The Chaplin Machine

Reviews / Votes

'Traces an enjoyably idiosyncratic path back and forth between film studios and factories on opposing continents ... offers intellectual excitement as well as rigour' -- Pamela Hutchinson, Guardian 'Teems with exciting histories, possibilities, outrages and revelations. This brilliantly researched and beautifully written lightning bolt of a book approaches art and its history from a completely new point of the compass, and its readers will never again see the last century as they once did! An eye-bulging astonishment!' -- Guy Maddin, director of films including The Saddest Music in the World and My Winnipeg. 'Puts the Lenin back in Chaplin and the Chaplin back in the pre-Stalinist USSR. Brilliantly conceived, impeccably researched and concisely written. A definitive work' -- Jon Beller, author of The Cinematic Mode of Production (Dartmouth College Press, 2006) 'A dark comedy' -- Benjamin Noys, Review 31 'Captivating reading; lively, informative and entertaining' -- Times Literary Supplement 'A precious and thoroughly researched book, shedding light on a very stimulating chapter of (film) history' -- Brooklyn Rail 'A masterly presentation depicting the parody which existed under a communist regime; and showed how Soviet film, art and arhitecture could not avoid the influence of capitalist Americanism ... It is a pioneering work in the field of early film studies and politics' -- International Journal of Russian Studies 'Engaging and provocative' -- Open Democracy