The General Line

1929 ‘Старое и новое’ Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov

Also known as The Old and the New (Staroye i Novoye), The General Line illustrates Lenin’s stated imperative that the nation move from agrarian to industrial culture in an epic ode to farm-collectivization progress.

Marfa Lapkina M. Ivanin Konstantin Vasilyev Vasili Buzenkov Nejnikov Chukamaryev Ivan Yudin E. Suhareva G. Matvei

Alternative Titles

Staroye i novoye, Генеральная линия, Old and New

drama

121 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★

Necessities of technology, and the deficiencies of the natural world. The world in and of itself is not enough for human needs, so you build around it. One of the most beautiful films ever made
Review by Henry W ★★★★½

Eisenstein at his most bold, passionate, and utopian. Though lacking the traditionally epic scenarios of Potemkin and October, the agrarian politics here are made mythic and ecstatic with brazen metaphors like the notorious scene of a giant bull over the cow herd fertilizing/inseminating/economically developing the land, as well as less conceptual sequences relying on more tonal/rhythmic montage like the suspenseful and, yes, pretty suggestive cream separator sequence. In the scythe sequence, the progression from the young and old man's contest to inter-cutting of laborers with grasshoppers and finally to the supremacy of the tractor has a powerful associative effect: Eisenstein won't merely show why mechanization and modernization is sensible or necessary, he will make you feel it and believe in…
Review by based ★★★★★

this is where i find that eisenstein is not only the preacher and the theoretician but the poet and the painter too (which was apparent before of course but here it is most obvious). so many gorgeous landscapes of hill and field and grass, so many rich portraits, rendered with such textural potency - dirt water milk wind flower wheat and light. the willingness to revel in abstraction here is so exciting, like watching a new cinematic language form in real time, all in one film. as we thrust ourselves forwards out of struggle and we make the world ours, we become one with it.
Review by Tyler ★★★★★

Let’s talk about how Eisenstein made a movie about Cow Gods spraying the land with their milk and peaceably bringing the city and country together as one. But first, some Saturday morning socio-agrarian history for us all: At the time Eisenstein made The General Line, agricultural collectivization was planned across Russia as a more gradual schema, one that would unfortunately intensify under Stalin's scrutiny, leading eventually to the mass-incarceration of rebellious farmers, a horrific famine, and the starvation death of millions of peasants. And while Stalin may have viewed collectivization as a mere means to establish Soviet power in the Russian countryside, Eisenstein seems to be on a completely different wavelength. The theory of thought here stems from compassion and…
Review by Brood_Star ★★★★

"Those who love Godard and/or Kenneth Anger will particularly delight in the bull's marriage ceremony, in which the animal's semen fertilizes the universe, though my favorite is the daringly masturbatory cream-separator scene." (Bill Marx, The Boston Phoenix)
most likely the weirdest eisenstein, wherein his use of montage almost atypically approaches being more poetic than functional. in addition to the great bull marriage sequence, there's also another that rapidly intercuts a worker's scythe against a tractor's against a grasshopper
Review by Krautsalat ★★★★½

More montages than Rocky IV, plus cow porn and scythe POV shots.
Review by V. Lepistö 🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★½

Why aren't we talking about this film? I can't remember a single time people brought this up when they talked about Eisenstein but then again, we still talk about Eisenstein too little and many times take him for granted even if we could easily discover so much from his works.
I'm not sure if there is another director like Eisenstein who is so thorough with their expression. I mean one gets the same feeling from reading him but when it explodes on the screen, it is something different. These images and moments just take off at one point; Eisenstein might explore the expressions that these people have on their faces again and again just waiting for the right moment. We…
Review by Adriana Scarpin ★★★★

Velho e Novo e estreava há 90 anos na União Soviética.
Se não tivesse assistido ao espetacular Terra do Dovzhenko antes desse filme provavelmente o achasse uma obra-prima, ainda é excelente, especialmente pela escolha da camponesa do rosto expressivo para protagonista e a sempre brilhante edição de Eisenstein, mas perto do filme de 1930 este perde um pouco a força.
BlurayRip no MakingOff.
Review by Jack ★★★★★

