Six Million Stories Holocaust films keep coming, despite the prediction of their demise. Tom Tugend Jewish Telegraphic Agency 4222 Second Avenue (just north of Mack) Detroit, MI 313-832-1616 1477 John R (At Maple) Troy, MI 248-588-6000 Now Open in Dearborn at Ford & Greenfield • Catering available at all locations • Coupons are for all locations including Hercules Family Restaurant at 12 Mile & Farmington Receive $100 Off $200 Off Total Bill Over $10 Total Bill Over $20 Not valid with Specials. Not valid with any other offers. With coupon. Expires 10/15/09 Not valid with Specials. Not valid with any other offers. With coupon. Expires 10/15/09 10% Off Total Bill Not valid with Specials. Not valid with any other offers. With coupon. Expires 10/15/09 Visit us at www.leosconeyislancl.com The Rugie yt Hy would Than .,e;:ifiire for ut,,,ting us Besi: 37646 W . 12 Mile Road In Halsted Village Shopping Or Farmington Hills (248) 994-4000 Locations in Dearborn Dearborn Heights • Caton www.antoniosrestaurants.com 106 September 17 2009 Pi CUCINA ITALIANA Los Angeles A Rabbi Marvin Hier, founding dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and producer of several Oscar-winning documentaries on the Holocaust, insists that films and books about the Final Solution will never be out of vogue. "Why sit through something about the invasion of aliens from outer space when the reality was so much more incredible and frightening?" he asked. t least once a year over the last quarter century, a respected critic will prove conclusively that films about the Holocaust and the Nazi era have reached a saturation point and that movie and television audiences are suffering from a terminal case of Holocaust fatigue. Ignoring such earnest argu- ments, Hollywood and other moviemakers in the United States and Europe regularly roll out new slates of films on these topics. This year is no exception. Hollywood kicked things off Aug. 21 with the opening of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, featuring Brad Pitt, in which American Jewish GIs terrorize the German army and almost single-handedly wipe out the Nazi leadership. At least another five more Holocaust- related films from around the world are set to see wider distri- bution in the coming months. A similar list could be com- piled for almost any other recent year. Going back less than The poster advertising Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious B asterds 12 months, Hollywood alone released The Reader, Valkyrie, Defiance and The Boy in the Striped Howard Suber, a UCLA profes- Pajamas. sor considered among the top film So why the continuing flow, and teachers and consultants, believes public acceptance, of films about the that all Holocaust films are varia- gruesome events of more than 60 tions on "the world's greatest sto- years ago? ryline": A character is trapped in Filmmakers, distributors and a certain situation — will he have scholarly experts agree on some what it takes to get out? reasons and to a lesser degree on Considerably touchier is the thesis others. that the prominence of Jewish studio "The Holocaust has 6 million heads, producers and directors in compelling stories, and Hollywood Hollywood and European movie cen- is always desperate for a good story," ters tilts their professional judgment said Meyer Gottlieb, president and toward films on the extermination of chief operating officer of Samuel 6 million fellow Jews. Goldwyn Films and a child survi- According to this theory, the ques- vor of the Holocaust. "It is only the tion is: If the founders of Hollywood media that think the public is tired and their modern-day descendants of the subject." had not been Jews, but instead