This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible in Stalin's Russia

"Yes, it is. Like quite a few of the books that ended up on the shortlist it’s multi-disciplinary. On the one hand, it’s history . On the other hand, you can’t write the book without understanding cinematography and the particular context in which the film was being made, as well as the 16th century. It’s literature, it’s cinema, it’s history, it’s a little bit of psychology: all of that comes together. And these are complex issues. If you look, for example, at what Eisenstein does in terms of the set decoration it’s mind boggling. You really have to take a course to understand what is there and the symbolism and why it is important and what he is trying to say. When Joan was working on the book (I happen to know the author and have listened to her presentations at academic conferences), I thought it would be a wonderful book, but that the number of people who would read it might be very limited. But Joan did a very good job of really presenting it in a way that appeals to a broader audience. “It’s amazing how many good books are out there” Again, the question is the same one that Brian asks in his book. Here is an artist at the court of a dictator. As an artist he depends on that dictator, even more than Sholokhov does. To make a film you need funding, you need infrastructure, all sorts of things. Eisenstein is also an artist who is really married to the cause, with Battleship Potemkin and other films. He is a symbol of Soviet cinema, making films about the revolution, promoting it and legitimizing it. He really does a lot of things that Stalin likes. But he remains an artist. I interviewed Joan and I said, ‘It’s about subversion, maybe?’ and she said, ‘No, it’s more than that. Everyone talks about subversion.’ In the second part of Ivan the Terrible , more than in the previous part, he really struggles with issues of authority, power, corruption of power, and so on and so forth. And eventually the film is shelved. They don’t show it. From that point of view, it’s a trajectory different from Sholokhov’s. Sholokhov was never really shelved. It’s another trajectory of how a talent functions and tries to survive being dependent on the dictator, but also being in opposition to the dictator. No, it wasn’t destroyed. It was shown again. It’s a different personal story but, again, it is about the relationship of an individual and a regime. It’s the subject of most of the books on our list and part of Sergei Medvedev’s personal story."