Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible - Part I

First posted on Wermod and Wermod: http://www.wermodandwermod.com/newsitems/news240320121448.html

While spending a few days in Alabama with misanthropic novelist Tito Perdue, the latter insisted I watch Sergei Eisenstein's 1944 film, Ivan the Terrible. This was the most user-friendly of an unrelentingly stern and serious collection of black and white films he had in store, all made for deathly serious men of 40 and above, all in DVD with covers depicting 40-and-above male faces unvaryingly creased with grief, rage, and despair.

Made in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule, Ivan is nevertheless an extraordinary production, as one would expect, albeit incomplete, since only Parts I and II out of an intended trilogy were ever made. (Stalin objected to Part II and funding was withdrawn, causing Part III never to leave the production stage.) Part I is the best of the surviving two. Three aspects strike the viewer: firstly, the stunning photography, which is so tightly scripted that it forces actors into submission—they must step into a scene and operate within a narrow set of kinetic limits, so that they may not upset the composition; secondly, the very archaic, unmodern atmosphere in the production, and the fact that it is not a result of the film's production date—older American films have a much more modern atmosphere; and thirdly, the sheer weirdness of it, be it the theatrical delivery of the lines, the sumptuously outlandish costumes, the strange rituals, or the grand and disproportionate scale of everything—actors, clad in enormous outfits, must stoop through low arched doors to gain access to vast thick-walled halls with tiny windows. There is, overall, a sense of raw ancientness, sleepy energy, and masculine power—despite the furs and the cascades of gold and gems—fused in this film that is quite unlike anything one would encounter in a Western film. It is worth watching for that reason alone. The transfer is clear but not the best, and the English subtitles are hard to read at times due to poor contrast, so I hope someone will put out a version that corrects these deficiencies, as the technology, if perhaps not the will, has been available for a while.