With 'Liberty' For All PAUL KOHN'S La Difference LUNCH • DINNER • COCKTAILS Gift Certificates for the perfect holiday gift solution LUNCH: Monday - Thursday DINNER: Sunday - Thursday Saturday Evening - 7:00 PM SUNDAY BRUNCH 7295 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322 Robins Nest Shopping Plaza 248-932-8934 Reservations Suggested VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT: www.ladifference.com `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