SRSC 4 (2) pp.

245-253 Intellect Limited 2010

Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema

Volume 4 Number 2
V 2010 Intellect Ltd Documents English language doir 10o1386/srSC.4 2.245 7

DOCUMENTS

SERGEI KAPTEREV
Research Institute of Cinema Art, Moscow

Sergei Eisenstein's letters

to Hollywood film-makers

Typewritten copies of four English -language letters addressed to Orson Welles, i Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv
William Wyler, John Ford and Frank Capra from Sergei Eisenstein have been Rossiiskoi Federatsii
(GARF) 5283/14/385, pp
stored among the papers of the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with 1, 2, 3, 35 All references
Foreign Countries (VOKS).1 The letter to Capra marked 25 January 1946 is the to fond/inventory
topis')/unit (edinitsa
only one that is dated. The letters were registered at VOKS under Nos. 54-57, khraneniia)and sheet
respectively, on 26 January 1946 - the day when Eisenstein received the Stalin number (list)
Prize of the First Degree for the first part of Ivan the Terrible/Ivan Groznyi - and 2 Undated letter from
just a few days before he was taken to hospital with a severe heart attack. the Section's chairman
At that time, Eisenstein held the position of vice-chairman of the VOKS Vsevolod Pudovkin to
Robert Rossen of the
Cinema Section, established on 25 February 1944, Hollywood Writers
Mobilization (written
in 1944, soon after
to acquaint Soviet cinematographers with the work of American stu- the establishment
dios, to establish creative contacts between Soviet and American cinema of the Section), GARF
workers who are using the medium of their art to help the fight against 5283/14/245, p 22
Initially, the Section
Hitlerism and to further the progressive development of humanity, and included 67 film
finally, to inform American film workers of the achievements in Soviet directors, scriptwriters,
cinematography. actors, cameramen and
set designers and was
managed by a'bureau'
The letters were requests for information about the four film directors of twenty prominent
film workers (GARF
for a series of books on prominent figures of world cinema,, as well as a 5283/14/24S, p 53)

