Ivan the Terrible Parts I & II

Thursday | August 2, 2007 7:00 pm

Ivan the Terrible Part I

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Ivan the Terrible Part II

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Screening on Film

Sergei Eisenstein’s final diptych chronicles the idealistic rise and moralistic fall of Russian monarch Ivan IV. Part I details Ivan’s rise to power as he attempts to unite the disparate factions of Russia while enduring the resistance of the boyars. Part II takes a tragic Shakespearean turn as Ivan becomes increasingly isolated from his subjects and seeks revenge on his murderous aunt and her feeble minded son. While the first film was embraced by Stalin for its heroic portrayal of the tsar, the second generated much more controversy and could not be released in the Soviet Union until five years after Stalin’s death. Eisenstein planned a third part but suffered a brain hemorrhage and died before filming was completed.

PROGRAM

Ivan the Terrible Part I

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
With Nikolai Cherkassov, Ludmilla Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman.
USSR, 1944, 35mm, black & white, 98 min.
Russian with English subtitles.
Ivan the Terrible Part II

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein.
With Nikolai Cherkassov, Ludmilla Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman.
USSR, 1946, 35mm, black & white, 88 min.
Russian with English subtitles.