all those intentions have been drained away. This is obviously the 'official' version of the Soviets, to whom Alexandrov has long had to succumb. Here, at the Seminar, affter playing the film without sound, and the playing of selected reels, in particular the initial reel where the juxtapositions are shown and the last 'epilogue5 reel, we are in a position to talk about the usual components of the film in fairly precise detail. And I hope, that the painters will initiate the discussion. Vivan Sundaram In the beginning of Que Viva Mexico! there is a reference made to the three Mexican muralists—Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros. Alexandrov mentions that meeting these artists was, for Eisenstein, a vital part of the preparation for the making of the film. -< Now even from the material we have, it is possible to see some connections between the film, and the work and thinking of the murgflists. At points there is a direct formal reference to some of their work, but equally the film seems to use the contemporary concerns of the muralists a§ the standpoint from which to view Mexican history. This is simply a hypothesis, but we can explore it to see if it makes sense. Let us first concern ourselves with the opening shots of the film, where the human faces are formally juxtaposed with the massive stone sculptures. Now these pyramids, which you see in the film, possess a certain grandeur intended to subdue the nature around them. The have been mainly constructed in Mexico by the Mayan and Aztec Kings and they possess a monumental, a formal, decorative, authoritarian quality. Just what did Eisenstein intend to do with these juxtapositions of common people with the constructions of former kings? Here it is important to recall that there is, in Mexican art, a sharp contrast between these heavy forms and a vast range of primitive terracottas—small, informal, more sensuous forms that belongs to the peasantry. The distinction between the the great and the little, between weight and lightness, which is occasionally made by the muralists, is certainly made in the film as it divides the grim festivals from the simple everyday events of the people. In a way Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros were very different artists. But one thing they were all very clear on was their rejection of easel painting and the canvas. They all sought to discover new materials, a form that would be public and refused to succumb to elitism. Yet all the 64 October-December 1983