245
Sergei Kapterev

3 The first two volumes reaffirmation of the wartime spirit of mutual interest and cooperation between
in the series titled
'Materials on the
the film-makers of the Allied nations - at a time when, politically, the Soviet
History of the World Union and its recent Allies were drifting apart.
Cinema (Art)' and Produced by Eisenstein in an official capacity, the letters' content
published by Moscow's
Goskinoizdat under and style are generally formal. However, they can firmly be attributed to
the editorship of Eisenstein - they bear visible marks of his curiosity, universal knowledge
5ergei Eisenstein and
Sergei lutkevich, were
and wit.
on D.W Griffith (1944) Frank Capra was one of those American film-makers whom Eisenstein
and Charles Spencer met in person: at least once, during Capra's 1937 visit to the Soviet Union.
Chaplin (1945)
Later, some of Capra's most popular productions - such as Mr. Deeds Goes
4 The inventory also to Town (1936) and The Lost Horizon (1937) - were among the films seen
included, among
other films, John
by Eisenstein during his 1940-41 chairmanship of the Commission on the
Ford's Submarine Foreign Film Fund, an inventory of films delivered in 1939-40 from the
Patrol (1938), Young annexed territories.' During World War II, Soviet film-makers' familiariza-
Mr Lincoln (1939)
and Drums Along the tion with American cinema was enhanced by viewings of the films brought
Mohawk (1939), and from the United States as part of Allied cooperation - including viewings
William Wyler's Dead organized by VOKS.
End (1937), Jezebel
(1938) and The Letter Capra and Anatole Litvak's 1943 documentary about the Russian front,
(1940), see Svetlana The Battle of Russia ('your picture about my country'), was released in Russia
Ishevskaia and Denis
Viren's publication
in 1944. In the spring of the same year it was discussed at the VOKS Cinema
of the commission's Section alongside Lewis Milestone's pro-Soviet The North Star (1943) and was
documents, 'Vyvezti evaluated as a film that did 'much to bring the Soviet and American peoples
v Belye Stolby
kartiny vysshei i closer together and further the cause of victory over our common enemy'."
pervoi kategorii As an emblem of Russia's historical resilience to foreign invasions, the film
Kinovedcheskie zapiski, incorporated footage from Alexander Nevsky (1938) - which could hardly go
86 (2oo8), pp 123-214
unnoticed by Eisenstein.7
5 Thus, on 26 July 1944, The relative brevity of the letter to Frank Capra can possibly be explained
the chairman of the
Section, Pudovkin, by Capra's inclusion in the 'World Cinema' project mostly due to his status as
wrote to Orson Welles a successful populist film-maker who represented Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
about 'the great
pleasure of seeing vision of a democratic America - a vision of the politician who had extended
your brilliant film diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union and who was assisting it in war-
Citizen Kane' (GARF time. Stylistically, Capra's cinema was quite far from Eisenstein's interests.
5283/14/262, p 10)
Still, Capra's films were welcomed by Eisenstein for their images of 'the strug-
6 Pudovkin to Rossen gle waged by common sense against ugly conventions and distortions of nor-
(GARF 5283/14/245, p 22)
mal human relationships' and 'the struggle of decency and honesty against
7 Eisenstein could corruption and bribery',
not take part in the
discussion of The The letter to John Ford is especially important, as it is the only one that is
Battle of Russia, as he definitely known to have reached its addressee. The sent original is preserved
returned to Moscow in the John Ford archive' and bears Eisenstein's handwritten signature. The
from Alma-Ata on
26 July 1944 VOKS archive also contains an emotional - and slightly ironic? - answer from
Ford ('What a thrill and what a compliment to hear from you! I, like the rest of
8 Sergei Eisenstein
'Amerikanskaia the world, have admired your work. I am deeply flattered that you condescend
kinematografiia i ee to like mine ... '), stating that his secretary has sent Eisenstein a (biographi-
bor'ba s fashizmom',
in 'Vystupleniia
cal?) article which could be used in the proposed volume and promising to try
sovetskikh to send 'copies of the scripts of The Informer and Young Mr. Lincoln [...] and a
kinodeiatelei few still pictures'."
na konferentsii,
posviashchennoi Ford's high reputation among the Soviet film-makers was most fully
amerikanskoi reflected in Eisenstein's 1945 essay 'Mr. Lincoln by Mr. Ford', which was to
i angliiskoi be included in the volume devoted to Ford's work." In this essay, Eisenstein
kinematografii,
21-22 avgusta 1942 placed the 'classical harmony' of the biographical court drama Young Mr.
goda', in Zhivye Lincoln (1939) over Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The
golosa kino Govoriat
Informer (1935). However, his remark that 'Cinema lovers would, probably,
 Sergei Eisenstein's letters to Hollywood film-makers

