Romain Gary’s novel, The Life Before Us, has been converted into a warm-hearted feature film, The Life Ahead. Now available on the Netflix streaming network, it stars the legendary Italian actress Sophia Loren, and is directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti. Loren, 86, plays Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor and former prostitute who earns a living babysitting […]
Germany was a liberal democracy until Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. After his appointment as chancellor in January of 1933, Germany fell into the hands of a murderous fascist clique that persecuted dissidents and Jews, destroyed democratic institutions and invaded neighboring countries. Germany’s descent into dictatorship is explored in Rise of the Nazis, which starts […]
I don’t know how to play chess, but I was riveted by Netflix’s new seven-part series, The Queen’s Gambit, a mesmerizing drama revolving around a young American woman who wins acclaim as an international chess champion. Created by Scott Frank and Allan Scott, it held me in thrall from start to finish. Isla Johnston plays […]
My wife and I have just finished watching the 12th and final episode of Apaches on Netflix, a crime series that is easily one of finest dramas we’ve seen in a long time. I don’t normally write about such shows, but this one is so good that it deserves public praise. The story line is […]
One of the most sensational trials in American history got underway in Chicago on September 26, 1969 and dragged on for 151 days. It was essentially about enduring values that Americans cherish so much, namely free speech and freedom of assembly. In effect, American democracy was on trial. The defendants were left-wing radicals who believed […]
At his peak in the 1930 and 1940s, syndicated columnist and radio personality Walter Winchell commanded an audience of an estimated 50 million American readers and listeners. Blending news and entertainment, he single-handedly created the gossip-driven, politically-charged media culture of the United States. “Winchell is the architect of modern American media,” says his biographer, Neal […]
Borgen, the first-rate Danish Netflix drama, is at once like and unlike House of Cards, the acclaimed American series. Borgen is a nuanced portrait of Brigitte Nyborg, Denmark’s mythical first female prime minister and of the rival politicians, colleagues, journalists, spouse and children she interacts with on a daily basis. Although there is a competitive […]
The late Karl Plagge was an uncommonly resolute and courageous dissenter. A member of the Nazi Party in Germany, he saved some 250 Lithuanian Jews while stationed in Vilna in the early 1940s. In 2004, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, recognized him as a Righteous Gentile. The Good Nazi, a Canadian documentary broadcast […]
To the European Jewish refugees who found a temporary haven in Shanghai during the late 1930s and early 1940s, China’s biggest port was as faraway as any metropolis in the Far East could be. Vibrant, chaotic, dirty and cosmopolitan, Shanghai was a destination of last resort for upwards of 20,000 German, Austrian, Czech and Polish Jews […]
It’s a big “what if” question with sweeping, sickening ramifications. What if Nazi Germany and Japan had won World War II, conquered the United States and divided it among themselves? This scenario, too horrible even to contemplate, is skillfully fleshed out in Amazon Prime’s series, The Man in the High Castle, which ran from 2015 until […]