EDUARD TISSE

Born: 13 April 1897, Liepaja [Litan/Libau], Russian Empire [now Latvia], as Eduard Kazimirovich Tisse [a.k.a: Edward Tissé] [Эдуард Казимирович Тиссэ].

Career: Left the Navy College in 1913 to study photography and painting with E. Graenzinger in Stockholm, Sweden. Started career as cameraman in 1914. 1916-18: filmed at the front during WW1. 1918-21: shot around 200 newsreels highlighting the Bolshevik revolution for the Central Film Committee. He traveled in a so-called 'agit train' which contained a printing-plant, a theatre company and a film crew. Became professor at the State Technicum of Cinema [GTK, later VGIK], Moscow, in 1921. In 1926 [March-April] he and Sergei Eisenstein visited the UFA Studios in Berlin to study western cinematography. In August 1929, he, Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov went to Western Europe where they had to earn their way by doing all kinds of film jobs, e.g. an advertising film for beer with actors Emil Jannings and George Bancroft. In May 1930, the trio proceeded to Hollywood where they developed projects ['The Glass House', 'Sutter's Gold', 'An American Tragedy', etc.] for Paramount Pictures. December 1930: Tisse and Eisenstein arrived in Mexico to start the prod of ¡Qué Viva México!, financed by novelist Upton Sinclair. The Soviet authorities ordered them to return home in March 1932.

Appeared in the doc's 'The Secret Life of Sergei Eisenstein' [1987, Gian Carlo Bertelli; ph: Louis Pigazzini] & 'Sergei Eisenstein. Meksikanskaya fantasiya/[Sergei Eisenstein.] Mexican Fantasy' [1998].

Grigori Aleksandrov - Sergei Eisenstein - Walt Disney - E. Tisse [1925]

Eduard Tisse is best known for his work with director Sergei Eisenstein. Tisse was, however, among the pioneers of the Soviet cinema, working with such people as Vertov and Pudovkin before his long, successful partnership with Eisenstein began. His early career as a newsreel cameraman earned him a reputation as both a skilled and fearless technician.

Tisse photographed what is sometimes referred to as the first 'Soviet' feature film - director Aleksandr Arkatov's 'Signal.' The film was the first feature produced by the Moscow branch of the Cinema Committee, the first Soviet Russia film organization.

In 1924, Tisse was selected to photograph Eisenstein's first film, 'Stachka/Strike.' The realization of 'Strike' was due to a great extent to Tisse. He not only possessed the technical knowledge which Eisenstein lacked at the time, but also understood and agreed with the director's 'montage of attractions.' The partnership continued to develop with the shooting of Eisenstein's second feature, 'Bronenosets Potyomkin/[Battleship] Potemkin.' Tisse was inspired to further experimentation with the technology at his disposal to make Eisenstein's artistic vision a filmic reality. For the Odessa Steps sequence, Tisse set up a camera trolley the length of the steps, creating one of the first dolly shots in Russian film history.

During the late 1920s and early 1930s Tisse left Russia to travel with Eisenstein through Europe, America, and Mexico. The official reason for the trip was the study of sound film techniques in other countries. In addition to this pursuit, other projects were undertaken. Much time was devoted to researching and filming Eisenstein's never completed ¡Qué Viva México!

Upon returning to Russia, Tisse resumed his experimentation with tone and emotional tension begun in earlier films. He had previously used shades of light and darkness and different degrees of soft focus to create emotional tension. He perfected these techniques during Eisenstein's sound film period. Tisse's mastery of tonal composition is best demonstrated in 'Aleksandr Nevsky/Alexander Nevsky.' In one exemplary sequence the choice of lenses and the use of a special filter transformed the atmosphere of a hot July day into the Battle on the Ice. In this particular scene Tisse also slowed down the hand-cranked camera to control the rhythm and the tension of the battle. [From article by Marie Saeli.]

"Bronenosets Potyomkin"

"Qué Viva México!"

