Gifted, Film USA (2017), written by Tom Flynn directed by Marc Webb 8* out of 10

A very good screen play by Tom Flynn and great understated performances by Chris Evans and Lindsay Duncan make Gifted very worthwhile and watchable summer viewing.

Frank Adler (Chris Evans), a single man in his 30s who repairs motorboats for a living lives in a small Florida seaside town. He has taken on the custody of his niece Mary as a baby after the unexpected death of her single mother, who was Frank’s sister. Frank’s neighbour Roberta (Octavia Spencer) child sits to ensure Frank retains a bit of a private life beyond his duties as a single parent. Following in her matrilineal heritage, six-year-old Mary is a genius at mathematics. Frank is determined to let her have a normal childhood, and after some years of home-education registers her at the local school. Thanks to Mary’s teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate) things start settling down a bit at school, after a bumpy beginning. But as Mary’s grandmother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) arrives on the scene with different ideas about her grand-child’s education, events take a dramatic turn.

Gifted is a family drama with some very witty bits. Screenplay writer Tom Flynn has done a very nice job of depicting the complex characters of this story and making their interactions and complicated relationships plausible and human. He avoids the trap of good versus evil: the “good” are somewhat flawed, the “evil” have reprieving characteristics. Chris Evans and Lindsay Duncan, the latter as the inevitably British accented evil grandmother, do an excellent job with their intelligently understated performances. Sensitive direction by Marc Webb (director of Spiderman films) allows the grown-up characters not to be overwhelmed by appearing with cute gifted child or its slightly handicapped cat. The result is a very watchable enjoyable and optimistic movie.     

Last week the Maryam Mirzakhani the Iranian Fields-Medal winning Mathematician died of cancer, much too young and much too soon. The Field’s Medal is the equivalent of the Nobel-Prize in Mathematics. Mirzakhani a mathematics genius with a warm outgoing personality, a real-world role model for Mary, Gifted’s fictional child prodigy. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4481414/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

 

Moonlight, Film 2016, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, 9* out of 10

Moonlight is a sensitive and intelligent look at growing up as a gay boy wanting to develop and live his identity in a rough black neighbourhood in the United States, a moving story compellingly told. Sometimes violent, at other times romantic, Moonlight has the feel of authenticity about it.  It deserves its Academy Award for Best Movie of 2016.

Chiron grows up in the roughest black neighbourhood of Miami. We meet him first as a young boy with the nickname Little, his mother dependent on welfare and drugs, he aware of being somehow an outsider. The other boys are of course aware of that too and begin to turn on him. Little Chiron survives in his peer-group by inner strength and running away when necessary.  And he has a stroke of luck when Juan (Mahershala Ali) the head of the street corner drug dealing gang in his neighbourhood and Paula (Naomi Harris), his girlfriend take a shine to the shy boy and become his mentors. They offer a welcoming place of refuge to the small boy as he learns to stand up for himself and his otherness. His newly-found mentors are more accepting than his mother. Kevin must cope with her bouts of drug-induced incapacity and her feelings of jealousy towards Paula and Juan, the man who organises her drugs supply. Why should Juan of all people arrogate to himself the education of her son, her only? We meet Chiron as different stages of his development: as a small boy (Alex Hibbert), as a teenager (Ashton Saunders) at high school and as a young man nickname Black (Trevante Rhodes) whose professional identity is very much at odds with his sensibilities and his aspirations for finding love.

Moonlight is a sensitive and intelligent look at growing up as a gay boy wanting to develop and live his identity in a rough black neighbourhood in the United States, while knowing how dangerous it is to disclose it in this environment, that violently rejects homosexuality in boys and men and feels threatened by it. 

Chiron navigates this hostile social environment in a very personal way with intelligence and panache, but there are no easy answers and sometimes no good choices available between how he feels he wants to act and how he feels he must act. He cannot avoid having to endure bullying, physical and emotional pain, but he always refuses to accept the role of the victim in his own personal attempt at “the pursuit of happiness”.   

Writer and Director Barry Jenkins achieves to imbue many of the characters with a humanity that feels real, both in their characters’ weaknesses and their strengths. This humanity manages to transcend the boundary of race and sexual preference to a realistic and ultimately uplifting story with universal appeal. Moonlight can be read topically as the story of Chiron’s attempt at integration into a community without giving up an essential part of his identity. The fact that it’s a community based on deprivation, violence and drug-consumption only makes Chiron’s journey more poignant.

The juxtaposition of the beautiful classical style film music with life in a rough black area of town works brilliantly. The use of the camera close-up to the characters, for example out of the water when they swim in the sea gives scenes an almost improvised documentary like feel.
  
