Ivan Groznyy I (1944)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Sergei M. Eisenstein

Writer:

Sergei M. Eisenstein (writer)

Release Date:

8 March 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Biography

Plot:

During the early part of his reign, Ivan the Terrible faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people.

Plot Keywords:

Power | Exile | Coronation | Russia | Tartar

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Nikolai Cherkasov	...	Czar Ivan IV
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya	...	Czarina Anastasia Romanovna
Serafima Birman	...	Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
Mikhail Nazvanov	...	Prince Andrei Kurbsky
Mikhail Zharov	...	Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
Amvrosi Buchma	...	Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
Mikhail Kuznetsov	...	Fyodor Basmanov
Pavel Kadochnikov	...	Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
Andrei Abrikosov	...	Boyar Fyodor Kolychev
Aleksandr Mgebrov	...	Novgorod's Archbishop Pimen
Maksim Mikhajlov	...	Archdeacon
Vsevolod Pudovkin	...	Nikola, Simpleton Beggar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Valentina Kuznetsova	...	A smiling woman in the church (uncredited)
Aleksandr Rumnyov	...	The Stranger (uncredited)
Semyon Timoshenko	...	Kaspar von Oldenbock, Livonian ambassador (uncredited)

Directed by
Sergei M. Eisenstein		(as Sergei Eisenstein)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sergei M. Eisenstein		writer (as Sergei Eisenstein)

Produced by
Sergei M. Eisenstein	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Sergei Prokofiev

Cinematography by
Andrei Moskvin		(interior scenes)
Eduard Tisse		(exterior scenes)

Film Editing by
Sergei M. Eisenstein		(as Sergei Eizenshtein)

Production Design by
Iosif Shpinel		(as I. Shpinel)

Art Direction by
Sergei M. Eisenstein

Costume Design by
Leonid Naumov		(as L. Naumov)
Nadezhda Buzina		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Vasili Goryunov	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
I. Bir	....	assistant director
B. Bunayev	....	assistant director
Valentina Kuznetsova	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Vladimir Bogdankevich	....	sound (as V. Bogdankevich)
Boris Volsky	....	sound (as B. Volsky)

Camera and Electrical Department
Viktor Dombrovsky	....	photographer: second unit

Editorial Department
Esfir Tobak	....	associate editor

Music Department
Igor Lukovsky	....	composer: songs
Abram Stasevich	....	conductor

Other crew
Wolfgang Staudte	....	German version

Production Companies

• Alma Ata Studio

Distributors

• Artkino Pictures (1947) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1972) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Kultur Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (USA) (VHS)
• Reel Media International (2005) (USA) (TV)
• Continental Home Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Corinth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Grapevine Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Reel Media International (2007) (USA) (all media)
• Tartan Video USA (????) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Иван Грозный (Soviet Union: Russian title)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (USA)
Ivane Mriskhane, natsili pirveli (Soviet Union: Georgian title)
Ivan, o Terrível - Parte I (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Iivana Julma (Finland) [fi]
Iván el terrible (Spain) [es]
Ivan den förskräcklige (Sweden) [sv]
Ivan il terribile (Italy) [it]
Ivan le terrible (France) [fr]
Ivan, o tromeros (Greece) [el]
Iwan, der Schreckliche I (Germany) [de]
Korkunç Ivan (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Rettegett Iván 1. (Hungary) [hu]

Runtime:

103 min | USA:95 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | South Korea:15 | Portugal:M/6 | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Company:

Alma Ata Studio

Trivia:

One of the films included in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (and how they got that way)" by Harry Medved and Randy Lowell.

Goofs:

Continuity: Amount of coins in the bowls that are showered over Ivan at the end of the coronation scene.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Zizek! (2005)

Stalinist Shakespeare

If Alexander Nevsky was a filmed opera, this one, the first part of Eisenstein's incomplete trilogy about the title character, looks more like a Stalinist version of a Shakespere play, with a lot of conspiracy and characters so desirous for power that are willing to do whatever it takes, but manichaeist and with almost undisguised propaganda of the infamous Russian dictator. Exactly for being theatrical, it is too formal, but it is so intense that it is impossible to be indifferent, the visual composition is extraordinary, using very well the light-and-shade game typical of the German Expressionism, the alternation between very open shots and close ups, and very rich costumes and set decoration. In the end, although it is not perfect, is a remarkable film that deserves all the praise it received.