Reviews

Significant works reviewed by Engelsberg Ideas writers.

Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of One Battle After Another.
Review

Paul Thomas Anderson at the movies

The American director's latest film is infused with a mass of cinematic culture.

Muriel Zagha October 31, 2025
Men attempting to kill a vampire in Romania in the late 19th century.
Review

The curious case of corpse killings

Belief in the living dead arose whenever faith wavered and fear reigned supreme.

Katherine Harvey October 27, 2025
Cecil Beaton adjusting a headpiece backstage.
Review

The lure of Beaton’s sublime surfaces

From glittering debutantes to screen sirens, Cecil Beaton captured mid-century glamour, blurring portraiture with performance.

Alexandra Wilson October 24, 2025
Photograph of a family in a Jewish shtetl in the Russian Empire, c. 1916-17.
Review

Being Jewish without a state

Advocates for a Jewish identity rooted in anti-Zionism must reckon with a fundamental truth: Zionism triumphed over diasporism because it was brutally vindicated by the horrors of ..

Samuel Rubinstein October 23, 2025
Color intuitions from New York
Review

Fate and fortune in the 21st century

Alexander Starritt's powerful Bildungsroman about 21st century capitalism explores the nature of youthful ambition and the sacrifices of entrepreneurship.

Daniel Johnson October 21, 2025
Ibrahim El-Salahi's They Always Appear, 1964.
Review

Nigeria’s modernist folklore

Western modernism wanted to eliminate religion from civic life. By contrast, in 1960s Nigeria, artists and architects absorbed old patterns into the new.

Theo Weiss October 20, 2025
The Queen visits Covent Garden in 1855.
Review

A land without opera

In contemporary Britain, opera is endlessly apologised for, caricatured and denigrated. It is a tragic development that must be reversed.

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri October 14, 2025
'Women with Firemasks', London, Lee Miller (1941). Credit: Lee Miller Archives
Review

Lee Miller’s life on both sides of the lens

Vogue model, photographer, Surrealist muse, war correspondent and gourmet chef – Lee Miller's life was one of constant reinvention.

Katie Tobin October 8, 2025
A scene from the film 'Appointment in Berlin' (1943), starring George Sanders.
Review

Tea and treachery in Hitler’s Berlin

In a Berlin apartment in 1943, aristocrats and intellectuals gathered for tea to vent their doubts about Hitler. But one guest was a spy, and their words would seal their fate.

Roger Moorhouse October 7, 2025

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