Ivan The Terrible - Pt 1 & Pt 2 - The Boyars Plot

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Ivan The Terrible ~ UK 2 Dvd Set (Details)

Ivan The Terrible - Part 1 And Part 2 - The Boyars Plot (1944)

Actors: Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov
Directors: M. Filimonova, Sergei M. Eisenstein
Writers: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Producers: Sergei M. Eisenstein, A. Eidus, I. Bakar, I. Soluyanov
Format: Box set, Black & White, Colour, Full Screen, PAL
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 2 (UK & Europe)
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
Number of Discs: 2

Classification: PG
Studio: Eureka Entertainment
DVD Release Date: 5 Jun 2000
Run Time: 179 minutes

Ivan The Terrible ~ Part 1 And Part 2 - The Boyars Plot

UK 2 DVD Set

Ivan The Terrible - Part 1 And Part 2 - The Boyars Plot Dvd

Ivan The Terrible - Part 1 And Part 2 - The Boyars Plot
Dvd Cover
© Eureka

Sergei Eisenstein, 1944

The English translation of Terrible isn't exactly correct in Ivan the Terrible. The outcome of this is many English speakers have a slightly different perception of this Tsar than is actually correct.

Sergei Eisenstein's epic biography of Czar Ivan IV, the murderous 16th-century unifier of the Russian people, was truncated by the director's death in 1948, as he was about to begin part three. A spectacle of impressively baroque splendor, it remains one of the great anomalies of film history.

Starring Nikolai Cherkassov as the eponymous ruler, the film opens with the 16-year-old's opulent coronation in 1546. He breaks with the custom of marriage to a foreign princess by marrying a Russian girl, Anastasia Romanovna (Lyudmila Tselikovskaya), thereby offending the nobility. In an effort to expand his territory eastward, he leads an army of 100,000 to seize Kazan, succeeding only after a long and bitter campaign. After contracting a seemingly fatal illness, Ivan summons the boyars, led by his aunt Euphrosinia (Serafima Birman), but they refuse his demand to swear allegiance to his one-year-old son, greatly angering the czar. When Ivan miraculously returns to health, he begins to consolidate power in opposition to the boyars.

While Cherkassov gives a commanding performance, it's the film's unique visual quality, featuring spectacularly ornate set design and costumes, along with a performance style influenced by Russian classism, grand opera, and Kabuki theater, that makes it such a rewarding experience.

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Sergei Eisenstein's saga of Czar Ivan IV continues with the struggle for power and the use of secret police, a controversial segment that caused the film to be banned by Stalin in 1946 (the film was not released until 1958). The predominantly black-and-white film features a banquet dance sequence in colour. Obviously the two parts must be viewed as a whole to be fully appreciated. Many film historians consider this period in Eisenstein's career less interesting than his silent period because of a sentimental return to archaic forms (characteristic of Soviet society in the 1930s and '40s). Perhaps it was just part of his maturity.