Ivan the Terrible (film)
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Ivan the Terrible | |
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Directed by | Sergei Eisenstein |
Produced by | Sergei Eisenstein |
Written by | Sergei Eisenstein |
Starring | Nikolai Cherkasov Lyudmila Tselikovskaya Serafima Birman Mikhail Nazvanov |
Music by | Sergei Prokofiev |
Cinematography | Andrei Moskvin Eduard Tisse |
Release date(s) | December 30, 1944 (Part 1) March 8, 1947 (Part 1) 1958 (Part 2) November 24, 1959 (Part 2) |
Running time | 99 min (Part 1), 88 min (Part 2) |
Language | Russian |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
Ivan The Terrible is a two-part film about Ivan IV of Russia made by Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Part 1 was released in 1944 but Part 2 was not released until 1958 due to political censorship. The film was originally planned as a trilogy, but only two of these were ever completed, as Eisenstein died before filming of the third part could be finished.
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[edit] Genesis
During World War II, with the German army approaching Moscow, Eisenstein was one of many Moscow-based filmmakers who were evacuated to Almaty, in what was then the Kazakh SSR. There, Eisenstein first considered the idea of making a film about Tsar Ivan IV, aka Ivan the Terrible, whom Josef Stalin happened to admire, seeing him as the same kind of brilliant, decisive, successful leader that Stalin fancied himself.[1]
[edit] Production
The first film, Ivan The Terrible, Part I, was filmed between 1942 and 1944 and released at the end of that year. The film presented Ivan as a national hero, and won Josef Stalin's approval (and even a Stalin Prize).
The second film, Ivan The Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot, finished filming at Mosfilm in 1946. However, it was not approved by the government, because it depicted Ivan as less of a hero and more of a paranoid tyrant, a parallel Stalin did not appreciate. The film was banned by Stalin, and did not get its first screening until 1958, five years after his death.
The third part, which began filming in 1946, was not completed. All footage from the film was confiscated, and most of it destroyed (though several filmed scenes still exist today).[citation needed]
The score for the films was composed by Sergei Prokofiev.
[edit] Gallery
Faina Ranevskaya in a screen test for the role of Princess Staritskaya. The role was played in the film by Serafima Birman |
[edit] References
- ^ Perrie, Maureen. The Cult of Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia (Studies in Russian and Eastern European History and Society) . New York: Palgrave, 2001 (hardcopy, ISBN 0-333-65684-9).
[edit] External links
- Ivan the Terrible part I at the Internet Movie Database
- Ivan the Terrible part II at the Internet Movie Database
- Review at culturedose.net
- Criterion Collection essay by J. Hoberman
- Ivan the Terrible Part 1; complete film at Google video
Preceded by Alexander Nevsky |
The Criterion Collection 88 |
Succeeded by Sisters |