‘The problem is that the real Henryk was not at all a coarse creature of ethnic fury. He was himself a musician, a violinist--a fact that Polanski chooses to conceal. One cannot be an avenging Jew, you see, and a musician. One cannot demand vengeance and live.’
There you have it, yes. When I talk to some Irish friends and family we hit this wall. A ‘moral barrier’. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Creative, kind, good… these words cannot ever be accompanied by self-defence, justice, etc. The two are oxymoronic to some folk.
You can’t go to war and be a good guy these days. You can’t defend yourself through violence (when violence is forced on you) even as a last resort and still be considered kind afterward.
On the contrary, I say, yes you can. The wall can come down. 👍🐋🇮🇪🇮🇱
Yes! You are absolutely right. As I always say, we must defend Western values against the barbarian and to do this we must become the warrior. The challenge is to go back to the Western values (rule of law, justice, etc.) afterwards. But we can, we have, we must.
I fully agree with you and that's why I was always alone in front of the admirors of these three Holocaust kitsch movies. Moreover, I left the movie hall before the end of Schindler's List and also of Life is beautifull, so hard was it for me to eat this schmalz. But don't think that one cannot make really good movies about the Shoah. I loved the French movies "Adieu les Enfants" by Louis Malle, Claude Lanzmann's monumental Shoah ......
Agree 100%. I can’t stand Hollywood and their pretentious, half-witted formulas. Malle’s Lacomb, Lucien is also brilliant, albeit different from Au revoir les enfants, which is Malle’s autobiographical work.
This is probably the most astute, well-written, well-articulated film review I have ever read. Brilliant, really.
The western obsession with glamorizing dead Jews and shallowness in understanding a complex world of living and breathing Jewish culture is a reality in which we live today.
And I think the one only good film Polanski made is Chinatown.
Polanski should have been returned to the US to face his punishment. Maybe he was forgiven due to the horror done to his wife, Sharon Tate. Maybe he was forgiven his trespasses due to his facility with creating movies, like Weinstein. In other words, it wasn't only Polanski's mistake about the Holocaust, it was our mistake about Polanski. One can only hope that his past hangs around his neck like a invisible dead albatross.
‘The problem is that the real Henryk was not at all a coarse creature of ethnic fury. He was himself a musician, a violinist--a fact that Polanski chooses to conceal. One cannot be an avenging Jew, you see, and a musician. One cannot demand vengeance and live.’
There you have it, yes. When I talk to some Irish friends and family we hit this wall. A ‘moral barrier’. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
Creative, kind, good… these words cannot ever be accompanied by self-defence, justice, etc. The two are oxymoronic to some folk.
You can’t go to war and be a good guy these days. You can’t defend yourself through violence (when violence is forced on you) even as a last resort and still be considered kind afterward.
On the contrary, I say, yes you can. The wall can come down. 👍🐋🇮🇪🇮🇱
Yes! You are absolutely right. As I always say, we must defend Western values against the barbarian and to do this we must become the warrior. The challenge is to go back to the Western values (rule of law, justice, etc.) afterwards. But we can, we have, we must.
I fully agree with you and that's why I was always alone in front of the admirors of these three Holocaust kitsch movies. Moreover, I left the movie hall before the end of Schindler's List and also of Life is beautifull, so hard was it for me to eat this schmalz. But don't think that one cannot make really good movies about the Shoah. I loved the French movies "Adieu les Enfants" by Louis Malle, Claude Lanzmann's monumental Shoah ......
Agree 100%. I can’t stand Hollywood and their pretentious, half-witted formulas. Malle’s Lacomb, Lucien is also brilliant, albeit different from Au revoir les enfants, which is Malle’s autobiographical work.
This is probably the most astute, well-written, well-articulated film review I have ever read. Brilliant, really.
The western obsession with glamorizing dead Jews and shallowness in understanding a complex world of living and breathing Jewish culture is a reality in which we live today.
And I think the one only good film Polanski made is Chinatown.
Polanski should have been returned to the US to face his punishment. Maybe he was forgiven due to the horror done to his wife, Sharon Tate. Maybe he was forgiven his trespasses due to his facility with creating movies, like Weinstein. In other words, it wasn't only Polanski's mistake about the Holocaust, it was our mistake about Polanski. One can only hope that his past hangs around his neck like a invisible dead albatross.
Fantastic article. Powerful last question. I almost didn’t read it because of Polanski the pedo.