Don’t be confused about the title The Apprentice. This is not a movie version of the NBC reality TV series in any way, but instead a smart, sharp and surprising origin story of the man who hosted it. In this case the actual “apprentice” is Donald Trump, infamous real estate developer, former President of the United States and current presumed GOP nominee for 2024.
But the political Trump is not in Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s compelling film, which instead zeroes in on a specific period of Trump’s life in the early ’70s when he was in his 20s and struggling to make a name for himself in the world of real estate in New York City. But it isn’t just about him — it is equally focused on his unique relationship with his lawyer, the notorious Roy Cohn, often referred to as vicious, cruel, ruthless and sadistic, a...
But the political Trump is not in Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s compelling film, which instead zeroes in on a specific period of Trump’s life in the early ’70s when he was in his 20s and struggling to make a name for himself in the world of real estate in New York City. But it isn’t just about him — it is equally focused on his unique relationship with his lawyer, the notorious Roy Cohn, often referred to as vicious, cruel, ruthless and sadistic, a...
- 5/20/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
In our new era of prestige television, no other show on the airwaves has depicted the harsh realities and painful sacrifices that have to be made in the high stakes world of espionage more than FX's "The Americans." In the series, which ran for six seasons, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys play two Russian spies who are assigned together as an unassuming husband and wife couple named Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings. Working for the Kgb, they must blend in with the American way of life that they detest (at least at first) to steal secrets from the U.S. during the Cold War. By the series' end, they've committed unforgivable acts and forever altered their relationship with their daughter, and are then forced to return to a homeland they no longer recognize. It's a dark fate, and one they manage to survive because they have each other and they've...
- 5/26/2023
- by Drew Tinnin
- Slash Film
Exclusive: New indie film financier Mizzel Media is launching in Cannes with what we understand to be a healthy six-figure investment in feature The Girl From Köln, the next film from Holy Spider and The Tale outfit One Two Films.
The movie, which is due to shoot later this year, will star Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) and John Magaro (Past Lives) in the lead roles.
Bankside is handling world sales in Cannes on the project, which will tell the little-known backstory of how a maverick German teenager named Vera Brandes was instrumental in the creation of the best-selling solo piano record of all time, U.S. pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert. Ido Fluk (The Ticket) directs from his own script.
The investment is U.S. outfit Mizzel’s first to date. The New York-based company is run by producer and veteran manager Lillian Lasalle, whose clients...
The movie, which is due to shoot later this year, will star Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) and John Magaro (Past Lives) in the lead roles.
Bankside is handling world sales in Cannes on the project, which will tell the little-known backstory of how a maverick German teenager named Vera Brandes was instrumental in the creation of the best-selling solo piano record of all time, U.S. pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert. Ido Fluk (The Ticket) directs from his own script.
The investment is U.S. outfit Mizzel’s first to date. The New York-based company is run by producer and veteran manager Lillian Lasalle, whose clients...
- 5/19/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Germany’s Mala Emde and US actor John Magaro are set to star.
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales on director Ido Fluk’s feature Köln 75, that tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one maverick German teenager was instrumental in its creation.
The film meets teenager Vera Brandes while she is still in high school and starts producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, and risks everything to put on what will become Jarrett’s legendary show.
German star of...
UK sales outfit Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales on director Ido Fluk’s feature Köln 75, that tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one maverick German teenager was instrumental in its creation.
The film meets teenager Vera Brandes while she is still in high school and starts producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, and risks everything to put on what will become Jarrett’s legendary show.
German star of...
- 2/8/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” is one of multiple projects tackling the life of Roy Cohn, but few are as personal as director Ivy Meeropol‘s HBO documentary. Meeropol is the granddaughter of Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of espionage and put to death on Cohn’s recommendation. “Bully. Coward. Victim.” features Meeropol talking to her father, Michael Meeropol, about his experience advocating for his parents.
