Incidental Intelligence
Tom Tugend
April 12, 2001
British actor Ben Kingsley has played a number of Jewish characters with such authenticity that questions frequently pop up about his possible Jewish background.
Category
films
Every Inch a Star
Naomi Pfefferman
March 23, 2000
In a gated community high above Los Angeles, Tony Curtis is holding court in the foyer of his two-story house in the shady corner of a cul-de-sac. Wearing white shorts and Birkenstocks, he is reclining on the staircase like a prince from one of his early movies. His famous blue eyes peer over spectacles as he simultaneously signs bills, rejects scripts, answers the telephone, and coordinates two assistants, a housekeeper, and sundry deliverymen.
Unhappily Ever After?
Michael Aushenker
November 18, 1999
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?
Hardly a Garden of ‘Eden’
Naomi Pfefferman
August 26, 1999
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.
Images of a Lost World
Naomi Pfefferman
July 29, 1999
In 1936, Edward G. Ulmer, the expressionist wunderkind and aspiring filmmaker, chanced to meet the beautiful, young wife of a studio executive — boss Carl Laemmle\’s nephew.
Hasta la Vista, Yentl
Naomi Pfefferman
November 12, 1998
Goodbye, Columbus.\nAnd goodbye Portnoy, Tevye and Yentl, too.\n\nA glance back at the films of 1998 reveal Jewish characters who break the mold, overturn the stereotype, and stretch the image of Jews on-screen.
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