I attended two San Francisco Jewish Film Festival events at the Castro today. Here’s what I saw:
C In Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery
The last thing you’d expect to find in Berlin is a Jewish cemetery that was consecrated in the 19th century. But Weissensee is just that—a final resting place that the Nazis left alone.
You might guess that a documentary on this subject would devote considerable time
to this enigma, but director Britta Wauer gives it only seconds. One interview subject tells us that legends warned Germans that there was a curse on Weissensee. Then another says that the SS just didn’t get around to it, and that if the war had lasted a few more months, it would have been desecrated like most of the Jewish cemeteries in Europe.
The rest of the movie tells us about people who are buried there, people who visit deceased relatives, people who work or once worked there, and even people living on the premises. We also learn a bit about Jewish burial practices.
Some of the stories are fascinating, but others just seem to mark time. This made-for-TV documentary makes a reasonably interesting way to kill 90 minutes, if you have nothing better to do.
It plays again on Saturday, August 6, at 4:40, at the Roda Theater in Berkeley.
A Spartacus and the Freedom of Expression Award
Now this was a great way to spend an afternoon!
This year, the Festival presented its Freedom of Expression Award to Hollywood star, 
living legend, executive producer, and stroke survivor Issur Danielovitch—better known by his professional name: Kirk Douglas. Douglas earned the award more than 50 years ago, when he insisted that black-listed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo receive credit for his screenplay for the 1960 Spartacus (Douglas executive-produced as well as starred in the epic).
Fifteen years after a stroke robbed him of much of his ability to talk, Douglas spoke to the audience in a strong if occasionally difficult-to-understand acceptance speech. He spoke of the importance of free expression in a democracy, and that how without it we are all slaves. He talked about Trumbo’s adaptation of the original novel, written by the equally controversial Howard Fast (“Fast wrote a horrible screenplay”). He mentioned his second Bar Mitzvah in 1999 (at the age of 83), and how he plans to have a third to get himself into the Guinness Book of Records.
Then they screened Spartacus. I’ve only seen it theatrically once before—when it was restored in 1991. Between the Castro’s magnificent screen and the enthusiastic audience, this was easily my best Spartacus experience.
Spartacus is simply the most powerful, intelligent, and coherent toga epic from the 
golden age of toga epics. Yes, I know that sounds like weak praise, but it isn’t. One scene tells you more about gladiators than that whole Russell Crowe silliness from 2000. Douglas, Trumbo, and director Stanley Kubrick don’t give us the glory of Rome, but the horror, cruelty, and exploitation of a seemingly invincible dictatorship. It’s a stirring tale of rebellion that leads to inevitable tragedy.
This was one of the great roadshow productions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Originally shown in reserved-seat theaters at high prices, it runs for over three hours, not including the overture or the intermission. This is a type of weighty epic spectacle that doesn’t exist anymore, and really requires something like the Castro to make it work its best.
My only regret: They screened it in 35mm. It’s better in 70mm (I assume; I’ve never seen it that way), but no such print is currently available.
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