One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (film)

(Redirected from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970 film)) 1970 British film

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Italian theatrical poster
Directed by	Caspar Wrede
Screenplay by	Ronald Harwood
Based on	One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Produced by	Caspar Wrede
Starring	Tom Courtenay Alfred Burke James Maxwell Eric Thompson
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Edited by	Thelma Connell
Music by	Arne Nordheim
Production companies	Group W Films Leontes Films Norsk Film A/S
Distributed by	Kommunenes Filmcentral (Norway) Cinerama Releasing Corporation (UK and US)
Release dates	7 December 1970 (1970-12-07) (Sweden) 16 May 1971 (1971-05-16) (United States)
Running time	105 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom Norway United States
Language	English

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Norwegian: En dag i Ivan Denisovitsj' liv) is a 1970 biographical drama film based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn with the same name.

Plot

The film stars Tom Courtenay as the title character, a prisoner in the Soviet gulag system in the 1950s who endures a long prison sentence. It tells of a routine day in his life.

Cast

Tom Courtenay as Ivan Denisovich Shukhov
Espen Skjønberg as Tiurin
Alf Malland as Fetiukov
Frimann Falck Clausen as Senka
Jo Skønberg as Gopchik
Odd Jan Sandsdalen [no] as Eino
Torstein Rustdal as Vaino
James Maxwell as Captain
Alfred Burke as Alyosha
Eric Thompson as Tsetzar
John Cording as Pavlo
Matthew Guinness as Kilgas
Roy Bjørnstad
Paul Connell
Sverre Hansen
Wolfe Morris
Kjell Stormoen
Caspar Wrede

Reception

Roger Greenspun, in a respectful but unenthusiastic review for The New York Times, spoke highly of the cinematography, the "intelligent exploitation of realistic locations," and "estimable performances" by Courtenay and Skjonberg, but said that the movie carries "the aura of an almost official view of high quality, as if this were how an important movie made from an important novel ought to look."

Banned in Finland

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Finnish film director Jörn Donner tried to get the film to Finland, but the Finnish Board of Film banned the showing of the film. In 1972, Donner complained to the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland. The Supreme Administrative Court voted for the banning 5–4 on 28 February 1972. In 1972 and 1974, Swedish television showed the film, and the Swedish television mast in Åland was shut down during the movie to prevent Finns from seeing the film.

The director of the Finnish Board of Film, Jerker Eeriksson, said that the ban of the film was political because it harmed Finnish–Soviet relations. The director, Caspar Wrede, who then lived in England, refused to campaign against the ban to avoid bad publicity abroad.

The film was shown in Finland in 1993 and 1994 in the Orion movie theater in Helsinki, as well as in the cinema club in Vaasa. Finnish television showed the film in 1996 on the TV1 YLE channel.

Bibliography

Hellman, Ben; Rogachevskii, Andrei (2010). Filming the Unfilmable : Casper Wrede's "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich". Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag. ISBN 9783838200446.

References

Greenspun, Roger (May 17, 1971). "Film 'Ivan Denisovich' Best at Long Distance". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2021.

External links

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich at IMDb
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich at the Swedish Film Institute Database
Film trailer on YouTube
Donner: Solzhenitsyn oli räjähde: The interview of Jörn Donner about the prohibition of the film in Finland.

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