Question by wres_observer: Who is the better director Tarkovsky or Eisenstein?
Dont tell me both are great directors I know that. I find it difficult to judge silent films though. I know Tarkovsky is one of the greatest directors of 20th century having seen some of his films. I have seen eisentein’s movies as well and though I thought they were great I couldnt compare them alongside Tarkovsky. Please give your reasons.
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Answer by I was Born, But…
They’re really different filmmakers, so, its difficult to judge them anyway. I would have an easier time if you were asking me to compare Eisenstein and Pudovkin, or Tarkovsky and Kalatozov, or Sheptiko, or somebody like that because they were at least contemporaries.
In terms of technical skill I guess Eisenstein is the better filmmaker because he had a much wider influence and changed both Russian and world cinema, in at least the editing side of it. In terms of the films I, personally, would choose Tarkovsky’s films because I think his stories are more interesting and challenging. Eisensteins stories sometimes border on propaganda and I’m not a big fan of propaganda in any context.
So, it’s a tie. It’s very difficult to compare directors of different times because the resources and knowledge is different. Sorry, if you don’t like that, but I would say that the reason you can’t compare these films alongside each other is they hold little similarities other than they’re both Russian. It would be like comparing King Vidor to Martin Scorsese, both great filmmakers, and you may be able to compare single films (i.e. Vidor’s The Champ, and Scorsese’s Raging Bull (both boxing films), or Eisenstein’s Alexandr Nevsky, and Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev (both historical epic/biopics)), but overall the comparison isn’t there; they just made films in the same country.
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