First, my first Film Festival piece is here:http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/film/last-elder-terezin
I don't know when the Frederick Wiseman review will be posted, but here's what I said:
Frederick Wiseman is a documentarian whose work seldom
touches directly on Jewish topics (although his brilliant essay in fiction
film, “The Last Letter” does so with exceptional power), but his attitude and
interests bespeak a personality steeped in Jewish ethics and values. His latest
film, “At Berkeley,” a four-hour glimpse into the inner workings of the
University of California at Berkeley, provides an excellent example. As in most
of Wiseman’s work, the film pivots on the theme of the place of large public
institutions in a democratic society, one that is pluralistic and wildly
diverse. Berkeley, which has always grappled pretty openly with this issue in
both its governance and its daily routines, is a terrific vehicle for Wiseman’s
cinema-verite gaze.
Covering most of an academic year at the school,
Wiseman’s primary focus is on the complex vectors of power that tug at the
school on a daily basis – the state legislature in Sacramento, the impossibly
complicated array of student groups and interests, California’s financial
crunch, potential donors both personal and corporate, and so on – and his
access was formidable. In the post-screening press conference he said that the
only meetings to which he was not privy were discussions of tenure.
Strangely enough, therein lies the film’s central
dilemma. If you can show nearly everything, how do you choose what to show? For
much of the film’s running time, Wiseman’s choices are unerring as usual. The
university’s leaders, particularly the handsome and soothing-voiced Chancellor
Robert J. Birgeneau (who retired this May), are not merely smart manipulators.
One feels their genuine concern for the student body, beleaguered by
continuously rising costs, and the faculty, and their commitment to the place
of higher education in a democratic society. When the film is focusing on them,
and on the staff, its footing is sure. But the choices of class time Wiseman
has made frequently seem arbitrary, even perfunctory. Only towards the end of
the film, when he devotes a long sequence to a remarkable group of older
students, an on-campus veterans’ support
group, do we get some sense of the larger societal impact of a great public
university.
The second part of a spirited and charming conversation with Eran Riklis is up on the JWeek site here: http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/film/these-mean-streets-are-beirut
Stephen Dorff in Time Out, One of His Bleaker Moments in Eran Riklis's Zaytoun
I cannot urge you strongly enough to see Alan Berliner's HBO film First Cousin Once Removed. You can find information on screening times here: http://www.hbo.com/#/documentaries/first-cousin-once-removed
and my interview with Berliner is here:http://www.thejewishweek.com/arts/film/filmmaker-grapples-family-and-memory
Ooh, Scary -- Alan Berliner in Pamplona, Hypnotizing the Spanish Audiences
As regular readers know, I've become an ardent advocate for the wider dissemination of literature in translation. In addition to the growing number of publishing houses that specialize in this area -- and I cannot overpraise Open Letter Books, Archipelago Press, New Vessel Publishing and countless others -- I want to draw your attention to a fascinating project (w/blog, of course) of a young woman reader in England. The very useful Publishing Perspectives website has a story on her here with links to her blog and her book list:
As we know, I won't make any promises about regular appearances in this space, but I'm hoping that the fall will bring more to write about.
C'mon Spurs, crush Chelsea!!!
