Ivan the Terrible [study extract]

One of a series of short extracts from feature films intended for study of cinema technique. Ivan is portrayed as a cruel tyrant, a product of Renaissance times in “an epoch fraught with passion and blood”, struggling to unify Russia. In this excerpt Ivan is crowned Tsar of Russia in the Cathedral. Courtiers and Ambassadors discuss his popularity; there are factions for and against him. Nothing mars the ceremony, however, as the bass singer intones a liturgy, and Ivan is ceremonially showered with coins.