Eisenstein: The Sound Years (Criterion) (2008)

item info

category: movies > dvds

director: Sergei Eisenstein

studio: Criterion Collection

year: 2008

number of discs: 2

region: 1

tags: Eisenstein: The Sound Years Criterion

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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.

contains:

Alexander Nevsky
Sergei Eisenstein, 1938
Sergei Eisenstein drew on history, Russian folk narratives, and the techniques of Walt Disney to create this broadly painted epic of Russian resilience, the story of Teutonic knights vanquished by Prince Alexander Nevsky’s tactical brilliance.

Ivan the Terrible, Part I
Sergei Eisenstein, 1944
Visually stunning and powerfully acted, Ivan the Terrible charts the rise to power and descent into terror of this veritable dictator.

Ivan the Terrible, Part II
Sergei Eisenstein, 1958
Visually stunning and powerfully acted, Ivan the Terrible charts the rise to power and descent into terror of this veritable dictator. Stalin detested the portrait in the second film—with its summary executions and secret police—and promptly banned it.