the (true-ish) love story of Ivan the Terrible and Fyodor Basmanov [from "Ivan the Terrible" (1945)]

Описание: Huge "my dad sold me to one direction" wattpad vibes in this one.

Ivan the Terrible (1945) is a two-part dramatization of the life of the title character, commissioned by Joseph Stalin, who was a big fan of the guy. It was originally supposed to be three parts, but director Sergei Eisenstein died partway through filming, supposedly due to the extreme stress that the project put him under. However, this film was so innovative and beautifully constructed that it revolutionized cinema and is still taught in film schools today. Its also gay as hell. Given that Ivan the Terrible was widely rumored to be bisexual, Eisenstein intended for it to be queercoded from the beginning, and his original mockups of the scenes (some added below) had explicit gay romance/sexuality.

SHOUTOUT TO MAYA GARCIA FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE DISSERTATION ON THIS TOPIC THANK YOU DEITY 👑

if you're feeling curious, read it here! (the movie is discussed in chapter 3, page 118): https:// drive.google.com/file/d/1C_a0if9efjXD5RmSSDcWbrNl6nedWccc/view?usp=sharing
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EISENSTIEN'S SECRET (and gayer) ROUGH DRAFTS OF SCENES FROM PART 2 (100% real):

BEDROOM SCENE (3:50) -- p 172 in dissertation
"In front of the icon - a cup.
'Poisoned...' he whispers.
He shouts: 'They poisoned my innocent dove?!'
[...]
Ivan is about to faint.
Feodor catches him.
He looks into Ivan's eyes:
'Be firm...'
'Her words!'
'I will be her for you!'
'Son!'
He kisses him on the lips
lets go of him
''You're my son, Feodor!'
Feodor whispers:
'Father...'
Ivan shouts:
'For Anastasia we will demand the traitors' blood!'
He rushes off with Feodor."


DANCE SCENE (6:15) -- p 164 of dissertation
"And now for the tsar's amusement dances Fedka, dressed up as Latishka. [female sparrow/'sexually available woman']

Fedka hears the tsar's words:
'I'm a poor abandoned orphan, there's no one to pity me...'

Feodor takes offense.
Jealousy takes Basmanov:
The tsar's closeness to Vladimir worries him.
His eyes burn with alarm.

Half-squinting, Ivan glances at him.
He winks.
Basmanov is mollified: he understands that the tsar is playing a game.
And so he leaves in a whirlwind, fiercer than before
Fiercer than before the cries of 'goida! goida!'
Fiercer than before the roaring and the dancing."

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This movie aged like: quality sauerkraut

This film was commissioned by Stalin himself, who was a big fan of Ivan the Terrible. There's a bunch of documentation of director + writer Sergei Eisenstein talking to his peers about what he could include in the script without putting himself in danger, and text was gradually turned into subtext. So yeah this movie is so heavily censored that it'll probably be watchable forever.