October (Ten Days that Shook the World)

The months between the two revolutions of 1917, restaged in the real Winter Palace. Eisenstein is making arguments now, not scenes: Kerensky climbs the same staircase again and again while titles promote him, a mechanical peacock preens, and statues of gods from every religion are cut together until the word means nothing. The moment to watch is the drawbridge. As it rises, a dead woman's hair slides over the gap and a dead horse hangs from the edge, and he holds it until it drops into the river.