Eisenstein in Guanajuato Page #12

bleeding to death in my lap.

I only... I only construct death in the cinema.

I don't make it, cause it. Get the mother.

Where is the mother of this child?

I came to Mexico

a virgin.

And I leave it debauched.

My body was a stranger.

And now it becomes familiar in its...

...sheer vulnerability.

Come with me to Moscow.

Impossible.

I brush away my tears.

Am I weeping for that child?

For you?

For myself?

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

You are a hero!

Mercedes.

Are you not disturbed

by the Russian film-director's nakedness?

Not at all. He is not interested in women.

Besides, his photograph is in the papers.

He does not have long to live now.

Unless he has a great deal of money.

And unless he is very lucky.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Some papers say you are a hero.

This paper says you are responsible

for a child's death.

This one says

you and your wife have just had a row

about her mother, your mother-in-law.

And this paper offers you condolences

on the death of your daughter.

It's amazing how you have suddenly acquired

a Mexican family,

and the Camorristas don't normally like

to get their hair wet.

But they can get nothing out of me.

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

There are two people downstairs

waiting to talk to you.

Shall I ask them to come up?

Mrs Upton Sinclair and her brother.

Upton Sinclair is famous in Russia.

All his books have been translated.

One hundred thousand available

Upton Sinclair books in Moscow.

(CHUCKLES)

Read largely by literature snobs.

Well, when they chopped

my Hollywood contract,

I couldn't go back to Moscow empty-handed.

And I'd met the film-director Flaherty,

who made Nanook Of The North,

and he got me interested in going to Mexico,

which I must admit wasn't difficult.

Well, Flaherty makes films

with people who are not actors, like me.

And he convinced me

I could make a film independently in Mexico

without actors.

And when I was in Hollywood,

and I was lonely,

and miserable,

and homesick,

I spent a great deal of time

in the Hollywood bookstore

and practically bought up

their entire stock of books

on Mexico.

The owner of the bookstore,

who had fought in the Mexican Civil War,

said I could make a film in Mexico for $25,000.

And I talked to Chaplin,

and he agreed it was a good idea.

Mexico is fashionable amongst

all Chaplin's left-wing friends

in California.

They all have second homes here.

And Upton Sinclair

was one of these left-wing,

fashionable friends.

He and his horse-riding,

name-dropping,

faded Southern belle wife were very excited

that they could assist a Russian filmmaker

with all the right credentials.

With all the right credentials.

With all the right credentials.

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