7/21/2019 March 27, 1963

1/4

882 The Nation. June24

1

i

with

a

cover headlined The Jewish

Kommandant.

Why wouldnt anybody else publish

Sack? The defense of Sack in New York

centered

on

a statement from Terry Mc-

Doneil, the editor of Esquire who had

turned down Sacks article

on

Morel. He

was quoted as saying the reason he and

so

many other magazine editors had re-

fused to publish the piece was theyre

scared, and Im scared, too. When I

asked McDonell about that quote, he

said, I dont know where he fuck that

came from. Didhe in fact decide not to

publish Sacks article because he was

scared? rcNo,y heaid, that was not

my meaning.

I

had

no

reason to doubt his

research or

his

reporting, and I had run

pieces

of

his in the ast, but the ourcing

of this was not the most comforting.

I

was afraid of not getting it right. But I

was not pressured by anybody.

New Yorksheadline, The Book They

Dare Not Review, distorts the books sit-

uation: Sacks book has been eviewed in

the New YorkDaily News, The New Re-

public, the

Los

Angeles Times and the

San Francisco Chronicle; TheWashing-

ton Post ran

n

item on it in ts Hard-

covers in Brief column;

The New York

Observer ran a front-page story about

Sackswork;

Newsweek

ran

a

Peri-

scope item about it;Publishers Weekly

ran a hot deal item about it;

The

Yif-

rage Voiceput Sack on its cover; and he

was featured on 60 Minutes. Three of

these pieces were ritical, the other seven

were not. The only significant places it

hasnt been written about are The New

York Times Book Review and Time. In-

timidation seems an unlikely explanation

in both of those cases.

The claims that other publishers re-

jected Sacks manuscript out of fear or

in

response to pressure are equally uncon-

vincing. Sacks writing style isrotesque

and at points anti-Semitic; the books

Jewish revenge thesisdistorts and en-

sationalizes history;t lacks the necessary

historicall context; and the notes are un-

acceptable by any tandard. He deserves

credit for finding andoing the work on

an important story, but his blood-and-

guts style is singularlynappropriate, and

his lack ofkill as

a

historian is crippling.

The publishers who turned his book

down were exercising good judgment.

Theres one more problem with Sacks

claim that theews in his book became

like Nazis-they didnt. They didnt

round up theGermans from every corner

of Europe, organize a train network to

transport them toilling centers and en-

list their scientists in developing an effi-

cient system or exterminating them; they

didnt declare their goal was to cleanse

Europe-ofGermans, and then come close

to succeeding. The Holocaust was not

just sadisticSS men whipping nd killing

Jews; it was bureaucratic, scientific and

comprehensive n its mobilization of the

resources of Europes eading industrial

society ,for the purposes of extermina-

tion. That isnt the crime of which Solo-

mon Morel and Lola are guilty.

t

FILMS.

1

STUA~T

LAWANS

Crooklyn

Cannes 9

pike Lees

Crooklyn

feels very

much like

a

first film-which

I

mean as a compliment. Having

long resisted the impulse to be

sincere, and autobiographical, Lee has

now taken the risk, at rather an advanced

age,

of

filming

a

ramblingmemoir about

his family and neighbors in Brooklyn

during the early

1970s.

The author

f

the

screenStory is his sister, Joie Susannah

Lee; the screenplay is by Joie Susannah,

Spike and their brother Cinque. A cozy

collaboration, you might think-certain-

ly too cozy for the majority of film re-

viewers, who have greeted

Crooklyn

with

a

yawn and

a

puzzled question: But

whats it

about?

Friends, readers, col-

leagues:Crooklyn is about emotional sit-

uations that should be familiar to

a

great

many viewers, nd that pike Lee himself

has brought up before, in

Mo

Better

Blues;a film that played out as one long

evasion of the issue. In Cmoklyn,though,

he has opened up these feelings with an

unforced honesty and warmth that not

only sethe pictureapart rom most others

in the theaters today but also establish

this movie as

a

new beginning.