"Aleksandr Nevsky"

1921 Golod... golod... golod/Hunger... Hunger... Hunger [Vladimir Gardin & Vsevolod Pudovkin] b&w; 500mtr

1924 Stachka/Strike [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; cph: Vasili Khvatov; part 5 of proposed 7-part series 'Towards Dictatorship of

1925 Jidische Glickn/Jewrejskoje Stschastje/Jewish Luck/The Matchmaker/Menachem Mendel [Alexei Granowsky]

1925 Medvezhya svadba/[The Legend of] the Bear's Wedding/The Marriage of the Bear [Konstantin Eggert &

1926 Staroye i novoye/Old and New/Generalnaya liniya/The General Line [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; prod was halted

temporarily in favour of the 'Oktyabr'-project; shooting resumed in June 1928; add shooting in April-May 1929

1927 Oktyabr/October/Ten Days That Shook the World [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; shooting March-September; + small part

1929 Frauennot - Frauenglück: Das Hohelied der ärztlichen Kunst/Misery and Fortune of Women/Women's

Misery - Women's Happiness/Woman's Joy Is Woman's Woe [Eduard Tisse; assisted by Sergei Eisenstein] b&w;

1929 The Storming of La Sarraz [Sergei Eisenstein & Hans Richter] b&w; negative lost

1930 Romance sentimentale/Sentimental Romance [Grigori Aleksandrov] b&w; short/20m

1931 La destrucción de Oaxaca/El desastre en Oaxaca [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; doc/12m; + co-scrpl

1931 ¡Qué Viva México! [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; originally planned as a film with seven chapters: 'Prologue', 'Conquest',

'Sandunga', 'Fiesta', 'Maguey', 'Soldadera' & 'Epilogue'; filming started in December 1930, prod shut down in Jan 1932;

1933 Thunder Over Mexico [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; 70m*; edited from the 'Maguey' footage; post-prod: Sol Lesser

1933 Eisenstein in Mexico [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; doc/50m*; post-prod: Sol Lesser

1935 Moscow [Sergei Eisenstein] prod abandoned after the death of screenwriter Nathan Zarkhi

1935 Aerograd/Air City/Frontier [Aleksandr Dovzhenko] b&w; cph: Mikhail Gindin

1935 Bezhin lug/Bezhin Meadow [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; short/31m; cph: Vladimir Nilsen; prod halted in October 1935

because S. Eisenstein contracted smallpox; shooting resumed in August 1936; prod finished in 1937, but film was

banned and shelved; most footage destroyed during WW2, but reconstructed in the mid-1960s

1938 Aleksandr Nevsky/Alexander Nevsky [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; withdrawn from circulation in August 1939

1939 The Great Ferghana Canal [Sergei Eisenstein] after ph tests in June-July, the prod was halted; the test footage was

1943 Seeds of Freedom [Sergei Eisenstein & Hans Burger] b&w; 'Potemkin' seq ph (1925); ph: William J. Kelly

1943 Ivan Groznyj I/Ivan the Terrible, Part One [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w; ext ph; int ph: Andrei Moskvin; 2uc: Viktor

Dombrovsky; filmed April 1943 & January-June 1944; editing completed in June 1944

1944 Ivan Groznyj II: Boyarsky zagovor/Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot [Sergei Eisenstein] b&w/c; ext

ph; int ph + color seq: Andrei Moskvin; 2uc: Viktor Dombrovsky; filmed 1943-45; editing completed in January 1946;

1944 Ivan Groznyj III [Sergei Eisenstein] draft editing of 4 reels in January 1946; footage destroyed by the authorities in

1949 Vstrecha na Elbe/Meeting on the Elbe [Grigori Aleksandrov & Aleksei Utkin] b&w-c; restored 1965

1956 Bessmertnyj garnizon/The Immortal Garrison [Eduard Tisse & Zakhar Agranenko] b&w

1978 ¡Qué Viva México! - Da zdravstvuyet Meksika!/Qué Viva México [Sergei Eisenstein; reconstruction: Grigori

1998 Sergei Eisenstein. Meksikanskaya fantasiya/[Sergei Eisenstein.] Mexican Fantasy [Oleg Kovalov] b&w; doc/

1929 Frauennot - Frauenglück: Das Hohelied der ärztlichen Kunst/Misery and Fortune of Women/Women's

Misery - Women's Happiness/Woman's Joy Is Woman's Woe [+ cph] see Films