Reformer and Outstanding Politician or Rake on a Metaphysical Scale. Two Portraits of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russian Cinema

Abstract

The text is an attempt to define the specificity of portraits of the first Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, in the field of historiography and culture, including popular culture. This characteristic is referred then to the analysis of two films – S. Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible (1944-1946) and P. Lungin’s Tsar (2009). These films depict two different interpretations of the historical figure presented above all in Russian discourse. On the one hand (Eisenstein), Ivan is seen as a prominent politician engaged in a state-building strategy; on the other (Lungin), he is above all a crazy criminal.