vote for The InJrbncr"2 suggests that Eisenstein appreciated the film's expres- vydaiushchiesia
mastera
sionistic stylishness. otechestvennogo
Eisenstein never met Ford personally. His mention of their 'joint' appear- kinoiskusstva
ance in a 1940 book by American stage designer and playwright Mordecai (3o-e - 4o-e gody) lz
neopublikovannogo
Gorelik can be seen as an attempt to break the ice - and to show off his (Moscow Belyi bereg,
knowledge and appreciation of American culture. The planned conference 1999), p 187
on Ford's work could have provided Eisenstein with a perfect opportunity 9 Sergei Eisenstein to
to demonstrate this knowledge much more fully. However, it would be held John Ford, 25 January
much later than planned, and without his participation.' 1946 Ford, I mss -John
Ford Archive, Lilly
While some of William Wyler's films had been known to Soviet film- Library, University of
makers before the establishment of the anti-Nazi Alliance,"4 William Wyler Indiana The letter was
included - together
became truly famous among Soviet film-makers in the course of Allied con- with a translation of
tacts, thanks to the 1941 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes, Esenstein's essay 'Mr
purchased in 1944 for Soviet distribution, alongside John Ford's The Hlurricane Lincoln by Mr Ford'- in
the Criterion Collection
(1937) and Lewis Milestone's The North Star. DVD edition (2oo6) of
After the polite introduction,'" the letter to Wyler becomes business- Young Mr Lincoln
like and almost brisk. However, it reveals Eisenstein's curious self when 10 GARF 5283/14/397, p 61
he moves to discuss the detail-oriented deep-focus photography of Gregg
11 The essay was first
Toland in The Little Foxes (' ... Regina's husband stumbling on the staircase published in 196o in the
in the background of her close-up ... ') and of Ernest Haller in Jezebel (1938)"' journal Iskusstvo kino,
(' ... shots through the carriage wheels in Jezebel, through the male legs in 4, PP 135-40
the yellow fever scenes at the bar ... '). Most likely, Eisenstein's interest was 12 Sergei Eisensteir,
directly connected to his current experiments with multi-plane filmic space lzbrannye
proizvedeniia v shesti
in Ivan the Terrible. tomakh, vol 5 (Moscow
The tonality of Eisenstein's letter to Orson Welles differs from the other Iskusstvo, 1968),
pp 272 73 (the
letters: for example, in the more formal opening, 'Dear Mr. Welles', instead of quotations are given in
'My Dear Ford (Capra, Wyler)'. Here, Eisenstein's humour shifts from casual - my translation)
and self-advertising ('I have just completed the shooting of the second part of 13 The discussion of Ford's
Ivan the Terrible and hope you'll get some fun out of it' (Letter to Capra)) - to cinema took place at
sarcastic. Eisenstein's deep involvement in Ivan the Terrible made the 'nasty' the end of 1947 and
was attended, among
response to Part I from Welles, a film-maker whose striking debut in cinema others, by Ivan Pyr'ev,
possibly made Eisenstein regard him as a younger comrade- in -arms, espe- Sergei lutkevich and
cially hurtful.7 Viktor Shklovskiu See
notes to Pudovkin's
With Welles, his potentially most problematic correspondent, Eisenstein 'Concluding Speech at
widely used his own potential for encyclopaedic knowledge. He concentrated the VOKS Discussion
of John Ford's Creative
on Welles's work: mentioning Citizen Kane and its cinematographer Gregg Work', in Vsevolod
Toland; the 1941 stage adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son; most Pudovkin, Sobranie
probably, the Mercury Theatre on the Air 1938 dramatization of'The War of sochinenih v trekh
tomakh, vol 3 (Moscow
the Worlds' (the 'famous Radio-program' previously requested from Welles by Iskusstvo, 1976),
Vsevolod Pudovkin in a letter dated 26 July 1944);1" and Alexander Korda's p 468 An incomplete
letter sent to Eisenstein and Pudovkin on 5 June 1943,19 discussing Korda and text of the discussion
is contained in the
Welles's plans of a screen adaptation of Tolstoy's War and PeacelVuina i mir VOKS archive (GARF
with a possible involvement of the screenwriting talents of Eisenstein and 5283/14/289, pp 15-42)
Pudovkin. 14 Seeendnote S
Eisenstein's letters to his American colleagues were something more
15 The statement that
than requests for information produced out of editorial necessity. They were Wyler was invited to
among the last gestures made in the spirit of wartime cultural rapprochement. attend the 'Moscow
Film Congress'-
Soon, the relative cultural freedom brought by the wartime Alliance would be the Conference on
supplanted by the anti-western censorship of the Cold War, curtailing Soviet American and British
contacts with the outer world - and the last years of Eisenstein's life, tragically Cinema held in Moscow
in the summer of 1942
affected by the 'alien-ness' perceived by the Stalinist establishment in the sec- (see 'Vystupleniia
ond part of Ivan the Terrible. sovetskikh
Sergei Kapterev

