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> Eisenstein - The Sound Years (Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 & 2, Alexander Nevsky) - Criterion Collection |
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see larger picture
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Staring:
Nikolai Cherkasov,
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya,
Nikolai Okhlopkov,
Serafima Birman,
Mikhail Nazvanov
Director:
Dmitri Vasilyev, M. Filimonova, Sergei M. Eisenstein
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $79.95
Our Price: $44.95
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9780780023246
Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780023242
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Discs: 3
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2001-04-24
Running Time: 292
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1947-03-08 |
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Description
Sergei Eisenstein, long regarded as a pioneer of film art, changed cinematic strategies halfway through his career. Upon returning from Hollywood and Mexico in the late 1930s, he left behind the densely edited style of celebrated silents like Battleship Potemkin and October, turning instead to historical sources, contradictory audiovisuals, and theatrical sets for his grandiose yet subversive sound-era work. This trio of rousing action epics reveals a deeply unsettling portrait of the Soviet Union under Stalin, and provided battle-scene blueprints for filmmaking giants from Laurence Olivier in Henry V to Akira Kurosawa in Seven Samurai.
Amazon.com
A biography of the first czar of Russia was the final movie project of the great Sergei Eisenstein's life. It would be his undoing, as Stalin was not pleased with part II of this epic. But Ivan the Terrible, Part I still stands as a magnificent, rich, and strange achievement. This is a "composed" film to make Hitchcock look slapdash; every frame is arranged with the eye of a painter or choreographer, the mise-en-scène so deliberately artificial that even the actors' bodies become elements of style. (They complained about contorting themselves to fit Eisenstein's designs.) If you don't believe movies can be art, this could be (and has been) dismissed as ludicrous. But Eisenstein's command of light and shadow becomes its own justification, as the fascinating court intrigue plays out in a series of dynamic, eye-filling scenes. This is not a political theorist, but a director drunk on pure cinema. Part II continues with the struggle for power and the use of secret police, a controversial segment that caused the film to be banned by Stalin in 1946 (the film was not released until 1958). The predominantly black-and-white film features a banquet dance sequence in color. Obviously the two parts must be viewed as a whole to be fully appreciated. Many film historians consider this period in Eisenstein's career less interesting than his silent period because of a sentimental return to archaic forms (characteristic of Soviet society in the '30s and '40s). Perhaps it was just part of his maturity. Alexander Nevsky (1939), Eisenstein's landmark tale of Russia thwarting the German invasion of the 13th century, was wildly popular and quite intentional, given the prevailing Nazi geopolitical advancement and destruction at the time. It can still be viewed as a masterful use of imagery and music, with the Battle on the Ice sequence as the obvious highlight. Unfortunately, the rest of the film pales in comparison. A great score by Prokofiev was effectively integrated by the Russian filmmaker, but stands on its own merit as well.
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richest film ever, 2008-02-29
Eisenstein's last film is his most visually dense, with every shot and costume and motion and set immaculately composed and every cut creating deeper resonance for the image that came before it. This is the cinematic equivalent of opera, weird and stylized and extravagant and completely un-real... it creates its own set of rules that have very little to do with the conventional rules of film. That's why it's my favorite film, but that's also why a lot of people are bored/disoriented by it.
Eisentein and Stalin, 2007-12-24
Three of the great films of Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and the Boyar's Plot are both remarkable evocations of their historical eras and of the times in which they were written. It is especially in the increasingly suspicious atmosphere of Ivan that one can begin to appreciate why Stalin eventually stopped further work - it was definitely too close to home!
Three great classic films well reproduced in this edition.
Eisenstein at His Enthralling Best, 2009-09-30
Sergei Eisenstein is trumpeted around film-buff circles as a legendary genius. If you're like me, you're leery of the term, as it usually means that their films are really not worth watching anymore. Sometimes, what they did may have been revolutionary for the time, but has now been so adopted by the film industry as to become mere standard fare. High praise, to be sure, but it doesn't light up your world. This was how I perceived Eisenstein after watching "The Battleship Potemkin." It's an ok story, but clearly propaganda and the final sequence might be truly moving if it hadn't been aped so many times throughout film history as to become a cliche.
I know different now.
Alexander Nevsky is a great film, loaded with anti-German propaganda but also compelling action sequences and symbolism. The real treasure, though, is Ivan the Terrible.
If you ever wondered just how many ways a story can be told in a feature film, Ivan the Terrible is the film you need to see. The effect is fascinating: the moods, fears, neuroses and schemes are revealed with shadows, lighting, frescoes on walls, body positions and so much more. The visual scenery is so dense that that everything means something, but at the same time, it is clear enough that you can perceive most of it. Ivan the Terrible is truly Eisenstein at the peak of his powers. It is too bad he never got to finish his masterpiece-what we have is already a film for the ages. I marvel at what could have been if only he'd lived.
Ivan the Terrible, 2007-11-08
This is a classic from which any student or teacher of film can learn. Eisenstein takes "historial license" to extremes, but it makes a great landmark.
Cost-wise - a bargain
Eisenstein The Sound Years, 2007-06-22
From the cinematography to the set design, costumes to character detail, Eisenstein's operatic sound epics are world-class examples of film as high art, with vigorous storytelling adding to the dazzling, still unparalleled craftsmanship of his historic handiwork. "Nevsky," made in 1938, revived the director's flagging career, and earned him a spot as head of Mosfilm Studios. Stalin was less pleased with Part II of "Ivan," especially with its allusions to his use of secret police and unflattering portrayal of a leader in distress. Both "Nevsky" and "Ivan" star the chiseled, charismatic Cherkasov (a sort of Russian Gary Cooper), and boast magnificent set pieces: a battle on a frozen lake involving thousands of extras in "Nevsky," and an orgiastic feast (rendered in color) in "Ivan." You'd never expect cinema this lavish or lively outside classic Hollywood, but here it is, courtesy of an idealistic Communist in full command of his actors and material.
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