After Auschwitz Bala Cynwyd Productions Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Jon Kean Screenwriter: Jon Kean Cast: Eva Beckmann, Rena Drexler, Renee Firestone, Erika Jacoby, Lili Majzner, Linda Sherman Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 3/28/18 Opens: April 20, 2018 Only those inmates who entered the Nazi concentration camps at a youthful age are still alive today. […]
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The post After Auschwitz Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 4/15/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Last Laugh Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Ferne Pearlstein Written by: Ferne Pearlstein, Robert Edwards, inspired by Kent Kirshenbaum’s “The Last Laugh: Humor and the Holocaust.” Cast: Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Renee Firestone, Sarah Silverman, Rob Reiner, Larry Charles, Abraham Foxman Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 3/13/17 Opens: April 12, 2017 […]
The post The Last Laugh Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Last Laugh Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/14/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Ferne Pearlstein’s “The Last Laugh” is a rather safe and genteel documentary about the limits of humor (especially as they pertain to the Holocaust), but it opens with a subtly provocative sequence of events that’s hard to shake. Rob Reiner, but one of the film’s many different talking heads, tells a very benign joke about two Jews who tried to kill Hitler. Gilbert Gottfried pops up to get in on the action. Then we cut to Mel Brooks — perhaps the single most significant figure in permitting modern Jews to make light of their darkness — and he performs some light Hitler shtick, culminating in a shoutout to “The guy who made me money.”
Finally, and seamlessly, the film cuts to survivor and educator Renee Firestone, introducing the nonagenarian just as she launches into a bit about Dr. Josef Mengele inspecting some of the young women on whom he was hoping to experiment.
Finally, and seamlessly, the film cuts to survivor and educator Renee Firestone, introducing the nonagenarian just as she launches into a bit about Dr. Josef Mengele inspecting some of the young women on whom he was hoping to experiment.
- 3/3/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
George Carlin had a famously controversial stand-up routine, in which he attempted to prove rape can be funny. Taken at face value, and especially if you aren’t familiar with Carlin, this sounds like it could be a shock-value gag. In delivery, it is not, and by the end of the act – which is a thinly veiled rant against political correctness — his point resonates.
But are some topics truly off limits? This is the compelling question of Ferne Pearlstein’s The Last Laugh, a documentary that questions whether the Holocaust is something that can ever be a source of humor.
Pearlstein interviews many noteworthy figures from the comedy world — Mel Brooks, Gilbert Gottfried, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Rob Reiner and Carl Reiner, to name but a few – and what’s surprising is the disparity in their opinions on the subject. For example, one might be surprised to hear Brooks opine...
But are some topics truly off limits? This is the compelling question of Ferne Pearlstein’s The Last Laugh, a documentary that questions whether the Holocaust is something that can ever be a source of humor.
Pearlstein interviews many noteworthy figures from the comedy world — Mel Brooks, Gilbert Gottfried, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, Rob Reiner and Carl Reiner, to name but a few – and what’s surprising is the disparity in their opinions on the subject. For example, one might be surprised to hear Brooks opine...
- 3/3/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
MaryAnn’s quick take… Analyzing jokes can ruin humor, but not here. This is a provocative, hilarious, and important discussion of comedy taboos, who gets to transgress them, and why. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If there’s one thing we should never joke about, it’s the Holocaust, surely? Mel Brooks — the guy who wrote “Springtime for Hitler” — would beg to differ, of course. As would Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Harry Shearer, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Gold, Larry Charles, and a whole bunch of other professionally very funny people. Documentarian Ferne Pearlstein gets them all on camera in The Last Laugh to talk about taboos in comedy mostly as concerns this particular difficult topic, though it clearly has a much wider application.
Analyzing comedy can tend to ruin the humor, but that...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
If there’s one thing we should never joke about, it’s the Holocaust, surely? Mel Brooks — the guy who wrote “Springtime for Hitler” — would beg to differ, of course. As would Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Harry Shearer, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Gold, Larry Charles, and a whole bunch of other professionally very funny people. Documentarian Ferne Pearlstein gets them all on camera in The Last Laugh to talk about taboos in comedy mostly as concerns this particular difficult topic, though it clearly has a much wider application.
