THIS THING OF DARKNESS THIS THING OF DARKNESS EISENSTEIN’S IVAN THE TERRIBLE IN STALIN’S RUSSIA Joan Neuberger CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London Cornell University Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Office of the President at The University of Texas at Austin, which provided funds toward the publication of this book. Copyright © 2019 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2019 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Neuberger, Joan, 1953– author. Title: This thing of darkness : Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia / Joan Neuberger. Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018035596 (print) | LCCN 2018036651 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501732775 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501732782 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501732768 | ISBN 9781501732768 (cloth; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Ivan Groznyi (Motion picture) | Eisenstein, Sergei, 1898–1948—Criticism and interpretation. | Stalin, Joseph, 1878–1953—Influence. | Ivan IV, Czar of Russia, 1530–1584—In motion pictures. | Motion pictures—Political aspects—Soviet Union. Classification: LCC PN1997.I77 (ebook) | LCC PN1997.I77 N484 2019 (print) | DDC 791.43/72—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035596 Cover illustration: Sergei Eisenstein directing Nikolai Cherkasov in preparation for The Confession in Part III (RGALI, 1923/2/133/14, used by permission). This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine. —William Shakespeare, T he Tempest Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Transliteration, Translations, and Citations xv List of Abbreviations xvii Introduction 1 1. The Potholed Path: I van in Production 26 2. Shifts in Time: Ivan as History 72 3. Power Personified: Ivan as Biography 123 4. Power Projected: Ivan as Fugue 187 5. How to Do It: I van as Polyphonic Montage 240 6. The Official Reception: I van as Triumph and Nightmare 304 Conclusion 336 Notes 347 Bibliography 379 Index 397 Illustrations 1.1 Early drawing, February 9, 1941 34 1.2 Ivan’s confession 35 1.3 Mikhail Romm playing Elizabeth I 50 1.4 On the set in overcoats 58 2.1 Lev Indenbom 78 2.2 Maliuta: the prey becomes the predator 99 2.3 Ivan asserts his power 103 2.4 Finale: “Apotheosis of Ivan” or “Alone?” 120 3.1 “I’m dying. Beware the boyars.” 133 3.2 “Ivan decides to completely annihilate the feudal landlords” 140 3.3 Oath of the Oprichniki: “The Chancery of the Oprichnina” 141 3.4 Oath of the Oprichniki: Fedka 142 3.5 “Too few” 147 3.6 “ Principe de composition pour certains scènes ” 158 3.7 The armillary sphere 160 3.8 Efrosinia and the covered chalice 164 3.9 Icons 167 4.1 “Fedka in a sarafan” 207 4.2 Anastasia and Efrosinia 217 4.3 Sigismund, his courtiers, and the source of high shoulders 223 4.4 “Sigismund—absoluement efféminé—très gracieux (très Henri III)” 226 4.5 Henri III, after François Clouet, c. 1581 227 4.6 Elizabeth at court 231 5.1 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Imaginary Prisons , no. 14 250 5.2 Gedanken zur musik, 1938 258 5.3 Deathbed: Is Ivan begging, defiant, or dead? 266 5.4 Moskvin and Eisenstein on the set 273 5.5 Lost in thought 284 5.6 The last rites 284 ix