Kremlin, White House, movies

Stalin talking to Eisenstein:

Ivan [the Terrible] was very cruel. You can show he was cruel. But you must show why he needed to be cruel.

There's an interesting piece here about Stalin's movie-watching in the Kremlin and his relationship to films and film-making more generally. (Hat tip: AC.)

Coincidentally, there's this equally interesting piece about the White House cinema during several presidencies:

Patton is the fifth most screened film in the history of the White House cinema. The all-time number one is High Noon, the classic western in which Gary Cooper plays a marshal who takes a stand against evil even when everyone he is trying to protect is telling him to leave town. "It's a manly movie about someone who says the buck stops here," Letofsky says. "It ends up with the top guy. He has to make the right decisions for everyone else."

The 1952 film has taken on a life of its own among chief executives, of all political stripes. It was one of Dwight Eisenhower's favourites. He watched it three times at the White House and was heard to shout encouragement to Cooper onscreen. Clinton claims to have seen it 20 times, starting at the age of six, and personally recommended it to Bush on handing over the Oval Office. Bush took the advice a few days after the September 11 attack and may have seen in its starkly moral plot an endorsement of pre-emptive action against evil-doers.

"Gary Cooper fought a lonely battle against a gang, but this time the whole world stands with the United States," Bush declared when he presented a High Noon poster to the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. But the Bush administration has always made it clear it is prepared to act alone if necessary.

And what do you reckon about this?

Perhaps the biggest single surprise... is that, in terms of sheer numbers, the most avid movie fan ever to live at the White House was....

Be honest. Say who you think it is before reading the article.