Weekend Roundup (5 cents)

1. The Dybbuk. To round out the Ultimate Dybbuk Experience (which had consisted of two viewings of the play at Theater J, an artistic roundtable with the co-adapter, and attending a presentation by Orie Saltis on the Jews of Georgia), we went to a reading of a play by Aaron Mack Schloff based on the life of Anski (and called "Anski") and had supper with the playwright, and then I saw the movie version of the Dybbuk, filmed in Poland in 1937. "Anski" is a bio-play that basically shows the interface between Anski the enthnographer, and the mess that was Russia in the days right before the Communist revolution and during World War I, and Anski's ever changing relationship to being Jewish. I think it is a good play, if a little hard to follow. But that might have been because it was a reading.

The film "Dybbuk", in Yiddish with English subtitles, restored about fifteen years ago is, I think, a surprisingly good movie. It runs well over two hours (as opposed to the 90 minute adaptation at the Theater, and tells a very good story, not too stylized, not at all contemporary. With musical interludes that vanish as the intensity of the story grows. It was particularly interesting for those of us who saw the Theater J presentation, showing the differences between the movie version and the most recent adaptation; now I need to read the original dramatic script, to see how the movie changed Anski's play. Anski had been dead over 15 years when the movie was made.

2. Munich. Spielberg's "Munich" did not win any academy awards, and that was probably for the better. The movie was well put together, very well acted, and very easy to follow. (At least, easy to follow as opposed to the other middle eastern hit of 2005, "Syriana", which could have won an award for most convoluted and hard to recall plot; yet both "Munich" and "Syriana" were telling complicated stories about an increasingly complicated part of the world.)

But I don't think there was anything profound about the message of "Munich", and certainly nothing socially redeeming about it. Perhaps its best feature is its cinematography; the shots on location in Israel, New York, and various European cities are worthy of National Geographic or Burton Holmes. Perhaps its most disconcerting was the portrayal of Golda Meier, by a rather thin woman, who looked much more like Olive Oyl.

3. Purity. "Purity" is an hour long Israeli documentary on ritual purity, and use of the mikveh. We had seen it at the Jewish Film Festival here a few years ago. It has been telecast on the Sundance Channel. It is absolutely worth seeing, even if you have no interest in the subject, even if only to show you why you have no interest in the subject.

4. McCormick and Schmick. The one thing you can say about McCormick and Schmick is that it is consistent. Wrong. We had supper in Bethesday and M & S; it was crowded, but we found two nice bar seats. Our waiter seemed harrassed and was very new to the job. He must have thought that a dry martini has extra vermouth, because he had to make one three times and it still was not acceptable. And, my wife and I each ordered the same dish (cod, quite good), but only hers came. He kept telling me mine was on its way (she was done by then), but it turned out he had never placed the order. Everyone was duly apologetic. But we probably won't be back soon.