El

Arts & Entertainment

A Politically Incorrect Life

Director's version of Richter novel traces
the story of Barney Panofsky though 3
decades and just as many marriages.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

Barney's director Lewis says. "It's a world I
knew very, very well."
All of Lewis' grandparents were immi-
ichard J. Lewis, like a lot of
grants from Eastern Europe and Orthodox
Canadian Jews, read Mordecai
Jews. Lewis was a bar mitzvah but now
Richter's triumphant final work,
considers himself secular; and while many
Barney's Version, when it came out in
secular Jews describe themselves as cultural
1997. Fresh from his successful adapta-
Jews, Lewis is more specific.
tion of another comic Canadian novel,
"If one were to define Jewish as intel-
Paul Quarrington's Whale Music, Lewis set lectual, bookish and funny, I'd like to put
about writing the screenplay — without
myself in that category:' he says, without a
the rights, and on spec.
wisp of heaviness or self-importance. "That
It was an audacious but unsuccessful
tradition or offshoot of Jewish culture is
leap of faith — at least on one level. Lewis'
akin with my identity"
script didn't pass muster with producer
Lewis' path led from Northwestern
Robert Lantos, nor did various others
University to the University of Southern
penned by a succession of writers over the
California's graduate film program, from
ensuing decade. But when Lantos finally
children's television in America to a pro-
received a screenplay that won him over (by ductive Canadian period. He returned to
Michael Konyves, a Montreal Jew), Lewis
Hollywood and found success produc-
was the natural choice to direct the movie.
ing and directing several seasons of the
Barney's Version, a marvelous picaresque
American TV crime drama CSI.
that spans a commercial TV producer's three
Along the way, Lewis discovered
marriages and runs the gamut from broad
Buddhist teachings — but without diluting
comedy to wrenching pathos, is scheduled to his Jewish identity
open in Detroit on Friday, Feb. 11.
"I'm particularly fond of the cultural
Giamatti won the Golden Globe for best
aspects of being a Jew," Lewis explains over
actor in a musical or comedy for his por-
the phone from his Southern California
trayal of Barney. In the film, he gradually
home. "But I'm not a big fan of religion in
and seamlessly ages over time; makeup art- general so it suits me to be more of a spiri-
ist Adrien Morot has been nominated for an tual person who relates to the philosophical
Academy Award for his work.
underpinnings of Jewish thought."
"I grew up a traditional Jewish kid in
The late Mordecai Richter, for his part,
Toronto so I relate to a lot of the goings-on
was an object of both admiration and criti-
in Barney's Version and Richter's world,"
cism for his portrayals of Montreal Jews

R

• INN

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

New Flicks
XI Just Go With It, opening Friday,

16111

Feb.11, and based on the hit 1969

'mat film Cactus Flower, starring Walter

and Goldie Hawn, promises
W to Matthau
be the best Adam Sandler roman-

(*) tic comedy in years.
Sandler, 45, plays Dr. Daniel
"Danny" Maccabee, who avoids long-
term relationships with women by
telling them he is married. When he
meets Palmer, "the woman of his
dreams," and she discovers his phony
wedding ring, he enlists his dour
office manager (Jennifer Aniston) to
play his about - to-be-divorced wife.
Appearing in supporting roles are
Rachel Dratch, 44, and actress/writer
Rachel Specter, 30.

48

February 10 s 2011

iN

Cour tesy Paramoun t Pictures

ew s

Also opening
Feb.11 is Justin
Bieber: Never
Say Never, a
biographical
documentary
and concert film
that chronicles
Braun and Bieber
the meteoric rise
of the Stratford, Ontario-born Bieber
under the guidance of Scooter Braun,
29, the Jewish manager who discov-
ered him and who plays a central role
in Bieber's life. Braun, a deeply com-
mitted Jew and a strong supporter of
Israel, recites the Shema with Bieber
before every concert.

The Grammys

The Grammy Awards, for excellence in
music, airs 8-11 p.m. Sunday, Feb.13,
on CBS. There are about 100 Grammy

___-.......memoNotegassommeavadlaillaVIINWSMOMMI
Paul Giamatti as Barney Panofsky and Dustin Hoffman as his father, Izzy, in
Barney's Version

in his novels The Apprenticeship of Duddy
Kravitz and Joshua Then and Now.
"I think that he liked to send up anyone
who was over the top:' Lewis muses. "He
was ruthless with the Quebecois, and he's
ruthless with television people. He felt like
his own people sometimes embarrassed
him. By no stretch of the imagination was
he a self-hating Jew, but he wasn't one
to adopt his own Jewish culture without
questioning it, analyzing it and ultimately
parodying it."
Given Richter's trademark irreverence,
the most surprising aspect of the screen
adaptation of Barney's Version is the unvar-
nished emotion between Barney (Paul
Giamatti) and his father Israel (Dustin
Hoffman), a retired cop.
"Both Barney and Izzy are very proud of
their Jewish heritage but are not in any way
religious people,' Lewis says. "Izzy really
stands for that kind of blue-collar Jew who
will punch you in the face for a slur and
would teach his son to do the same. What
Dustin Hoffman was able to do was bring
a part of him — we all nurture a sense of
comfortableness with being Jewish, and at
any given moment we love to throw out the
Yiddishe [spirit] — and I think he opened
that valve."
Barney and Izzy are often irascible with
other people but tender and vulnerable
with each other.

categories, but only about 20 awards
are actually presented on TV.
Barbra Streisand, 68, will appear
briefly on tape as the winner of the
Grammy "special merit" award for
her charitable work. Streisand is
nominated for best traditional pop
vocal album (Love is the Answer),
vying for this award with Barry
Manilow (Greatest Love Songs of All
Time).
Nominated for
best new artist is
rap singer Drake,
24. Born Aubrey
Graham Drake, he's
the son of a Toronto
Jewish mother and
an African-American
Drake
father. He was raised
Jewish. Drake also
is up for three Grammys in rap music

"Some of it is extrapolation:' Lewis con-
fides. "It's not entirely in the novel. Izzy is
the only one Barney truly trusts and the
only one who believes his son is worthy.
For a guy like Barney who's always trying
to prove himself and always trying to battle
his own demons of doubt and insecurity,
there's tremendous solace in this relation-
ship; and it's a refuge for him. That relation-
ship allows him to be exactly who he is."
Barney is a complicated figure and far
from perfect, especially in his relationships
with Jewish women. He's a throwback to a
time before political correctness, when the
movies — and audiences — embraced
characters who occasionally behaved inap-
propriately.
Barney's measure, Lewis suggests, can
only be determined by toting up a lifetime
of passions and kind gestures, selfishness
and screw-ups.
"The trouble with modern filmmaking is
that they try to wrap the entire essence of
the character in one piece of action or one
triumphant thing the character does. I was
trying to get at the idea that the true shape
of a man's place is determined by the many
aspects — some are foibles and flaws and
some are strengths — that would fall under
the category of integrity" I I

Barney's Version opens Friday, Feb.11.

categories. Also up for four Grammys
is Ari Levine, 26, a rap music produc-
er and songwriter. He co-wrote and
produced the songs by Bruno Mars
("Nothin' on You") and Ce-Lo Green
that are up for record/song of the
year. I profiled Ari and his brother for
their hometown New Jersey paper.
Read the story online here: http://
tinyurl.com/4nesr8x.
Also, actress and
Southfield native
Selma Blair, 38,
pregnant with her
first child with her
boyfriend, fashion
designer Jason
Bleick, is nominated
Selma Blair
for best spoken word
album for children
for Anne Frank: The Diary Of A Young
Girl – The Definitive Edition. Fl