Editor’s note: Filmmaker Chantal Akerman passed away on this date in 2015. To commemorate her life and work, we are revisiting this essay by Arun Chaudhary that speaks to Akerman’s wide-ranging impact. When I met Chantal Akerman, the famed film director whose alleged suicide was reported on October 6, I told her I was going…
Editor’s Note: Buster Keaton was born on this day in 1895. In honor of the 124th birthday of “The Great Stone Face, we look back on Keaton’s Jewish influences and collaborators. Had it not been for Erik Weisz, the Hungarian-born, Wisconsin-raised son of a rabbi, one of the most influential film artists of all time…
Even his face seemed as if could slouch. The bulbous nose, the folds of skin, the eyebrows always raised, the eternal smirk that seemed to call you a schmuck even if he never spoke that word. His voice brayed and drawled, Lower East Side schmatta salesman crossed with W.C. Fields. He was the dubious wise-ass,…
Charlotte Gainsbourg, 48, has little doubt that, over the course of her career, she has chosen, consciously or unconsciously, “transgressive” projects to compensate for her shyness. “So perhaps that’s why I am attracted to the unexpected,” she said during an interview. She has a soft voice with the hint of a British accent. “Also, I…
Five years ago, the murder of four teens sparked a 50-day war between Gaza and Israel. It began on June 12, 2014, when three Israeli Jewish adolescents hitchhiking home from an Israeli settlement in the West Bank went missing. Their disappearance led to a wide-ranging search for their abductors, called “Operation Brother’s Keeper,” which saw…
The American Jewish actress Sylvia Miles, who died on June 12 at age 94, proved that Jewish truth telling can simultaneously make and break a performance career. Miles’ devotion to verisimilitude was such that even fellow thespians were deceived by her artistry. After seeing John Schlesinger’s “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) one of her two Oscar-nominated performances,…
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A new lawsuit adds to an upsetting picture of longtime Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee’s final days, alleging that those close to Lee sought to profit off him by stealing from his home and working him to the point of exhaustion. The lawsuit, brought by Lee’s daughter, Joan Celia Lee, was filed in Los Angeles…
One of the ironies of “A Rainy Day in New York,” Woody Allen’s recently-shelved film, is it may prove quite difficult to see in New York — or, really anywhere in the United States. While it’s still scheduled to make its way to parts of Europe, Amazon pulled the plug on the picture’s release last…
Page for page, there may be no more frightening children’s books than “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” With apologies to the prolific but seldom shudder-inducing R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” series, Alvin Schwartz’s three-book collection of ghost stories and eerie folk tales has remained the juvenile nightmare fuel par excellence since the first volume dropped…
50 films would have been a nice, round number for Woody Allen to quietly end his career with. But it looks like we’re getting another anyway. Following ongoing litigation with Amazon Studios over breach of contract on a four-picture deal spurred in part by Allen’s comments about Harvey Weinstein and revived allegations that Allen molested…
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