Ivan the Terrible - Pt. 1
by Sergei M. Eisenstein
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov, Nikolai Cherkasov, Serafima BirmanDirector: Sergei M. Eisenstein
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Russian (Original Language), PCM Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-10-21
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Image Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Ivan the Terrible - Pt. 1
Movie Review: Shadow and light as stars
Summary: 5 Stars
Eisenstein's "Ivan the Terrible" is a visual experience not to be missed. The acting's not anything to write home about. Nikolai Cherkasov's portrayal of Ivan is so overdone that his extravagant gestures remind one of the silent film variety. Nor is the script a particularly good one. The two parts of the film are a bit disjointed.
But what IS excellent is the cinematography. It's not wide of the mark to say that the real stars of the film are the shadows and light. In this first part, we get a breathtaking preview of just what Eisenstein is capable of in the scene of the poisoned tsarina's funeral bier. Ivan's profile is situated in front of candlesticks in such a way as to suggest not only incredible loneliness but also destiny. We also see glimmers of the huge shadows cast by tiny humans trick that will dominate the second part. It's all really quite incredible.
Plot-wise, the first part of "Ivan the Terrible" sets the stage for Ivan's on-going power struggle with the boyars, the traditional aristocracy. It begins at his coronation, details the connivances of the boyars, led by Ivan's own aunt (a character that is especially one-dimensional), features Ivan's war against the Kazars, and crescendos with the poisoning of his beloved wife Anastasia. The emphasis throughout is the need for strong centralized leadership if the Russian Empire is to be saved from enemies east and west. Stalin loved it.
Summary of Ivan the Terrible - Pt. 1
Part One of Sergei Eisenstein's two-part epic chronicling the life of the 16th Century Tsar, Ivan Grozny, is one of film's most artistic and absorbing creations. Over three years in the making, "Ivan the Terrible" features an operatic score by the esteemed Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev.A biography of the first czar of Russia was the final movie project of the great Sergei Eisenstein's life. It would be his undoing, as Stalin was not pleased with part II of this epic. But Ivan the Terrible, Part I still stands as a magnificent, rich, and strange achievement. This is a "composed" film to make Hitchcock look slapdash; every frame is arranged with the eye of a painter or choreographer, the mise-en-sc?ne so deliberately artificial that even the actors' bodies become elements of style. (They complained about contorting themselves to fit Eisenstein's designs.) If you don't believe movies can be art, this could be (and has been) dismissed as ludicrous. But Eisenstein's command of light and shadow becomes its own justification, as the fascinating court intrigue plays out in a series of dynamic, eye-filling scenes. This is not a political theorist, but a director drunk on pure cinema. --Robert Horton
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