What To Watch On Christmas? Your Jewish Guide To This Winters Biggest Movies
(JTA) — The Jewish tradition of Chinese food and film at Christmas has become so ingrained that it has taken on a ritualistic air. And this year, some of the biggest movies of the season have Jewish themes or stories.
Here's a Jewish guide to the new movie and streaming options available this Christmas.
"out"
There's nothing Jewish about the title character of Roald Dahl's beloved novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in this new musical. And Dahl himself was so openly anti-Semitic that his family apologized for the "endurable and understandable pain" he caused. But the film is another major role for Jewish megastar Timothee Chalamet; She said her mother was a Jewish actress turned real estate agent Nicole Flanders. Chalamet reprises his first role played by Jewish actor Gene Wilder in 1971.
"The Color Purple"
On the other hand, there is nothing Jewish about the film, except that it is based on the classic novel by Alice Walker, who married a Jew and has recently become known for her virulent anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic views. The story of a young black woman's emancipation and discovery of her sexuality in the harsh and difficult conditions of her life in the rural South in the early 1900s, first appeared as a book in 1982 and was later made into a film by a Jewish director. . Steven. Spielberg 1985 Spielberg is busy producing a musical remake of the stage version of the story, but has not commented publicly about Walker or the new film The Color Purple this year.
"Area of Interest"
Set in Auschwitz, where the Nazis killed more than a million Jews, this film adapts Martin Amis' 2014 novel, which explores the mindset of Nazi officers and their families as they try to build separate lives while committing atrocities against the Jews. In the film version of the famous British Jewish director Jonathan Glazer, the main character is the commandant of the Auschwitz death camp, Rudolf Hess. Glaser said he hopes the film "speaks to the capacity for violence in all of us, no matter where we come from." According to him, it is important not to present the Nazis as "monsters", but to show that "the great crime and tragedy is that people did this to other people".
"Master"
You can see this Leonard Bernstein biopic in select theaters, but you can also watch it from the comfort of your own home on Netflix. Even before the film's release, it attracted considerable interest due to controversy over the prosthetic nose used by Jewish star and producer Bradley Cooper for the role of Bernstein, which some believed to have anti-Semitic stereotypes. But since its release, the film has been widely praised by Jewish audiences, some of whom were delighted to see Bernstein wearing a sweater emblazoned with the Hebrew word for "Harvard."
"Iron Claw"
This new film tells the tragic story of the Von Erichs, the first family of Texas professional wrestlers who became very popular in Israel in the 1980s. In fact, Von Erichs' promotion, World Championship Wrestling, was considered. It was one of the most popular English programs in Israel at the time, and an injury on a trip there marked the beginning of the end. priority of family in sports.
"Freud's Last Session"
This film tells the story of Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Christian novelist SS Lewis' "Impossible Encounter" in September 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland and started World War II. In the long conversation, the two men discuss the nature of God. Freud is a committed atheist, and the audience sees images of Freud's life in his native Austria, before fleeing the Nazis in London. Warning: The film does not receive good reviews. It also shows Freud in perfect health as a man who died of cancer the month the film was shot.
