#88: EISENSTEIN, Sergei: Ivan The Terrible, Parts I & II (1945/1958)

EISENSTEIN: THE SOUND YEARS {Spine #86} OOP

EISENSTEIN, Sergei (Soviet Union)
Ivan The Terrible, Parts I & II [1945/1958]
Spine #88
DVD
OOP


Navigating the deadly waters of Stalinist politics, Eisenstein was able to film two parts of his planned trilogy about the troubled sixteenth-century tsar who united Russia. Visually stunning and powerfully acted, Ivan the Terrible charts the rise to power and descent into terror of this veritable dictator. Though plesed with the first installment, Stalin detested the portrait in the second film — with its summary executions and secret police — and promptly banned it.

Ivan The Terrible, Part I
103 minutes

Black & White
in Russian
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2001

Ivan The Terrible, Part II
88 minutes

Black & White/Color
in Russian
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2001


Director/Writer


Sergei Eisenstein was 47 when he wrote and directed Ivan the Terrible, Part I, and 60 when he wrote and directed Ivan the Terrible, Part II.

Other Eisenstein films in the Collection:

#87: Alexander Nevsky (1938)

T
he Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Eight-page wraparound featuring an essay by J. Hoberman.

Commentary

None.

Part I

Multimedia essay

On the history of Ivan the Terrible by Joan Neuberger, director of the Center for Soviet Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Deleted scenes

Drawings and production stills

Part II 

Multimedia essay

On Eisenstein’s visual vocabulary by Yuri Tsivian, art history professor at the University of Chicago.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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