JTA – Turner Classic Movies acknowledges that capturing the “Jewish experience” in a series of films is a difficult task, but the network is attempting to do so anyway.
Every Thursday night in January, the channel shows themed films ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s. According to An article on the TCM websiteThe series aims to show “how filmmakers have attempted to tackle subjects such as assimilation, antisemitism, religion, family life and the Holocaust, sometimes with frankness and honesty, sometimes with varying degrees of distortion and caricature”. with a degree.”
There are a few films in the series set during the Holocaust, but none specifically involving a concentration camp setting. Instead, the general focus seems to be on portraying comedy, romance, and the joys of everyday Jewish life.
Anti-Semitism comes up frequently in the Jewish experience, and is reflected in the films, including “Crossfire,” a film noir about the murder of a Jewish man in 1947 that helped launch the series last week. has helped. The theme is also prominent in “Fiddler on the Roof”, which also aired on the first night of the series.
Here are the remaining movies to watch, in the order they air in EST.
“Crossing Delincy” (1988) 19th January at 8 PM
Possibly the most famous romantic comedy in the series,”crossing delinquencywas also directed and written by women: Joan Micklin Silver and Susan Sandler, respectively. Amy Irving plays Isabel Grossman, a young New Yorker who works for a bookstore and is close to her grandmother – who longs to see her granddaughter settle down. She has a matchmaker set her up with Sam Posner (Peter Riegert), a pickle salesman, and Isabelle is torn between him and the intellectual world. The film also shows the Lower East Side from the era when it was bustling with Jewish immigrant shops and vendors, before it changed irrevocably.
“Above the Brooklyn Bridge” (1984) 19th January at 10 PM
There can never be too many romantic comedies set in New York. In this one, directed by Israeli-born Menahem Golan, Elliott Gould plays Alby Sherman, a business owner whose wealthy uncle will only loan him money if he breaks up with his genteel girlfriend (Margaux Hemingway). The very Jewish cast includes Sid Caesar, Carol Kane, Shelley Winters, and a very young (and uncredited) Sarah Michelle Gellar.
“girlfriend” (1978), January 20 at 12 noon
This pioneering indie film—which according to The New York Times was First independent American film to be funded primarily by grant-making organizations — is also notable for its portrayal of the female friendship between Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Myron), a Jewish photographer, and her ex-roommate Anne Monroe (Anita Skinner), who turns out to be married. Directed by Claudia Weil, who also co-wrote it with Vicki Polone, the film is a precursor to several contemporary indies, including Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s “Frances Ha”.
“The Frisco Kid” (1979) January 20 at 1:45 pm
Jews are not usually associated with Westerners. But in this comedy, Gene Wilder stars as a rabbi from Poland who is set to lead a congregation in San Francisco. He gets trapped along the way in the Wild West and befriends a bank robber played by Harrison Ford. Some scenes don’t hold up in contemporary times, especially those depicting Native Americans, but TCM doesn’t shy away from showing how stereotyping is part of film history.
“Goodbye, Kids” (1987), January 20 at 4 am
This French film is one of the few in the series that takes place during the years of the Holocaust. Louis Malle’s autobiographical film is based on his time at the Catholic school Petit-Collège d’Avon, where the actual headmaster Père Jacques (Père Jean in the film) attempted to hide Jewish children from the Nazis. The film focuses on the friendship of two fictional 12-year-old boys, Julien Quentin (Gaspard Manesi) and Jean Bonnet, whose real name is Jean Kippelstein (Rafael Fejto).
“Biloxi Blues” (1988) 26 January at 8 PM
Neil Simon adapted his own play for the screen, the second in his semi-autobiographical trilogy about growing up in Brighton Beach. Eugene Jerome (Matthew Broderick), a young Jewish Brooklynite, is drafted into the army during World War II and sent to bootcamp in Mississippi. The film is helmed by prolific Jewish film and theater director Mike Nichols, who was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1939 as a young boy.
“Chosen” (1981) 26 January at 10 PM
Several of the films chosen for the series surprisingly take place in Brooklyn, including Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel set toward the end of World War II. It depicts the conflict between different sects of Judaism by focusing on the friendship of two Jewish teenagers – Raven Malter (Barry Miller), who is Modern Orthodox, and Danny Saunders (Robbie Benson), who is Hasidic.
“Portnoy’s Complaint” (1972), 27 January at 12 midnight
Adapted and directed by Ernest Lehman, based on the book by Philip Roth, the film stars Richard Benjamin. Although the novel—written as a monologue from Alexander Portnoy to his psychoanalyst—turned Roth into a celebrity author, the film adaptation was not critically or commercially successful, especially when followed by another Roth adaptation starring Benjamin. In comparison: “Goodbye Columbus.”
“Last Metro” (1980), January 27 at 2 PM
The other Holocaust film in the series is also from France, and one of the most commercially successful films by French New Wave pioneer François Truffaut. The manager of a small theater company in Paris (Catherine Deneuve) hides her Jewish husband (Gérard Depardieu) during the Nazi occupation.
“Tevaye” (1939) January 27th at 4:15 am
The series kicks off with another take on the tales of Sholem Aleichem that makes for a nice bookend with “Fiddler on the Roof”. Adapted and directed by Maurice Schwartz, who also stars in the title role, the Yiddish film was thought to be lost until a print was found in 1978. In 1991, it became the first non-English film to be selected for preservation in the library. Congress National Film Registry for its cultural significance.
