Of Pizza Commercials and Cinema Myths

Of Pizza Commercials and Cinema Myths

Eleven years ago, Russian – well, Soviet – filmmakers held the infamous Fifth Congress of Filmmakers, where they lambasted the bigwigs of Soviet cinema, including Soviet megastar Sergei Bondarchuk (War and Peace, Waterloo, to name just two of his masterpieces). Bondarchuk’s defense by Nikita Mikhalkov (who subsequently won an Oscar for his film, Burnt by the Sun) cost the latter dearly – he was excommunicated from all leading bodies of Soviet cinema.