Today we watched another one of Eisenstein’s later sound films, Ivan the Terrible (1944). Throughout Eisenstein life he was fascinated with Japanese Kabuki theatre, When you watch Ivan the Terrible you see that this film uses the same aspects of Kabuki theatre. Kabuki theatre is composed of all different types of elements that help it form its picture, some of these else are, Dramatic Content, Dance, Costume, Make-up, Theatre Design, and Actor/Audience Relationship. Kabuki plays are about historical events, love relationships, and a combination of dramatic dialogue and dance. Ivan the Terrible used a lot of the same aspects as Kabuki theatre and you can see that Eisenstein used dramatic costumes, make up, hair styles, and all different types of bazar outfits to make the actors stick out. Even though this film style of acting resembles Kabuki theatre, to me this film resembled how acting was in silent films, the reason why I say that is because Eisenstein has the actors using over dramatic actions, facials expressions, movements etc. He also used the lighting in this movie to paint a picture for the audience without the actors even having to say a word. This film was a great film, and uses a lot of different types of methods that I was surprised to see in such an early time period.
I noticed this too. He has the actors overact which helps convey more of a message than merely words can do.
ReplyDeleteI agree that he directed his actors in more of a silent film type of style, I think that's something that stuck with him
ReplyDeleteThough the style of acting is not nearly as extreme in Alexander Nevsky. Not sure if he was experimenting...or returning to the silent-film style...or whether he was simply evolving into a new style. He died prematurely of a heart attack a not long after filming *Ivan*, so we will never know for certain...
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