The Jewish Soul: Ten Classics of Yiddish Cinema (Kino Classics) - November 24, 2020

[MifuneFan]

Kino will be releasing a film collection of classic Yiddish films, and I thought it deserved its own thread. The 5-Disc set has films ranging from 1935 to 1949, and includes several commentary tracks as well.

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THE JEWISH SOUL: Ten Classics of Yiddish Cinema
Five-Disc Set

During its heyday in the late 1930s, Yiddish movies covered a broad range of genres: comedies, soap operas, the supernatural, literary adaptations, musicals, and Lubitsch-style romances. Unified through language, gesture, and a common cultural sensibility, they captured the essence of the Jewish soul. Comprised of both the essential films (The Dybbuk, Tevya) and the lesser-known programmers (The Yiddish King Lear, Motel the Operator), this five-disc set captures the diversity of Yiddish film, and encourages a better appreciation of this most fascinating, but rarely-viewed genre. The ten features in this collection were restored by Lobster Films, the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art, the Deutsche Kinemathek and the Filmoteka Narodowa in Warsaw. Each film has been newly translated by noted Yiddish actor (the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man), playwright and translator Allen Lewis Rickman.

Disc One:

THE DYBBUK
Poland 1937 B&W 123 Min.
Directed by Michael Waszynski
Produced by Zygmunt Mayflauer
From the play by Sholom Ansky
With Avrom Morewski, Ajzyk Samberg, Mojzesz Lipman, Lili Liliana

MIR KUMEN ON (Children Must Laugh)
Poland 1938 B&W 61 Min. Documentary
Directed by Aleksander Ford


Disc Two:

AMERICAN MATCHMAKER
U.S. 1940 B&W 85 Min.
Produced and Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
With Leo Fuchs, Judith Abarbanel, Judel Dubinsky, Anna Guskin

OVERTURE TO GLORY
U.S. 1940 B&W 82 Min.
Directed by Max Nosseck
Based on the play by Mark Arnshtein
With Moyshe Oyster, Florence Weiss, Maurice Krohner, John Mylong

Disc Three:

TEVYA
U.S. 1939 B&W 92 Min.
Directed by Maurice Schwartz
Based on a story by Sholom Aleichem
With Maurice Schwartz, Miriam Riselle, Rebecca Weintraub, Paula Lubelski

THE YIDDISH KING LEAR
U.S. 1935 B&W 84 Min.
Directed by Harry Thomashefsky
Produced by Johnnie Walker and Jack Rieger
Production Supervisor Joseph Seiden
From the play by Jacob Gordon
With Maurice Krohner, Fannie Levenstein, Jacob Bergreen, Miriam Grossman


Disc Four:

HER SECOND MOTHER
U.S. 1940 B&W 84 Min.
Directed by Joseph Seiden
Written by Izidor Frankel
With Esta Salzman, Max Badin, Rose Greenfield, Margaret Schoenfeld

MOTEL THE OPERATOR
U.S. 1940 B&W 87 Min.
Directed by Joseph Seiden
Based on the play by Chaim Tauber
With Chaim Tauber, Seymour Rechzeit, Jetta Zwerling, Jacob Zanger, Maurice Krohner


Disc Five:

ELI ELI
U.S. 1940 B&W 88 Min.
Directed by Joseph Seiden
Written by Izidor Frankel
With Max Badin, Esther Field, Izidor Frankel, Lazar Freed

THREE DAUGHTERS
U.S. 1949 (completed 1961) B&W 87 Min.
Directed by Joseph Seiden
Based on the play by Avraham Blum
With Charlotte Goldstein, Michael Rosenberg, Esta Salzman, Sacha Shaw

EXTRAS:

• *THE DYBBUK: Audio commentary by J. Hoberman. Alternate 99-minute version.
• *AMERICAN MATCHMAKER: Audio commentary by Eve Sicular. Alternate version with 1940 subtitles.
• *OVERTURE TO GLORY: Audio commentary by Allen Lewis Rickman.
• *TEVYA: Audio commentary by Allen Lewis Rickman.
• *HER SECOND MOTHER: Audio commentary by Allen Lewis Rickman. Alternate version with 1940 subtitles.
• *ELI ELI: Alternate version with 1940 subtitles.
• *Printed booklet including essays by journalist and historian Samuel Blumenfeld, film preservationist Serge Bromberg and Yiddish cultural historian Allen Lewis Rickman
• *Theatrical trailer
• *Limited edition slipcase