Currently Browsing: October 2010
From Oct ’10 Spotlight: A real lawyer appears in the cast of Conviction; he’s Barry Scheck (played by Peter Gallagher), and should anyone wonder, one character even snarls “You’re the Jew lawyer!” after he asks her to sign an affidavit. Conviction (which stars Hilary Swank) is a dramatization of an inspiring case from “The Innocence […]
Shout out to the cast & crew of Drury Lane Oakbrook’s terrific production of Ragtime—winner of SEVEN awards @ last night’s Jeff Ceremony including Best [Large] Musical & Best Director! I wrote about the DLO’s new Ragtime in the top spot of my May ’10 JUF News column, praising it & including quotes from my follow-up interview with director (& […]
CFIC 2010 Update In Five Hours from Paris, “Yigal,” a sweet-faced loser, spends his days driving a taxi around Tel Aviv & his nights trying to pretend he’s not insulted by having his ex-wife’s new husband for a “business partner.” Then he finally meets “Miss Right,” and not only is she already married, but her husband, a successful […]
CFIC 2010 Update This year’s CFIC Committee (Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema) chose crowd-pleaser A Matter of Size for Opening Night, but despite the many awards received from film festivals all around the USA, I’m afraid I thought Size came straight from sit-com land. Size is the story of a hefty Mizrachi guy named “Herzl” (Itzik Cohen) who convinces […]
Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema From Oct ’10 Spotlight: Brothers (Feature): Separated in childhood, Argentinian brothers “Dan” (Micha Selectar) & “Aaron” (Baruch Brener) have grown up on opposite ends of the earth, never knowing what became of the other. Then Aaron, now a famous American Torah scholar, comes to Jerusalem to argue a case before […]
Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema From Oct ’10 Spotlight: Clementine (Short Doc): Tal Haim Yoffe (creator of last year’s wonderful CFIC doc The Green Dumpster Mystery) needs a project to occupy his mind as he awaits the birth of his first child. So as wife Ravit grows ever bigger, Tal builds a treasure trove of […]
Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema From Oct ’10 Spotlight: Ruth (TV Drama): When “Ruth” (a religious teenager played by luminous Lucy Dubinchik from Saint Clara) first meets photojournalist “Erez” (Liron Livo) on the beach, she doesn’t realize he already knows her family story and has deliberately chosen her as the subject of his news piece. […]
2010 Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema Yes, Miss Commander (Documentary): Young female officers are assigned responsibility for training new male recruits from troubled backgrounds (crime, drugs, and family dysfunction). Israel cannot afford to lose a single soldier, and so Zahal has devised fascinating methods for bringing strays back into the fold. Once again, truth is […]
Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema From Oct ’10 Spotlight: Our month at the movies ends with the 5th annual CFIC. This year there are three new venues: Opening Night (Thursday, Oct. 21) at the Chicago Cultural Center (screening plus reception); Saturday night (Oct. 23) at the 600 North on Michigan Avenue; and one full week […]
From the 46th annual CIFF: Last Report on Anna, a BioPic about Hungarian Social Democrat Anna Kethly (Eniko Eszenyi), is told in flashback by “Peter Faragó” (Ernõ Fekete), the nephew of Anna’s lover “Laci” (Jakob Ladanyi). The Iron Curtain is down & the Cold War is over. Anticipating public exposure, Peter summons his long estranged brother to a private […]