Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein, Poster (1925)
A World to Win:
A Century of Revolution on Screen
17 February – 15 April 2017
A major film season to mark the Centenary of the Russian Revolution
and a rare screening of Larisa Shepitko and Andrei Smirnov’s banned masterpiece Beginning of an Unknown Century
At London’s iconic Regent St Cinema from 17 February
Marx proclaimed that the proletariat had “a world to win”. On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Kino Klassika hosts a season of cinematic masterpieces from around the world, as well as workshops and curated talks, which investigate that impulse of profound change. The season will be hosted at London’s iconic Edwardian cinema hall on Regent St before a planned regional tour. The season explores the revolutionary spirit through the camera lens. It asks what these films can mean today.
Please view the season trailer here:
A World to Win opens with the iconic film the Russian Revolution inspired, Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin. The film will be accompanied by acclaimed BBC Radio 3Late Junction presenter Max Reinhardt and the Instant Orchestra, in a wholly improvised and immediate response to this icon of Revolutionary filmmaking.
The highlight of A World to Win is a rare screening of the banned Soviet film commissioned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of 1917, Larisa Shepitko and Andrei Smirnov’s Beginning of an Unknown Century. Scheduled on March 8, International Women’s Day, it gives us a rare opportunity to celebrate the only film in the season to be directed by a woman, and showcase this masterful director’s revolutionary vision.
Justine Waddell, founder of Kino Klassika says, “I’m particularly proud of this rare opportunity to screen ‘Beginning of an Unknown Century’ - it is an uncompromising and elegaic critique of the legacy of 1917. The film was banned as soon as it was completed and has rarely been screened in either Russia or the UK. It is the only film in our season to be directed by a woman. It is great we are going to be screening the film on March 8th - International Women’s Day.”
Director Larisa Shepitko, 1972. © Shestko/RIA Novosti
The program will culminate in the Kino Klassika landmark screening ofOctober: Ten Days that Shook the World, with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre on 26 October 2017, 100 years to the day after the start of the Bolshevik Revolution.
A World to Win screens at London’s iconic Regent St Cinema, and then at other venues across the UK from Friday 17 February 2017. The programme is complemented by a series of curated talks and special events across London and the UK. These include introductions, Q&As and workshops with film directors, screenwriters, academics and cultural commentators including potentially Max Reinhardt (BBC Radio3 Late Junction), Prof Michael Chanon (filmmaker and critic), Francois-Roland Lack (Senior Lecturer, French Studies and Film University College London), Benedict Morrison (University of Exeter), Christopher Hampton(Oscar winning Screenwriter Dangerous Liasons), Ken Loach(Palme d’Or winning filmmaker I am Daniel Blake), Bernardo Bertolucci(Filmmaker, The Conformist, The Dreamers)and Tariq Ali(novelist and social critic).
Professor Ian Christie, curator of A World to Win says: 'Ever since Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin terrified the Western establishment, films have been a potent way to rally revolutionary feeling. Urgent and rousing films have challenged tyranny and proclaimed the hope of a new order'.
Max Reinhardt of Instant Orchestra says: 'I’m delighted, excited and honoured to be creating this live soundtrack to Potemkin; it is a totally improvised and instant accompaniment to an amazingly complex and iconic film'.
Dr Maria Korolkova, curator of A World to Win says: ‘It may seem ironic, but there cannot be a more relevant time to show this collection of revolutionary films. Whether you want to simply enjoy these cinematic masterpieces – or draw conclusions – is left to you, the audience, to decide’.
Justine Waddell, founder of Kino Klassika says: ‘In this centenary year of the Revolution, we aim to open up the moment of absolute hope out of which 1917 was born. I’m particularly proud of our rare screening of ‘Beginning of an Unknown Century’ - a rare opportunity to see this elegiac, banned film about the legacy of 1917. It is the only film in our season to be directed by a woman. It is fitting we screen it on March 8th’.
The A World to Win programme is curated by Professor Ian Christie, Dr Maria Korolkova and Justine Waddell of Kino Klassika Foundation.
#KinoKlassikaRevolution #WorldtoWin #Revolution100
PROGRAMME at REGENT STREET CINEMA
7.30pm on Friday 17 February: Gala Opening Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein (1925)
7.30pm on Wednesday 22 February: I am Cuba by Mikhail Kalatozov (1964)
8.15pm on Wednesday 1 March: The Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard (1967)
7pm on Wednesday 8 March: Beginning of an Unknown Century by Larisa Shepitko
and Andrei Smirnov (1967)
7.30pm on Wednesday 22 March: Black God White Devil by Glauber Rocha (1964)
7.30pm on Wednesday 29 March: Z by Costa Gavras (1969)
7.30pm on Wednesday 5 April: Danton by Andrzej Wajda (1983)
7.30pm on Wednesday 12 April: Land and Freedom by Ken Loach (1995)
2pm on Saturday 15 April: Gala Screening of Novecento by Bernardo Bertolucci (1976)
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Kino Klassika Foundation
Kino Klassika creates programs of restorations, publications, art commissions and events to educate audiences about classic Russian film. We are a UK registered charity. Our Patron is Ralph Fiennes, our trustees: Professor Ian Christie, Daniel Jowell QC, Roger Munnings CBE and Justine Waddell.
About Professor Ian Christie, Curator of A World to Win
Ian Christie is a world-renowned film scholar. He has written books including studies of Sergei Eisenstein, Michael Powell, EmericPressburger, Martin Scorsese and the development of cinema in both Russia and Britain. He is a member of the British Academy, a regular contributor to Sight and Sound and a frequent broadcaster. Christie is currently Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London.
About Dr Maria Korolkova, Curator of A World to Win
Maria Korolkova is an independentresearcher and film critic. She has a DPhilfrom the University of Oxford focusing on filmarchitecture of early Russian cinema. Maria is Projects and Communications Director of Kino Klassika Foundation, and a Programme Leader in Media and Communications at the University of Greenwich.
About Justine Waddell, Curator of A World to Win
Justine Waddell is an acclaimed actress andthe founder of Kino Klassika. Justine starred in Vladimir Sorokin’s sci-fi version of Anna Karenina, Target, for which she learnt the Russian language fluently and from which she developed an enduring interest in Russian culture and cinematography.
About Max Reinhardt and the Instant Orchestra
Max Reinhardt is a composer, musical director and presenter of Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 and Global Beats on the BBC World Service. He is an associate artist with Oxford Contemporary Music, creating Instant Orchestra projects, scores for silent films and developing Playing the Curriculum, a free music initiative for schools. Max will create an entirely original soundtrack, devised and created in a direct response to Battleship Potemkin, leading a band of invited musicians, to bring a contemporary and immediate response to this extraordinary piece of Soviet Cinema.
The Instant Orchestra brings together musicians and non-musicians, music and non-music.It is the orchestra of the experienced and totally inexperienced for one night only.
Kino Klassika Foundation Media Contact:
Yana Maksimochkina
Communications Director
+44 7412 477797
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