IVAN THE TERRIBLE II POLITICS THEMES VISUALITY MOTIFS

IVAN THE TERRIBLE (II) POLITICS, THEMES, VISUALITY, MOTIFS

Ivan the Terrible Part I Ü Deals with the idea of absolute power granted by God in order to “gather lands” and restore Russia’s grandeur. Ü Events: Ivan’s early years, coronation, marriage and death of the wife, Kurbski’s treason, victory over the Tartars, Ivan’s demonstrative reclusion and the people of Russia pleading him to return Ü Released in 1945, approved by critics and by Stalin, received Stalin award.

Shooting Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible Part II: The Film and Politics Ü December 1945: Part II completed and submitted to Mosfilm authorities. Ü January 1945: Part I released in Moscow. Ü January 1946: Part I receives Stalin Prize. Ü February 1946: Part II reedited and submitted to Committee on Film Affairs for approval. At celebratory party Eisenstein has a heart attack.

The Film and Politics Ü February 1946: Film viewed by Artistic Council. Ü March 1946: Central Committee prohibits release of Part II because of its “ahistorical and inartistic qualities” and Ivan being “weak like some Hamlet. ” Ü August and September 1946: Central Committee criticism made public. Ü February 1947: Eisenstein and Cherkasov have interview with Stalin. Permission given to remake Part II and complete Part III.

The Film and Politics Ü November 1947: United Nations approves creation of State of Israel. Ü Stalin’s antisemitic campaign against “cosmopolitism” (Eisenstein was a member of Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee). Ü January 1948: Jewish actor and theatre director Solomon Mikhoels, president of Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, murdered by NKVD in Minsk, the start of the “struggle with cosmopolitanism. ” Ü 11 February 1948: Eisenstein dies after a heart attack. Ü March 1953: Stalin dies. Ü 1 September 1958: Ivan the Terrible, Part II finally released.

Ivan The Terrible Part II Ü Juxtaposition of images relying on viewer’s memory; Ü Complexity and subtleness of editing; Ü Change of plans, elaborate camerawork; Ü Visual representation and symbolism based on archetypes, painting, animals; Ü Theatre and biomechanics; Ü Sound and music; frescoes as visual parallels to Prokofiev’s music; Ü Enclosed space and dream-like quality, as opposed to the open horizon, prevalence of outdoor scenes and “realism” in Aleksandr Nevski

Psychoanalysis

Symbolism: Single Eye

Symbolism: Single Eye Dead Vladimir Ivan on deathbed

Motifs: Child, Goblet, Swans, etc.

Visual “Rhymes”

Underlying eroticism (revealed in the sketches)

Visuality Ü Kurbsky between good and evil, light and darkness Ü Geometry: lines and shapes

Theatricality Ü Theatre inside the film: a mystery play about three infant martyrs in the fiery furnace.

Fiodor Basmanov replacing Anastasia: a sinister turn

Eisenstein’s drawing of Ivan for Part II

Koschei The Deathless (in Russian folklore, sovereign of dark powers)

Andei Tarkovski about Ivan The Terrible “There is a film, Ivan The Terrible by Eisenstein, that is as remote as possible from the principles of direct observation, not only is the film as a whole a hieroglyph, it entirely consists of a series of hieroglyphs, large, small and tiny, there is not a single detail in it that is not saturated with authorial design or intention. ”