See ‘Time’: Garrett Bradley’s Sundance award-winning documentary about love and incarceration could make Oscar history
The documentary explores the many twists and turns of Cohn’s life, not only encompassing his work in the Rosenberg trials but his association with various influential figures from the ’50s through the ’80s like Joseph McCarthy, President Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and future President Donald Trump. Interspersed throughout the film we check in on Ivy’s conversations with her father...
See ‘Time’: Garrett Bradley’s Sundance award-winning documentary about love and incarceration could make Oscar history
The documentary explores the many twists and turns of Cohn’s life, not only encompassing his work in the Rosenberg trials but his association with various influential figures from the ’50s through the ’80s like Joseph McCarthy, President Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and future President Donald Trump. Interspersed throughout the film we check in on Ivy’s conversations with her father...
- 10/30/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
Left to Right: Roy Cohn, Donald Trump.
Photo by Sonia Moskowitz. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings but right beside him was Roy Cohn. If the question instead had been asked of McCarthy’s young associate, the honest answer would have been no. A famously vicious lawyer and Donald Trump’s mentor. Roy Cohn is the subject of director Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary Where’S My Roy Cohn?
That question directed at Sen. McCarthy was asked by Sen. Joseph Welch, and brought an end to McCarthy’s reign of terror in the 1950s. The documentary takes a close look at the man sitting beside McCarthy, a ruthless lawyer and power broker who many have described as the embodiment of evil. With young attorney Roy Cohn whispering in his ear, Sen. Joe McCarthy...
Photo by Sonia Moskowitz. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings but right beside him was Roy Cohn. If the question instead had been asked of McCarthy’s young associate, the honest answer would have been no. A famously vicious lawyer and Donald Trump’s mentor. Roy Cohn is the subject of director Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary Where’S My Roy Cohn?
That question directed at Sen. McCarthy was asked by Sen. Joseph Welch, and brought an end to McCarthy’s reign of terror in the 1950s. The documentary takes a close look at the man sitting beside McCarthy, a ruthless lawyer and power broker who many have described as the embodiment of evil. With young attorney Roy Cohn whispering in his ear, Sen. Joe McCarthy...
- 10/18/2019
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Here are a few of the fun facts you learn from “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.” Cohn, while wealthy, rarely paid his bills. A $1,500 laundry debt, a $10,500 tab he owed the 21 Club, a repossessed car — we see Cohn’s handwritten messages instructing his secretary not to pay anything, because that, quite simply, was his strategy: Don’t pay. (The result? He was always getting sued.) In Provincetown, the gay coastal resort-town mecca where Cohn’s one-time landlord says she never saw him alone (except when he was in the ocean), he threw dinner parties with a bowl of cocaine next to each plate, and a capsule of the barbiturate Tuinal next to that, in case a guest got too high. Cohn won victory for his clients by settling 60 to 75 percent of his cases out of court, and he once spent an evening with an escort, who had...
- 10/8/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Films on Merce Cunningham, Roy Cohn and Oliver Sacks are among the notable titles set for the Spotlight on Documentary lineup at the 57th New York Film Festival.
Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D” centers on dancer and choreographer Cunningham, who was at the forefront of American modern dance for half a century. The Cohn documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim” is directed by Ivy Meeropol, whose grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were prosecuted by Cohn. Ric Burns’s “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life,” examines the British neurologist and author.
The Spotlight on Documentary also include Michael Apted’s “63 Up,” the ninth iteration of his “Up” series that followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964; Nick Broomfield’s “My Father and Me,” a portrait of his relationship with his father Maurice Broomfield; and Nicholas Ma’s short documentary “Suite No. 1, Prelude,” which captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father Yo-Yo Ma.
Two...
Alla Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D” centers on dancer and choreographer Cunningham, who was at the forefront of American modern dance for half a century. The Cohn documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim” is directed by Ivy Meeropol, whose grandparents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were prosecuted by Cohn. Ric Burns’s “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life,” examines the British neurologist and author.
