Hollywood’s “Jew Wave”
NOVEMBER 3-13
For a not-so-brief moment in the late 1960s and early ’70s, a new wave of Jewish leading men and women (including Dustin Hoffman, Elliott Gould, George Segal and Barbra Streisand) took Hollywood by storm, emerging among the most popular stars of the era and appearing in many films that, per the critic J. Hoberman, “featured a hitherto unspeakable degree of Jewish content.” A vital subset of the storied “new” Hollywood cinema of the post-Easy Rider era, and of the broader Jewish-American cultural revival simultaneously occurring in literature (Philip Roth, Saul Bellow) and other segments of pop culture, Hollywood’s “Jew Wave” forever changed the landscape of mainstream American movies and blazed the trail for such Jewish stars of today as James Franco, Natalie Portman, Seth Rogen, and Adam Sandler. Series co-programmed by Scott Foundas and J. Hoberman.
In this Series
Annie Hall
Woody Allen, 1977
Categories:Comedy
“You’re here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding!” Woody’s Best Picture winner, co-starring Diane Keaton, and just as good as ever.
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Bye Bye Braverman
Sidney Lumet, 1968
Categories:Drama
Nov. 3 screening introduced by Village Voice film critic and series co-programmer J. Hoberman!
Four childhood friends make an epic journey to an old pal’s funeral in Brooklyn in Sidney Lumet’s funny, touching film. Starring George Segal and Jack Warden.
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California Split
Robert Altman, 1974
Q&A with Elliott Gould and filmmakers Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders, Ocean’s Thirteen, Solitary Man) after Nov 5 screening!
Streetwise Elliott Gould and straight man George Segal play wired poker fiends in Altman’s SoCal study in friendship, mania, and the rush of chance.
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Funny Girl
William Wyler, 1968
Categories:Drama
The one and only Barbra Streisand (in her film debut) won an Oscar for her portrayal of musical comedienne Fanny Brice in this lavish bio-pic.
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Goodbye, Columbus
Larry Peerce, 1969
Categories:Comedy
Cultures clash as the forthright Brenda (Ali McGraw) pulls working-class librarian Neil (Richard Benjamin) deeper into her Westchester high society. From the Philip Roth novel.
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I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!
Hy Averback, 1968
Categories:Comedy
Peter Sellers stars as a phobic Los Angeles attorney who falls for a flower child (Leigh Taylor-Young), and tunes in, turns on, and drops out.
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Lenny
Bob Fosse, 1974
Categories:Drama
Dustin Hoffman is electrifying as profane prince of comedy Lenny Bruce in Bob Fosse’s pioneering biopic, superbly shot in black and white. Nominated for 6 Academy Awards!
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Move
Stuart Rosenberg, 1970
Categories:Comedy
Star Elliott Gould in person to introduce the screening!
Elliot Gould and Paula Prentiss star as a couple whose lives devolve into Kafka-esque chaos during a two-block move to a slightly larger apartment. NOT ON DVD.
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The Angel Levine
Ján Kadár, 1970
Categories:Drama
Practicing Jew Morris Mishkin is understandably skeptical when leather-clad Harry Belafonte appears to him as an angel.
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The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Ted Kotcheff, 1974
Categories:Drama
A young man (Richard Dreyfuss) in a working-class Montreal family claws his way to the top in this bracing adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s novel.
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The Front
Q&A with Walter Bernstein and J. Hoberman after Nov. 7 screening!
Tragedy and farce commingle in this wry comedy about a small-time bookie (Woody Allen) who becomes a “front” for a group of blacklisted television writers.
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The Gambler
James Toback, 1974
Categories:Drama
Q&A with James Toback after Nov. 12 screening!
A reckless City College professor (James Caan) lands in hock to his bookie, forcing him to prey upon family, friends and even his own students.
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The Heartbreak Kid
Elaine May, 1972
Categories:Comedy
Q&A with Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin on Nov. 4!
Cowardly Charles Grodin bails on wife Jeannie Berlin—on their honeymoon!—when Cybill Shepherd appears, in May’s “masterpiece of social pathology.”
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The Owl and the Pussycat
Q&A with Buck Henry after Nov. 13 screening!
A quick-witted New York call girl (Barbra Streisand) finds herself sharing a small apartment with a mousy Doubleday clerk (George Segal)––and falling for him.
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The Plot Against Harry
Fresh out of prison, sad-sack numbers runner Harry Plotnick faces one disaster after another in this deadpan comedy of beleaguerment, featuring a priceless cast.
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The Producers
Anxiety-ridden accountant Leo Bloom and down-at-the-heels stage producer Max Bialystock put on a over-financed musical that’s built to fail in order to scam investors. With Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel.
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The Touch
Ingmar Bergman, 1971
Categories:Drama
Q&A with Elliott Gould and filmmakers Ben and Josh Safdie (Daddy Long Legs) after Nov. 6 screening!
In a Swedish-American love triangle, Elliott Gould plays an ornery, suicidal writer who comes between Bibi Andersson and Max von Sydow New 35mm print!
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Where’s Poppa?
A lawyer (George Segal) will stop at nothing to drive his mother (Ruth Gordon) into an early grave until he finds love—in the form of a Gentile nurse.
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Craig Baumgarten, Lori Burchfield, J. Hoberman, Brian Koppelman, David Levein, Ben and Josh Safdie, Julian Schlossberg, Academy Film Archive/May Haduong, The Jewish Museum/Ruth Beesch, MGM/Kent Youngblood, New Yorker Films, Paramount Pictures/Kate Brennan, Princeton University Press, Rialto Pictures/Eric Di Bernardo, Sony Pictures Repertory, Swedish Film Institute, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros./Ned Price and Marilee Womack. The Swedish Film Institute and the Bergman family for the use of the archive 35mm print of The Touch.
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January/February 2012 Issue
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