Director: Sergei Eisenstein
The advent of sound was a largely a boon for the film industry, but any film buff will tell you that it destroyed the careers of many who couldn't quite change their approach to films with sound. While my experience of Eisenstein was limited to Battleship Potemkin, that film was such a great expression of the power of silent films that I had looked forward to seeing more of his work. Ivan, with its attempt to tell a historical story based on characters, is so different from Battleship, that I almost cannot believe the two are by the same director.
Few people would call Ivan the Terrible a good film, based on modern sensibilities, and even for the time it came out, it feels incredibly dated. There is no subtlety to the performances: the baddies are all shifty-eyes and murderous scowls, and the 'good' characters leave little impression (I can't remember any except Ivan's wife). Ivan's move from young, ambitious Tsar, to hooked-nosed brutality is told with no depth; the cartooning of his form passes for character development. If there is anything of value to the film, it is the composition of several shots, which occasionally recall German Expressionism; and some of the images, like the newly crowned Ivan being showered in gold coins, are memorable.
However, this is really only a film (or two films if you want to get techinical) for film history completists, or film list completists (1001 Movies, Roger Ebert Great Films, and They Shoot Pictures Lists all have this on them). It is not a good film, but sometimes it is good to watch something terrible (pun definitely intended) in order to appreciate greatness.
The lists you mention do have this film on it. So does the 50 Worst Films of All Time. That might be overstating the case, but this isn't one I enjoyed sitting through. Ivan himself came across like a vulture doing an impression of the aliens from Mars Attacks! I ended up pretending it was farce when I watched it. It helped a little, but not a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt is not one of the worst films I have ever seen, but I think the disappointment amplifies the negative reaction one has to it.
DeleteI imagined it was a bad production of a Shakespeare play, a skrewy Macbeth or something like that.
Yes, I can only agree. Eisenstein did not really move beyond the silent movie and in the age of talkies this just feels ridiculous and antiquated. It helps as Steve mentions, to see this as a farce.
ReplyDeleteI now feel I should have watched it with the sound turned down; it may have played better that way!
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