Ivan the Terrible Part I

Having redeemed himself in the eyes of Soviet authority, Eisenstein was allowed to make a trilogy of films based on the life of the first Tsar of the Russias: Ivan IV. Seen as a parallel with the ruling Joseph Stalin, the project was a continued departure from Eisenstein’s earlier emphasis on montage and masses of crowds, focusing on a single character and telling the first third of his story. Made during WWII when the entire Soviet film industry had to decamp to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan becau...