kinodeiatelei
na konferentsii
posviashchennoi
Eisenstein's letters
amerikanskoi
i angliiskoi
kinematografil, 21-22
avgusta 1942 goda', in
Zhivye golosa kino,
pp 181-222), could
not be verified As for 1. LETTER TO FRANK CAPRA
Lillian Hellman's 1944
visit to the Soviet
Union, it took place
after the end of her
collaboration with
Wyler and without Moscow, January 25, 1946
Wyler's involvement
[26 January 1946, No. 54]
16 See endnote 4
17 On Welles's'survey' My dear Capra!
of the first part of
Ivan the Terrible in
It seems hundreds of years ago when we sat together in your Moscow
The New York Post hotel - so many changes have occurred since then ...
(23 and 25 May 194S), I liked your picture about my country very much, as I do all your pictures
see Sergei Kapterev,
'Orson Welles - Sergei we ever get a chance of seeing here.
Eisenstein Nekotorye As you may know, I am editing here in Moscow a series of books under
obstoiatel'stva odnogo the title "Materials on the History of World Cinema."
obmena mneniari',
Kinovedcheskie zapiski We just published two volumes, one about D.W. Griffith and one about
64 (2003), pp 7o-82 Charlie Chaplin. Any such set of books should be incomplete without a study
Eisenstein's letter to
Welles was published
about your work.
in the essay in Russian But we have nearly no material concerning your biography, your own
translation statements about your art, some of the outstanding opinions about it made by
:8 GARF 5283/14/262, p 10 Americans, stills, your own picture, etc.
19 A Russian translation
Without all this kind of stuff the critical analysis of your work by our team
of Korda's letter, an of authors would be incomplete.
answer to Eisenstein And that's why I am asking you to send anything you should consider
and Pudovkin's
screenplay proposal, is important directly to me c/o VOKS, Moscow, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, 17, S.M.
among the documents Eisenstein.
of the VOKS archive I have just completed the shooting of the second part of "Ivan the Terrible"
(GARF 5283/14/181,
p ii) Eisenstein and and hope you'll get some fun out of it.
Pudovkin's proposal
(priblizitelnyiplan) was
published in Pudovkin, Cordially yours
Sobranie sochinenui,
vol. 2 (Moscow
Iskusstvo, 1975),
(S. Eisenstein)
pp. 363 65
 Sergei Eisenstein's letters to Hollywood film-makers

2(A). LETTER TO JOHN FORD

Moscow, January 1946

[26 January 1946, No. 57]
My dear Ford!
I'm very sorry we never met personally - except the one case of being
reproduced in picture form on the same one page in Gorelik's "New Theatres
for Old!"
Hell knows what you think of my pictures, but I'm ranging among your
most fervent admirers here.
And that's why I'm addressing you this letter.
We're publishing here a series of books under the title "Materials on the
History of World Cinema Art." I'm the editor "en chef" of this hobby of mine
and we're planning to have you in one of our next volumes (D.W. Griffith and
Ch. Chaplin have just been published - I wonder if copies have reached you?).
There will be a set of articles about your films and your work in them by
various authors here, but what we lack is all kind of documentation about
yourself, your own statements about your directorial "credo" and aims, stills
and such American appreciations of your work, which you should consider
worthwhile to include in a study about yourself.
You would oblige us very much in sending such kind of stuff directly to
me S.M. Eisenstein, c/o VOKS, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, 17, Moscow, USSR.
For my own sake please add anything available about your work on
"Young Mister Lincoln" (including full script): this is one of the films I like
most of all ever seen and my personal contribution to the study about you will
be concerned with this masterpiece of yours. (Also details about Fonda).
We would also need the script of the "Informer".
In about a month's time we will have in VOKS (that is the Society for
Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries and the U.S.S.R.) a Conference
about your work, which is well known and very much appreciated here by all
our cinema people here. We will send you the material of this conference and
expect you to help us with the research work concerning you.

I hope to hear from you as soon as possible,

and remain cordially yours

(S. Eisenstein)

249
Sergei Kapterev

gosoow, January 1946

My dear Ford!