Set on

a

block of row houses in New

YorksBedford-Stuyvesant section, the

film tells a common-enough story about

lower-middle-class life grownense from

economic strain. We see the predictable

moments: the quarrels between mother

and father over whos payinghe bills; the

spats and pranks among the children, in-

terspersed with the kids cockeyedepiph-

anies about the adult orld. As usual n

these cases, the film evotes lavish atten-

tion to re-creating, with gape-mouthed

fascination, the costumes of the era; to

mocking the old television shows; o

wal-

lowing in the music. And yet, I beli

Lee achieveshe remarkable feat of m

ing all this seem fresh-as if he wer

chefserving

up

a revelatory plate

scrambled eggs, r were Thelonious M

discovering hat twelve bars of stand

walking bass can become Misterios

In part , the reshness comes from

films subject matter, which is as new

the screen

as

the themes are old. True

its origins in Bed-Stuy,Crooklynmay

the first movie ever o link sexual aw

ing to shoplifting. Its

lso

one of the v

few films to evoke the mixture of lo

fear and rebellion that may be insti

in African-American children by th

mothers. Weve seen plenty of bl

mammies on the screen before, not

mention black motherfuckers.Crook

though, has the distinction

of

show

us a black mother, period-one wh

strength is not the sentimentalized st

of legendbut strength,with all the d

culties that entails.

The story: Its summer, and 10-y

old Troy (Zelda Harris), the only dau

ter in the Carmichael family, hangs

with her friends on the block, studies

adults, gets into quarrels with her ol

brother Clinton (CarltonWilliams) a

worries about her parents. Her moth

Carolyn (Alfre Woodard), schooltea

er, is getting worn out with work in

out of the house and especially w

bringing home the familys only p

check. In the past, her husband, Wo

(Delroy Lindo), made

a

livhg as

a

pia

and composer; but the market for

has dried up, just asWoody reaches t

stage when you ither grow into an r

of

lasting vdue or lse remain a journ

man. Now hesdesperate.

So

is Carol

The two of them love and understa

each other, and yet their conflict is in

uble. Thats what we see as adult iew

As for Troy, she at first sees the conf

mostly as a parental dispute over w

the children eat andhow they should

disciplined. Then, in fits nd starts,

begins to see more.

Crooklyn

is fresh in what itshow

Troy (and to us); but its also fresh in h

it makes us see. Remember Miste

so? Monks walking bass isnt enti

standard in hat composition. There

twist in it; and

so

too is there a twis

Spike Lees work. He plays the moder

game (unknown to the reat majority

current directors) of letting the film

mind you

of

its own making.

So

for

ample, the opening shot of Crooklyn

gins with

a

kid helping his friends s

a footrace. He calls On your mark,

7/21/2019 March 27, 1963

2/4

June20 I994 The Nation. 88

set, and on go the camera starts to

move, as if cued by the actor on screen.

Another example: Forhe scenes in which

little Troy leaves Brooklyn to stay with

relatives in Georgia, Lee switchesrom a

normal camera lens to the type thats

used for certain wide-screen processes.

Because the film is not projected wide-

screen,everythingcomes out looking

pinched and elongated. A perfect match

the character trapped in a strange social

environment; the image caught in an

alien mechanical environment. I could

multiply examples, though the important

point is,not that Lee wants to play this

modernist game but that he does it with

such

self-assurance. The trick with the

anamorphic lens does become tiresome

(because obtrusive) by the end of the

Georgia sequence.Otherwise, though,

these self-reflarive moments seemo come

to Lee as if they were second nature,

elp-

ing

i m

to engage the audience in

a

single

gesture with the surface of the story and

its emotional depths.

The cinematographer for Crooklyn is

Arthur Jafa (Daughtersof the Dust), who

gives the film softer colorsnd adreamier

look than youd see from Lees usual cam-

eraman, Ernest Dickerson. The sound-

track

of

wall-to-wall SouZ Train hits is

filled out evocatively by composer Terence

Blanchard. Woodys piano solo is played

by Sir Roland Hanna. Woody himself s

played

as

a thoughtful, sweet-natured man

who is outwardly strongut inwardly un-

certain-a marvelous creation

by

Delroy

Lindo, till now best known for his por-

trayal

of West Indian Archie in LeesMal-

colmX .Alfre Woodard,

s

ever, manages

to fill every inch of the screen for every

second shes in front of the camera. Just

a blink from her hooded eyes or a deep

murmur from her pursed lips, and Car,

olyns whole life opens before you. A

marvelous remission from acting-as is

the case with young Zelda Harris, who

carries on as Troy with miraculous self-

abandon.

