Cold War Cinema

The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss Sidney Lumet's 1964 film Fail Safe, a powerful (and bold) independent Hollywood production that paints a horrific picture of a potential nuclear war. The film was released the same year as Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and has remained in its shadow, unfairly, ever since. In this episode we discuss: Sidney Lumut's fascinating and underrated cinematic career The political and historical context of Fail Safe (1964), a film that captures the paranoia of nuclear proliferation The film's critique of war technology and how that maps onto our current era of AI-assisted warfare. The limits of Hollywood storrytelling for a truly radical critique of US imperialism _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Jason recommends the 1992 book Signatures of the Visible by Fredric Jameson. Paul recommends the novel Advise and Consent by Allen Drury and Otto Preminger's 1962 film adaptiion Avise & Consent. Tony recommends the book Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality by Fredric Jameson and W.E.B. Du Bois's book Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. _____________________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Jason also writes an infrequent newletter on left-wing cinema at Notes on Radical Cinema. Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas, or on Letterboxed at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Happy listening!

In this bonus episode, cohost Jason Christian interviews the independent filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell. Besides being a filmmaker, Bell is a board of director of the streaming co-op MeansTV. Bell's archival doc series about George W. Bush's presidency, Miss Me Yet, can be watched on MeansTV and received praise from numerous outlets such as The Baffler, AV Club, and Filmmaker magazine. His third feature Failed State premiered at Torino Film Festival and is continuing to screen across the world. His newest documentary short, Attention Shoppers, features Abby Martin and can be viewed on MeansTV. His latest narrative short, The Confection, is now playing the festival circuit. In the episode, Christopher elaborates on his filmmaking process, especially making Miss Me Yet and Attention Shoppers, and how he used footage from the YouTube channel Vampire Robot to make the latter. Further, Christpher and Jason reflect on the political climate during the Bush years and today, and the similarities and differences between each era. If you subscribe to MeansTV, and use the promo code CHRISBELL, you'll get 10% off! On this episode: Christopher recommends Scott Noble's documentary The Power Principle: Corporate Empire and the Rise of the National Security State (2012), Ian Bell's 2025 documentary WTO/99, Tyler Rubenfeld's short horror film Another Sinking Sun (2023), and the book The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow: The Dark History of American Orphanhood, by Kristen Martin. Jason recommends the podcast Blowback, particular Season One about the Iraq War. Follow Christopher Jason Christopher Bell on X (formerly Twitter): @UpdateTheGrids. Follow Jason Christian on X (formerly Twitter): @JasonAChristian. Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.

"Normal people want the basic human rights that accompany citizenship in any sovereign nation. I don't… I don't live anywhere; I'm not a citizen at all. I don't need my human rights." The Cold War Cinema team is back with special guest Matthew Ellis, a researcher, artist, and cohost of the Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Movie Film Podcast, for a special bonus episode covering Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme. Recently released on home video and streaming, the film follows the cunning, reprobate industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda (Bencio Del Toro) as he swindles his way into a massive infrastructure deal in the country of Upper Independent Phoenicia. Join Matthew Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: The Phoenician Scheme's connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations. How Anderson's film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project. The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson's hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations. _____________________ Each episode features book and film recommendations for further exploration. On this episode: Matthew recommends Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later. Paul recommends Matt Zoller Seitz's The Wes Anderson Collection and Louis Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes Towards an Investigation." Tony recommends Carpenter's Gothic by William Gaddis. Jason recommends The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World by Vijay Prashad. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Happy listening!

"I used to think there was one America, but there are two. There's no place for me in McPherson's and Hearst's America, but there is in Lincoln's and Roosevelts!" This week on Cold War Cinema, we discuss Mikhaill Romm's 1948 drama, The Russian Question. In this Soviet production, winner of the 1948 Stalin Prize and based on a play of the same name by Konstantin Siminov, a mendacious newspaper editor sends columnist Harry Smith to the Soviet Union to write a book critical of socialism. But when the principled columnist returns to the United States, he quickly realizes that the American press intends to turn the Russian question—whether the Russians want war—into a statement with dangerous geopolitical ramifications. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we consider: The role of editing or montage in the construction of political critiques in aesthetic form Why the President of the Motion Picture Association called this a "sneering, lying attack on the United States" and an "open bid to stir contempt and hatred for America on the part of the Russian audiences," and why he got it all wrong How a Soviet film about a sensationalist American news media helps us understand our current political moment _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Paul recommends Clarence Brown's 1949 drama Intruder in the Dust. Tony recommends Langston Hughes 1961 collection, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Jason recommends Mikhail Romm's 1961 drama Nine Days in One Year. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.