I'm very sorry we never met personally - except

the one case of being reproduced in picture form on the some
one page in Gorelik's "New Theatres for Oldt"
Hell knows what you think of my piotures, but I*m ranging
among your most fervent admirers here.
And Lhat'a vdy l'm addressing you this letter.
We're publiabing here a series of books under the title
"BIPtarials on the History of World Cinema Art." I'm editor
"e,n chef" of thir hobby of mine and we are planning to have
you in one of our next volumes (D.W.Griffith andCh.ChMplin
have just, bean published - I wonder if copies have reached
youli).
There will be a set of articles about your films and your
work in them by various authors here, but what we lack is
all kind of documentation about yourself, your own statements
about your directorial "credo" and aims, stills and such
American rpproolations of your work, vhioh you should consi-
der worthwhile to include in a study about yourself.
You would oblige us very much in sending much kind of
stuff directly to me S.M.Sisenstein, 0/o VOS#, Bolshaya Gru-
zinskaya, 17, Moscow, 064R.
For my own. sake please add anything available about
your work on "'Youg Mister Lincoln" (including full script):
this is one of the films I likýe most of all ever seen end
my personal contribution to the study about you will be cancer
ned with this masterpiece of yours. Also details about Lon-
da).
We would also need the script of the "Informer."
In about a month's time we will have in VOIG (that
is the Society for Cultural Relations with Poreign Countries
and the U.U.S.R.) a Conference about your work, which is
well known and very much appreciated here by all our cinema
people here. Ilewill send you the material of this confe-
rence and expect you to help us with the research work con-
cerning you.
I hope to hear from you as soon as possible,
and remain cordially yours

Fur 1L(S.Sistnatin)

Figure 1: Letter by Eisenstein to Ford.

250
 Sergei Eisenstein's letters to Hollywood film-makers

2 (B). REPLY FROM JOHN FORD

Sixty-Eight Sixty Odin Street

Hollywood, California
August 261", 1946

My dear Eisenstein, Cher Maitre,

What a thrill and what a compliment to hear from you! Naturally, I, like
the rest of the world, have admired your work. I am deeply flattered that you
condescend to like mine.
At present I am convalescing from the war and I am not [d]oing much work.
I was in the Navy for four and a half years and got knocked around a bit.
My Secretary, Miss Sterne, is sending you a copy of the article I have just
written for a book on Directors, to be published shortly. You have my permis-
sion to use it verbatim or any part of it in your article.
I think inasmuch as I have chose for the picture of my own that I like best
"Young Mr. Lincoln" it might do. I will also try to send you copies of the scripts
on "The Informer" and "Young Mr. Lincoln"... and a few still pictures.
All the best to you. I hope to see you and greet you some day in person.

With very best wishes

John Ford

Sixtr'SiSht Sixty Odin Street

Hollywood. 0*liforgni

AulSust 2Gth. 194e

lapdear lisenuteol. Cher Maiitre,

What a thrill s94 That a oompliment to hear from $out
Naturally. ,. lZke the rest of the world. have admired your
work. I am deeply flattered that you oundsownt to like mine.
it present I am convalescing from the war &nd I am not
going mau• work. I wos in the*avy for four end a half ylear
and got knooked arounda bit.
MaySecretary, Miss Sterne, is sending you a copy
article I*have Just written for a book on Direotor*, toof bethe
published shortly. You have my permission to Use it verbatim
or sny partof it in your srt1ele.
I thatkInlsemoh ae I have ohOesen for the Pioture of my
8wn_that like
s bestyoUg Mr. Lincoln* it might (I. I will
"and also~
trcosa~ ~ oO opies4*atofa the
wyoung Mr.Uinoolnu... scripts on "The Informer"
few attil piture•s.
All the beet to YOU. I boys to see you SU4 greet yoa
some ay in persod.
With very beet wishes
B!4o Ford

Figure 2: Letter by Ford to Eisenstein.

Sergei Kapterev

3. LETTER TO WILLIAM WYLER

Moscow, January 1946
[26 January 1946, No. 56]
My dear Wyler!

