Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor [Ivan Groznyy: Part II] (1958)

(Criterion Streaming, December 2022) You can go and take a look at my review of Ivan Groznyy Part I to largely know how I feel about this Part II. Although I did like this one a bit better—it moves more, it’s not stuck in a dark room with people blathering endlessly, and it’s a bit less adoring of its subject Ivan IV. On the other hand, those are the qualities that led to the film being locked up for ten years, Stalin not being happy with the result. (Completed in 1946, the film was finally released in 1958, ten years after writer-director Sergei Eisenstein’s death.)  A few colour sequences appear toward the end of the film, breaking some of its monotony. I’m really just logging this as “seen”—with no intention of revisiting it.