Lee Hester wrote:

> I suspect no one has pointed out the most obvious "Music used in Film"
> precisely because it is so obvious.
>
> Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, written for the Sergei Eisenstein film of
> the same name and their continued collaboration in Ivan the Terrible.
>
> Nevsky in particular, remains for me the ultimate blending of music
> and movie, as both Eisenstein and Prokofiev truly collaborated...
> music and movie made together.  Rather than the music being written
> to conform to the movie, there are supposedly sequences where Prokofiev's
> music inspired the Eisenstein's filming.

According to Alex Ross's "The Rest Is Noise", Prokofiev's music dictated
Eisenstein's final edit in some scenes of Nevsky.  Stalin loved the film
because that synthesis of music and action was what he wanted.  When the
first Stalin prizes were handed out in 1940 Nevsky got one.  When it
came to Ivan The Terrible however (Stalin's idol) Eisenstein and Prokofiev
were treading on thin ice.  Part one was festive and got another Stalin
prize; part two was bloody and wasn't shown in the cinemas.  "Ivan the
Terrible was very cruel," Stalin told Eisenstein; "You can show he was
cruel.  But you must show why he needed to be cruel." Eisenstein was
lucky to die a natural death; Meyerhold was murdered (along with many
other great artists).  Ross's book is full of this kind of detail.

Donald Clarke <[log in to unmask]>

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