One Paragraph Movie Review: Ivan the Terrible Part 1

Two hundred and sixty-seventh film: Ivan the Terrible Part 1, an epic, melodramatic Russian film from 1944 that is exactly as light and whimsical as you’d expect from a Russian movie about a ruthless tsar. This thing has fantastic shadows, astounding facial expressions, sparkly costumes, very tall hats and gargantuan ruffs, but those marvellous things are fighting against shouting hammy actors and a glacial pace. To make the time go faster I Googled during to flesh out the gaps — considerable — in my historical knowledge of Ivan, but to give you an idea of how interested I was, I spent most of the time trying to research why the archway entrances to the rooms in the movie were so low, causing anyone coming or going to stoop low and shuffle. Very difficult to storm out of a room in a huff, which a lot of characters clearly wanted to. Still. Googling architecture. Not the sign of an interesting movie. Two big furry hats out of five.