Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Odessa, Ukraine

A monumental staircase of one hundred and twenty steps, built from 1837 to 1841, descending from Primorsky Boulevard to the waterfront and the port. Originally named after the Duke of Richelieu, the city's first governor, whose statue stands at its summit, it is designed in perspective: 21 meters wide at the bottom, 13 at the top, to appear more imposing when viewed from below. A funicular runs alongside it today.

The scene : The massacre on the staircase, six minutes of film: hundreds of Odessites climb the steps towards the statue of Duke Richelieu when a line of soldiers emerges and descends firing, to the mechanical rhythm of the volleys and the landings. A disabled man tries to escape, a mother climbs back alone towards the rifles with her dead son in her arms, a teacher is struck in the face by a Cossack, and the stroller dropped by a young woman rolls down the steps.

Odessa, Ukraine

Statue of the Duke of Richelieu, Governor-General of New Russia, erected at the top of the stairs leading down to the port.

The scene : Filmed from the bottom of the stairs, the soldiers descend beneath the statue of Duke Richelieu, which dominates the top of the staircase; Eisenstein incorporates his image into the montage of the shooting, as the figure of power on behalf of which the shooting occurs.

Odessa, Ukraine

The scene : The port of Odessa, where the rebel battleship is moored, serves as a natural backdrop for the scenes that connect the ship to the city: the crew shoots both at the dock and aboard vessels from the Black Sea fleet.

Sébastopol, Ukraine

A narrow and ice-free bay that extends 7.5 km into the southwest of Crimea, a little over a kilometer wide, on the shores of which lies Sevastopol. Renowned as the best bay in the Black Sea to shelter a port, known to navigators for twenty-five centuries by many other names, it branches into about twenty inlets, with South Bay being the largest, and its depths descend to around twenty meters. It is the main base of the Black Sea Fleet.

The scene : The scenes aboard the battleship — the meat crawling with worms, the crew's revolt, the officers thrown overboard — were filmed in the port of Sevastopol, on an old battleship that was moored there, with real sailors from the Black Sea fleet playing the roles of the crew.

Aloupka, Ukraine

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, surrounded by its park, with an staircase guarded by marble lions.

The scene : The three marble lions of the staircase of the palace — lying down, sitting, standing — are filmed one after the other; when placed end to end, they become a single lion that awakens and roars when the battleship opens fire, at the end of the Odessa staircase sequence.

Moscou, Russia

The scene : Some shots of the battleship are filmed there with a model, once the crew has returned to Moscow.

Odessa, Ukraine

The mole of the port of Odessa was constructed from 1874 to 1877 using concrete blocks based on a design by K. Hartley. It is 324 meters long and 86 meters wide. Initially dedicated to goods and then to coal, it was converted into a passenger terminal and has housed the city's maritime station since 1968. In June 1905, the body of the sailor killed on board the Potemkin was displayed there, and the crowd gathered to pay their respects.

The scene : On the wharf, the body of sailor Vakoulintchouk lies under a tent; hundreds, then thousands of Odessites pass in front of him, and mourning turns into solidarity with the mutineers.