WJFF ’14: When Jews Were Funny

If you take the comic out of the Catskills, do you take the Catskills out of the comedy? That is sort of the question Alan Zweig will ask several generations of Jewish comedians. Opinions will vary in documentarian Zweig’s When Jews Were Funny (trailer here), which screens today and tomorrow at the 2014 Washington Jewish Film Festival.

When Ed Sullivan ruled the airwaves, all the best comics were Jewish—or at least that is how Zweig remembers it. Essentially, he proceeds to prompt a number of comedians to confirm his presumptions that there is something about the Jewish experience that makes those of their shared faith more apt to embrace comedy as a means of dealing with personal and collective adversity. Yet, that particularly Jewish brand of humor has largely shaped the comedy of the mass media age.

However, senior comedians like Shelley Berman and Jack Carter have no idea what Zweig is talking about. They just happened to be comedians who were Jewish and spoke Yiddish fluently. In contrast, comedians from Zweig’s generation, like David Steinberg and David Brenner, are completely on his wavelength.  The various younger generations line-up all over the place, such as Marc Maron, who basically argues Zweig is fetishizing Jewish stereotypes.

If that sounds awkward, it is nothing compared to Zweig’s “interview” with Alan “Super Dave Osbourne” Einstein, who appears to be on the verge of coming to blows with the filmmaker (if it’s a bit, he sells it brilliantly).  In fact, part of the charm of WJWF is listening to Zweig break every possible rule of documentary filmmaking. His questions are often vague and repetitive, his preparation is dubious, and he personalizes everything, all of which is rather conducive to comedy.

There are a few archival clips here and there, but Zweig mainly trusts his interview subjects to keep things interesting, which is ironic considering how little faith many of them have in his concept. Yet, despite or because of all that, WJWF is consistently funny and highly watchable, especially by talking head standards.

As an authoritative study of the cultural-religious roots of comedy, WJWF is a train wreck, but it is a highly entertaining and appealingly messy catalyst for a lot of riffing and joke-telling. Even Howie Mandel is funny at times. Recommended for those who appreciate an old school comedy fix, When Jews Were Funny screens tonight (3/8) and tomorrow (3/9) as part of the2014 WJFF.

WJFF ’14: Regina

She was raised in the Orthodox tradition, but was ordained as Berlin’s first female rabbi, recognizing no inherent contradiction between the two. Her historic career, tragically cut short by the National Socialists, is profiled in Diana Groó’s Regina, which screens this week during the 2014 Washington Jewish Film Festival.

Regina Jonas grew up in turn-of-the-century Berlin’s desperately poor Eastern European immigrant neighborhood—the ghetto before the ghetto, so it is not hard to surmise her ultimate fate. However, Jonas’s formative years were rather extraordinary, because her Orthodox father insisted she receive an education, alongside her brother. At an early age, Jonas showed an aptitude for religious instruction, which she would pursue for the rest of her life.

After years of study and struggle, Jonas was finally ordained, with the support of both reformists and select Orthodox mentors. Nonetheless, her accomplishment proved quite controversial, nearly splitting Berlin’s Jewish community. Ironically, the National Socialists inadvertently hastened her acceptance, by making rabbis so ominously scarce in the city.  During grim times, Jonas’s sermons were a source of strength and consolation to many, but she would soon share the fate of so many of her fellow Jewish Berliners.

At just over an hour, Regina is a relatively short film, but regrettably, Jonas lived a relatively short life.  Since there is only one surviving photo of her, Groó mostly relies on archival footage of the period that conveys a strong sense of time and place.  While necessarily limiting, she often gives the visuals a stylistic tweak, zooming in, slowing down, and hazing over images for an effect not unlike Guy Maddin’s films. In truth, it mostly works quite well. Yet, it is the powerful minimalist guitar score composed and performed by Dániel Kardos (somewhat reminiscent of Gary Lucas’s original silent film projects) that makes the film so distinctive.

Regina is a well intentioned film that features sensitive voice-overs (most notably from Rachel Weisz). It is tasteful and to-the-point, but it is the haunting photo of Jonas and Kardos’ eerie soundtrack that will make the greatest impression on the viewer’s consciousness.  Respectfully recommended, Regina screens this Wednesday (3/5) and Thursday (3/6) as part of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.