arts&life

celebrity jews

( The Original Mitch's on Cass Lake )
4000 Cass Elizabeth Lake Rd. Waterford MI

248-791-3256

FIVE MENTSHES CAME BACK

"Only 15 min from everywhere, give or take"

WALDORF SALAD

SEARED AHI TUNA

www.forknpint.com

WHEN YOU PURCHASE TWO
FULL PRICED ENTREE'S

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4000 Cass Elizabeth Rd. Waterford 248-791-3256

2175570

G H UA
N
O
H

F INE C HINESE D INING

“A wonderful adventure in fine dining” ~ Danny Raskin

Open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner
Catering and carryout available
Gift certificates

27925 Orchard Lake Rd., North of 12 Mile, Farmington Hills

248-489-2280

www.honghuafinedining.com

50

April 20 • 2017

jn

NATE BLOOM
COLUMNIST

The original three-part Netflix docu-
mentary series Five Came Back is good
enough that it’s worth subscribing for
one month just for the show. The title
refers to five Hollywood directors who
put patriotism ahead of career and
enlisted in the Army or Navy to make
films for and about the armed forces
during WWII (featuring Frank Capra,
John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens
and William Wyler). Prominent contem-
porary directors narrate the interwoven
stories of the five (Steven Spielberg,
70, “tells” Wyler; U-M alum Lawrence
Kasdan, 68, “does” Stevens).
There’s a lot of Jewish-related con-
tent in the series. The most, logically,
comes in the Wyler segments. He won
the Oscar three times for best director
and risked his life to make perhaps the
best WWII documentary, Memphis Belle.
(Netflix has also posted Belle and sev-
eral other WWII docs highlighted in Five).
One footnote: Director Anatole Litvak,
discussed in the series, also enlisted
and made important films for the armed
forces. Five does not mention that he
was Jewish.

Wyler with Audrey Hepburn

Gray

LOST CITY OF Z

Opens April 14: The Lost City of Z is the
name that British soldier and explorer
Percy Fawcett (1867-1925) gave to a
rumored lost city in the Amazon jungle.
It’s also the name of David Grann’s best-
selling non-fiction book about Fawcett’s
efforts to find “Z.” Grann’s book is the
basis for the film Lost City of Z, with the
screenplay by James Gray, 48, who
also directed.
The capsule plot: Fawcett is deter-
mined to prove that a higher civilization
city could have existed in the Amazon.
The scientific establishment and
Amazon rubber barons ridicule him —
saying that the local indigenous people
are savages who never could have built
such a city. However, Fawcett (Charlie
Hunnam), supported by his devoted wife
(Sienna Miller), son and aide-de-camp
(Robert Pattison) — returns to the jungle
several times in attempts to find the
city. He and his son mysteriously disap-
peared in a 1925 expedition.
The advance reviews are spectacular.
The Hollywood Reporter described the
film as “a rare piece of contemporary
classical cinema”; The Wrap said that
Z feels like a clear artistic advance for
Gray, who proves himself here as one
of our finest and most distinctive living
filmmakers”; Variety called the film “a
finely crafted, elegantly shot, sharply
sincere movie.”

Rabin, c. 1970s

This looks to be a breakthrough
film for Gray, whose previous works
were mostly gritty urban dramas (Little
Odessa, We Own the Night). Urban, but
far less gritty, is Gray’s “very Jewish”
2008 film, Two Lovers, co-starring
Joaquin Phoenix, 44, and Gwyneth
Paltrow, 42 (ends happy, so rent it).

YES!

On April 7, the members of the rock
band Yes were inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. Previously
inducted members typically give the
induction speech for new Hall mem-
bers. Rush bassist Geddy Lee, 63,
inducted Yes and his laudatory speech
included Trevor Rabin, 63. Rabin was
the keyboardist for Yes and a principal
songwriter (his grandfather was a
kosher butcher in South Africa, where
Rabin was raised). Also: Bob Dylan, 75,
praised inductee Joan Baez in a record-
ed message. The whole ceremony will
air on HBO on April 29. •