The Spotlight on Documentary also include Michael Apted’s “63 Up,” the ninth iteration of his “Up” series that followed the lives of 14 British children since 1964; Nick Broomfield’s “My Father and Me,” a portrait of his relationship with his father Maurice Broomfield; and Nicholas Ma’s short documentary “Suite No. 1, Prelude,” which captures the perfectionist tendencies of his father Yo-Yo Ma.
Two...
- 8/21/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Duck and Cover! And while you’re down there, enjoy a Flaming Atomic Cocktail! Loader, Rafferty & Rafferty’s influential documentary-satire uses authentic ’50s films and songs to illuminate the lies and myths about Cold War civil defense. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be like children in the face of a horror being characterized as an inconvenience to Americans insufficiently willing to Love the Bomb. And don’t forget to Sing: “Nobody’s worried ’bout the day my Lord will come, When he’ll hit, great God a-mighty, like an atom bomb!”
The Atomic Cafe
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1982 / Color+B&W / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / Street Date December 4, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Lloyd Bentsen, Richard Nixon,
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Hugh Beaumont, James Gregory, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Leigh.
Archival Research: Pierce Rafferty, Nan Allendorfer, Victoria Peterson, David Thaxton, Jon Else, Margaret Henry, Richard Prelinger
Film Editors: Jayne Loader,...
The Atomic Cafe
Blu-ray
Kino Classics
1982 / Color+B&W / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / Street Date December 4, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Lloyd Bentsen, Richard Nixon,
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, Hugh Beaumont, James Gregory, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nelson Leigh.
Archival Research: Pierce Rafferty, Nan Allendorfer, Victoria Peterson, David Thaxton, Jon Else, Margaret Henry, Richard Prelinger
Film Editors: Jayne Loader,...
- 12/15/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Don’t miss out on one of the great opportunities available for actors in Canada today, such as a chance to be a lead vocalist on Celebrity cruise ships. Plus, be a crew member for a Toronto-based play, or get cast and appear in an upcoming visual album. Celebrity Cruises Singers Open CALLCanadian singers, now is your chance to sail the high seas while performing for international audiences and traveling the world! Celebrity Cruises is holding an open call for singers to perform aboard their 10-ship fleet. The on-board productions are award-winning and the ships offer modern luxury vacations, visiting all seven continents, where every detail is created to provide an unmatchable experience. The team is searching for lead vocalists and seeking male and female talent, aged 18–30 for the parts. They are also filling featured ensemble roles for talent that fits the same profile. There will be an open call on Sept.
- 9/18/2018
- backstage.com
How does one make a movie about a hot-button political topic that's divided the nation for sixty years? And if the facts of the case aren't fully known, how can one be sure that some news revelation won't reach back and make your well-meaning film play like a stack of lies? E. L. Doctorow and Sidney Lumet found a way. Daniel Olive Films Savant Blu-ray Review
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, Joseph Leon, Carmen Mathews, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci, Daniel Stern. Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak Film Editor Peter C. Frank Written by E.L. Doctorow from his novel The Book of Daniel. Produced by E. Lk. Doctorow, Burtt Harris Directed by Sidney Lumet
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In his book Making Movies, director Sidney Lumet says that...
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, Joseph Leon, Carmen Mathews, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci, Daniel Stern. Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak Film Editor Peter C. Frank Written by E.L. Doctorow from his novel The Book of Daniel. Produced by E. Lk. Doctorow, Burtt Harris Directed by Sidney Lumet
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In his book Making Movies, director Sidney Lumet says that...
- 9/1/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We usually write about the actors who have joined some project, or who are still in negotiations, or are set to star in some movie…
This time we’ll just say, they are all interested! But that still doesn’t mean they’re signed on. That just means we’re here to have a little chat about their possible roles, and they, (according to Pajiba) are:
Legendary Dustin Hoffman, who is interested in playing the crime boss in The Contortionist’s Handbook.
The film already stars Channing Tatum as “a forger who moves smoothly from one identity to the next because of a strict code of conduct that keeps him from getting caught or having to deal with his own troubled past. That gets upended when he falls for a beautiful woman with her own dark secret.”
