One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ***½ (1970, Tom Courtenay, Espen Skjønberg, Alf Malland, Alfred Burke, James Maxwell, Eric Thompson, Matthew Guinness) – Classic Movie Review 10,719

Writer-producer-director Casper Wrede’s 1970 Norwegian biographical drama One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stars Tom Courtenay, who is remarkable as Ivan Denisovich, the prisoner serving a harsh sentence of 10 years in a 1950s Siberian labour camp. He is innocent but accused of being a spy after being captured by the Germans in World War Two.

Wrede’s film is a careful, detailed, beautifully photographed version of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novel, adapted for the screen by Ronald Harwood, shot in Eastmancolor by Sven Nykvist and scored by Arne Nordheim.

Alfred Burke and James Maxwell, as co-prisoners, also engage the sympathy too, which is essential in a film that, by its nature, is so very hard to watch.

It is made in Norway.

Also in the cast are Espen Skjønberg, Alf Malland, Eric Thompson, Matthew Guinness, John Cording, and Wolfe Morris.

The Finnish Board of Film banned the showing of the film in Finland, saying it harmed Finnish-Soviet relations.

An earlier TV version (1963) starred Jason Robards Jr.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,719

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