Old and New (1929)
A poor peasant woman organizes her fellow villagers into a dairy cooperative, battling superstition and a rival kulak farmer to bring a cream separator, and eventually a tractor, to the collective.
Old and New, also released as The General Line, was Eisenstein’s state-commissioned argument for agricultural collectivization; production stretched over three years and the film was revised mid-shoot to keep pace with Stalin’s shifting farm policy, a rare case of a movie visibly overtaken by the politics it was made to promote.
Background
Old and New, also released as The General Line, was a state-commissioned film promoting agricultural collectivization. Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov co-directed it, and production stretched over roughly three years. The filmmakers revised the film during shooting to keep pace with changing Soviet farm policy, so the finished work reflects the politics of its moment in a visible way. It is one of the clearest examples of a silent film being overtaken by the political line it was made to support.
What to watch for
The film centers on a poor peasant woman who organizes her fellow villagers into a dairy cooperative. Watch how the film presents the village’s obstacles, including superstition, resistance to the cooperative and a rival kulak farmer, through comic and symbolic episodes. The cream separator and later the tractor serve as the central images of modernization, and the machinery is given a near-reverent visual emphasis. Eisenstein’s montage contrasts the old village with the new collective, and the closing sequences build toward the collective’s success. The film is openly didactic, and its scenes are designed to make a political argument rather than present a neutral account of rural life.