Let’s continue with Robert Downey Jr. who is reportedly interested in starring in the The $40,000 Man,...
This time we’ll just say, they are all interested! But that still doesn’t mean they’re signed on. That just means we’re here to have a little chat about their possible roles, and they, (according to Pajiba) are:
Legendary Dustin Hoffman, who is interested in playing the crime boss in The Contortionist’s Handbook.
The film already stars Channing Tatum as “a forger who moves smoothly from one identity to the next because of a strict code of conduct that keeps him from getting caught or having to deal with his own troubled past. That gets upended when he falls for a beautiful woman with her own dark secret.”
Let’s continue with Robert Downey Jr. who is reportedly interested in starring in the The $40,000 Man,...
- 9/22/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- You would think that Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement, would have an esteemed place in American history. But not only has she been forgotten, she has been slandered by the country she loved and tried to protect. Now Paola di Florio's moving documentary "Home of the Brave" tries to set the record straight. It is a film that should be required viewing by all citizens, especially students, if we hope not to repeat this awful chapter.
Like fellow Sundance hit "Heir to an Execution", about the execution of the Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, "Brave" focuses on the impact of historical events on the family of the victim. Liuzzo was the mother of five children when, after watching news accounts of Bloody Sunday, was compelled by her conscience to travel from her home in Detroit to Selma, Ala., to participate in the voter registration drive. While shuttling workers from Selma to Montgomery, she was gunned down in her car.
Although three killers, members of the Ku Klux Klan, were swiftly arrested, it wasn't long before the FBI started to leak compromising information about Liuzzo. Her husband was a highly placed member of the Teamsters and an intimate of Jimmy Hoffa.'s J. Edgar Hoover had branded him a "a known Teamster strongman with Mafia connections." To discredit his slain wife, Hoover suggested that she had been sleeping with black civil rights workers and taking drugs. All of this may have been a smoke screen to cover the fact that an FBI informant could have committed the crime as well as other acts of violence.
Liuzzo's killing left deep scars on her children, seen in wrenching news interviews soon after and today as they still try to process the events. Perhaps more than anything, the film is an attempt to give them some closure on things they could never understand.
Mary, the middle daughter, sets out on a pilgrimage to Selma, retracing her mother's steps, visiting the site of the murder and interviewing people who remember Viola. Newsreel footage of the march and police beatings brings it all back home for anyone who was alive then or cares about justice is this country. Barry McGuire's period hit song "Eve of Destruction" heightens the visceral power of the images.
Tony, the youngest son, has spent a lifetime trying to honor his mother's legacy. Now living in the backwoods of Michigan, this sensitive, caring man has become a militia member as an expression of his disenfranchisement from a government that would betray his mother as it had. Di Florio, while not sharing his politics, offers a rare sympathetic insight into why someone becomes a fringe member of society.
Another son, Tom, has gone even further off the beaten track: He has disappeared into the backcountry of Georgia and communicates with the family only through an intermediary.
When Mary visits an Alabama polling place during the 2000 presidential election and still encounters indifference toward black voting rights, one can only be amazed and disheartened at how little things have changed since Liuzzo's murder 39 years ago. Di Florio has seamlessly woven together the strands of past tragedy and contemporary ramifications into a film that is stingingly personal and universal at the same time.
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Counterpoint Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Paola di Florio
Producers: Nancy Dickenson, Paola di Florio
Director of photography: Joan Churchill
Music: Karen Childs, David Powell
Co-producers: Alice Rubin, Lorraine Gallard
Editor: Thomas G. Miller
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- You would think that Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement, would have an esteemed place in American history. But not only has she been forgotten, she has been slandered by the country she loved and tried to protect. Now Paola di Florio's moving documentary "Home of the Brave" tries to set the record straight. It is a film that should be required viewing by all citizens, especially students, if we hope not to repeat this awful chapter.
