Category Archives: Russians

William Hurt Listens To Stanislavski: “Breathe The Ethic Into The Play”

I paid attention to a Fresh Air interview this morning when I heard William Hurt talk about an ethical approach to the craft of acting. He described the process he followed to prepare for a single scene in the film A History of Violence, which he resists calling a cameo, for which he received an Oscar nomination in 2005. In the interview he quoted Russian director Constantin Stanislavski on the core ethos of method acting. Continue reading






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Nuclear Winter: When Life Imitates The Movies

It’s an unexamined myth today among many Americans that Ronald Reagan single-handedly won the Cold War and engineered the collapse of the Soviet Union. This narrow-minded notion gives no credit to the people of Eastern Europe who resisted Soviet oppression for decades until they succeeded in outlasting it. In a new book about the nuclear arms race, The Dead Hand, journalist David E. Hoffman argues that Mikhail Gorbachev had as much to do with backing up from the brink as Reagan did. In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR Fresh Air, Hoffman explains that Reagan needed to see a made-for-TV movie about nuclear armageddon before he decided to get serious about trying to prevent it.






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Yevgeny Khaldei: What Makes An Iconic Photo

To Red Army photographer Yevgeny Khaldei, staging an iconic photo wasn’t a manipulation of history but a tribute to historical significance. His most famous photo of Soviet soldiers raising the Red Star over the Reichstag in Berlin reenacted a triumphal moment on the night of April 30, 1945, when it was too dark to photograph.






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Would Babushkas On Red Square Call It Snowmageddon 2.0?

Even weather wants brand loyalty these days. “Blizzard” isn’t good enough. Wags on the east coast are working overtime to coin catchy  names like Snowpocalypse and Snoverkill for the latest storms. I have to admit, I liked the sound of … Continue reading






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Anna Akhmatova in the Modernist Moment

Nathan Altman. Portrait of Anna Akhmatova. 1914. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. [Source: Anna Akhmatova Foundation] Anna Akhmatova had become a cultural icon by the time Nathan Altman painted her in 1914. Her bangs and shawl, her regal bearing … Continue reading






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