Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor
1946 [RUSSIAN]
Action / Biography / Drama / History
7.7/10
8.9K
Plot summary
This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.
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Nikolay Cherkasov picks up well from where we
The part of Ivan the Terrible that Stalin did not like
"Ïvan the Terrible" (1944 and 1958) was made in the second part of the career of Sergeij Eisenstein. It was no longer the Eisenstein of the revolutionary movies ("Battleship Potemkin" (1925) and "Oktober" (1927)) with associative montage and short cuts. It was the Eisentein of historical drama's ("Alexander Nevski" (1938 and "Ivan the Terrible" (1944 & 1958)) with clearly noticable influences of German expressionism and long takes. Mainly due to the beautiful music of Sergei Prokofiev the movie takes on elements of a Wagnerian opera.
In part 2 of the film Ivan, maybe because of the death of his wife, becomes ever more suspicious and cruel. Stalin liked this part of the movie a lot less than the first part. Probably he recognized too much of himself in the character of Ivan and was afraid the moviegoer would make the same connection. Whatever it may be, the film was banished in Russia until 1958, 10 years after the death of Eisenstein and 5 years after the death of Stalin.