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Home , George Segal, Lionel Bart, Ron Moody

JASON SOLOMONS

Jason Solomons is a film critic, author and broadcaster.

As you watch the clips, put a tick in the tables below when you hear references to the different films, people and themes listed. For each clip, there are some suggested follow up questions.

Earliest Memories

Reference Tick when mentioned Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Size of the screen Chocolate raisins

For discussion: • What are your earliest memories of going to the cinema? Ask your family about theirs.

What makes a Jewish film?

Reference Tick when mentioned Lauren Bacall Billy Wilder Ben Hur Exodus Stephen Spielberg Woody Allen The Taking of Pelham One Two Three Yiddish cinema The Jazz Singer Israeli cinema French cinema Diaspora of Jewish filmmaking

1/7 Find out more: • Choose one of the people named in this clip and find out more about them. • Watch the trailers for the Ben Hur from the 1959 version and the 2016 version. How are these promotional products similar and different? How do the films seem to compare? How is Ben Hur a Jewish film? • To what extent do you agree with Jason’s description of what makes a film Jewish. Look at the activity on this page for other ideas.

Favourite Jewish film

Reference Tick when mentioned Hall Radio Days Crimes and Misdemeanours Mike Leigh Vera Drake Leon the Pig Farmer Expresso Bongo Laurence Harvey Wolf Mankowitz Salt beef beigel

For discussion: • What’s your favourite film and why? Do you have a favourite film that links with your cultural heritage and identity? • Ask people in your family what their all-time favourite films are. atchW some trailers of your favourite films together and discuss why they have stuck with you. • Watch the trailers for one or more of the films Jason has mentioned. Which of these would you most like to see?

2/7 Significance of Woody Allen

Reference Tick when mentioned Biography The Purple Rose of Cairo Romantic Jewish world view David Baddiel A ‘wasp’

Find out more: • What do you think Jason might mean by a “Jewish world view”? • What do you understand by the term a ‘wasp’? • To what extent does this article from a Jewish cultural magazine broaden your understanding of the term ‘wasp’ and its relevance for the American Jewish community. Why do you think the term is used less often by the Jewish community in Britain?

Jewish contribution to film and cinema in the UK

Reference Tick when mentioned Oscar Deutsch Michael Balcon Ealing Studios Always Rains on Sunday Assimilate Jack Rosenthal Alfie Bass Restricted to comedy side-kick roles Kirk Douglas Secret kinship [with Jewish actors]

Find out more: • Look at the interactive timeline to find out more about some of the people mentioned in this clip. • When you watch someone in a film from a similar background or cultural heritage as you, to what extent do you have a ‘secret kinship’? • Research Always Rains on Sunday to identify the Jewish elements of the film.

3/7 Technological advances

Reference Tick when mentioned Introduction of sound The Jazz Singer Smelly-vision 3D Multi-platforms Digital technology Filmmakers access to lighter technology YouTube Allows voices from different spheres and communities

Find out more:

• On this page, watch the short film Cinema – Not Like It Was made by young people. How has the cinema experienced changed since the 1930s? • Thinking about the role of technology in changing audience experiences and the impact on audience response, how do you think changes in exhibition of film have affected the audience’s experience over time?

How does performance create meaning in film?

Reference Tick when mentioned Some Like It Hot Layers Farce Dramatic irony Switching of identities Female sexuality Prismatic display of meaning Pastiching gangster movies Male and female impetuses

Find out more:

• To what extent do you agree or disagree with Jason’s comments about Some Like It Hot? • Explain how performance creates meaning in another film text such as Casablanca, or a film of your choice.

4/7 Auteur theory

Reference Tick when mentioned French critics Cahiers du Cinema Auteur is the person who writes the movie Camera-stylo Howard Hawks Michael Curtiz Billy Wilder George Cukor Auteur theory is dangerous Filmmaking is a collaborative process Author the balance of a movie Francois Truffaut

For discussion: • To what extent do you agree with Jason’s comments about auteur theory? • With reference to two directors of your choice, construct a counter argument.

Social & political context of films

Tick when Reference mentioned Mel Brooks Holocaust 1968 Subversive Context and timing is all Muslim identity 9/11 … that changed the context of everything Prejudice increased around them [Muslim community] Riz Ahmed’s characters The Night Of The Reluctant Fundamentalist Political signifiers pop up because they are part of the climate

5/7 Tick when Reference mentioned Brian De Palma’s Redacted Paul Haggis’s In the Valley of Elah ’ Jarhead Anti-war Born on the 4th July Apocalypse Now The Parallax View The Conversation Platoon

Find out more: • Watch the trailers for The Night Of and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Find out when these films were released then think about the extent to which these films reflect the political context in which they were made? • Watch the trailers for Redacted, In the Valley of Elah and Jarhead. As with the films above, find out when these were released then think about the extent to which these films reflect the political context in which they were made? • What do you think is the effect of social and cultural context on representations of minority ethnic groups in film? Give examples.

Stereotypes

Tick when Reference mentioned History of stereotyping Shylock The Merchant of Venice Context is all Antony Sher Alex Guinness David Lean version Mickey Rooney Breakfast at Tiffany’s Racial stereotypes

6/7 Tick when Reference mentioned Tootsie Gender politics Tightrope walk of identity Jewing up The Infidel Ida Comedy and tragedy Melinda and Melinda Sasha Baron Cohen Borat Bruno Zelig Grimsby

Find out more: • Watch the two interpretations of Fagin in Oliver Twist mentioned in this clip. One is Ron Moody and the other is Alec Guinness. To what extent do you think these representations are stereotypes? • How does Sasha Baron Cohen play with stereotypes in this scene from the filmBorat ? • How and why can stereotypes of Jewish people (and other minority groups) be used positively and negatively?

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