Editing Battleship Potemkin (section)

==Distribution, censorship and restoration==
After its first screening, the film was not distributed in the Soviet Union and there was a danger that it would be lost among other productions. Poet [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]] intervened because his good friend, poet [[Nikolai Aseev]], had participated in the making of the film's intertitles. Mayakovsky's opposing party was Sovkino's president [[Konstantin Shvedchikov]]. He was a politician and friend of Vladimir Lenin who once hid Lenin in his home before the Revolution. Mayakovsky presented Shvedchikov with a hard demand that the film would be distributed abroad, and intimidated Shvedchikov with the fate of becoming a villain in history books. Mayakovsky's closing sentence was "Shvedchikovs come and go, but art remains. Remember that!" Besides Mayakovsky many others also persuaded Shvedchikov to spread the film around the world and after constant pressure from Sovkino he eventually sent the film to Berlin. There ''Battleship Potemkin'' became a huge success, and the film was again screened in Moscow.<ref name="leyda" />

When [[Douglas Fairbanks]] and [[Mary Pickford]] visited Moscow in July 1926, they were full of praise for ''Battleship Potemkin''; Fairbanks helped distribute the film in the U.S., and even asked Eisenstein to go to Hollywood. In the U.S. the film premiered in New York on 5 December 1926, at the [[Samuel J. Friedman Theatre|Biltmore Theatre]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/sergeimeisenstei00seto#page/87/mode/2up |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |author=Marie Seton|title=Sergei M. Eisenstein: a biography |year=1960 |page=87 |author-link=Marie Seton}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/kinohistoryofrus00jayl#page/205/mode/2up/ |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |author=Jay Leyda |title=Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film |year=1960 |pages=205 |author-link=Jay Leyda}}</ref>

The film was shown in an edited form in Germany, with some scenes of extreme violence edited out by German distributors. A written introduction by Trotsky was cut from Soviet prints after he ran afoul of [[Stalin]]. The film was banned in the United Kingdom<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/battleship-potemkin-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yndy0mdy |title=Battleship Potemkin |work=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |date=30 September 1926 |access-date=24 December 2024 |quote=The BBFC determined this content to be unsuitable for classification at the time it was submitted.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |publisher=Riant Chateau TERRITET Switzerland |author=Bryher |title=Film Problems Of Soviet Russia |year=1922 |pages=31 |author-link=Bryher (novelist)}}</ref> (until 1954; it was then X-rated<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/battleship-potemkin-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yndy0mdy |title=Battleship Potemkin |work=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |date=11 January 1954 |access-date=24 December 2024 |quote=Mild violence occurs during a massacre on the Odessa Steps which shows several people being shot and trampled on, with brief sight of bloody detail on the faces of the dead and injured.<!--From the X classification in 1954-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/education/case-studies/battleship-potemkin |title=Case Study: Battleship Potemkin, Students' British Board of Film Classification website |publisher=Sbbfc.co.uk |access-date=5 October 2014}}</ref> until 1987<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/battleship-potemkin-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yndy0mdy |title=Battleship Potemkin |work=[[British Board of Film Classification]] |date=16 November 1987 |access-date=24 December 2024 |quote=Mild violence occurs during a massacre on the Odessa Steps which shows several people being shot and trampled on, with brief sight of bloody detail on the faces of the dead and injured.<!--From the PG classification in 1987-->}}</ref>), France, Japan, and other countries for its revolutionary zeal.<ref>{{cite news |title=Soviet Films Hit by Foreign Censor, U.S. Is Liberal |newspaper=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |location=New York City |pages=6 |date=13 July 1928 |url=https://archive.org/details/variety91-1928-07/page/n77/mode/1up |access-date=2024-03-17}}</ref>

Today the film is widely available in various DVD editions. In 2004, a three-year restoration of the film was completed. Many excised scenes of violence were restored, as well as the original written introduction by Trotsky. The previous English [[intertitle]]s, which had toned down the mutinous sailors' revolutionary rhetoric, were corrected so that they would now be an accurate translation of the original Russian titles.

===Posters===
[[File:kino0.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Another poster of ''Battleship Potemkin'']]
The [[poster]]s for the movie ''Battleship Potemkin'' created by [[Alexander Rodchenko|Aleksandr Rodchenko]] in 1925 became prominent examples of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[Constructivism (art)|constructivist art]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Ian Haydn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffR0DwAAQBAJ&dq=Potemkin&pg=PA47|title=Selling the Movie: The Art of the Film Poster|date=2018-09-20|publisher=White Lion Publishing|isbn=978-0-7112-4025-4|language=en}}</ref> One version shows a sniper sight on two scenes of [[Sergei Eisenstein|Eisenstein]]'s movie, representing two guns of the Battleship.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gourianova|first=Nina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zc8kDQAAQBAJ&dq=Battleship_Potemkin_poster&pg=PA273|title=The Aesthetics of Anarchy: Art and Ideology in the Early Russian Avant-Garde|date=2012-03-06|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26876-0|language=en}}</ref>

Another version was created in 1926.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.ivam.es/catalogospdfs/0664/pubData/source/Rodchenko.pdf|title=Ródchenko. Caso de estudio|publisher=[[IVAM]]}}</ref> Being part of collections of museums such as [[Valencia]]'s [[Institut Valencià d'Art Modern|IVAM]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Institut Valencià d'Art Modern|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LSL6Y9I7Si0b2pRIqgoQ2zKGmLoGyH02/view?usp=sharing|title=50 obras maesstras de la Colección del IVAM: 1900-1950|date=2019|publisher=Institut Valencià d'Art Modern|others=Rocío Robles Tardóo|isbn=978-84-482-6416-1|location=València|oclc=1241664690}}</ref> shows a much clearer image.<ref name=":0" /> Using a central romboid figure with the [[Battleship]] on it, combines [[graphic design]] and [[photomontage]] to create an image where the Battleship is the main protagonist.<ref name=":0" /> The clear image contrasts with the aggressive use of [[painting]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=El acorazado Potempkin - Alexander Rodchenko|url=https://historia-arte.com/obras/el-acorazado-potempkin|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-19|website=HA!|language=es|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922114529/https://historia-arte.com/obras/el-acorazado-potempkin |archive-date=2020-09-22 }}</ref> whereas the diagonal lines are also a recognizable trait of the work.<ref name=":1" />

There is also a poster where the central figure is a [[sailor]], with the Battleship on the central background.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Underwood|first=Alice E. M.|title="We invented and changed the world": A Rodchenko Art Gallery|url=https://russianlife.com/stories/online/we-invented-and-changed-the-world-a-rodchenko-art-gallery/|access-date=2021-08-19|website=Russian Life|language=en}}</ref>