Trivia for
Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) More at IMDbPro »

• The famous Odessa steps sequence was not originally in the script, but was devised during production.
  
  
• Charles Chaplin said it was his favorite movie.
  
  
• The flag seen flying on the ship after the crew had mutinied was white, which is the color of the tsars, but this was done so that it could be hand painted red on the celluloid, which is the color of communism. Since this is a black and white film, if the flag had been red, it would have shown up black in the film.
  
  
• The movie was released in Moscow in 1925. It was competing for box office with Robin Hood (1922), an American movie starring Douglas Fairbanks. The Soviet government hoped 'Potyomkin' would earn more than 'Robin Hood' in its opening week, as this would be a symbol of the revitalization of Russian arts after the Revolution. In the event, 'Robin Hood' won, but it was a close race.
  
  
• In 2004, British pop duo Pet Shop Boys were commissioned to write a new score for the film. It premiered on a live concert and screening in Trafalgar Square, London, on 12 September 2004.
  
  
• The battleship used during the filming was not the "Knyaz Potyomkin-Tavricheskiy", but an older battleship called "Dvenadstat Apostolov" (The Twelve Apostles), as the original battleship 'Potyomkin' had been broken up in 1922.
  
  
• On 4 November 2005, composer Yati Durant premiered a new score for large orchestra and quadraphonic electronics for the recently restored "Berlin" version of the movie, commissioned by the Cologne University of Music.
  
  
• The film was rejected for a UK cinema certificate in 1926 by the BBFC following fears of working class insurrection, and remained banned until January 1954 when it was finally released with an X certificate.
  
  
• Battleship "Dvenadtsat Apostolov", that played a part of "Potemkin", was in fact removed from active service in 1911 and served as a mine hulk until mid-1920s, when the film was made. Despite the fact that she was from a similar period (1892) and of similar size, she had to be heavily modified externally, first of all by addition of dummy gun turrets.
  
  
• Battleship "Dvenadtsat Apostolov" actually was in the Imperial squadron, sent against "Potemkin". "Potemkin" itself was newest and most powerful of Black Sea battleships, but Imperial forces were more numerous.
  
  
• "Potemkin" changed name four times. The original full name was "Knyaz Potemkin-Tavricheskiy". As a result of the uprising, the government renamed her "Panteleymon" in 1905. In April of 1917 the ship returned to the name "Potemkin-Tavricheskiy" (without "Knyaz" - prince), but in May 1917 the name was changed to "Borets za svobodu" (the Freedom Fighter).
  
  
• Konstantin Feldman, who played the part of the "student agitator" in the film was actually a Menshevik activist in Odessa at the time of the mutiny and was present on the ship during the latter part of the mutiny. He died in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. (N. Bascom, "Red Mutiny" p.294 - although Bascom says Feldmann played a sailor.)
  
  
• Cinematographer Eduard Tisse who shot the famous Odessa steps massacre sequence ironically used this location again the same year for a comic finale in Evreyskoe schaste (1925) by director Solomon Mikhoels
  
  
• The actual battleship Potemkin was built at the Philadelphia Naval Yard in the United States and was purchased by the Czarist government in the early 20th. century. This was not unusual because Russia often purchased naval craft from Germany and France until they started to build their own naval ships after 1910.
  
  

Related Links