The Jewish Community C iento.
of Metropolitan Detroit
Moses At The Movies
Encore Series presents...
Doug Cotter
Cecil B.
DeMille, left,
directs Theodore
Roberts, right,
during the
filming of
"The Ten
Commandments,"
released in 1923.
Sunday, January 10, 1999 • 4400 p.m.
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
Members: 5 / Non-Members:
of people are touched by and know
intimately. It's a film that has some
very, very powerful messages."
For The Prince of Egypt companion
albums, the film was shown to the
artists involved, and they were asked
to provide their musical reactions.
"We never told them what to write,"
explained James Stroud, head of
DreamWorks Records Nashville. "We
just asked them to pick something that
spoke to them from the film.
"We stuck our necks out," he con-
tinued, "and said, 'If this is going to
be an inspired-by album, we've got to
take what you give us.' We've been
really lucky and real blessed."
"In an era of soundtracks where
Blessed with a warm and expressive voice, Cotler's sen-
sitive and penetrating interpretations of liturgy as well
as his insightful and humorous songs about Jewish
events and heroes have placed him in the forefront of
contemporary Jewish music.
Cc?
DOUBLETREE
Co-sponsored by: Jewish Educators Council &
GUEST SUITES"
OCT0.017 SOUTIMELD
Yul Brynner
in the 1956 ver-
sion of "The Ten
Commandments."
Brynner played
Rameses opposite
Charlton Heston
as Moses.
Funded in part by: Manny & Natalie Charach
Endowment Fund, I-laddow Endowment for the Arts,
DeRoy Testamentary Foundation, Boa z Si egel Culture
Fund, Benatd L. Maas Foundation, 1-firam Dorfman
and David Engelbert Trustees, and the Ray and Atara
Zimmerman Philanthropic Fund. *Accommodations
provided by the DoubleTree Guest Suites of Southfield.
12/18
1998
people are actually doing compilation
albums as a marketing tool," said Jeryl
Busby, former head of Motown
Records who now heads Dream-
Works's urban music division, "it was
an interesting process to have an
album come together where each song
was an inspiration and had a personal
statement from the artist."
Both Stroud and Busby, who execu-
tive produced the respective albums,
feel that what DreamWorks has creat-
ed are long-selling "catalog pieces. '
What gives them the confidence to
believe the inspired-by albums will
still be relevant long after the release
of The Prince of Egypt?
Busby summed it up: "This is the
one case where the artists chose the
soundtrack, instead of the soundtrack
choosing the artist."
— Serena Donadoni
The Big Screen
While Val Kilmer gives voice to
Moses in DreamWorks Pictures' The
Prince of Egypt, this certainly isn't the
great prophet's first
appearance on the sil-
ver screen. If you're
looking for more of
Moses at the movies,
check out the follow-
ing actors as Moses,
and the movies they
appeared in:
• Mel Brooks, The
History of the World,
Part I (1944)
• Charlton Heston,
The Ten Command-
ments (1956)
• Ben Kingsley, Moses
(1996 TV miniseries)
• Burt Lancaster, Moses, the Lawgiver
(1995 TV miniseries, then theatrical
release)
• Dudley Moore, Wholly Moses (1980)
• Theodore Roberts, The Ten Com-
mandments (1923)
• Soupy Sales, — And God Spoke
(1993)
- F10111
The Jewish Book of Lists,
by Joel Samberg