A World of Options

For various reasons, I had occasion to go back and take a look at some of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin a few days ago. This time I saw something I'd never noticed before. I'm not sure how he pulled it off, but Craig Ferguson's got a small part. He's apparently much older than he claims. If you don't believe me, just go and take your own look. He plays the brave mother in the Odessa steps sequence who stands up to the Cossacks when they shoot down her son. You can see the characters earlier, but he's first obviously recognizable at 2:14 in the clip I link to above. Go watch it yourself, and tell me that it isn't him.

It's easy to get used to how convenient everything is these days. The first time I saw Potemkin I was in college, and it never, ever, ever would've occurred to me then that I'd one day be able to tell people to go watch an 80-some-year-old Russian movie and they could do it immediately. It's just stating the obvious, of course, but YouTube and what it makes available to us is amazing. If you clicked on the above link (which I'll repeat here because it's easier than moving your mouse back up the page), you can see the Odessa steps sequence scored with Shostakovich--not the original score, but not uncommon these days. But what if you always thought that what that scene was missing was Pet Shop Boys? You can scratch that itch here. When you think about it, though, what with the marching, unyielding Cossacks and the murder of innocents, maybe Potemkin needs something harder, something tougher. Something like Led Zeppelin. Here you go. Are all these people too old for you? Would you prefer a score by someone new, happening, now? Ladies and gentleman, Arcade Fire.

Isn't the Internet wonderful?