Sergei Eisenstein followed Battleship Potemkin (1925) with this epic celebration of the ten days in 1917 when thee Bolsheviks overthrew the Kerensky government. Inspired by John Reed’s eyewitness account of 1917 bur savagely censores by Stalin, October is less chronicle or a pious monument than a reckless celebration of the sheer energy of revolution. Much of this is sexual – images of perversion and desire abound – and the great crowd scenes are among the most dynamic ever filmed. It is also surprisingly full of humour, of puns and sly jokes, doubtlessly encouraged by Eisenstein’s reading of Ulysses while editing it.