Reviews

Review: Being Jewish in France

Yves Jeuland's documentary

By PETER KEOUGH | March 14, 2012

3.0 Stars

"A love affair gone sour," is how one of the writers quoted in director Yves Jeuland's documentary describes the Vichy collusion with the Nazis, which ended with thousands of French Jews rounded up by Gendarmes and shipped to death camps. Sour, indeed; but despite all the barbarity of that period, France, the film argues, has also served as a perennial refuge for Jews, being the first country in Europe to allow them citizenship. And perhaps as a backlash to that tolerance, it has persisted as a breeding ground for anti-Semitism, ranging from the anti-Dreyfusards of the late 19th century to the anti-Israeli Arab immigrants burning synagogues in the 21st. Combining archival footage, excerpts from French films such as The Grand Illusion and The Sorrow and the Pity, and commentary from prominent Jewish politicians, historians, and other cultural figures — many of whom are Holocaust survivors — Jeuland's history is at times scattered, but always compelling.

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ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH

REVIEW: BEING JEWISH IN FRANCE | March 14, 2012
"A love affair gone sour," is how one of the writers quoted in director Yves Jeuland's documentary describes the Vichy collusion with the Nazis, which ended with thousands of French Jews rounded up by Gendarmes and shipped to death camps.

REVIEW: JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME | March 15, 2012
The title slacker (Jason Segel) in the Duplass Brothers' meditation on fate and fatuity is obsessed with M. Night Shyamalan's Signs , and the filmmakers' gentle irony about his bad taste exemplifies their empathy and tonal skill.

INTERVIEW: EMILY BLUNT IS HOOKED ON SALMON FISHING | March 07, 2012
Emily Blunt's roles have included the sexually anarchic teenager of her debut in My Summer of Love (2004), the crime scene custodian in Sunshine Cleaning (2008), the Queen of England in Young Victoria (2009), and a lawn gnome in the animated Gnomeo & Juliet (2011).

REVIEW: THE TURIN HORSE | March 07, 2012
Legend has it that in Turin, Friedrich Nietzsche came across a horse being beaten by its driver. Nietzsche embraced the horse, went insane, and remained so for the rest of his life.

MORTENSEN RINGS UP THE COOLIDGE AWARD | March 07, 2012
On Sunday, Viggo Mortensen dropped in at the marathon screening of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and regaled the gathered faithful with a song in Elvish.

See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

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