By Robert Shay, JTNews Correspondent
Due to the copious amount of new films released on home video this past month, I am going to forego the regular commentary and concentrate on featuring as many of these new films as space allows. This list of videos consists of many Israeli short films, including graduate projects from the Ma’ale School in Jerusalem, a history of Jews in Poland from the Israel Film Service, a classic American television episode, Adrian Brody’s 2002 Oscar-winning role, a 1933 Hollywood classic and a Yiddish dance lesson. So with microwave popcorn and can of soda firmly in hand, let’s take a look at the new releases.
Smile of the Lamb
1986, 95 minutes, Drama, in Hebrew with English subtitles
Critically acclaimed and winner of three Israeli Academy Awards: Best Motion Picture, Best Director Shimon Doton and Best Actor Rami Danon; plus a Silver Bear from the Berlin Film Festival awarded to Tuncel Kurtiz for Best Actor. Smile of the Lamb is the story of two friends who dream of an enlightened government in the West Bank, only to be forced into opposite camps because of circumstances beyond their control. A wry but sensitive commentary on the politics of power in Israel, based on the novel by David Grossman
Have Gun Will Travel: The Fatalist
Television Western, first aired Sept. 10, 1960
When Westerns such as “Cheyenne,” “Sugarfoot,” and “Maverick” ruled the airwaves, powerful actor Richard Boone rode the American West as the well-spoken hired equalizer, Paladin. In this landmark episode, peddler Nathan Shotness thinks the Wild West is quiet, at least compared to his native Russia. Then he witnesses Billy Buckstone commit murder. When Nathan’s daughter Rivka is kidnapped, Paladin must rescue her so Nathan can testify against the killer. Jewish immigrants Nathan (Martin Gabel) and Rivka (Roxanne Berard), featured in this episode, later returned in “A Drop Of Blood.”
Counsellor At Law
81 minutes, 1933
A briskly paced, Depression-era drama based upon a play by Elmer Rice (Street Scene), this William Wyler project is often cited as the best film to ever tackle the intricacies and pitfalls of the legal profession.
John Barrymore stars as George Simon, a high-powered attorney who frantically juggles the scandals, crimes and crises that pass through the art deco chrome-and-glass doors of his office in the grand heights of the Empire State Building.
Balanced on an ethical tightrope, Simon engages in insider trading and bleeds funds from his wealthy clients while tending to the needs of the less-fortunate New Yorkers who come from his own working-class Jewish background. A political enemy uncovers a past legal indiscretion and begins disbarment proceedings.
Flavored with social commentary and wry humor, this film — which also stars Melvyn Douglas — is an exceptional example of the hard-boiled dramas that defined the Pre-Code American cinema of the early 1930s.
The Pianist
150 minutes, Drama, MPAA rated R
Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and winner of three, The Pianist stars Oscar-winner Adrien Brody in the true-life story of brilliant pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the most acclaimed young musician of his time. The onset of World War II interrupted the Jewish Szpilman’s promising career.
This powerful, ultimately triumphant film follows Szpilman’s heroic journey of survival with the unlikely help of a sympathetic German officer. The Pianist is a miraculous tale of survival, masterfully brought to life by troubled filmmaker Roman Polanski.
“The best picture of the year,” says Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune.
Lomir Geyn Tantsn (Come, Let’s Dance)
2002, 48 minutes, documentary/instructional
What dances go with Klezmer music? After all, Klezmer is dance music! At weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, tnoynim, or as an expression of spirituality, there was always dancing in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe. This video teaches a freylekhs and two variations of the sher. It also looks at the life and circumstances that helped give Yiddish dance its unique flavor and style.
The dances are taught by Miriam Rochlin, a noted member of the Los Angeles Jewish cultural community after her 1940 arrival in the U.S. from Germany. Through her teaching and stories we learn about dances and their context.
Rochlin studied with noted Polish-born dancer/choreographer/author Nathan Vizonsky in the 1950s, and now, three decades after his death, this video brings his work to new generations.
