Film
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The Schmooze Francis Veber: Laughter from Pain
The veteran French comedy filmmaker Francis Veber, whose “Le Dîner de cons” was recently remade in Hollywood as “Dinner for Schmucks,” is a master of spoofing painful social anxiety and feelings of exclusion. His new memoir from Les éditions Robert Laffont, “Let This be our Secret,” addresses how Veber’s Jewish roots influenced his comedic skills….
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The Schmooze A Banal Return to Religion
Crossposted from Haaretz Many recent European films have addressed the fear of fundamentalist Islam’s growing strength. What makes “On the Path,” written and directed by Bosnian Jasmila Zbanic, unique is the fact that, as opposed to recently produced French or British films, it discusses this subject and its consequences in a Muslim country. The main…
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The Schmooze Seeing the Big Picture at the Haifa International Film Festival
Crossposted from Haaretz A look back at a film fest featuring debuts, adaptations and less-than-noteworthy efforts. Still the event was an affirmation of what Israeli cinema can achieve. Prizes were awarded to five of the seven Israeli feature films competing in the 26th Haifa International Film Festival, which ended Saturday night. Of the three best,…
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The Schmooze The Murder of a Nation
Genocide is a difficult topic, and the Armenian Genocide doubly so. Unfortunately, Eric Friedler’s “Aghet: Ein Völkermord,” a German documentary screened in August at the Montreal World Film Festival and last week at the ARPA International Film Festival in Los Angeles, takes a straightforward approach to its subject, and therefore falls short of its own…
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The Schmooze The Druze Who Can’t Come Back
Crossposted from Haaretz The documentary “Shout,” screened at the Haifa International Film Festival, outlines the dilemmas facing young Druze from the Golan Heights who leave to study in Damascus and cannot return. Minarets slice the skyline and gray residential buildings stand among them. Uniformed police pass through the streets scrutinizing passersby. Two young men in…
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The Schmooze Woody Allen’s Comfortable Delusions
It doesn’t take long to work out that Woody Allen’s latest film, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” is about the merits and limits of delusion. The film is structured like a high school term paper, à la: this will be a film about deluded people; here are some deluded people; this has been…
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The Schmooze Why Israel’s New Oscar Entry Is a Disaster
“The Human Resources Manager” is an odd film. That it was recently announced as Israel’s entry into the Academy Awards’ Foreign Language category, after winning five Ophir Awards including Best Feature, says less about the movie itself than it does about the goodwill accrued by director Eran Riklis for more accomplished features such as “The…
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The Schmooze The Big Life of a Small Woman
Tearful laughter, raunchy story telling, and punchy witticisms are not the typical ingredients one expects to find in a tribute to a late literary legend. Then again, Grace Paley and ‘typical’ never met. Last Tuesday the Center for Jewish History and Jewish Women’s Archive paid homage to the poet, short story writer and political activist,…
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