French experimental music duo, Zombie Zombie return to the Glasgow Music and Film Festival following their successful rendition of the music of film director John Carpenter in 2010, with Zombie Zombie: Battleship Potemkin, a new score of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 propaganda film, with staggering results.
Based on the real-life events of a naval mutiny and uprising that led to demonstrations and a massacre in 1905 Russia, Battleship Potemkin takes place on board the eponymous warship, and begins when the sailors, led by sailor Vaklinchuck (Aleksandr Antonov) revolt when they are fed rotting meat for dinner. But when the authorities attempt to end their rebellion, they unwittingly trigger a series of events that sees the residents of the port town of Odessa begin their own protest.
Eisenstein’s influential film has been referenced in a number of art forms several times, such as in the infamous Odessa staircase scene in The Untouchables. Although initially attracting few viewers, the film has since gone on to be named as one of the finest propaganda films, with some critics calling it one of the best films of the 20th century. While it may seem at first that the odd sounds of French – analogue duo, Zombie Zombie wouldn’t blend well with Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film, they do, as the resulting sound, although much more futuristic to the ear, as opposed to the almost antiquarian images on the screen creates a seminal industrial sound, that picks up pace as the film progresses, becoming something like a heartbeat, with each discipline giving the other almost unlimited power as they build towards the film’s inevitable and thunderous ending. An unusual mix that creates an intense feeling of apprehension and quiet admiration, Zombie Zombie’s return to the GMFF is a triumph for music and film.