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Cold War Cinema

Cold War Cinema

By: Jason Christian Anthony Ballas & Paul T. Klein
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Cold War Cinema is a podcast about movies made during the first few decades of the Cold War (1947–1991). Each episode primarily focuses on one film, and the hosts, Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas, discuss the director's life and work, the historical context of the film, and examine its themes that relate to the turbulent politics of the era. Theme music and editing on the first 14 episodes by Tim Jones; theme music from then on by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt), and editing by Jason Christian. Logo by Jason Christian2024 Art
Episodes
  • S2 Ep. 14: Fail Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet)

    S2 Ep. 14: Fail Safe (1964, Sidney Lumet)
    Jun 24 2026

    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

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    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.


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    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

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    Logo by Jason Christian

    Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).

    Happy listening!
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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • S2 Ep. 13: Ivan's Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky) w/ guest Taylor R. Genovese

    S2 Ep. 13: Ivan's Childhood (1962, Andrei Tarkovsky) w/ guest Taylor R. Genovese
    May 30 2026
    "I want to underline my own belief that art must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition to it—otherwise life would become impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence." ― Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time (1986) The Cold War Cinema team is joined by guest Taylor R. Genovese to discuss Andrei Tarkovsky's debut feature film, Ivan's Childhood (1962), a Soviet masterpiece about the Great Patriotic War and prime example of Thaw–era cinema. Taylor R. Genovese is an assistant professor of philosophy at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He has also been a filmmaker and photographer for over a decade. His multimodal and transdisciplinary research focuses on Marxism, historical memory, and borderlands. He is also an editor and board member at Iskra Books, a nonprofit scholarly publisher that releases original works of revolutionary theory, history, ecology, and art. In this episode we discuss: Andrei Tarkovsky's life and careerThe historical and political context of Ivan's ChildhoodTarkovsky's aesthetic vision and theological concernsHow the concept of "toska" shapes the sensibilities of the literary and cinematic arts in the Slavic world, including in Tarkovsky's films.The moving image representation of trauma and transcendence in Ivan's Childhood.The poetry of Andrei's father, Arseny Tarkovsky, and its influence on the filmmaker.The Soviet astethetics of Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928), as articulated in his book Art and the Working Class, which Genovese translated from the Russian in 2022. To purchase the book (or download a free PDF), click this link. _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Taylor recommends the films Come and See (1985, dir. Elem Klimov) and Dead Man's Letters (1986, dir. Konstantin Lopushanskiy). Paul recommends a film and a record: Sergei Eisenstein's Strike (1925) and U2's War (1983). Tony recommends the book Freudianism: A Marxist Critique, by Valentin Voloshinov, and the new essay "The Enchanted Biopolitics of Dark Cosmism" by our guest Taylor R. Genovese. Jason recommends the film Kes (1969, dir. Ken Loach) _____________________ 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 Taylor uses the handle @trgenovese on X, Instagram, and Letterboxd. Information on his scholarship and visual art can be found on his website at taylorgenovese.com.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!
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    1 hr and 49 mins
  • Bonus: New German Cinema and the Red Army Faction w/ guest Ryan Ruby

    Bonus: New German Cinema and the Red Army Faction w/ guest Ryan Ruby
    Apr 27 2026
    In this bonus episode, cohosts Jason Christian and Anthony Ballas speak with the literary critic Ryan Ruby about New German Cinema, particularly the directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Alexander Kluge, and the film movement's fascination with the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) A.K.A. the Baader–Meinhof Gang, an ultra-left militant group in West Germany that existed in various forms from 1970 to 1998. Ryan Ruby is the author of Context Collapse: A Poem Containing a History of Poetry (Seven Stories Press, 2024) and The Zero and the One: A Novel (Twelve Books, 2017). For his essays and reviews, which have recently appeared in such venues as Harper's, Bookforum, and the New Left Review, he has received the Silvers Prize in Literary Criticism. He lives in Berlin, where he is working on a book of creative nonfiction about the city's mass transit system, tentatively titled Ringbahn: On Berlin Time, which will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in late 2027. _____________________ Ryan Ruby's forthcoming book on the cultural history of Berlin, with particular interest in the music scene and cinema of the 1970s The films Germany in Autumn (1978) and The Third Generation (1979) The Red Army Faction and 1960s/'70s militancy The political climate in Berlin today V.I. Lenin's critique of "adventurism" _____________________ We love to give recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode: Tony recommends the two-volume book The Magic of Robert-Houdin An Artist's Life The Watchmaker, Mechanician and Conjurer by Christian Fechner Ryan recommends the books Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F. by Stefan Aust and Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman Jason recommends Bruce LaBruce's 2004 satirical RAF film The Raspberry Reich. [Warning: the film contains explicit sex scenes] _____________________ Find past guest Andrew Nette's Letterboxd list of films inspired by or about the Red Army Faction here. Check out our interview with Nette here. 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 and guest: Find Ryan Ruby's work at www.ryanruby.info Follow Jason on Bluesky @JasonAChristian.bsky.social, on X @jasonachristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Jason also writes an occasional newsletter called Notes on Radical Cinema. Follow Anthony on Bluesky @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X @tonyjballas, or on Letterboxed @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed @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!
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 54 mins
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