This is to express how sorry I still am because of the two opportunities

we missed in seeing each other; once in 1942 when you couldn't come to the
Moscow Film Congress and secondly when Lillian Hellman visited us alone.
I like your work immensely and am happy to say that you are extremely
popular among those working in the films here.
And that's why I want to include you in one of the following volumes of
"Materials on the History of the World Cinema"- editor"en chef" of which I am.
But I need a lot of materials from you, so that our critical and analytical part
of the book may be followed by a serious documentation about yourself. That's
why I am asking you to send me anything of importance and interest concern-
ing your "carriýre," your own opinions, biography, your artistic "credo" etc.
Pictures and stills, most characteristic fragments of directorial scripts, sketches
(if you make 'em), etc. And quite especially enlargements of actual shots in the
pictures and among those ones I like most - belonging to the kind of shots
through the carriage wheels in "Jesebel," through the male legs in the yellow
fever scenes at the bar, Regina's husband stumbling on the staircase in the
background of here [sic] close-up. Well, I think you understand what I mean!
Please send me everything as soon as possible c/o VOKS, Moscow,
Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, 17, for S.M. Eisenstein.
This editorial work is just a hobby and in no way handicaps my "creative"
activities.
I've just completed shooting the second part of "Ivan the Terrible."
It would be charming to hear from you.

Cordially yours

(S. Eisenstein)

252
 Sergei Eisenstein's letters to Hollywood film-makers

4. LETTER TO ORSON WELLES

Moscow, January 1946
[26 January 1946, No. 55]
Dear Mr. Welles!

Although I had an opportunity not to enjoy your nasty and somewhat

"Kane"ish (and I read it: "Cain"ish) survey of the first part of "Ivan the
Terrible," I still bear the warmest sympathy towards your "citizen."
And that's what makes me write to you.
I want to include you in one of the following volumes of "Materials on the
History of the World Cinema Art" we are publishing here in Moscow under
my editorship. (we just published two books: about Dw. Griffith and Charlie
Chaplin).
If the critical and analytical part has not too many difficulties, as well as
the establishment of roots, traditions, pedigree and ancestry of what you have
done in this film (literary and filmic) - we lack completely any documentary
stuff about yourself and detailed material on your previous works. Besides a
few accounts about your staging of the "Native Son" (as far as I could under-
stand - very much in the left wing tradition of our nineteen twenties here)
and your famous Radio-program there is practically nothing available here.
And that's why I am asking you to send me any documentation about
yourself, your artistic "credo." Your briography [sic] and activities, which you
should consider fit to adorn the critical expos6 of your film work.
Send it and please add as many pictures as you can - as well as the script
of "Kane," the principles of production, the story of writing and composing it.
Especially your parts and episodes not included in the final version of script
and film, also details about Gregg Tolandes.
I just completed the shooting of part two of "Ivan the Terrible" - which
will give you another opportunity for some lousy scribbling.

Still cordially yours

(S. Eisenstein)
My address is: VOKS, Moscow, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya 17, for S.M. Eisenstein.
P.S. Do you still intend to play Pierre Besoukhov, as Alexander Korda mentioned
in a letter to me? And should you need anything from here for this part?

SUGGESTED CITATION
Kapterev, S. (2010), 'Sergei Eisenstein's letters to Hollywood film-makers', Studies
in Russian and Soviet Cinema 4: 2, pp. 245-253, doi: 10.1386/srsc.4.2.245_7

CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Sergei Kapterev is Senior Researcher at Moscow's Research Institute of Cinema
Art (NIIK). He received his Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University
in 2005. He specializes in the intellectual and political aspects of the interaction
between Soviet and American cinemas. Other interests include Soviet film propa-
ganda; cinema of the late Stalin period, the Thaw and the Cold War; Russian and
Soviet films about the Far East; practice and theory of film editing and sound.
Contact: NIl Kinoiskusstva, Degtiamyi per. 8, 103050 Moscow, Russia.
E-mail: [email protected]
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