This is a crossover episode with The Socialist Shelf podcast. Our co-host Jason and his wife, Ankita, were invited on the Socialist Shelf to dicuss a radical cinema educational project they run in Atlanta called Resistance Cinema, as well as the role that radical cinema plays in social movemets. Ankita is a Bollywood expert and the co-host of the The Desi Gaze, a podcast about overlooked Hindi cinema. We hope you enjoy this show! Don't forget to subscribe to The Socialist Shelf and The Desi Gaze, and leave us a review! Jason's article referenced in the podcast is a review of the book Revolution in 35mm, co-edited by Andrew Nette and Samm Deighan. Jacob, from The Socialist Shelf, has written a novel, and you can pre-order it here. Music for The Socialist Shelf by Solo Monk (@SoloMonk256 on Twitter).

Join hosts Jason, Tony, and our new co-host, Paul, on Episode One of Season Two! On this episode we discuss Sergei Eisenstein's epic two-part Soviet masterpiece Ivan the Terrible, released in 1945 and 1958 respectively. The films were commissioned by Joseph Stalin in 1941 as a means to rehabilitate Ivan the Terrible's image for a contemporary Soviet audience. Stalin celebrated Part 1, but the state banned Part 2. A third part had been in the works, but was abandoned by Eisenstein after the suppression of the second part. Our discussion touches on this history and many other topics, including Soviet montage, dialectical art construction, Eisenstein's queerness, his fraught relationship with Stalin, and more. This is the first episode of a new format in which we take book or movie recommendations from each of us, which are found below: Tony's book recommendations: Sergei Eisenstein: A Life in Conflict by Ronald Bergan (2016) Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, edited by Philip Rosen (1986) Film Form: Essays in Film Theory by Sergei Eisenstein (1949) Paul's book and film recommendations: This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible in Stalinist Russia by Joan Neuberger (2019) Ivan the Terrible by Joan Neuberger Battleship Potemkin (1925; dir. Sergei Eisenstein) Jason's movie recommendations: Come and See (1985; dir. Elem Klimov) The Ascent (1977; dir. Larisa Shepitko) Wings (1966; dir. Larisa Shepitko) Please subscribe to the podcast, and don't forget to leave a review! Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonAChristian and Anthony at @tonyjballas; follow Paul on BlueSky at @ptklein.com. Paul writes about movies at www.howtoreadmovies.com. Paul's handle on Letterboxd is https://letterboxd.com/ptklein/; Jason's is https://letterboxd.com/exilemagic/. Our logo is by Jason Christian The theme music for this episode and all forthcoming episodes is by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Please drop us a line anytime at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. Happy listening!

Grab your sandals and sword and get philosophical with Jason, Tony, and our guest Paul Klein, as we unpack the wonders of Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960). The film was adapted from Howard Fast's novel of the same title by Dalton Trumbo, and it is considered a major step in the end of the notorious Hollywood blacklist. The film is also read as an allegory for civil rights stuggles, the HUAC hearings, and "Third World" struggles. All of this and more is discussed in the episode. Books and articles mentioned: Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War by Frances Stonor Saunders The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten by Gerald Horne Aesthetic Theory by Theodor Adorno "Fascinating Fascism" by Susan Sontag As always, please suscribe to the podcast, and don't forget to leave a review! And follow Jason on Twitter (X) at @JasonAChristian, Anthony at @tonyjballas, and Paul at @ptklein, and the same handles at BlueSky. Paul's handle on Letterboxd is https://letterboxd.com/ptklein/; Jason's is https://letterboxd.com/exilemagic/. Our logo is by Jason Christian The theme music for this episode and all forthcoming episodes is by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt). Please drop us a line at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. Happy listening!

Join us for our first ever interview with the Australian writer and scholar, Andrew Nette, who, along with the film historian Samm Deighan, co-edited the new book Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance in Cinema from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990, published by PM Press. Nette is an author of fiction and nonfiction. He is coeditor of three previous books for PM Press, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980; Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980; and Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985. His writing on film, books, and culture has appeared in a variety of print and online publications. He has also contributed video and print essays and commentaries to a number of DVD/Blu-ray releases. He writes a regular newsletter under his name on Substack. Follow him on Twitter (X), Instagram, and Bluesky: @pulpcurry. Nette is also on Letterboxd, and he made a list of all 353 films mentioned in Revolution in 35mm. As always please subscribe to the podcast, and don't forget to leave us a review! Send us tips or ideas or anything else at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com. We hope you enjoy!