From Turner Classic Movies:
On the day of his coronation as the first Tsar of Russia, the former archduke of Moscow, Ivan IV (Nikolai Cherkasov), finds himself inheriting a deeply troubled empire. The Russian people are divided into estranged clans including the Tartars and the aristocratic boyars, led by the evil, black-cloaked princess and Ivan’s aunt Euphrosinia Staritskaya (Serafima Birman).Read More »
From Criterion Collection:
Eisenstein drew on history, Russian folk narratives, and the techniques of Walt Disney to create this broadly painted epic of Russian resilience. This story of Teutonic knights vanquished by Prince Alexander Nevsky’s tactical brilliance resonated deeply with a Soviet Union concerned with the rise of Nazi Germany. Widely imitated—most notably by Laurence Olivier’s Battle of Agincourt re-creation for Henry V —the Battle on the Ice scene remains one of the most famous audio-visual experiments in film history, perfectly blending action with the rousing score of Sergei Prokofiev.Read More »
Quote:
The great Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein, whose Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible stand as masterpieces of world cinema, is the subject of this eccentric and puzzling production. Though based on memoirs Eisenstein wrote before his death in 1948, most of this film is barely a documentary at all, but rather a composite of images, many of which are fascinating and arresting. Eisenstein himself was known for startling and memorable images (perhaps the most famous of which is the shot of the baby carriage rolling down the steps in Potemkin), so memorializing him with clips from his own films interspersed with readings from his memoirs seems somewhat appropriate. But the voice-over in Russian (with English subtitles) is quite sparse, and at times the images onscreen, which include clips from Buster Keaton films and Hollywood musicals from the 1930s, are utterly mystifying.. –Robert J. McNamaraRead More »
Description: This is not Eisenstein’s film, but a series of montage lessons by V. Chubisov using Eisenstein’s films for examples…
levchin specifies
Quote:
that the filmmaker is Vadim CHUBASOV, not Chubisov, who taught at the Kiev Theater/TV/Film Institute for many years, and died recently. Moreover, the title of this film is Lessons in Editing, not A Montage Lesson.
No one seems to know when it was made. Judging by the video style it must be the ’80s. Clearly this is an instructional film, commissioned and produced by the Karpenko-Kary film school in Kiev.
Credits, Production and Release Information
Director, Scenario: Vadim Chubasov
Comissioned and produced by: Karpenko-Kary film school (Kiev)Read More »