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American Jewish Filmmakers

Lester D Friedman author David Desser author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Illinois Press

Published:7th Nov '03

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

American Jewish Filmmakers cover

How the Jewish experience gives rise to an intimately linked series of issues in Jewish filmmakers films.The works of Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Sidney Lumet, Paul Marzursky, Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, Brian Singer, and Darren Aronofsky are analyzed.

Demonstrating how the Jewish experience gives rise to an intimately linked series of issues in Jewish filmmakers films, this trilogy presents the effects of the Holocaust linger. It focuses on the failure of society's institutions to deliver social justice, and analyses works of Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, Brian Singer, and Darren Aronofsky.Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Sidney Lumet, and Paul Mazursky, all sons of East European Jews, remain among the most prominent contemporary American film directors. In this revised, updated second edition of American Jewish Filmmakers, David Desser and Lester D. Friedman demonstrate how the Jewish experience gives rise to an intimately linked series of issues in the films of these and other significant Jewish directors.
 
The effects of the Holocaust linger, both in gripping dramatic form (Mazursky's Enemies, a Love Story) and in black comedy (Brooks's The Producers). In his trilogy consisting of Serpico, Prince of the City, and Q&A, Lumet focuses on the failure of society's institutions to deliver social justice. Woody Allen portrays urban life and family relationships (Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters), sometimes with a nostalgic twist (Radio Days).
 
This edition concludes with a newly written discussion of the careers of other prominent Jewish filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, Brian Singer, and Darren Aronofsky.
 

"[A] fascinating and challenging study, one that sheds light not only on the changing character of the American Jew, but on the changing nature of American society and the films that reflect it."--Australian Jewish News
"There is much here for the serious film buff to relish."--Jerusalem Post Magazine

ISBN: 9780252071539

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 28mm

Weight: 540g

360 pages

2nd edition