Genetic criticism in prospective: drawings and editings from Sergei Eisenstein ¡Que viva Mexico!

Abstract

This article purposes to analyse, from the genetic critic point of view, the processes documents from the unfinished movie ¡Qué viva México!, with which Sergei Eisenstein starts to film after an experience in Hollywood in the 30’s. On the one hand, written documents exist and they give us informations about the different steps in the creative filmic process, and on the other hand Eisensten made drawings reveal themselves as a first research of his frame’s implementation and of his editing, giving a personal interpretation of his creative process. So, the question is: How can we study an unfinished cinematographic work from which we have various materials with different sketches and various editing versions? Remixing the geneses work materials from the pre-production, the production and the post-production versions, we expose different and possible pathways. We start with the preparation trail, with his investigation about Mexican culture through the drawings and with the most faithfull version, edited by Grigori Alexandrov.