Language:
Yiddish
Pages:
1 DVD-Video (74 Min.)
,
schwarz-weiß
Year of publication:
2009
Uniform Title:
Bar Mitzvah
Keywords:
DVD-Video
Abstract:
Believing his wife lost at sea, Israel remarries a scheming gold-digger. Shock, tears and laughs abound when his beloved wife returns on the eve of her son's bar mitzvah after a ten-year absence. Starring Yiddish theater superstar Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance, this musical melodrama is a masterwork of shund, the bread and butter of the Yiddish theater ... An American-made feature film about Jewish Poland (and the "Old Country" more generally), Bar Mitzvah shows how American and Polish Jews caricaturized each other during this period as it represents the pinnacle of low budget movie making. Aside from its unequivocal documentary and historical value, it is a great piece of kitsch. More accurately it is a masterwork of shund - popular Yiddish lowbrow theatrical fare that was the bread and butter of Yiddish theatrical productions. As critic J. Hoberman writes, after lamenting the film's less then stellar production values, "And yet, one must be grateful that "Bar Mitzvah" was made, for, more than any other performer, its star was the popular Yiddish theater incarnate." [jewishfilm.org]
Note:
jidd. mit engl. UT
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