“I am not aiming
to make a 1930’s pastiche. I think that a
subject that is set into mythological timelessness can be
both,
a film of the early 1930’s as well as of our own
time.”
Lutz
Becker
Producer/director
Lutz Becker, producer Felix von Moreau, and co-executive producer
Jurgen Proschinger are collaborating on the reconstruction and
restoration of Sergei M. Eisenstein's unfinished masterpiece Que
Viva Mexico!. A single purpose company, Mexican Picture
Partnership – located and registered in London, United Kingdom –
has been founded for the undertaking of this ambitious endeavor.
The rights to the title of the film and all the original footage
shot by Sergei M. Eisenstein is owned by the Estate of Upton
Sinclair, who, with his wife Mary Craig, financed the project in
1930/32. It is the Estate, represented by the New York law firm
McIntosh and Otis Inc., which has granted an exclusive option
covering worldwide cinema, TV, and DVD rights to Lutz Becker for
creating a faithful reconstruction.
Using
state-of-the-art digital technology Eisenstein's Que Viva
Mexico! will finally emerge as a pioneering work of world
cinema and a major cultural event as significant as the restoration
of Abel Gance's monumental epic Napoleon (1927).
Due to the importance and prestige of the project, the artistic and
technical quality of reconstruction, and the complexity of digital
restoration processes applied, the production is poised to set new
standards and influence future archival film preservation programs.
The reconstruction of Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico! is an
onerous undertaking, and will take considerable time to achieve.
However, the result will be worth it: the definitive production of
a masterpiece that was presumed to be lost forever.