Ivan the Terrible

BFI Film Classics

by Yuri Tsivian

Ivan The Terrible (1944/46) was envisaged as a trilogy, but, its director Sergei Eisenstein died before begining production on the third part. This book offers an insight into Eisenstein's grand project. Tsivian reconstructs the director's "mental film" that underlies the finished work.

Genres: Film, History

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Yuri Tsivian earned his PhD in film studies from the Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema in Leningrad in 1984. He is the author of numerous publications on Russo-Soviet and world cinema.

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of the BFI Film Classics books. This one is on the 1944-45 films, part one and two, by Eisenstein; intended as a trilogy but Stalin banned the second film (it wasn't shown until the thaw in the late fifties) and didn't allow the third movie to be made. Apparently Stalin saw himself as another Ivan the Terrible (not a bad analogy) and thought Eisenstein didn't present him favorably enough. The author tries not to repeat what is in other books on the film, which is a problem for me since I haven't read any others (I just watched the films on Youtube for the first time this week). He concentrates on using the sketches and diaries to try to reconstruct what Eisenstein intended for the trilogy as a whole. There were a lot of things I didn't notice when I watched it; scenes that deliberately follow the same pattern as other scenes, and some that are modeled on old paintings. Eisenstein also put a lot of symbolism into the paintings on the walls and things that you don't normally even pay much attention to when you watch a film. It was an interesting book.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently viewed the two films (or two-thirds of one dismembered film?) on DVD after first seeing them nearly fifty years ago at the old Brattle theater. I remembered the strong impression the films made on me then; this time through, I noticed other things that impressed me strongly, as well as aspects that made me wonder why I once thought the films were great. So I turned to this, one of the BFI monographs, but the first I've read. This book has a dual focus: how Eisenstein achieves his effects and what his notes and sketches reveal about what he hoped to achieve. Within this limited scope, Tsivian achieves his aim.