Stand-up comedy is such an integral part of American entertainment that it's easy to forget how relatively young the art form is. Many of stand-up's founding fathers — folks like Jack Benny, George Burns, Milton Berle and Henny Youngman — cut their teeth in a collection of summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains that catered to a largely Jewish clientele.
That makes When Comedy Went to School a fitting centerpiece for the 2013 Nashville Jewish Film Festival, running through Nov. 14 at The Belcourt and other venues. Showing Monday at The Belcourt in a 12:15 p.m. box-lunch matinee, Mevlut Akkaya and Ron Frank's documentary, written by Lawrence Richards, takes a look at the evolution and heyday of the so-called Borscht Belt from the 1920s through the '70s. The filmmakers mix historical context and interview segments with clips of classic stand-up routines from folks with names like Benny, Burns, Berle, Henny, Woody, Lenny and Rodney. Oh yeah, and Mort Sahl.
It's not exemplary documentary filmmaking by any stretch — the structure and narration (by comedian Robert Klein, who worked as a busboy in the Catskills) is a little scattershot, and the nostalgic tone is pretty schmaltzy at times. But what did you expect? It's the Borscht Belt! Furthermore, if you're a fan of stand-up comedy and are curious about its evolution, When Comedy Went to School provides some fascinating footage of stand-up's earliest days, not to mention some insight into the enormous influence Jewish comedians of the era had on American stand-up as a whole. If, like me, you grew up watching folks like Hackett, Dangerfield, Shecky Green and Joey Bishop on The Tonight Show and other programs, the film is a pretty satisfying stroll down memory lane.
Below, a list of other NJFF attractions screening this week:
Broadway Musicals: A Jewish History (11:30 a.m. Nov. 7, Gordon Jewish Community Center) From Gershwin, Bernstein and Sondheim to Barbra Streisand and Idina Menzel, director Michael Kantor argues that the Great White Way would be gray and puny without the Jewish masters of modern theater.
Fill the Void (7 p.m. Nov. 7, Belcourt) In writer-director Rama Burshtein's film, an Israeli Academy Award winner for best film and actress, Hadas Yaron plays an 18-year-old Haredi girl in Tel Aviv whose older sister's death forces her to make a wrenching choice. In Hebrew with subtitles.
Paris-Manhattan (7 p.m. Nov. 7, Franklin Theatre; also 7 p.m. Nov. 14, Belcourt) A poster of Woody Allen dispenses life wisdom to a French pharmacy worker in writer-director Sophie Lellouche's homage to Play It Again, Sam. In French with subtitles.
Closed Season (7 p.m. Nov. 9, Belcourt) In 1970s Israel, a German student learns the long-kept secret behind his birth, involving his father's flight from the Nazis and subsequent stay in hiding with a peasant couple whose charity leads to jealousy and betrayal. In English and German with subtitles.
Putzel (9:30 p.m. Nov. 9, Belcourt) Melanie Lynskey, John Pankow and Curb Your Enthusiasm's Susie Essman star in this romantic comedy about the heir to a family smoked-fish shop (The Good Wife's Jack Carpenter) who overcomes his crippling fear of leaving the neighborhood with help from a comely dancer.
The Chosen (9 a.m. Nov. 10, Belcourt) A free screening of Jeremy Paul Kagan's much-loved 1981 film version of the Chaim Potok novel, with Robby Benson as the ultra-orthodox rabbi's son whose beliefs are tested by his friendship with the son (Barry Miller) of a modern secularist.
Jews and Money (4:30 p.m. Nov. 10, Belcourt) Lewis Cohen's provocative documentary picks at the historical underpinnings of anti-Semitism, using the 2006 case of a young cellphone salesman kidnapped in Paris — and later murdered — by criminals who assumed that because he was Jewish his family could afford an exorbitant ransom.
Defiant Requiem (7 p.m. Nov. 11, Belcourt) Veteran conductor Murry Sidlin — whose long career has led from the Aspen Music Festival to the Kennedy Center — will appear in person to discuss his part in Doug Schulz's documentary, which recounts a remarkable story: how inmates at the Nazi "model Jewish settlement" Theresienstadt learned and performed Verdi's Requiem as an act of resistance against their captors.
Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (7 p.m. Nov. 12, Belcourt) Laurent Bouzereau captures the celebrated and controversial filmmaker as he recounts his life, from his grim childhood in Nazi-ravaged Poland and the murder of his wife Sharon Tate to his felony charges for sex with a minor.
The Attack (7 p.m. Nov. 13, Belcourt) A scandal overseas, where it was banned in several Arab countries, Ziad Douieri's movie version of the Yasmina Khadra best-seller follows a Palestinian surgeon living a peaceful life in Tel Aviv — until his wife dies in a suicide bombing that exposes a chilling double life. In Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles.
For show times and ticket information, see nashvillejff.net.
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