In between the Arts: Peter Greenaway and Sergei Eisenstein

Eisenstein in Guanajuato by Peter Greenaway was released in 2015. The film is about the period that the Russian director - Sergei Eisenstein - spent in Mexico, and how these days changed Eisenstein's life, in Greenaway's vision. But most importantly, the film is a powerful, visual reinterpretation of the key concept developed by Eisenstein throughout his life: The Montage. Peter Greenaway is a talented British director, who also created paintings and several art installations, beside films. He declared more than once his admiration for Sergei Eisenstein, and with this film - the first of an entire trilogy about Eisenstein - he finally visually stated his reference to him. But how much, and in which ways has Eisenstein influenced Greenaway's works? Is there a relation between Eisenstein's theories and ideas and Greenaway's cinematographic vision? This paper will try to answer these questions; it aims to understand and clarify the relationship between the two directors, defining the similar, peculiar aspects of their poetics and finally, focuses on the potentialities of Cinema as a total art, within and beyond Cinema itself.