9a. Bronyenosyets Potyomkin aka The Battleship Potemkin (1925) - directed by Sergein Eisenstein

9b. Triumph of the Will (1934) - directed by Leni Reifenstahl

Sharing the 9th spot on my top ten of all-time list are Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 epic film, The Battleship Potemkin and Leni Reifenstahl's 1934 propaganda film, Triumph of the Will.

One of the silent era's greatest films and one which stands the test of time. Eisentstein's tale of a mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin was written by Eisenstein himself as his contribution to the propaganda film industry that was growing within the nascent Soviet Film industry of the 1920's. The film was to celebrate the revolutionary ideals of the 1917 Bolshevik Uprising.

Eisenstein revolutionized the use of editing not just as a tool to create a coherent and active visual sequence on the screen, but he also used it as a way to elicit an emotional response (some would say manipulate) from the viewer. The most famous use of this editing technique being the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence which have been emulated, copied and outright scene-for-scene imitated by filmmakers decades after. The most famous being Brian De Palma's reconstruction of the scene for the penultimate scene in The Untouchables.

The Battleship Potemkin also marked the beginning of the golden era of the propaganda film which would include the war bond and news reels of WWII for the American theater-going audience to the most infamous propaganda film of the era, Leni Reifenstahl's Triumph of the Will.

Reifenstahl's film marks the high-point of film as propaganda. Whether one agrees with Reifenstahl's politics and belief in the Aryan ideals one cannot dismiss her film as a major work of art. From sweeping camera shots of the Nuremberg rally and the lockstep march ofthe SS and SA cadres with their eagle standards brings to mind what it must've looked like when the Roman Emperors entered Rome in triumph.

Where Eisenstein introduced the montage-sty!e of editing with his film Reifenstahl used it very little, but instead went for a more proto-version of what would become the long take-technique that would end up influencing such directing luminaries as John Ford, David Lean and Stanley Kubrick.

It is quite ironic that two filmmakers with diamterically opposed political and idealistic leanings would both create pieces of cinema that would influence the artform for decades to come. An artform that has become synonymous with the decadent West both sides would end up in conflict with.