Most Americans would scratch their heads in puzzlement if asked what role the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, plays in the powerhouse American economy. The Fed, as it’s colloquially called, is indeed extremely important — controlling the money supply, setting interest rates, regulating banks and, in general, keeping a watchful eye on things. Formed […]
Category: Arts
Musical notes coursed through his blood, recalls a friend. The late Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012) was an American composer whose melodic songs and iconic scores for Broadway plays and Hollywood movies earned him a slew of prestigious prizes — four Grammys, four Emmys, three Oscars, three Golden Globes, a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Who […]
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A Wonderful Documentary about J.D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger, the great American novelist, was ubiquitous yet remote and elusive. His iconic debut novel, The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, has been read by three generations of adolescents in the United States and the rest of the world and has sold an astonishing 60 million copies, a figure that staggers […]
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Igor and the Cranes’ Journey is enchanting
Once in a while, a film of pristine and profound beauty comes along, fixating and enchanting a viewer. Igor and the Cranes’ Journey, directed by Evgeny Ruman, is such a film. The Toronto Jewish Film Festival’s Chai Tea & A Movie series will screen in on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. (Tea is served […]
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Gloria Explores a Rarely Broached Topic
A dowdy middle-aged woman nurses a drink in a singles club in Santiago, Chile. She looks vulnerable and lonely. She perks up as she dances with an old friend, but when she leaves the noisy, smoke-filled club, she is still utterly alone. Gloria, the woman in question, is a divorcee with two grown children. Plain looking, […]
North American filmgoers are probably familiar with Paul Verhoeven’s Hollywood films — science fiction blockbusters like Total Recall, RoboCop and Starship Troopers, the erotic thriller Basic Instinct and the bust of all busts, Showgirls, which almost ruined his career. It would be fair to say they know much less about his Dutch-language films, from Turkish Delight, one of his […]
Few countries were as traumatized by World War II as Poland. Six million of its 32 million inhabitants, including three million Jews, were killed. The Nazi extermination camps, built to eradicate European Jews, transformed Poland into one big killing field. Poland’s eastern provinces were gobbled up by the Soviet Union, which proceeded to drag it into the […]
Lech Walesa’s astonishing rise to prominence as a modern Polish hero is chronicled with verve and vivacity by Poland’s greatest living film director, Andrzej Wajda, in Walesa, Man of Hope. In sweeping fashion, Wajda charts his historic journey from shipyard electrician and Solidarity trade unionist to political activist, Nobel Prize laureate and power broker. The 128-minute […]
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Humanity Trumps Politics in Zaytoun
Boiled down to its essentials, the subliminal message of Eran Riklis’ Zaytoun is: Why can’t we just get along? This simple yet trenchant phrase informs his touching film. A runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, Zeytoun is set in Lebanon and Israel on the eve of the 1982 war and unfolds […]
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Margaret Brims with Sub-Plots
Kenneth Lonergan’s film, Margaret, clocking in at 150 minutes, has finally emerged from post-production woes and a raft of lawsuits. Shot in 2005 and supposed to have been released in 2007, it was mired in artistic and financial quarrels pitting Lonergan against the studio. As a result, Margaret did not appear in theatres until 2011. The […]