Like fellow Sundance hit "Heir to an Execution", about the execution of the Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, "Brave" focuses on the impact of historical events on the family of the victim. Liuzzo was the mother of five children when, after watching news accounts of Bloody Sunday, was compelled by her conscience to travel from her home in Detroit to Selma, Ala., to participate in the voter registration drive. While shuttling workers from Selma to Montgomery, she was gunned down in her car.
Although three killers, members of the Ku Klux Klan, were swiftly arrested, it wasn't long before the FBI started to leak compromising information about Liuzzo. Her husband was a highly placed member of the Teamsters and an intimate of Jimmy Hoffa.'s J. Edgar Hoover had branded him a "a known Teamster strongman with Mafia connections." To discredit his slain wife, Hoover suggested that she had been sleeping with black civil rights workers and taking drugs. All of this may have been a smoke screen to cover the fact that an FBI informant could have committed the crime as well as other acts of violence.
Liuzzo's killing left deep scars on her children, seen in wrenching news interviews soon after and today as they still try to process the events. Perhaps more than anything, the film is an attempt to give them some closure on things they could never understand.
Mary, the middle daughter, sets out on a pilgrimage to Selma, retracing her mother's steps, visiting the site of the murder and interviewing people who remember Viola. Newsreel footage of the march and police beatings brings it all back home for anyone who was alive then or cares about justice is this country. Barry McGuire's period hit song "Eve of Destruction" heightens the visceral power of the images.
Tony, the youngest son, has spent a lifetime trying to honor his mother's legacy. Now living in the backwoods of Michigan, this sensitive, caring man has become a militia member as an expression of his disenfranchisement from a government that would betray his mother as it had. Di Florio, while not sharing his politics, offers a rare sympathetic insight into why someone becomes a fringe member of society.
Another son, Tom, has gone even further off the beaten track: He has disappeared into the backcountry of Georgia and communicates with the family only through an intermediary.
When Mary visits an Alabama polling place during the 2000 presidential election and still encounters indifference toward black voting rights, one can only be amazed and disheartened at how little things have changed since Liuzzo's murder 39 years ago. Di Florio has seamlessly woven together the strands of past tragedy and contemporary ramifications into a film that is stingingly personal and universal at the same time.
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Counterpoint Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Paola di Florio
Producers: Nancy Dickenson, Paola di Florio
Director of photography: Joan Churchill
Music: Karen Childs, David Powell
Co-producers: Alice Rubin, Lorraine Gallard
Editor: Thomas G. Miller
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- You would think that Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement, would have an esteemed place in American history. But not only has she been forgotten, she has been slandered by the country she loved and tried to protect. Now Paola di Florio's moving documentary "Home of the Brave" tries to set the record straight. It is a film that should be required viewing by all citizens, especially students, if we hope not to repeat this awful chapter.
Like fellow Sundance hit "Heir to an Execution", about the execution of the Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, "Brave" focuses on the impact of historical events on the family of the victim. Liuzzo was the mother of five children when, after watching news accounts of Bloody Sunday, was compelled by her conscience to travel from her home in Detroit to Selma, Ala., to participate in the voter registration drive. While shuttling workers from Selma to Montgomery, she was gunned down in her car.
Although three killers, members of the Ku Klux Klan, were swiftly arrested, it wasn't long before the FBI started to leak compromising information about Liuzzo. Her husband was a highly placed member of the Teamsters and an intimate of Jimmy Hoffa.'s J. Edgar Hoover had branded him a "a known Teamster strongman with Mafia connections." To discredit his slain wife, Hoover suggested that she had been sleeping with black civil rights workers and taking drugs. All of this may have been a smoke screen to cover the fact that an FBI informant could have committed the crime as well as other acts of violence.
Liuzzo's killing left deep scars on her children, seen in wrenching news interviews soon after and today as they still try to process the events. Perhaps more than anything, the film is an attempt to give them some closure on things they could never understand.
Mary, the middle daughter, sets out on a pilgrimage to Selma, retracing her mother's steps, visiting the site of the murder and interviewing people who remember Viola. Newsreel footage of the march and police beatings brings it all back home for anyone who was alive then or cares about justice is this country. Barry McGuire's period hit song "Eve of Destruction" heightens the visceral power of the images.
