Jewish film

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jewish film is an important part of modern Jewish culture. A precise definition of the term is difficult. Jewish films are films that are made by Jewish artists and deal with Jewish subjects. The Jüdische Allgemeine describes these as "films with Jewish characters, Jewish plot elements and connotations that relate to Jewish history, culture, religion and the most diverse Jewish worlds."

history

Silent movie

Numerous Jewish silent films were made in the early days of the film. These mostly represented themes from the Jewish past and culture. Important productions were the films East and West (1923), Jiskor (1924) and Jüdisches Glück (1925), which was made in the Soviet Union and depicted life in an Eastern European shtetl . Actors and directors of the films mostly came from the highly developed Yiddish theater scene in Europe and the USA.

Yiddish film

Israeli film

Jewish film in other languages

Films by Jewish directors were now mainly made in the languages ​​of the production countries, i.e. mainly in English.

The films of the Marx Brothers , Mel Brooks , Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg were important . Likewise, Der Fixer (1968) or Yentl (1983).

Jewish film producers

The most important producers of Yiddish films were Sidney M. Goldin , Joseph Seiden and Edgar G. Ulmer in the USA, Leo Forbert , Saul Goskind and Joseph Green in Poland.

Many of the most important producers in Hollywood were of Jewish origin: Samuel Goldwyn , Louis B. Mayer , the Warner Brothers , also David O. Selznick , Marcus Loew , Adolph Zukor , Lew Wasserman , Steven Spielberg and David Geffen . However, Jewish themes played almost no role in their productions.

Jewish film composers

Jewish film composers have also written the music for numerous important films of the 20th century . The best-known and most successful include Elmer Bernstein , Danny Elfman , Elliot Goldenthal , Jerry Goldsmith , Bernard Herrmann , James Horner , Alan Menken , Alfred Newman , Hugo Riesenfeld , Miklós Rózsa , Lalo Schifrin , the Sherman Brothers , Howard Shore , Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin .

Jewish film festivals

Numerous Jewish film festivals established themselves over the years

literature

  • Erika Gregor, Ulrich Gregor, Helma Schleif (Hrsg.): Jüdische Lebenswelten im Film . Berlin: Friends of the Deutsche Kinemathek, 1993
  • Jim Hoberman: Bridge of Light. Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds , New York, NY: Shock, 1991
  • Eric A. Goldman: Visions, Images, and Dreams. Yiddish Film Past and Present , Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1983

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank Stern: Jewish films have long been an important part of mainstream American cinema , Jüdische Allgemeine Online, December 22, 2011.