Perfect for xmas morning, meri kirihimete LB
Review by erik reeds ★★★½

i really like some parts of this but as is kind of common with eisenstein the idea gets kind of usurped by the content at times. worth it for the editing and close ups, of course. also enjoy how this sort of has mini discussions over animals and children and how they would fit into a marxist role.
this is also like the one trotskyist film in existence so im sure this is especially important for the like 17 trotskyists still alive
Review by Sofía Borges Pedragosa ★★★★ 1

Los mejores primeros planos de la historia soviética.
Review by Nathan ★★★ 1

(Watched on Filmstruck under its original-ish title, The Old and the New.) One of the more obscure propaganda films from Eisenstein, this is in some ways his equivalent to Pudovkin's Mother, at least regarding its concentration on a single character as a sort of microcosm for, in this case, Trotskyist ideals. The film celebrates the collectivization of agriculture, with condensed milk and tractors as measures on the march to socialism. The currently extant version of the film purportedly undoes some of the Soviet tampering with its "old-line Bolshevik" message. As with all of Eisenstein's films from the '20s, this is essentially an avant garde experiment in montage technique that happens to have a government-sanctioned political message. The performances are very…

Recent reviews

Review by Justin Kelly ★★★½

Much more engrossing than a utopian portrait has any right to be, though the mixture of industrial and agrarian imagery -- featuring some of Eisenstein's best compositions -- might be especially appealing to yours truly. The "dream sequence" and subsequent reveal is among the high points of Soviet silent cinema. It's also excessive, bombastic, and indulgent, really hammering -- or sawing, as the case may be -- all of its points in, and any time human drama takes precedence to societal and geographical transformation it starts dragging. But setting aside the dull propagandistic tendencies, an aesthetic triumph.
Review by mattheweg ★★★

I didn't personally connect with this but it's probably because I wasn't starving or on mescaline or both.
Review by Maria Romanza ✨🤘 ★★½

technology and living in...1929? definetly an interesting one but i guess it is hard to follow at times
Review by mitsikson ★★★

Nothin like a day at the (animal) farm!
Review by Jorge Pardo ★★★★

Imagino que si Karl Marx hubiese pensado El capital en imágenes, le habría gustado que se pareciera a Staroye i novoye. La película de Sergei Eisenstein es, probablemente, la menos belicista de su filmografía, pero también una de las más comprometidas. Una vez derrocado el régimen zarista, toca transitar de la Rusia imperial a la Unión Soviética, un camino del que aquí el cineasta soviético, a su manera, muy propagandista e irreverente, esboza los puntos principales, es decir, la colectivización de los medios de producción y la industrialización en detrimento de la mano de obra.
Este semidocumental podría haber resultado algo pesado o aburrido, al estilo de Oktyabr, aunque el (in)genio de Eisenstein y, sobre todo, su sentido del espectáculo,…
Review by timconterio ★★★

did not need to be two hours long
Review by Rob Schmidt ★★★★★

“You might think this is all a dream.”
Review by Rob Schmidt ★★★★★

A work of celebration and reverence for human ingenuity and diligence in every way. I felt so alive every minute.
Review by Tom F

I care because you do
Review by mahirergen

Eski ve yeninin anlatımı...
Review by based ★★★★★

this is where i find that eisenstein is not only the preacher and the theoretician but the poet and the painter too (which was apparent before of course but here it is most obvious). so many gorgeous landscapes of hill and field and grass, so many rich portraits, rendered with such textural potency - dirt water milk wind flower wheat and light. the willingness to revel in abstraction here is so exciting, like watching a new cinematic language form in real time, all in one film. as we thrust ourselves forwards out of struggle and we make the world ours, we become one with it.
Review by Donlori ★★★★

Dumb peasants and priests versus smart commies. Vladimir Ulianov probably would have loved it (Vladimir Vladimirovic Putin as well...)