Several weeks after I saw \”Life is Beautiful\”, it occurred to me that, historically, overtly Jewish characters in cinema (all six of them…) seem perpetually shortchanged in relationships. Something always prevents a Jew from living \”happily ever after.\” So where are our happy endings?
Arthur Cohn used the occasion of a retrospective of his works at the Shanghai International Film Festival to premiere his latest documentary, \”Children of the Night.\”
The movie was born after Levinson read a review of his sci-fi thriller, \”Sphere\” that he perceived to be anti-Semitic in tone.
It is \”Train of Life\’s\” misfortune to be released a year after the Oscar-winning Italian film, to which it inevitably will be compared and judged.
Earlier this year, Greg Laemmle wasn\’t sure there was going to be another Cinema Judaica: The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.
Dean Ward says he was born at least two decades too late. He had an affinity for films of the mid-century, for the music of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. \”I used to scour the TV Guide for when the old movies were on.\”
There is an old joke from the Holocaust, Robin Williams says.
Two old Jews want to kill Hitler. The fuhrer doesn\’t show up. \”So one turns to the other and says, \’My God, I hope nothing happened to him,\’ \” Williams quips.
Bruce Vilanch, comedy writer to the stars, picks up the phone. \”Jew speaking,\” he says.
Emmy Award-winning Vilanch, 51, is one of the drollest Jews in Hollywood.
There have been a few Israeli films that dealt with relationships between Arabs and Jews (among them the superb prison drama \”Beyond the Walls\”), but rarely do we see an Arab movie that tells the story from the perspective of the \”other side.\”
Jennifer Maisel, who\’s been described as \”David Lynch with estrogen,\” explores child abuse, insanity, suicide, rape. In \”Mating Season,\” a young man sets out to supply all the local sperm banks. In \”Mad Love,\” a 13-year-old girl begs a Christmas-tree salesman to rescue her from her incestuous father. Now comes \”Eden,\” the tale of a suicidal woman with AIDS who withdraws from her friends and her optimistic mother, a Holocaust survivor.
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