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Poster for Ivan the Terrible, Part I

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

1944 · 95 min

A solemn, visually striking historical drama that feels like a series of intense, theatrical tableaux, demanding close attention.

Overview
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • melancholicstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • power
  • betrayal
  • politics
  • identity
  • isolation
Places
  • big city
  • single country house
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
  • serialised
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language none
  • Violence mild
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror2
Humour1
Realism6
Romance2
Tension7
Darkness7
Complexity8
Emotional weight7

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, history
Directed by
Sergei Eisenstein
Written by
Sergei Eisenstein
Starring
Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov, Amvrosii Buchma, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Pavel Kadochnikov
Music
Sergei Prokofiev
Cinematography
Andrey Moskvin, Eduard Tisse
Runtime
95 min
Country
Soviet Union
Languages
Russian

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