Moonlight is a good story compellingly told. This high-quality low budget-film speaks to all of us and richly deserves its Academy Awards. Beside writing, direction and music this is due to a strong ensemble performance with particularly noteworthy performances by Mahershala Ali and Trevante Rhodes. The 2016 Academy Award for Best Movie has an unusually deserving winner. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4975722/

The Glass Menagerie, Play by Tennessee Williams, Duke of York’s Theatre, London, 9* out of 10

Cherry Jones shines in John Tiffany's beautifully staged production of Tennessee Williams autobiographical play at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. The many award nominations are richly deserved. The Glass Menagerie dovetails beautifully with another cultural highlight that can currently be seen in London. Until 4 June, The Royal Academy shows “After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s“.

Amanda (Cherry Jones) lives in St. Louis with her son Tom (Michael Esper) and her daughter Laura (Kate O’Flynn), both in their twenties. Tom, an aspiring writer with wanderlust, works in a warehouse. The family relies on his income but he is dying to leave St. Louis. He tries to escape the oppressive atmosphere of his home by going to the movies whenever he can. Laura, handicapped by a club foot, is painfully shy and avoids leaving the apartment. Her favourite pastime is playing with little figures of animals made of glass, the glass menagerie. Out of necessity, Amanda whose husband has left the family years ago, is a practical working woman. But at night when she speaks to her children, she always reminisces of her comfortable youth as a southern belle when she received gentleman callers, eligible young bachelors all. To her eternal regret she chose handsome looks over comfortable wealth and reliability. Despite living in St. Louis, Amanda dreams of gentleman callers for Laura now, perhaps in the hope to correct her own mistake with a choice for Laura. However, in the modest St. Louis apartment, no gentlemen come calling for Laura. Amanda urges Tom to look for prospects among his work colleagues and friends. But due to Laura’s mental fragility and physical handicap, both Laura herself and Tom do not believe that any gentleman in shining armour can be found for her. When Tom finally invites a work colleague home, Amanda pulls out all the stops to show this gentleman caller true southern hospitality and her daughter Laura in the best light.  

Director John Tiffany has created a beautifully conceived production of this American Classic of the 1930s. In the centre of the set designed by Bob Crowley which evokes the dream like atmosphere of some of the scenes there is steel-stairway. Like fire-escape stairs which almost reach the ceiling of the stage it is a symbol both for Amanda’s unrealistically high hopes for Laura and for Tom’s desire to escape from the oppressive atmosphere of his home. When Tom proclaims that living vicariously through going to the movies he stops himself from living his own life he raises an issue that is as relevant in the internet age as it was in the age of the silver screen.  Cherry Jones’ Amanda is memorable, and the acting of the entire ensemble does justice to Williams’ great writing. The deserved result is an enthralled audience at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London and the many award nominations for this production.

The Glass Menagerie is Tennessee Williams first successful play and contains many autobiographical elements. He felt responsible for abandoning his own handicapped sister and once he had become a successful playwright paid for her stay in a care home with the income from his writing. 

The Glass Menagerie goes very well with another cultural highlight that can currently be seen in London. Until 4 June, The Royal Academy shows “After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s“, a time when Franklin D Roosevelt’s Federal Art Program, part of his New Deal, encouraged the artists of the time to paint America in the 1930s.

http://theglassmenagerie.co.uk/

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/america-after-the-fall

Edward Hopper: New York Movie 1939

Herzl Reloaded, by Doron Rabinovici and Natan Sznaider, readings from their book, Schauspielhaus Zurich, 8* out of 10

In a three-way e-mail exchange, the Viennese author Doron Rabinovici, the Israeli sociologist Natan Sznaider and the spirit of the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, discuss the past, present and future of the State for the Jews. The authors presented readings followed by a moderated discussion at the Zurich Schauspielhaus on 5 March. 

A novelist, a sociologist and a dreamer-seer meet in cyberspace to engage in an e-mail exchange about the state of the “State for the Jews”, Israel viewed from the perspective of original dream, current reality and future potential.  The result is Herzl Reloaded, the book by Rabinovici and Sznaider. Despite its English title the book is currently only available in German.  

On Sunday 5 March 2017, the authors playing themselves and Klaus Brümmelmeyer, an actor playing Theodor Herzl, presented extensive readings of key passages from the book. This was followed by a discussion between them which was skilfully moderated by Yves Kugelmann, the editor of Switzerland’s largest circulation Jewish magazine. 

Doron Rabinovici, the novelist born in Israel to holocaust survivors, has lived in Vienna since early childhood. 

Natan Sznaider, Professor of Sociology at Tel Aviv University was born in Germany in 1954. He also is the son of holocaust survivors. Having emigrated to Israel at the age of 20, he now lives the reality of Zionism in 2017. 