PO-LAN-YAH — One Thousand Years of Jewish Life in Poland
364 minutes, a seven-part documentary produced by the Israel Film Service
The Hebrew name for Poland is Polanya. When broken into syllables, it means: ‘Po’ (here) ‘Lan’ (dwelled) ‘yah’ (God).
Indeed, some believed that this was the temporary home chosen by God for the Jewish people. On the eve of World War II, the Jewish community in Poland numbered 3.5 million. Today barely 1,000 Jews remain.
For the first time ever, this documentary series explores a millennium of Jewish life in Poland. This seven-episode series on three cassettes, by filmmaker Amnon Teitelbaum, presents a fascinating mosaic of the cultural, religious, artistic, economic, sociological, and political life of “Beis Yisroel,” the House Of Israel, from the beginning of the 11th century until the Holocaust. Filmed on location in museums, archives, cemeteries, castles, synagogues and churches, we encounter a wide variety of people, both Poles and Jews.
Ma’ale School Of Communications, Film And Television Arts Graduate Films Compilations II & III
Two Cassettes, 85 and 93 minutes, short subject films
All films are in Hebrew with English subtitles.
Part II, four films directed by Eliezer Shapiro; Micha Ben Shachar; Liat Cohen and Shoshi Grinfild. The titles are Eicha, a 21-minute story of personal identity.
In Newspapers And Flowers, 26 minutes, a religious young woman searches for love. The 22-minute Hallel is a story based upon tragedy, love and friendship. At 16 minutes, Evacuation Order tells a romantic drama of love, duty and politics.
Part III, five films by Sara Dor Beck; Renanit Parshani; Bilha Bachrach; Yael Rubinstein and Amihal Greenberg.
Pure Prayer, at 26 minutes, focuses upon religious tradition in this moving film.
A daughter, mother and grandmother face the realities of aging in the 18-minute Related.
By Way Of The Wadi, 26 minutes, is a documentary about a mother coming to grips with the death of her son.
In the 15-minute Yom, three women cross paths in an unfortunate event.
Blinker is an eight-minute slapstick comedy about morality and a bad day.
Nightmare: The Immigration of Joachim and Rachael
24 minutes, short film drama
One of the darkest nightmares of history — the Nazi persecution of Jews — thrusts two small children into a frightening battle to survive the Warsaw ghetto alone.
Thirteen-year-old Joachim and his little sister must care for themselves after their parents have been taken away by Nazi soldiers.
They must scrounge for food, escape from the ghetto, and hide in the countryside until the end of the war — and then find their uncle in America.
Finally, the nightmare ends, but not its memory.
A Storm of Strangers
20 minutes, B&W short film drama
A rich portrait of the teeming Jewish “ghetto” that was New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century.
Narrated by Herschel Bernardi, this classic film uses period photographs to create the fictional life of Manya, a young Jewish woman whose life is turned around by the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.
Manya’s life is the chronicle of a struggle to maintain dignity among poverty and the determination to enable the next generation to “rise above their origins.” Truly inspiring!
The Talmud & the Scholar
58 minutes, documentary, 1989
“The Talmud is the central pillar supporting the entire spiritual and intellectual edifice of Jewish life.” — Adin Steinsaltz
Thanks to Steinsaltz’s modern English translation and analysis of the Talmud, the Oral Law is becoming accessible to a new generation of English readers.
This video takes a “behind-the-scenes” look at this warm and sensitive man.
Whether at home in Jerusalem or at his newly founded yeshiva in Moscow, or if he is teaching an overflow crowd of eager students or spending a few solitary moments at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, the rabbi’s boundless energy and philosophic insights serve as an inspiration to us all.
“Full of fascinating information for everyone, entertainingly presented” — Philadelphia Inquirer
Until next month, I will see you at the movies and please, save me the center seat in the center row.
Robert Shay is the Administrator of the Sylvia Suckerman Jewish Video Collection at Temple De Hirsch Sinai in Seattle, and can be reached at (206) 903-9010 or [email protected], or on his fledgling Web site at www.videojudaica.com