Rating: 4.5/5
A biopic of Ivan IV, who tried to take absolute power to unify Russia into one state. Wouldn’t you know it, the powers that be weren’t exactly chill about it
Opulent sets and costume and exaggerated makeup creates striking and memorial characters
Incredible cinematography, every frame a classical painting. The reaction cutaways are so striking! Everything on the screen is carefully chosen to look good in black and white, creating rich contrasts and layers of details
One of the most beautiful-looking movies I’ve seen
The heightened performances feel like remnants of Eisenstein’s silent film era, but the story is so hard to follow that it’s nice to have visual cues of how people feel about what is happening
Of course, Eisenstein has always been great at filming and working with crowds, so the fight sequences feel epic and intense, and the other crowd scenes are genuinely awe-inspiring
Memorable motifs in the score!
Love going into a movie cold like this and having such a great experience. Gotta check out part 2 soon
Stray Thoughts
- the singer at the tsar’s anointment sounds like the singer of the eyes wide shut orgy music
- The dude with the sunglasses with only one frame — no way that existed in the 16th century, right?
- The smoke rolling in reverse from explosives is hypnotic
- The framing of his giant head looking onto the tiny crowd
- There’s a through line from this to the Lord of the Rings movies with approach to scale and heightened grandiosity of character entrances