Who was responsible for those famous Odessa Steps?
As the Russian invaders of Ukraine pose to attack the port of Odessa, a film enthusiast like me cannot help recalling the dramatic Odessa Steps sequence in the 1925 film “The Battleship Potemkin” famously directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Indeed this sequence inspired a similar conflict on long steps in the final scenes of the 1987 film “Untouchables” directed by Brian De Palma.
Meanwhile I am reading a history of Ukraine: “Borderland” by Anna Reid. From this work, I learned that the Odessa Steps were constructed by a British civil engineer named John Upton between 1837 and 1841. Who would have thought?