and
The Appropriate Tune - "Tumbalalaika" by The Klezmer Conservatory Band
I think it should go without saying that Jewish people have been instrumental in the development of cinema as an art form. Whether it be through acting, writing, directing, producing, some of the most celebrated films of all time likely would not exist were it not for members of the Jewish people, and some of those most celebrated films are about Jewish people. Yet when it comes to this blog’s forte, the genre film, it always seemed to me like there was a gap in representation. I mean think of all the famous horror film based around Christian theology, Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Devil’s Advocate and then try to think of an equivalent film based around Hebrew theology. Pretty hard I imagine. In fact the only Jewish genre movie that comes to mind (besides The Hebrew Hammer, which I believe is legally classified as a dumpster fire rather than a movie) is The Golem, a German Expressionist film that literally came out over a century ago, so I’d say we’re overdue for another one. So how about one that’s slightly less than a century old instead?
Released in Poland in 1937, The Dybbuk was written by S.A. Kacyzna, directed by Michał Waszyński and produced by Zygfryd Mayflauer, based on the play of the same name by S. Ansky. Sender and Nisn are the best of friends, So much so that they make a vow to each other that if their soon-to-be-born children turn out to be boy and girl, then they shall be wed. God, however, hates harmless statements and decides to dole out some punishment on them: Sender arrives home to find his wife gave birth to a daughter but died in childbirth, and Nisn dies at sea before learning his wife gave birth to a son. 18 years later a young scholar named Khonen arrives in town and hits it off with the Sender family, especially Leah, but Sender has become a wealthy man over the years and the only potential groom he can consider for his daughter is one that can make him even wealthier. Obsessed with claiming Leah as his bride, Khonen turns to the Kabbalah and even Satan in order to get her, but God apparently hates that too and promptly kills him as well. That seemed to be the end of it, but it is said that if a man dies before his time that his soul can return to walk the earth, looking to experience the things they missed out on life, becoming what is known as a dybbuk. Which is exactly what happens here: Leah in her grief calls out for Khonen to be with her, Khonen’s spirit returns as a dybbuk and possesses her, and now the Sender family has to figure out a way to free her from the malignant spirit. Kind of like The Exorcist but with more Yiddish.
One of the big appeals for me in watching foerign films is being able to catch a glimpse of different cultures and to see how they interpret the world. While the Jewish people aren’t ‘foreign’, at least in places like the U.S., as I wrote earlier you never really see that much of a Jewish presence in pop culture outside of Hanukkah time, so this is a treat. Not only to see Jewish actors performing in Yiddish, but getting to see how the Jewish people celebrate holidays and religious ceremonies, hear their songs and their views on theology, the full monte. More than a film that just utilizes an aspect of Jewish culture/folklore as a gimmick, like The Leprechaun, this is a film that knows and honors its roots.
So besides being a cultural touchstone, how is The Dybbuk as a film? It’s fine. This was the era when many films were essentially stage plays on screen and Dybbuk is no exception, but there are some exterior shots and cinematic tricks (such as those involving the spirits) to spice things up, and I think the little village area they use as the main setting looks well crafted. The acting is also perfectly adequate, M. Lipman is probably the highlight as Sender and Leah’s potential bridegroom (psychoanalyze that Mr. Freud), who is the closest this film has to comic relief, although I think the actors who play Leah and Khonen have more charisma separately than they do together. I also liked the music, you can never have enough klezmer, although with the way audio was captured back in the day some of the songs come off as a bit creepy.
As a story though there was definitely a disconnect. When I went into this film I was expecting it to be a sort of Hebrew religious fable, and given how much Jewish theology plays into the story it sort of is, but this is less like David & Goliath and more like Romeo & Juliet. In R&J the theme of ‘get along or this shit can ripple down to your kids and fuck up their lives’ is pretty clear, but I’m not sure of the moral of The Dybbuk. Sender and Nisn try to decide things beyond their station and get punished for it so you’d think the message is ‘place your faith in God and don’t try to micromanage everything’ but then it pushes Leah and Khonen together anyway. Khonen is running down the Talmud in one of his early scenes so you think he’s going to have to learn humility in order to get his just reward, but in fact Khonen succeeds by doing the complete opposite. Then you think it might involve Sender repenting for mistake and his miserly behavior but no, that doesn’t really factor in either. Usually in a religiously-based film the world with God or faith is portrayed as gray and miserable, but in The Dybbuk where God is a factual thing, all the characters end up miserable, and faith appears to be completely meaningless. Which really starts hitting home when considering the 2 hour runtime. It’s downright depressing, almost absurdist in a way, but I’ll fully admit that’s an outside perspective and the audience for which it was made likely saw it differently.
A film made by Polish Jews on the eve of WWII sounds like it could be a movie on its own, but the film we got was interesting enough in its own way, so I’m giving The Dybbuk a mild recommendation. It’s not really a film made to just sit down and watch whenever, but maybe if you’re a teacher looking for something to show the class (I first found out about the play from a college class), or if you and your significant other like old sad B&W movies, or you’re just trying to expand your horizons as I’m trying to do, then The Dybbuk is worth looking into. If those don’t apply to you, then it'll probably be too long and too slow paced to be truly enjoyable, and you’ll want to look for something different. And if any mysterious bearded men suddenly appear and start giving you life advice, just walk away.
No comments:
Post a Comment