The beauty of an oeuvre begins with the problems of its origins, which it renews or consumes. Looking for the Nude or the denuded in Eisenstein’s films and writings raises many questions and none less than: Where is the body? Does it cover the human form? Does the anatomical nude still play its classical role here of canon, cause of figurative occurrences, order of the world? To the contrary, the body may represent the skin of a corporeality that surpasses it without privileging it and it may even represent the most fragile and complex point of a visual economy that is very knowledgeable about its powers.

Eisenstein's films abound in images of nudes: the swimming conspirators at the beginning of Stachka (Strike, 1925), who associate once and for all in these films the splendor of bodies (how desirable it is to be in a group, in gangs, together) and the desire for Revolution, sleeping sailors (the opening sequence of Bronenosets Potyomkin [Battleship Potemkin, 1925]), workers’ torsos (Staroye i novoye [The General Line, 1929]) and timeless Mexicans (the “Sandunga” episode in ¡Que viva Mexico!) as well as scenes of undressing, physical comedy (Marfa and her slip in The General Line) and incongruity (the women's battalion at the Winter Palace in Oktyabr’: Desyat’ dney kotorye potryasli mir [October: Ten Days That Shook the World, 1928]) and scenes of destitution (the proletariat in the “Maguey” episode of ¡Que viva Mexico!). But besides the fact that Eisenstein never deals with a violent, over-exposed nude or a frenetic nude like the crazy fiancée in Dovzhenko's Zemlya (Earth, 1930), that is, the fact that there is no full-frontal nudity in Eisenstein, it is not certain that these kinds of motifs deal with nudity.

The Nude as Ornament

Rejecting anecdotal, narrative cinema, Eisenstein excluded from his films actors who were conceived as supports or vectors of identification for characters trapped in fiction. In place of this decommissioned actor, he developed a process that generates meaning through physical appearance alone: Typage is opposed to both the classical drama's complete, clothed actor rich in potential (even negative potential) and the joyful, virtuosic athlete of the factory of the eccentric actor group (F.E.K.S.).