Eisenstein:
Ivan the Terrible I-II (1942-46)
Shown today at the
Cinemateket cinemas, a part of the Danish Film Institute here in Copenhagen.
The 187 mins event was advertized as the first ever screening of MosFilms recently restored version of the gigantic work, once praised by Chaplin as "the most fantastic historical movie ever made".
The sound, including the music by Prokofiev, was very good, and some scenes in the 2nd part were even in colour. Strange to think that all this was being produced during WWII and the Stalin regime, and these people directly experiencing all this.
It is an impressive, at times disturbing film, featuring a lot of innovative pictures, as well as very mannered and operatic, slow-motion acting. A lot of close-ups of grotesque or exaggerated faces, shadows on the wall and floors, sublime architectural spaces, etc. etc. The overall effect is that of a masterpiece, with a lot of psychological and symbolic layers, in spite of the kitsch and "biblical" verbal style.
The first part was very patriotic and praises the first all-Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, for his ambitions, his interest in the Russian nation and people, and his fight against traitors and foreign enemies. Obviously this was partly influenced by the WWII situation and the propaganda of the Stalin regime.
The 2nd part however is more ambivalent towards the role of the ruler, and contains a lot of conflicts, that are less simple.
The last two minutes or so try to boost a proclamation of the ruler as "tough but fair", but the foregoing events have presented a lot of problems and dilemmas, that don´t just confirm the statement, IMHO.
Part 2 wasn´t shown to the Soviet public of those days for these reasons.
There were also some almost Bergman-esque scenes of Ivan´s childhood experiences, and the presentation of the ruler as an agent for "national interests" was eerily relevant. Likewise the portrayed, "androgyne decadence" of Ivan´s Polish enemy Sigismund.
The programme notes say that Eisenstein also worked on a Part III, and that a few scenes were done, but the project was then abandoned.
There were more sequences in colour than said in the Wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible_(film)