And yet the critics insist: Whats it

about? To them, and to you,

I

advise,

Gosee Crooklyn. At irst sight, youll

find it handsome toook at. Upon sec-

ond thought, youll realize that its rne-

anderings are only apparent, concealing

an elegantly constructed design. Then,

after mulling it over for a day or two, you

may begin to feel grateful for the self-

confidence with which Spike Leeas di-

rected Crooklyn, allowing the film to

stand back slightly rather than jumping

down your throat. You get the pIeasure

of discovering on your own what this

movie is about.

T

e film world officially takes stock

of

itself twice each year. In March,

at the Academy Awards, he Americans

whoru he worlds

movie

business spend

one night pretending to be interested in

art, which

as

they understand it is some-

thing uplifting.

In

May, at the Interna-

tional Festivalof Film in CannesJhe

Eu-

ropeans and Asians (mostly) whoo not

run the movie business ut wish they did

spend twelve days retending

to

be inter-

ested in art, then wind up giving their top

prize to-Quentin TarantinosPulpFic-

tion.

I can say this muchor the decision:

It awarded a picture thats not likely to

winany Oscars.

I

can

say thk much

for

the Canna

ury: It

awarded topprize to a

film unlikely

to

winany

Oscurs.

To appreciate the force of the prize-

giving, you must understand the early

hullabaloo made over Patrice ChCreaus

historical saga La Reine Margot-the

most eagerly awaited

ilm

of the festival,

according to the May

14

number of the

magazineLeFiImFranqais, and lso the

film that carries the hopes of the French

industry. Large inbudget, long in pro-

duction and heavily loaded with Hexa-

gonal stars, LaReineMargot

was

meant

to bear away highhonors at the estival,

then go

on

to breakallbox-office records,

including those for a foreign-language re-

lease in America.

Ha.

After its first week

in release, La Reine Margot was number

two at the rench box office. he leader?

Four Weddings andaFuneral, with slots

three through ten predictably filled by

American productions.By May

22,

Denis

Parent was writing in

Le

Film Frangais,

I want to hank Quentin Tarantino, who

has broughtme the only real fun of this

Festival with his metaphysica1 gangsters.

A little guns, drugs and rock n roll. A

blessed foothold in the consensual swamp

of

Canness aesthetic correctness.Then,

referring to thenightly ritual of celebri-

ties mounting the red-carpeted steps be-

fore the Festival Palace: Jaimerais bien

quon

nous

fame

un hold-up

sur cette

fucking montge des marches.

jolt of adrenaline; at the climax of on

of its three episodes its literally abo

a jolt of adrenaline. Soon enough yo

come down off its high, with that dru

gie feeling of your bones being hollo

and your skin encrusted with dirt; bu

you cant deny that the movie delive

what you paid for,

r

that it omehow e

vates craft and cleverness to the evel

art. Ill tell you more when the pictu

opens. Fornow, itsenough to say that

Pulp

Fiction succeeds,it wont be sole

because of the capital behind it, or th

all-encompassing power ofts marketin

and distribution.The European films

Cannes are backed by a marketing an

distribution apparatus of their

wn,

whic

generally is cobbledogether out of pr

vate sources, state funds and televisio

revenues. Look t the production credi

and you realize that Cannes is now, to

large extent, a festival of made-for-TV

movies.) The difference is that the ack

ers of

Pulp

Fiction, like the folks at M

Donalds, devote their economic pow

to the efficient delivery ofomething th

people want.