The seer, Theodor Herzl (1860 – 1904), was born in Budapest and lived in Vienna where he worked as a novelist, playwright, journalist and public intellectual. Herzl's utopian dream:  a State for the Jews through which they would emancipate themselves among the nations and thus combat and overcome ubiquitous antisemitism. Herzl died in 1904, but lives on through his books, plays, letters and newspaper articles. Based on what he considered achievable at different times, Herzl experimented with several versions of his dream, such a state in Uganda or the conversion of all Jews of future generations to Christianity. Ultimately, he reached the conclusion that the one thing that made sense was the creation of a modern state for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Through his ideas and tireless work, he became a protagonist of modern Israel’s creation, an almost mythical figure mentioned by name in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

For Doron Rabinovici modern Israel’s legitimacy as a State is inextricably tied up with the Holocaust. Only by having their own state would Jews be able to ensure their survival. A position that was given international legitimacy by the community of nations through the decision by the UN General Assembly to recognize the State of Israel in 1948.  Rabinovici distinguishes the golden age of modern Israel from 1948 to 1967.  In his view Israel’s 1967 occupation had made the moderate Western socialist “city-on-a-hill” that was the State for the Jews go awry. The occupation of Palestinian land and people has changed Israel proper and in his view, not for the better. As Rabinovici sees it, assisting the creation of a peaceful democratic Palestinian state alongside a peaceful democratic and strong Israel would have been and still is an effective pragmatic step; moreover, it is a moral duty not only for all Israelis but also for all Jews.  The responsibility for lack of progress lies with both sides of the conflict and the occupation is becoming an ever more normal situation as far as Israeli society is concerned; but the longer the occupation lasts the more difficult it is for a fair two-state solution to be implemented and the further away Israel moves from its original ideals. Nevertheless, Doron Rabinovici, a feisty resilient social democrat and human rights activist, continues to defend Israel with persistence and wit, while strongly criticising what he sees as its excesses. 

Natan Sznaider, the sociology professor, speaks with the legitimacy of an Israeli citizen living in Israel. For him the bible is a more suitable and positive founding narrative for the state of Israel than the Holocaust. As Sznaider sees it, Israeli civil society today is a lively mix of diverse tribes and groups interacting among themselves and between each other, with a diversity and vibrancy often overlooked outside of Israel. 

He points out that the 1948 to 1967 period when Israel was led by an Ashkenazi elite wasn’t quite as golden as Rabinovici would like to believe it was.  And thus, the period of 1967 to 2017 does not represent as steep a decline as Rabinovici has made it out to be. Today's Israel is the result of perhaps inevitable adaptations of the state for the Jews to the realities of the internal and external changes in conditions which Israeli society and its body politic had to manage. 

In Sznaider’s view, simply returning to the 1967 borders would not solve much and is not a good idea, even if it were politically on the cards. So, while for Rabinovici ending the occupation is practical and healthy for Israel’s soul as well as for its position in the “family of nations”, Sznaider believes it would be a phenomenally risky act that could be misunderstood by Israel's enemies as a sign of weakness or even of hubris. In either case, it would likely put Israel in a position that would be much worse than the status quo. As Sznaider sees it, managing the status quo in the volatile new Middle Eastern and geopolitical environment is the least bad option available. 

Such realism sounds convincing at a time when the Christians of the Middle East who have lived peacefully in Muslim majority countries for millennia, are forced to flee the region in fear of their lives. Nevertheless, one cannot help but wish that sooner rather than later, voices like Rabinovici’s, to the extent that they also exist among Israel’s citizens, would get more traction in the Israeli political debate. Israeli political thought and leadership today suffers from an overdose of sarcastic realism which blinds it to creative ideas directed towards a moral aspiration for country and society. Enlightened self-interest may lie in tipping the balance more towards the latter. 

As far as Herzl’s dream is concerned Tel Aviv has not become the “Vienna-by-the-Yarkon” which he imagined and hoped for. But it is a young, passionate and vibrant modern city, beating heart of the “start-up nation”. Perhaps Israel today is not everything that the Jews of the diaspora could have wished for; but it is a country, warts and all, of which not only Jews in Israel can be proud.

Shortly before his death Herzl appealed to his designated successors: “Just don’t do anything stupid while I’m dead”. That was always too much to ask.

In any case on a Sunday evening in March 2017, in a well-filled Schauspielhaus in Zurich the mainly Swiss Jewish audience was stimulated and entertained, both by the readings and by the discussion that followed. For two people to enjoy discussing serious disagreements in a civilized, sincere, witty and entertaining manner is a considerable achievement these days, certainly when the topic is Israel and Zionism. The Swiss Jewish cultural society Omanut is to be congratulated for organising an especially interesting and stimulating event which was rewarded by a large attendance and warm applause for the protagonists of the evening.

The link below is an English page by the publishing house Suhrkamp:

http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/herzl_reloaded-doron_rabinovici_54276.html?d_view=english

This is the 3rd version of this blog entry (posted 20 March 2017 at 12:41 hours) correcting a number of spelling/grammatical errors from the earlier versions and incorporating small editorial changes.