4IDgency fur ew sh uesting illO ducat STN Entertainment uestioning and learning opportunities Rated PG-13 H for adults Jewish cultural 'Beverly Hills Ninja' gorged one is now Tommy Boy oly Shinto! Here comes a big with a Pink Belt. fat guy from the "Saturday What is truly remarkable is Night Live"/SCTV comedy that despite the retread nature machine with a mediocre of Ninja, Farley brings home the movie career. bacon. He is not the funniest of Beverly Hills Ninja is the lat- the SNL/SCTV fat guys — now est vehicle for the corpulent and known as the Cult of the Fat Men quirky Chris Farley. On his — but he is the funniest- own this time around looking of the group. We MOVIES (David Spade co-starred like him; he's cute, rum- in his first two movies), pled and endearing. But if the expansive one performs a 90- he values his career, he'll grow in minute impression of John more areas than his beltline. Belushi's old samurai character. I would say that in this film Gone is Belushi's subtle devilish genre — modern, big, funny, fat style, replaced by loud physical guy movies — Beverly Hills Nin- slapstick routines. ranks below Uncle Buck and Farley is cast as Ham, an ja The Blues Brothers but well American with a bad Moe Disorderlies or Fatso. Howard haircut. Raised by nin- above jas in Japan, he returns to Bever- ly Hills to combat an international counterfeiter and rescue a blonde woman who diets considerably more than he does. As for the di- recting, writing, casting, acting and plot develop- ment, let me say that the movie features a man being beaten with two fish at a Japanese steak- house. The en- n Warning: Parents of young children should think twice about the appropriateness of this movie. The hugely grotesque shots of Farley's shirtless torso and par- tially exposed right butt-cheek could lead to extended night ter- rors for young and old alike. O lbs — Michael L. Drew Michael L. Drew is an attorney with a soft spot for American subculture. These great Yiddish classic films involve collaboration among some of the outstanding artists of the Yiddish world, from Eastern Europe to America. Each film will be preceded by a brief lecture that will help to place it in historical context. Admission $5.00 adults, $3.00 seniors and students Sundays at 7:00 p.m. Agency for Jewish Education's Auditorium 21550 W. 12 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48076 February 9 THE DYBBUK Boundaries separating the natural from the supernatural dissolve as ill-fated pledges, unfulfilled passions and untimely deaths ensnare two families in a tragic labyrinth of spiritual possession. "The Dybbuk" reflects the shtetl's insightful appreciation of its hidden spiritual resources. The film's exquisite music and dance interludes evoke the cultural richness of both pre-World War I shtetl commu- nities and Polish Jewry on the eve of World War II. Poland, 1937 ri , au March 2 TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN Chris Farley goes undercover in Beverly Hills Ninja. This classic of the Yiddish cinema, written by Sholom Aleichem focuses on the story of Chava, one of Tevye's daughters, who falls in love with a Ukrainian peasant who reads Gorky. The film explores issues of assimilation and intermarriage, tradition and modernity, as well as anti-Semitism and the future of Jewish existence. Made in New York on the eve of World War II, the film depicts a life that was already threatened. USA, 1939 GREEN FIELDS iy15yo yr -u March 30 A pastoral romance, about a young Hasidic scholar who leaves his studies to search the countryside for common people and a meaningful existence close to the land. He happens upon a family of simple Jewish peasants who takes him in as a boarder and tutor for their children. The restorative effect of the open country upon a man who has known only classrooms and city streets is the powerful theme of this Yiddish literary classic. USA, 1937 YIDL WITH A FIDDLE 5 - 'o pin 51.. April 13 This classic Yiddish language musical-comedy has been called the best Yiddish motion picture of all time. Molly Picon plays a 'shtetl girl who, disguised as a boy, goes off with her father and a band of traveling musicians into the Polish countryside. Made in pre-war Poland, the film provides a warm rendering of Eastern European Jewish life. Poland, 1936 EAST AND WEST ATTENTION RAPPAPORTS: In anticipation of the opening of the new Walter Matthau/Ossie Davis film I'm Not Rappaport, we at The Jewish News would like to send you and your family to a special advance screening of this film. If you can prove that you are, indeed, a Rappaport, please immediate- ly drop a postcard to Rappaport, P.O. Box 1069, Birm- ingham, MI 48012 or fax Attention: Beth, (810) 540-2124. See you at the movies! ywn nim May 18 Good-natured comedy about worldly Jews encountering traditional shtetl life. Morris Brown, a New Yorker better acquainted with his checkbook than his prayerbook, returns to Galicia for a family wedding. The bride, daughter of his traditionally observant brother, and Morris's Mollie, whose exuberant antics fill the film, could not be more different. But Mollie unexpectedly meets her match, an engaging young yeshiva scholar who forsakes tradition and joins the secular world to win her heart. Austria,1923 UNCLE MOSES vytftn 5p3m June 8 From bustling sweatshop to overcrowded tenement, this film vividly portrays the lives of East European shtetl Jews transplanted to turn-of-the-century New York's Lower East Side. Old-world values clash with new-world dreams and the traditional Jewish family unravels. Yiddish Art Theater founder Maurice Schwartz initially plays benevolent despot and self-made patriarch, Uncle Moses, with comic flamboyance. But, as romantic difficulties and labor union struggles unfold, Schwartz's performance deepens into a resonant, compassionate elegy. USA, 1932 For reservations and information on our other programs, call Naomi Blumenberg ((i (810) 354 1050. -