With 'Liberty' For All
PAUL KOHN'S
La Difference
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Saturday Evening - 7:00 PM
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7295 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322
Robins Nest Shopping Plaza
248-932-8934
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`Food is something special
at Oliverio's Chop House."
Remembrances Of Times Past
"Life is made up of a lot of little moments," says Ben Kurtzman, the young
narrator of Liberty Heights, wishing he had remembered even more details
from his teenage years.
Like his character, writer/director Levinson revisits growing up Jewish in
the early '50s in Baltimore, a subject covered in his other Baltimore films,
but this time he returns with a more complex VISi011. Of that
WOrld.
Review
In this coming-of-age film, young Jewish boys are attract-
ed to non-Jevvish, even non-white girls, and there's even a
Jewish friend who shows up one evening with dyed_-blonde hair ready to
party and with a request: "Please don't call me Yussel tonight,"
The pace of the film is quick, modern, making room for multiple stories.
The different layers of music from Hebrew prayers to the blues to Frank
Sinatra to James Brown — complement the blend of cultures in the film.
But story 1Mes drag and edits remain flabby. 1---low many times must one
see the strippers at Nate Kurtzman's burlesque show? Enough already. We
understand Papa's job and the contrast of his life to his sons'.
The central narrative concerns Ben and Sylvia, not simply the Jew and
the colored girl in his class," but two bright teenagers discovering youthful
attractions and the meaninc , of life.
Most Jews who lived during the '50s have their own stories to tell about
these times and perhaps that's why so many- different opinions echoed in the
theater following a preview screening to benefit the Detroit Film Theatre ear-
lier this month. Reviews varied from cc-too much schmaltz" to "a good film."
One thing is clear. Liberty Heights is another link to a portrait of a Jewish
artist as a young man who continues to search for the impact of his religion
on his life and on his country. **I/2 (out of 4 stars)
- Danny Raskin
— Reviewed by Sharon Luckerman
Editorial Assistant
11/12/99
9:30 p.m.
6 Course Millennium Special Dinner
New Year's Eve
.
call for more information
Regular menu served until 9:00 p.m.
•Appetizers...choice of Eggplant Rollotini & Spiedini or
Shrimp Riviera
•Salad
•Minestrone Soup
•Ziti Vodka Pasta
•Choice of 14 oz. N.Y. Strip Steak, Veal Maison or
Salmon Livernaise
•Zucatte for Dessert
• Catering Available
Oliverio's is available
Saturday and Sunday
afternoons for private parties
Italian
Chop
House
2650 Orchard Lake Rd.
Sylvan Lake
248-682-5776
-f=f- FR
ITALIAN CHOPHOUSE
FINE CUISINE IN A RELAXED, CONTEMPORARY SETTING.
Featuring fine traditional and contemporary Italian cuisine as well as
prime Steaks, Chops, Veal, Fish and Seafood. Traditions and quality
continue...Private dining & catering available.
"AN ART IN EATING WELL"
272 miles east of The Somerset Collection on Big Beaver Road
vox
12/17
1999
92
phone
248-680-0066
SINCE 1920
THE TRADITION CONTINUES
"Barry Levinson is
deeply appreciated in
Hollywood because his
films set a pace and
style that make it easier
for other producers and
directors to follow with
their stories. He has a
strong sensitivity to the
details of life. He
blends literate dialogue
and intelligent visions
into his films."
— Frank Beaver, professor
of film and video studies,
University of Michigan
sometimes irreverent about his
Jewishness. He was dissatisfied with his
rabbi's answers to his questions about
the Exodus, which were motivated by
his viewing of the film The Ten
Commandments, he admits with amuse-
ment. Levinson, whose bar mitzvah was
delayed for a year due to his bouts with
colitis, was more interested in movies
than in Judaism.
He also was interested in the for-
bidden gentile parties across Falls
Road — the kind we see in Liberty
Heights — where fights sometimes
broke out between Jews and non-Jews.
In college, Levinson was a not-very-
ambitious youth who snagged a job
working as a floor director at a
Washington, D.C., TV station. When
he drove his Chevy across country to
seek his fortune in Hollywood, his
father, Irv, the appliance storeowner,
predicted he would be back in a month,
working for the family business.
Instead, Levinson began writing
and performing comedy routines,
wrote for The Tim Conway Show and
The Carol Burnett Show, and helped
Mel Brooks with the screenplays of
Silent Movie and High Anxiety.
Levinson appeared in small roles in
those two films, notably as the bellboy