Arts & Entertainment
LOOKING
For Spirituality
Composer gives voice
to what cannot be expressed
by words alone.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
j
Jane Roman Pitt:
"My lyrics search
for deeper values."
Simple
Sketch
Pollack
constructs
slender
monument to
architect
Frank Gehry.
Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News
48
June 8 • 2006
R
arely has a film been so
aptly titled as Sketches
of Frank Gehry. A
reference to the raw drawings
that the world-famous archi-
tect roughs out as his first step
toward a new building, it precise-
ly describes the documentary's
superficiality.
The film offers confirmation,
through brief illustration of
Gehry's working methods and
a travelogue of his major build-
ings, that the man who designed
the remarkable Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has an
extraordinarily free imagination
and a brilliant visual sense.
But if you're curious about
what made Gehry turn out so
different from everyone else in
his field, or the role of architec-
ture in the modern urban world,
you won't glean much insight
here. Sketches of Frank Gehry
is little more than a congratula-
tory, non-probing portrait of the
genius as an ordinary guy.
Sketches of Frank Gehry
is scheduled to open Friday,
June 16, at the Landmark
Maple Art Theatre in
Bloomfield Township. It also is
scheduled to air in September
as part of PBS' American
Masters series.
Devoid Of Drama
The L.A.-based architect has
been a friend for some years with
another Jewish power player, the
Hollywood producer, director
and actor Sydney Pollack.
Approached by several film-
makers about being the subject
of a documentary, Gehry turned
them down and convinced
Pollack to shoot it.
Unfortunately, that's not only
the raison d'etre of the film
ane Roman Pitt usually
observes holidays at
Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield, but she is celebrating
the Shabbat of June 9 with mem-
bers of Temple Beth El.
Pitt, a composer-lyricist
focused on spiritual themes,
is eager to hear one of her
songs included in the Friday
evening service. Cantor Rachel
Gottlieb will lead the Bloomfield
Township temple choir in a per-
formance of "I Am of Sarah: a
song Pitt wrote to pay tribute to
women of Jewish heritage.
"Although I mention the
women who are well known
from our past, `I Am of Sarah'
was directly inspired by my 95-
year-old mother-in-law, Sarah
Pitt:' says the composer-lyricist,
56, a Birmingham resident. "She
is a shining example of a Jewish
woman who deeply appreciates
her heritage and has given back a
great deal to the Jewish commu-
nity. She is my example of a life
but its structure, for Sketches of
Frank Gehry is largely propelled
by snippets of their conversa-
tions and interviews.
They discuss their shared
REVIEW
creative concerns — fear of the
blank canvas, pleasing the cli-
ent (or audience) without overly
compromising and balancing
art and commerce — but there's
something ridiculous about a
middling Hollywood director
putting himself on the same
plane as an architectural giant.
Indeed, an air of smugness
cloaks the film that cannot be
attributed to Gehry. Blame it
instead on the abundance of nar-
cissistic shots of Pollack filming
his friend with a small digital
well lived."
Pitt's song, written 10 years
ago, fits right in with Beth El's
Sisterhood Shabbat program,
which is being arranged by the
women's group. "This song actu-
ally is an excerpt from a cantata
commissioned by Cantor Harold
Orbach for Temple Israel," Pitt
explains. "It aims to connect
today's Jewish women with their
religious heritage.
"I believe there is a genera-
tional continuity among Jewish
women that often goes unspoken.
Even though our lifestyles are so
different from 100 years ago or
1,000 years ago, Judaism makes a
connection that is present among
all of us:"
Pitt, who grew up in Oberlin,
Ohio, connected to music
through her parents, Oscar and
Frances Roman. The couple met
as members of a temple choir
in Cleveland. Her dad became a
music teacher, and her mom per-
formed in community musical
programs.
"My folks used to have cham-
ber music sessions in our home,
and it was wonderful to hear
camera.
The bigger problem is that
the documentary is shapeless
and devoid of drama. This isn't
a rags-to-riches story, nor is it
enlivened by a midlife crisis, out-
sized failure or late-career come-
back. We are left yearning for a
far more insightful and useful
film that, say, would follow Gehry
from start to finish of a single
commission.
Goldberg To Gehry
He was born Frank Goldberg in
Toronto, and he confides that he
changed his name at the insis-
tence of his first wife. He was
dominated by her he says, but
offers no further elaboration on
his relationship to his Jewish
identity.
Gehry was commissioned to
design the Museum of Tolerance
in Jerusalem, but the film also