Ivan the Terrible (film)

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Ivan the Terrible

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
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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.

1 Genesis
2 Production
3 Gallery
4 References
5 External links

[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

Nikolai Cherkasov as Ivan the Terrible	Screenshot from Part 1	Screenshot from Part 2	Criterion Collection DVD cover
Kino Video VHS cover	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).