Jan 7th
Alexander Nevsky**
(USSR 1938)
Mosfilm. 112m. bw

In 1242 Prince Alexander of Novgorod defies the Swedes and the Mongols and later the Germans in battle.
Ushering in wintry 2021 with this icy epic, with its obvious propaganda allusions to Stalin defying Hitler (yet made just a year before the infamous Nazi-Soviet pact), and some primitive sound and staging, but brilliant stylized sequences that were influential, particularly for Olivier's Henry V.

Written by: Sergei Eisenstein, Pyotr Pavlenkov.
Producer: Igor Vakar.
Directors: Sergei Eisenstein, Dmitri Vasilyev.
Starring: Nikolay Cherkasov, Valentina Ivashova, Nikolay Okhlopov, Andrei Oleksich, Dmitry Orlov.
Photograpahy: Eduard Tisse.
Music: Sergei Prokofiev.

The Empire Strikes Back also borrowed some its ice battle imagery from Alexander Nevsky