The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2021: The Dybbuk (1937), directed by Michal Wasznyski

 

The Trailer

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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.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2020: Knife in the Water (1962), directed by Roman Polanski

 

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "I'll Fall With Your Knife", by Peter Murphy

      Originally I was going to lead this off with a talk about the state of cinema in the 60s, how both sides of the ‘Iron Curtain’ were putting out excellent films, even though most of the credit tends to go toward the French New Wave and Italian neorealists. Then I was going to do something addressing Roman Polanski. Neither of them felt right though so I’m just going to get to the film.

      Released in 1962 through Zespol Filmowy, Knife in the Water was the directorial debut of Roman Polanski, written by Jakub Goldberg, Jerzy Skolimowski and Polanski himself. Leon Niemczyk and Jolanta Umecka play Andrezj and Krystyna, a couple driving down the road when they come across, almost run over, a young hitch-hiker played by Zygmunt Malanowicz. They pick him up on their way to the marina, where they have a boat docked, and ultimately manage to convince him to join them on their sailing trip across the lake. However it soon becomes clear that this is no holiday trip between friends. There is a tension building here, an inevitable implosion between these people, but when will it happen? What form will it take? What is it about Poland and stolen windshield wipers? You’ll have to see for yourself.

     The main thrust of Knife in the Water is human behavior, for lack of a better description. The relationship between Andrezj and the young man, the young versus old, the romantic versus the rational. Which then morphs into the parent-child dynamic as the young man tries to prove his competency in a world he has little experience in (sailing), which of course leads into something of an oedipal complex and this sexual contest between the woman and the two men. All of which is steeped in this tension where you’re just waiting for someone to snap and start throwing fists. Which feels incredibly awkward and uncomfortable, and makes for some good drama.

      The crux of this tension and this drama lies in the fact that these characters are forced to deal with each other due to being stuck in this boat, but Polanski never allows the setting to limit the dynamism of the film. There are shots that invoke the physical intimacy of the characters, having them in the immediate foreground as characters in the background are directed towards us. Aerial shots where we are looking down at the characters, shots from the water, a lot of stuff that would probably be a hassle to do in the early 60s and which highlight the characters and their isolation from anything and everyone else. Combined with the script it’s a deceptively advanced work for someone’s debut film.

      I also have to give credit to the film’s score, which was done by Krysztof T. Komeda. Musically Knife in the Water sounds like what you imagine all those film noir detective movies would sound like: smooth jazz that seems to slink around the room like a plume of smoke from a beautiful woman’s cigarette. Something which I think compliments the film, as it accentuates this atmosphere of lethargy where the characters ultimately have nothing to do but deal with each other. I think there may be some points where we shift into something a bit more folk-based, but the jazz is what really makes this movie pop in my opinion.

      Of course if you’re not a fan of that era of directors, Bergman, Truffaut, what have you, then I doubt Knife in the Water would change your mind. Although it’s much more straightforward then, say, Godard’s Alphaville, this is still a film of very little action, and where if characters do talk it’s often around the point rather than on it. It’s a very psychologically-centered film, dealing in questions of maturity and the male ego, and there are certainly many people out there that don’t have the patience to sift through that. I did, and even I am struggling to put this review together, if that tells you much.

      Still I think I’ll give Knife in the Water the recommendation. While I think it drags a bit, maybe by design, by the end I think it managed to tell an intriguing story. It’s not a blockbuster or some grand epic by any means, but as a debut film I think it showed a great deal of promise and a knowledge of the craft that would have established Roman Polanski as a director worth keeping track of, an assumption that would eventually be justified in his later films and not the horrible things he would also take part in. It’s definitely not a party movie, but if you’re in a more sullen mood on All Hallow’s Eve then you might throw this on and brood for a while. If you have a boat then even better.