USSR
No quiet on the eastern front: “Stalingrad”
March 11, 2014Based loosely on Soviet author Vasily Grossman's novel, "Life and Fate," the film Stalingrad is a treatment of World War II's "bloodiest battle in human history."
Read more
Semiotic Weapons: Advertising is the focus of two recent films.
March 15, 2013Two very different foreign films focus on the advertising industry. They intersect at the idea that advertising feeds upon our innate desire for happiness.
Read more
Left on the bookshelf: “My Discovery of America”
November 20, 2012American audiences may find the travel narrative of the three months Vladimir Mayakovsky spent in the Western hemisphere in 1925 to be a more accessible literary contribution.
Read more
Six incredibly bad films inspired by the Cold War
November 21, 2011For some filmmakers, the Cold War became a convenient excuse for moronic plotlines, insufferable jingoism, and unapologetically reactionary politics.
Read more
Brushes sharp as bayonets: Soviet artists helped win WWII
September 12, 2011Review: The new blockbuster art exhibit "Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945" at The Art Institute of Chicago unveils truth about USSR's contribution to Allied victory.
Read more