Sergei Eisenstein is quite literally one of the most important directors who ever lived. His films The Battleship Potemkin and October: Ten Days that Shook the World are two of the most important and influential in film history. After many years, Eisenstein wanted to conclude his distinguished career with a trilogy of films about Tsar Ivan IV, or Ivan the Terrible. The first Tsar of all Russia, Ivan greatly expanded Russia's borders and transformed it from a medieval state to a genuine European empire. By the end of World War Two, the parallels between Joseph Stalin and Ivan IV must have been too great for Eisenstein to resist. He only managed to make the first two films in his trilogy, however. Yet the two films mark a stunning conclusion to one of the cinema's greatest titans. Ivan the Terrible: Part One follows Ivan's initial coronation as the Tsar of all Russia. It then proceeds to document how he conquered the khanate of Kazan, survived an assassination attempt by the boyars (Russian aristocrats), and eventually abdicated his rule and left Moscow. I haven't seen such painstaking attention to detail inside a film since the hey-day of Stanley Kubrick. Indeed, I wonder if Kubrick's meticulousness was partially inspired by these films. Every single shot could double as a still life or painting. The actors don't seem to act as much as move from one shot and dramatic pose to the next. This method of acting and filming can try the patience of modern film-goers. Nevertheless, Ivan the Terrible: Part One is a hypnotic and mesmerizing look into the life of one of Russia's greatest rulers.
9/10
0 Yorumlar