Grigori ALEXANDROV
Григорий АЛЕКСАНДРОВ
Grigori ALEXANDROV
Sergey EISENSTEIN
Сергей ЭЙЗЕНШТЕЙН
Sergueï EISENSTEIN
France, 1930, 20mn 
Black and white, fiction
Romance sentimentale
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Сентиментальный романс

 

 Romance sentimentale

 Sentimentalnyy romans

 
Directed by : Grigori ALEXANDROV (Григорий АЛЕКСАНДРОВ), Sergey EISENSTEIN (Сергей ЭЙЗЕНШТЕЙН)
 
Cast
Mara GRIY (Мара ГРИ)
 
Cinematography : Eduard TISSE (Эдуард ТИССЭ)
Music : Aleksandr ARKHANGELSKY (Александр АРХАНГЕЛЬСКИЙ)
Production : Léonard Rosenthal, Sequana Films
 
Sites : Allociné, IMDb
Release date in France : 1930-09-12, Site

Plot synopsis
Some accounts claim that Eisenstein only attached his name to this sound short simply because he needed the money. It is, however, closer to the truth to say that this was a collaboration, although the exact extent of the collaboration between him and Grigori Alexandrov remains undetermined. The film itself is a short, experimental, slightly poetic montage of city and abstract images. Eisenstein's contribution seems to have been the soundtrack which demonstrates his theory of "contrapuntal use of sounds" or the attempt to find a common denominator between sound and image. The sound for Romance Sentimentale is drawn directly on the film's optical track and is the first instance of the use of this technique. This was not intended as a materialist film statement; it was rather an experiment towards an integrated film language. While the film's images are cursory, it retains historical importance as an experimental film predecessor and as the first sound film made by Soviets, even if not in the Soviet Union.
Brian Whitener, www.allmovie.com
 

Commentaries and bibliography
À l’affiche en août 2021: les événements culturels à ne surtout pas manquer, RUSSIA BEYOND, 2021
Les courts métrages de Sergueï Eisenstein, Julien MORVAN, perestroikino.fr, 2020
Romance sentimentale (1930) ou l’anti-annonciateur des tempêtes1 de l’époque stalinienne, Valeri BOSSENKO, Presses Universitaires du Midi, 2003
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Cycle Eisenstein à la cinématique de Toulouse, Toulouse (France), 2018
- Rétrospective Eisenstein à la Cinémathèque française, Paris (France), 2010
- Année croisée France-Russia, Different cities (France), 2010
- Russia-France : année croisée, Moscow (Russia), 2009
- Release in France of the film, Different cities (France), 1930-09-12