The Cinema Arts Centre has scheduled the showings of two films from Jewish history and culture.
On Jan. 6 the center will offer a screening of the Academy Award winning film Anne Frank Remembered featuring Gillian Walnes Perry, the author of “The Legacy of Anne Frank.”
On Jan. 30, the Cinema Arts Centre will present a special screening of an early 1923 Jewish silent film, The Ancient Law. The screening with feature a live original score by violinist Alicia Svigalis, one of the founders of the Klezmatics, and silent film pianist Donald Sosin.
Sunday, January 6 Bagels 10 AM, Film 11 AM
Discussion with Special Guest, Gillian Walnes Perry, MBE, author of The Legacy of Anne Frank
Co- founder of the Anne Frank Trust UK, Gillian Walnes Perry, MBE, was instrumental in the creation of Anne Frank Remembered, and was in attendance when it won the Academy Award in 1996. She has lectured worldwide, from 10 Downing Street and the British Film Institute to the United Nations, and from Hong Kong to South Africa.
The Ancient Law is a rarely seen Jewish silent film from Weimar Era Germany that tells the dramatic story of Baruch, a young shtetl Jew and the son of a Rabbi, who leaves his family and community, seeking a secular career as a stage actor.
Set in Galicia in the 1860’s, Baruch is a Rabbi’s son from the shtetl who leaves home to become famous Shakespearean actor and is disowned by his father. Baruch joins a small burlesque troupe and is discovered by an Austrian archduchess who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated Jew. But Baruch continues to long for home, and must find a way to reconcile his religious heritage with his love of secular literature.
Set in Galicia in the 1860’s, Baruch is a Rabbi’s son from the shtetl who leaves home to become famous Shakespearean actor and is disowned by his father. Baruch joins a small burlesque troupe and is discovered by an Austrian archduchess who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated Jew. But Baruch continues to long for home, and must find a way to reconcile his religious heritage with his love of secular literature.
The film paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity. The Ancient Law is considered an important historical German and Jewish cinematic production recreating the introverted world of the Eastern European shtetl, contrasted with Vienna of the 1860’s and speaks to Jewish assimilation in Europe in the 1800’s. In one memorable scene, Baruch takes a scissors to his sidelocks—his payos—to cross a symbolic bridge into the secular world. The film also features wonderful scenes depicting shtetl life. (Germany, 1923, 135 mins, NR, Silent with English Intertitles| Dir. E.A DuPont)
The Deutsche Kinemathek has done major new restoration that premiered at Berlin Film Fest in February.
Wednesday, January 30th at 7:30 PM
$11 Members | $16 Public