IVAN THE TERRIBLE is a densely layered, highly conflicted portrayal of a great historical figure. In this multimedia essay, University of Chicago art-history professor Yuri Tsivian examines how Eisenstein—utilizing psychoanalysis, Japanese woodcuts, and images of Jesus Christ—created one of the most extreme visual surfaces in the history of film.
Professor David Bordwell explores the “expressive movement” that animates one of Sergei Eisenstein’s boldest experiments in film form, demonstrating how the director draws on the language of dance and painting.
