Anecdotes

Spoke fluent Japanese, and used the haiku as a model for his theories on montage.

He was one of the founders of the world's oldest film school, VGIK in Moscow (opened 1 September 1919), and along with Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, Mikhail Romm, Eduard Tisse and Anatoli Golovnya, worked out the basic methods of professional training, which produced such well-known giants as Sergei Parajanov, and Andrei Tarkovsky, and the more obscure masters Mikhail Vartanov and Artavazd Peleshian.

Visited Germany and met with Fritz Lang during the filming of Metropolis (1927), on the Le jardin du plaisir (1925) set. (1926).

He once praised Walt Disney's Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains (1937) as the single greatest film ever made.

Arrived in the United States in 1929, accompanied by Grigoriy Aleksandrov and Eduard Tisse. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford had praised Eisenstein during a 1926 trip to Moscow, and after visiting Hollywood, he was given a contract by Paramount "to direct several films at the convenience of the contractee." His proposed projects, film adaptations of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" and "Gold" (a.k.a. "Sutter's Gold"), were rejected as being too socially conscious and not commercial enough to justify their length and expense. Paramount canceled the contract, and then on November 18, 1930, the State Department announced it was deporting Eisenstein and his companions because they were Communists.

On January 23, 1998, the Bank of Russia issued a pair of two-rouble coins commemorating the 100th anniversary of Eisenstein's birth. 15,000 of each coin were minted; the obverse side of each coin depicts a two-headed eagle, the BANK OF RUSSIA inscription, the denomination of the coin, and its year of minting. On the reverse of one coin is an image of Eisenstein holding a piece of film, the battleship Potemkin, as featured in Eisenstein's film, a reproduction of Eisenstein's signature, and the legend "SERGEI EISENSTEIN 1898-1948." The reverse of the other coin depicts Eisenstein with a curtain and a camera, and also bears his signature and the aforementioned legend along the rim.

His visit to Mexico with Diego Rivera and his exposure to its ancient culture also had a lasting impression on him, as reflected in his numerous pen-and-ink illustrations for which he was famous.

Was made head of the cinematographic section of the History and Art Institute at the Soviet Union Science Academy in June 1947.

Was voted the 29th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Eisenstein is the only Russian on the list.

Suffered a severe heart attack on 2 February 1946, and spent much of the following year recovering.

His grandfather was a German Jew who had converted to Christianity.

"Montage Eisenstein: Theories of Representation and Difference," an analysis of Eisenstein's film theories, by Jacques Aumont was published in the US by University of Indiana Press in 1987.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 291-305. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.