SOURCE: An introduction to Nonindifferent Nature by Sergei Eisenstein, Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. vii-xxi.

In the following essay, Eagle provides an overview of Eisenstein's critical writings and demonstrates how the director's theories were exemplified in his films.

Sergei Eisenstein dedicated Nonindiffferent Nature to "poor Salieri," who, in Alexander Pushkin's dramatic poem, laments: "… True tone I smothered, dissecting music like a corpse; I test with algebra pure harmony.…" It was Eisenstein's intent, though, to vindicate Salieri by arguing that the spontaneous and intoxicating act of artistic creation must be followed by "ever-increasing, precise knowledge about what we do." Thus, Nonindifferent Nature not only represents the most advanced stage of Eisenstein's thinking on the structure of film, but it is the creator's attempt to demonstrate, once again, the validity of his own personal lifelong synthesis of creative art and theoretical analysis, a synthesis not always viewed positively by official Soviet...