- SILVER/HUSTON/OLIN/STEIN
Herman Broder (Ron Silver) is a Holocaust survivor in postwar New York, wed out of gratitude to the peasant woman who hid him from the Nazis. He carries on a mad affair with a concentration camp survivor (Lena Olin), only to find out that the snappish wife (Anjelica Huston) he thought had died in the war is miraculously alive. Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote often about despair and redemption, the subjects of his novel on which this Paul Mazursky film is based. Ron Silver plays a Holocaust survivor who has moved to America and married the Polish gentile who hid him from the Nazis. An intellectual, he is not satisfied with this simple peasant woman and so he has an affair with a sultry émigré (Lena Olin). His life is then made more complicated by the reappearance of his wife from the old country (Anjelica Huston), who he thought had died in the Nazi death camps. Mazursky and his terrific cast find the pain, irony, and sad humor in this material, capturing Singer’s tone and bringing it to life. –Marshall Fine
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January 3, 2011
#1
Making the Best of an Awful Situation,
Life is not always fair. One must often play the cards they are dealt. The Nazis severely damaged the stable relationships of many European Jews. Herman Broder (Ron Silver) has emigrated to New York. His wife (Anjelica Huston) is presumed dead and he feels an obligation to serve as a husband to the woman (Margaret Sophie Stein) who previously was the family housekeeper. She is attractive enough and well meaning, but dumber than the proverbial door nail. Herman is also having a passionate affair with a woman who hasn’t quite divorced her own husband. Can things get any more complicated? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. It turns out the original wife is still among the living. What can be done? Somebody is obviously going to get hurt. Who will it be? A saintly man would be desperate to find a morally and pragmatic solution—and Herman is not even close to being a saint. Might he wish to get advice from his rabbi (Alan King)? This particular religious leader, sadly, is not exactly a paragon of virtue. He is only a step away from being a total rogue. Alas, Herman inevitably seems doomed to make matters even worse. Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story is filled with much humor and pathos. The well known post 9/11 blogger Roger L. Simon wrote the Academy Award nominated screen play. This movie should be on your must see list.
David Thomson
Flares into Darkness
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|January 3, 2011
#2
grief, love, forgiveness,
I saw this movie after reading Steven Pinker’s non-fiction book on socio-biology, “The Blank Slate.” Pinker recommended this movie based on a tale by Isaac Bashevis Singer, for its study of the human condition, ripe with irony, seasoned with despair, love and forgiveness.
The casting is excellent, and the acting is first-rate from beginning to end. Male viewers will wonder how Herman Broder gets so lucky, having three different but highly appealing women in love with him. Tidily, the three women are from three boroughs of New York City, a typical Singer touch, and the movie includes a scene where Broder stands at the subway entrances deciding which direction to take.
Highly recommended.
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|January 3, 2011
#3
4-Star Film, 2-Star Sound Transfer,
As previous reviewers have stated, someone screwed up big-time with the sound mix on this DVD. If you’re lucky, you can catch about every third line of dialogue – a real shame in the case of this darkly witty, Oscar-nominated film. Picture quality is absolutely gorgeous, which makes the sound muddle even more frustrating. (Unbelievable that no one involved has demanded a reissue in all the years since this DVD release.) Still, this wonderful film is worth the struggle – even if you have to resort to turning on the subtitles.
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