Tony, the youngest son, has spent a lifetime trying to honor his mother's legacy. Now living in the backwoods of Michigan, this sensitive, caring man has become a militia member as an expression of his disenfranchisement from a government that would betray his mother as it had. Di Florio, while not sharing his politics, offers a rare sympathetic insight into why someone becomes a fringe member of society.
Another son, Tom, has gone even further off the beaten track: He has disappeared into the backcountry of Georgia and communicates with the family only through an intermediary.
When Mary visits an Alabama polling place during the 2000 presidential election and still encounters indifference toward black voting rights, one can only be amazed and disheartened at how little things have changed since Liuzzo's murder 39 years ago. Di Florio has seamlessly woven together the strands of past tragedy and contemporary ramifications into a film that is stingingly personal and universal at the same time.
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Counterpoint Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Paola di Florio
Producers: Nancy Dickenson, Paola di Florio
Director of photography: Joan Churchill
Music: Karen Childs, David Powell
Co-producers: Alice Rubin, Lorraine Gallard
Editor: Thomas G. Miller
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- You would think that Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement, would have an esteemed place in American history. But not only has she been forgotten, she has been slandered by the country she loved and tried to protect. Now Paola di Florio's moving documentary "Home of the Brave" tries to set the record straight. It is a film that should be required viewing by all citizens, especially students, if we hope not to repeat this awful chapter.
Like fellow Sundance hit "Heir to an Execution", about the execution of the Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, "Brave" focuses on the impact of historical events on the family of the victim. Liuzzo was the mother of five children when, after watching news accounts of Bloody Sunday, was compelled by her conscience to travel from her home in Detroit to Selma, Ala., to participate in the voter registration drive. While shuttling workers from Selma to Montgomery, she was gunned down in her car.
Although three killers, members of the Ku Klux Klan, were swiftly arrested, it wasn't long before the FBI started to leak compromising information about Liuzzo. Her husband was a highly placed member of the Teamsters and an intimate of Jimmy Hoffa.'s J. Edgar Hoover had branded him a "a known Teamster strongman with Mafia connections." To discredit his slain wife, Hoover suggested that she had been sleeping with black civil rights workers and taking drugs. All of this may have been a smoke screen to cover the fact that an FBI informant could have committed the crime as well as other acts of violence.
Liuzzo's killing left deep scars on her children, seen in wrenching news interviews soon after and today as they still try to process the events. Perhaps more than anything, the film is an attempt to give them some closure on things they could never understand.
Mary, the middle daughter, sets out on a pilgrimage to Selma, retracing her mother's steps, visiting the site of the murder and interviewing people who remember Viola. Newsreel footage of the march and police beatings brings it all back home for anyone who was alive then or cares about justice is this country. Barry McGuire's period hit song "Eve of Destruction" heightens the visceral power of the images.
Tony, the youngest son, has spent a lifetime trying to honor his mother's legacy. Now living in the backwoods of Michigan, this sensitive, caring man has become a militia member as an expression of his disenfranchisement from a government that would betray his mother as it had. Di Florio, while not sharing his politics, offers a rare sympathetic insight into why someone becomes a fringe member of society.
Another son, Tom, has gone even further off the beaten track: He has disappeared into the backcountry of Georgia and communicates with the family only through an intermediary.
When Mary visits an Alabama polling place during the 2000 presidential election and still encounters indifference toward black voting rights, one can only be amazed and disheartened at how little things have changed since Liuzzo's murder 39 years ago. Di Florio has seamlessly woven together the strands of past tragedy and contemporary ramifications into a film that is stingingly personal and universal at the same time.
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Counterpoint Films
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Paola di Florio
Producers: Nancy Dickenson, Paola di Florio
Director of photography: Joan Churchill
Music: Karen Childs, David Powell
Co-producers: Alice Rubin, Lorraine Gallard
Editor: Thomas G. Miller
Running time -- 75 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/27/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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