AO
KOSHER
CATERIAG
is in limier the certification of Rabbi Jason Miler

Available For Your Next

Intrigue In Berlin

• Wedding Reception
• Bar/Bat Mitzvah
• Bridal Shower
• Anniversary Celebration
• Corporate Event
• Fundraiser
• Theme Night

In Valkyrie, Jewish filmmaker tells
the story of a plot against Hitler.

Call Chef Al Kovalenko or Jeffrey L. Rosenberg for
information on your special event.

ADAT SHALOM SYNAGOGUE
29901 MIDDLEBELT ROAD Farmington Hills, MI 48334

248-626-5102

248-851-5100

(Catering office)

Director-producer Bryan Singer on the set of the suspense thriller Valkyrie

Curt Schleier
Special to the Jewish News

F

or a director, every film is
special, a baby that needs to
be nurtured. But for film-
maker Bryan Singer, making Valkyrie
was "different."
He spent months in Berlin filming
this story about a plot to assassinate
Hitler during the waning days of
World War II. In that time, he expe-
rienced sentiments he still finds dif-
ficult to verbalize.
"It was different in the sense that
my cinematographer, Newton Thomas
Sigel, and I were the only Jews," said
Singer, 44. "Being Jews in that environ-
ment, living in Berlin, making this
type of movie did have a different
effect on me than it did on the rest of
the cast and crew.
"But I couldn't tell you what it is.
Knowing a little bit of Holocaust histo-
ry, it can be a little ... it's just different."
He pauses, looking for the right
word. "Tom and I would look at each
other and talk. He had the same feel-
ing, and we decided it has to do with
being Jewish. You can't help it.
"Berlin is a city seeped in history.
The ghosts of the Second World War
are everywhere. The apartment where
I stayed overlooked the plaza where
the [1933 Nazi] book burnings took

place. I would go to the local Starbucks
for a little bit of America, and it was
right next to the Brandenburg [Gate]
and the Reichstag."
Valkyrie, which opens on Christmas
Day, is a combination of Mission
Impossible (for its consistently high
level of intensity) and a PBS special
(for its historical accuracy).
Changes to the actual history
involved reducing the number of par-
ticipants in the assassination plot —
down to a few dozen from the 2,000
or so who were connected to it. Most
of them were primarily concerned
about the future of Germany and its
military. But many, like Col. Claus von
Stauffenberg (played by Tom Cruise),
saw their duty "no longer to save my
country but to save human lives."
That statement was from von
Stauffenberg's diary, in which he also
expressed his "disgust" at "the murder
of civilians, the torture and starvation
of prisoners, the mass execution of
Jews."
This is not the first time Nazis have
appeared in one of Singer's films. They
showed up in his X-Men films and,
of course, in his adaptation of the
dark Stephen King novella Apt Pupil.
"I loved the book. I read it when I
was 17.1 was always fascinated with
the history of the Nazis and the Nazi

Berlin on page B16

(Synagogue office)

Glatt Kosher products exclusively
from Morris Kosher Poultry

0001464-120

1

ii i::;3A tj ri A i i i

r

313.962.9336

MIMI RIM MOIR IOW

WWI

VIMIN Mot

XVIII

UM

Free appetizer

501 MONROE

DETROIT. Mi

i

I

I

with purchase of an entree

OR

25% OFF

I
I

any bottle of wine

I I

I

expir:s March 3'. 2009
Na',.,:tricit-i 4 t dr: ott- Ploffrr
nne

December 25 • 2008

I
I

B15