#876 Re: Price, pjesme, intervjui...
Posted: 10/08/2008 16:54
A TSAR IS BORN
From the transcript of a February 26, 1947, conversation between Joseph Stalin, Soviet Foreign Minister Viacheslav Molotov, Secretary of the Central Committee Andrei Zhdanov, film director Sergei Eisenstein, and actor Nikolai Cherkasov. Eisenstein was then directing the two-part Ivan the Terrible, with Cherkasov in the title role. Part I was released in 1944; Part II was delayed until 1958 because Stalin banned it. The transcript is included in Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents,1917-1953, by Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko, published by Yale University Press this fall (2007). Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz.
JOSEPH STALIN: Have you studied history?
SERGEI EISENSTEIN: More or less-
STALIN: More or less? I know a thing or two about history. The tsar seems indecisive in your film,like Hamlet. Everyone suggests to him what should be done, but he can't make a decision himself. Ivan the Terrible's wisdom was to insist on a national point of view and not to allow foreigners into his country. Peter I was also a great sovereign, but he treated foreigners too liberally and opened the gates too wide,allowing the Germanizing of Russia. Catherine allowed this even more. Was the court of Alexander I really a Russian court? Was the court of Nicholas I? No. They were German courts. Ivan the Terrible's remarkable enterprise was to introduce a state monopoly on foreign trade. Ivan the Terrible was the first to introduce it; Lenin was the second.
ANDREI ZHDANOV: Your Ivan the Terrible came out looking like a neurasthenic.
STALIN: You need to depict historical figures correctly.For instance, it's wrong that Ivan the Terrible kisses his wife for so long. In those days,that wasn't allowed. And Ivan the Terrible was very cruel-you can show that-but you have to show why it was essential. One of Ivan's mistakes was that he didn't finish off the five major feudal families. If he had wiped them out, there would never have been a Time of Troubles.But he would execute someone and then spend a long time repenting and praying. God hindered him in this matter. He should have been more decisive. Of course, we aren't very good Christians, but we can't deny the progressive role of Christianity at a certain stage of our history. It meant the Russian state was tuming around to close ranks with the West instead
of orienting itself with the East.
ZHDANOV: The film has too much misuse of religious rituals.
VIACHESLAV MOLOTOV: This lends a patina of mysticism to the film, which should not be emphasized so strongly.
STALIN: Historical images have to be depicted truthfully. A director can retreat from history -he has to work with his imagination-but he can vary only within the limits of the style of the historical era. The portrayal of Vladimir Staritsky is very fine. He was very good at catching flies. What a man! A future tsar, and he catches flies with his hands! You have to give details like that. They reveal the essence of a man.
NIKOLAI CHERKASOV: Can the killing of Staritsky be left in the screenplay?
STALIN: You can leave it. There were killings.
MOLOTOV: Repressions in general can and should be shown, but it has to be shown why they were committed, in the name of what.
EISENSTEIN: Several moments succeeded, and that gives me confidence that we can do the second part, too.
STALIN: We're not talking about what succeeded and what was good. Right now, we're talking only about the movie's shortcomings.
EISENSTElN: Are there going to be any other special instructions for the movie?
STALIN: I'm not giving you instructions, I'm expressing a viewer's thoughts.
From the transcript of a February 26, 1947, conversation between Joseph Stalin, Soviet Foreign Minister Viacheslav Molotov, Secretary of the Central Committee Andrei Zhdanov, film director Sergei Eisenstein, and actor Nikolai Cherkasov. Eisenstein was then directing the two-part Ivan the Terrible, with Cherkasov in the title role. Part I was released in 1944; Part II was delayed until 1958 because Stalin banned it. The transcript is included in Soviet Culture and Power: A History in Documents,1917-1953, by Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko, published by Yale University Press this fall (2007). Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz.
JOSEPH STALIN: Have you studied history?
SERGEI EISENSTEIN: More or less-
STALIN: More or less? I know a thing or two about history. The tsar seems indecisive in your film,like Hamlet. Everyone suggests to him what should be done, but he can't make a decision himself. Ivan the Terrible's wisdom was to insist on a national point of view and not to allow foreigners into his country. Peter I was also a great sovereign, but he treated foreigners too liberally and opened the gates too wide,allowing the Germanizing of Russia. Catherine allowed this even more. Was the court of Alexander I really a Russian court? Was the court of Nicholas I? No. They were German courts. Ivan the Terrible's remarkable enterprise was to introduce a state monopoly on foreign trade. Ivan the Terrible was the first to introduce it; Lenin was the second.
ANDREI ZHDANOV: Your Ivan the Terrible came out looking like a neurasthenic.
STALIN: You need to depict historical figures correctly.For instance, it's wrong that Ivan the Terrible kisses his wife for so long. In those days,that wasn't allowed. And Ivan the Terrible was very cruel-you can show that-but you have to show why it was essential. One of Ivan's mistakes was that he didn't finish off the five major feudal families. If he had wiped them out, there would never have been a Time of Troubles.But he would execute someone and then spend a long time repenting and praying. God hindered him in this matter. He should have been more decisive. Of course, we aren't very good Christians, but we can't deny the progressive role of Christianity at a certain stage of our history. It meant the Russian state was tuming around to close ranks with the West instead
of orienting itself with the East.
ZHDANOV: The film has too much misuse of religious rituals.
VIACHESLAV MOLOTOV: This lends a patina of mysticism to the film, which should not be emphasized so strongly.
STALIN: Historical images have to be depicted truthfully. A director can retreat from history -he has to work with his imagination-but he can vary only within the limits of the style of the historical era. The portrayal of Vladimir Staritsky is very fine. He was very good at catching flies. What a man! A future tsar, and he catches flies with his hands! You have to give details like that. They reveal the essence of a man.
NIKOLAI CHERKASOV: Can the killing of Staritsky be left in the screenplay?
STALIN: You can leave it. There were killings.
MOLOTOV: Repressions in general can and should be shown, but it has to be shown why they were committed, in the name of what.
EISENSTEIN: Several moments succeeded, and that gives me confidence that we can do the second part, too.
STALIN: We're not talking about what succeeded and what was good. Right now, we're talking only about the movie's shortcomings.
EISENSTElN: Are there going to be any other special instructions for the movie?
STALIN: I'm not giving you instructions, I'm expressing a viewer's thoughts.
