and began a large film about the country's history, culture and revolution. It was to be built in sections: the pre-colonial period, Spanish rule, a bullfight, a peasant revolt on a hacienda, and the day of the dead. The shoot ran long, the money ran out and he fell out with his backers. Eisenstein had to return to the Soviet Union and never saw the film; the footage stayed in America and was turned by others into different films over the years. This version was prepared in 1979. Eisenstein's collaborator Grigori Aleksandrov re-edited the material according to the director's notes. So there is no film here that Eisenstein approved; what exists is his images and an attempt at reconstruction. The images are extraordinary in themselves: faces, landscapes, ceremonies, and a sense of composition as strong as in any of his other films. A valuable document for anyone interested in film history and unfinished projects. For a viewer expecting a coherent film, the narrative is in pieces and the connections were made afterwards; it does not stand on its own.