The new book by the famous cinema historian and film critic, candidate of art history, employee of the Kommersant publishing house, is dedicated to a genre so popular among viewers as “historical cinema”. Historians can repeat as much as they like that history is not a melodrama, not a noir or a computer game, but directors and screenwriters are still drawn to present the sorrows of Mary Stuart or Catherine the Great from the silver screen as a melodrama, Count von Stauffenberg’s assassination attempt on Hitler or the murder of Kirov - like a noir, the events of the Time of Troubles in Russia or the unification of Italy - like a novel of “cloak and sword”, and the Battle of Kursk - like a game of “tanks”. This book is a detailed and highly professional analysis of 100 of the most striking, interesting and controversial historical films of world cinema: from “Johnny D.”, “Operation Valkyrie” and “Operation Argo” to “Burnt by the Sun 2: The Citadel”, “Matilda” and “28 Panfilov’s men.”