Ivan the Terrible, Part I
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
From the archive
1944 directed by Sergei Eisenstein starring Nikolai Cherkasov as Ivan IV, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya as Czarina Anastasia, Serafima Bermin as Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya, Mikhail Nasvanov as Prince Kurbsky and Mikhail Kusnetsov as Fyodor Basmanov. Upon his coronation as Czar IV, Ivan declares his intention of uniting a fragmented Russian under one rule, which puts him at odds with the seedy Boyars, and demon treachery lurks behind every shadow. This is from the un-restored, public domain print that was initially prepared for international distribution and then released on video-tape. It has the original, badly recorded music and the white subtitles, (burned in). Factoid of interest: Eisenstein was impressed with John Barrymore’s portrayal of Mr. Hyde and used that characterization as a model for his Ivan. He intended, over the course of three films, to show Ivan’s gradual deterioration as a transformation into a Hyde-like character. Eisenstein died before part three was filmed.
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Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1944) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. The uploader declared an explicit licence, linked in the source panel. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Internet Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Starring
- Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov, Amvrosii Buchma, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Pavel Kadochnikov
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