Ivan the Terrible, Part I
About Ivan the Terrible, Part I
In 1547 Ivan IV is crowned tsar. His aunt Yefrosinya wants the throne for her son Vladimir. Ivan marries Anastasia Romanovna. A mob and envoys from Kazan interrupt the wedding, and he takes the city in 1552 with mines of gunpowder. On the way back he falls ill. The boyars swear to Vladimir, then scramble when he lives. He sends Prince Kurbsky to the Livonian front. Yefrosinya poisons a cup of wine. Ivan gives it to Anastasia, and she dies. He leaves for Alexandrov Sloboda. The people ask him to return, and he says he will rule without limit.
Cast & crew
More about Ivan the Terrible, Part I
Sergei Eisenstein wrote, directed, produced, and edited Part I. Sergei Prokofiev wrote the score. Andrei Moskvin shot the interiors and Eduard Tisse the exteriors. Principal photography began in April 1943 after Mosfilm was evacuated to Alma-Ata. The siege of Kazan was shot at Kaskelen. Stalin had commissioned the project in January 1941. Part I opened in Moscow on January 16, 1945.
Themes
Background
The story runs from the coronation of 1547 through the siege of Kazan in 1552, Kurbsky’s break, and Ivan’s withdrawal to Alexandrov Sloboda in 1564. Stalin wanted a picture of Ivan he could use.
Making
Eisenstein planned three parts and meant to finish two by 1944. Wartime delays left only Part I complete for release, with part of Part II already shot. He would hold actors in difficult poses and reshoot. Nazvanov said that when Cherkasov once cried from exhaustion, Eisenstein watched and ate his dinner.
Look
Andrei Moskvin shot the interiors. Eduard Tisse shot the exteriors, including the Kazan siege at Kaskelen. Part I is black and white. The Agfacolor banquet was shot later, for Part II, by Moskvin in Moscow.
Music
Sergei Prokofiev wrote the score, 29 numbers across the two finished parts. He completed the music for Part I in August 1944.
Preservation
Karen Shakhnazarov supervised a restoration shown at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Selected Russian cities put the restored Part I back in theaters in 2021. Copies are on the Internet Archive and on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Nikolai Cherkasov plays Ivan. Lyudmila Tselikovskaya plays Anastasia. Serafima Birman plays Yefrosinya. Mikhail Nazvanov plays Kurbsky.
- Vsevolod Pudovkin, himself a director, plays the holy fool Nikola.
- Stalin saw Part I in December 1944 and approved it. It received the Stalin Prize on January 27, 1946, over objections from the prize committee.
- Individual Stalin Prizes also went to Eisenstein, Cherkasov, Prokofiev, Moskvin, Tisse, and Birman for their work on Part I.
- Prokofiev began the score in May 1942 and reused music from unrealized projects on Pushkin’s Boris Godunov and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden.
- Part II was finished in 1946, banned that year, and released in 1958. Part III was abandoned.
Awards
- Stalin Prize (1946)
Scenes
- Ivan is crowned in 1547 while Yefrosinya watches for Vladimir.
- Sappers blow the walls at Kazan.
- Thinking Ivan dead, the boyars swear to Vladimir, then scramble when he sits up.
- He hands Anastasia the wine Yefrosinya has poisoned.
- At Alexandrov Sloboda the crowd asks him to come back, and he agrees to rule absolutely.
Also available
- Internet Archive (IvanTheTerriblePartOne)
- Wikimedia Commons (1944 Иван Грозный.webm)
