Lot 397: EISENSTEIN, SERGEI. 1898-1948.

4 Autograph Letters Signed and 5 Autograph Postcards Signed ("Sergei"), 22 pp, 4to and 12mo, various places including Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico, and Moscow, April 11, 1930 to September 22, 1933, to Renaud de Jouvenal, some toning and spotting throughout.

Russian film director Eisenstein, often referred to as the "father of montage," came to international attention with the release of his films The Battleship Potemkin and October. In 1930 he came to Hollywood to work for Paramount, though the studio and the director could not agree, and the contract was canceled by the end of the year. From there Eisenstein moved to Mexico to begin a project financed by Upton Sinclair that would become Que Viva Mexico! (not released until 1979).
In this series of letters, Eisenstein writes to Renaud de Jouvenal, stepson of the French author Colette, often complaining about a woman who has broken his heart, giving a glimpse of life in Hollywood and Mexico, and then, once back in Moscow, discussing his work: "In any event ... I'll send you an article on my next film, Moscow, but on one condition: that you will let me catch up with what happens in France. / You must send me some magazines and newspapers which could give me an idea where we are on this glorious path towards the final catastrophe!"
See illustration.