Mexican Carpets

Mexico: The simultaneous existence of socio-historical forms 

Sergei Eisenstein, his assistant Grigorii Aleksandrov and his cameraman Eduard Tisse spent more than a year in Mexico, from December 1930 to February 1931. They worked on a film about Mexico about the local coexistence of different cultural and socio-historical social forms. It seemed that Eisenstein's dream of independent cinema was coming true: The project was financed by the "Mexican Film Trust" which had been founded especially for this project by the writer Upton Sinclair and his family.

Apparently the Soviet team was granted total creative freedom.  Nevertheless, the film was not completed.  Illnesses, weather problems and other obstacles hindered film production. Simultaneously the wealth of ideas grew into a true cinematic "cosmogony". The final script consisted of a prologue, four individual episodes and an epilogue. The film was supposed to be journey through the history of mankind. The beginning was composed of images of untouched nature and "natural" love.

Another episode reflected remnants of matriarchy and ancient pre-Columbian rites.
The following chapters took up themes of Christianity in Mexico, a revolt against feudal customs, and finally the times of the Mexican Revolution and Civil War. The epilogue centered around the famous Mexican Day of the Dead. In the backdrop of contemporary modern Mexico smiling children's faces would emerge from under the "calavera" masks. Almost everything was shot except for the Civil War episode, "La Soldadera". But Stalin interrupted film production and summoned Eisenstein to the USSR.

In May 1932 Eisenstein was back in Moscow. All the film material remained with the producers and was never sent to him.

Some of the objects Eisenstein brought back from Mexico became part of his collections and were displayed in his home: masks, painted pumpkin bowls, a wooden puppet that had been in the film, a series of engravings by José Guadalupe Posada, books and, of course, colourful Mexican carpets that gave the bedroom a fantastic look.

Although the Mexican film was stopped, Eisenstein's time in Mexico was the happiest time of his life. He felt that the Mexican landscape reflected a portrait of his soul. He wrote in his memoirs:

"I do not think it was that my consciousness and feelings absorbed the blood and sand of the bloody corrida, the intoxicating sensuality of the tropics, the asceticism of the flagellating monks, the purple and gold of Catholicism, or even the cosmic timelessness of the Aztec pyramids. On the contrary, the entire complex of my feelings and qualities extended infinitely beyond me and became a whole, vast country with mountains, forests, cathedrals, people, fruits, wild animals, herds, armies, decorated prelates, majolica on blue domes, necklaces of gold coins worn by the girls of Tehuantepec, and the play of reflections in the canal of Xochimilco. (...) In my encounter with Mexico, I felt the country in all its contradictions - as if it were a projection of all the different traits and characteristics I carried and still carry within me."

Sources:

Beyond the Stars: The Memoirs of Sergei Eisenstein. Edited by Richard Taylor, translated by William Powell. - Calcutta, Seagull Books, 1995. p. 414, 418.