395:  Far From the Revolution

Archival Spaces 395 White Russians in Hollywood Uploaded 20 March 2026 A still photograph from Joseph von Sternberg’s The Last Command (1928) perfectly captures the mixture of reality and fantasy, of historical truth and aesthetic expression that is so much a part of Hollywood cinema and its White Russian colony: Standing in a World WarContinue reading “395:  Far From the Revolution”

390: United States Information Agency

Archival Spaces 390 My Short Government Career Uploaded 9 January 2026 In the Fall of 1987, I received a call from David Paul, a producer at the United States Information Agency, asking if I could compile for them a list of German Academy Award winners. No problem. He followed up with a letter a monthContinue reading “390: United States Information Agency”

311: Sirk-Fassbinder-Haynes

Archival Spaces 311 Douglas Sirk’s All I Desire (1953) Uploaded 23 December 2022 For the past couple of months I have been researching and planning a lecture course for UCLA, FTV 113 Film Authors, which will focus on the careers of Douglas Sirk, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Todd Haynes. Not only have all three specializedContinue reading “311: Sirk-Fassbinder-Haynes”

288: William Thiele in Hollywood

Archival Spaces 288: William Thiele’s Downward Slide in Hollywood Uploaded 4 February 2022 While my recent blog discussed the USC/Academy Museum’s symposium “Vienna in Hollywood,” here is an abridged version of my talk on the Austro-Jewish film director William Thiele, who will be the subject of a book I’m editing with Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert: Enchanted byContinue reading “288: William Thiele in Hollywood”