And yet, and yet. All around Cann

this year you sawributes to Jean Reno

upon the hundredth anniversary of h

birth,

as

if to remind us of how muc

weve lost. His movies, unlike le c i n h

du BigMac, were about something mo

than their own coolness;unlike your a

erage European film at Cannes, theywe

about something more than their ow

virtue. Among the handful of pictur

that did not insult the memory of Ren

Red, the last film in Krzysztof Kie

lowskis recent trilogy,s also reputed

be Kieslowskis farewell;and indeed, b

the end,, the film makes you think o

Prosper0 drowning hisbook. Onscree

you have an unmistakable stand-in fo

the director himself: Jean-Louis Trinti

nant as a retired judge in Geneva. Lik

Kieslowski in the Decalogue series an

the Blue/ White/Red trilogy, he Trinti

nant character uses electronic quipme

to track the intersections of various De

~

Well, yes. P u b Fiction hits you like

ple, whom he tudies with sorrowfuidi

passion. Knowing all, he feels he m

nothing. Upon meeting

a

fashion mod

(Irhe Jacob) who carries herself with

sort of moral force that can seem natur

to young women, theudge decides at la

to renounce his knowledge.He also u

dertakes to act, a little, just once. I w

say nothing more, except that the fte

math of the judges act makes sense o

7/21/2019 March 27, 1963

3/4

884 The

Nation.

in the city of John Calvin, in the center

of international law, in the context of the

other films

i n '

Kieslowski's trilogy. My

advice is to see

While

immediately-it's

about to hit the theaters-and prepare

for the coming revelation.

Among the other films in competition,

Abbas Kiarostami's

Under

the Olive

Trees

turned out toe a pleasing follow-

up to And

Life

Goes

On. In the revious

film,

a

director from Teheran found out

how much he could learn rom the simpIe

folk rebuilding their lives after an earth-

quake in the northof Iran; in this film,

the same simple folk find out ow much

they can learn from the director. Andrei

Konchalovsky's Ryaba,

My

Chicken is

his

follow-up to the

967Asya's

Happi-

ness,a 1ongLbannedfilm about life on a

collective farm. Konchalovsky has revis-

ited the site and the haracters during the

present era

of

Yeltsin and gangsterism in

order to tell a tale about a golden egg. It's

a lot better than his brother Nikita Mi-

khalkov's competition film Burnt by the

Sun a

family drama set in the

1 9 3 0 ~ ~

which has the courage to come out four-

square against Stalinism.

Huozhe ToLive) by Zhang Yimou is

not a follow-up film, thought sometimes

feels likeone. Like FarewelZ

My Concu-

bine

and The Blue

Kite,

it presents

a

few

decades' worth of political upheavals

in modern China through the eyes of a

handful of characters. But what splendid

upheavals Maybe you

should

take the

trouble to see

La

Reine

Margot

so

you

can appreciate what a big, splashy spec-

tacle %hangYimou provides.He also of-

fers you emarkable performances by Ge

You

(a popular comedian in China) as'

a

spoiled rich man brought low and 'by

Gong Lias the brat's unsquashable wife.

And

now

for two films that gave me

hope. Nanni Moretti, who has jocular-

ly embodied onscreen the generation of

left-wing, post"68 Italians, has made his

best film yet in

Caro

Diario (DearDiary),

an apparently offhand set of sketches

about his comings and goings. The first

part shows us the things he loves n and

around Rome. The second part follows

him and a friend on a summer vacation

through the Italian islands. The third part

is about his trials at the hands

of

doctors,

as

he tries to get relief from

a

nagging

itch. By the time you get to the nd, the

medical episode has cast a retrospective

light on the other parts of the film, re-

vealing them o be thematically coherent,

heartfelt and deeply thoughtful. And the

best thing about the film? It alljust seems

to happen, with an ease and modesty that

restore the movies to their rightful piace

in daily life.

Which brings us to Aki Kaurismaki.

His latest, the luridly titled TakeCare of

YourScarJ: TQ~YCZ~O ,s not justmodest.

It's downright impoverished; this film

lacks everything, including a self that

would seem capable of having made it.

It's about two rockin',hop-headed Finns

(their drugs of choiceare vodka and cof-

fee) who hit the road in

a

station wagon

of

dubious parentage. Along the way,

they pick p

a

couple of chicks (one Rus-

sian, one Estonian) and sort

of,

well,

nothing. But they feel pretty cool,

for

Finns. They've got their rockn7 oll, and

the station wagon, and the chicks and,

well-nothing.

Why-do I like it? Becauset some level,

this

is

exactly the

same

movie as

PubFic-

tion-except it's only

65

minutes long,

and was made for a budget o f about

twelve dollars. There ies the hope

of

world cinema.

When drafting

your

will, pleasecon-

sider making a bequest to The Na-

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