Analyzing comedy can tend to ruin the humor, but that...
- 3/3/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The Holocaust might seem like a topic that’s completely off-limits for comedy, but a new documentary strives to challenge that assumption. “The Last Laugh” examines whether it’s acceptable to use humor in connection with a tragedy of that scale, and the implications for other taboo topics in a society that prizes free speech. Shot on 16mm, it weaves together a portrait of Auschwitz survivor Renee Firestone alongside interviews with comedians like Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman and Gilbert Gottfried. It also features archival material ranging from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to Jerry Lewis’ never-released film Holocaust comedy “The Day the Clown Cried,” as well as rare footage of cabarets inside the concentration camps themselves. Watch an exclusive trailer from the film below and check out the poster as well.
Read More: Tribeca 2016 Women Directors: Meet Ferne Pearlstein – ‘The Last Laugh’
The film is directed by Ferne Pearlstein. She previously directed “Sumo East and West,...
Read More: Tribeca 2016 Women Directors: Meet Ferne Pearlstein – ‘The Last Laugh’
The film is directed by Ferne Pearlstein. She previously directed “Sumo East and West,...
- 1/13/2017
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Ferne Pearlstein: "Renee [Firestone] and Steven Spielberg became very close." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
A highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival, Ferne Pearlstein's stunning The Last Laugh has Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Robert Clary, Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer, Jeffrey Ross, Alan Zweibel, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Gold, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Susie Essman, Lisa Lampanelli and Hanala Sagal reflect on questions of free speech, taboos and time limits. Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone is the film's responsive centre.
Jerry Lewis's The Day The Clown Cried, James Moll's The Last Days and Paul Provenza's The Aristocrats open up the discussion and Brooks's comment on Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful leads me to Son Of Saul star Géza Röhrig's response to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in my conversation with Ferne and her co-writer/co-producer Robert Edwards.
Mel Brooks who never included a swastika in his material until The Producers, makes an important distinction between jokes about Nazis and jokes about the Holocaust....
A highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival, Ferne Pearlstein's stunning The Last Laugh has Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Robert Clary, Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer, Jeffrey Ross, Alan Zweibel, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Gold, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Susie Essman, Lisa Lampanelli and Hanala Sagal reflect on questions of free speech, taboos and time limits. Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone is the film's responsive centre.
Jerry Lewis's The Day The Clown Cried, James Moll's The Last Days and Paul Provenza's The Aristocrats open up the discussion and Brooks's comment on Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful leads me to Son Of Saul star Géza Röhrig's response to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in my conversation with Ferne and her co-writer/co-producer Robert Edwards.
Mel Brooks who never included a swastika in his material until The Producers, makes an important distinction between jokes about Nazis and jokes about the Holocaust....
- 6/14/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
There’s nothing funny about the Holocaust, which is probably why some comedians think it’s about time to start making jokes about it. The Last Laugh, a documentary by director and cinematographer Ferne Pearlstein, reveals, dissects, and discusses the subject of taboo humor in general and the Holocaust in particular. Pearlstein gathers together interviews with numerous comedians, writers, producers, and activists, including several Holocaust survivors, to present their perspective on what can be joked about and what cannot and where, if anywhere, comedy must draw the line.
Auschwitz survivor Renee Firestone represents the major argument for laughing in the face of overwhelming evil, as she recalls her experience in the camps and afterwards. She discusses the use of humor within the camps, up to and including cabaret productions by performers that tacitly made fun of the Nazis and the SS guards. While Firestone is the most personally profiled survivor,...
Auschwitz survivor Renee Firestone represents the major argument for laughing in the face of overwhelming evil, as she recalls her experience in the camps and afterwards. She discusses the use of humor within the camps, up to and including cabaret productions by performers that tacitly made fun of the Nazis and the SS guards. While Firestone is the most personally profiled survivor,...
- 4/19/2016
- by Lauren Humphries-Brooks
- We Got This Covered
Five Hungarian Holocaust survivors, living in America, remember the awful events of their deportation, imprisonment and the difficult aftermath in deeply moving and disturbing documentary "The Last Days" -- the premiere feature documentary from the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.
The October Films release, executive produced by Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg, arrives in theaters just in time to benefit from a possible Oscar nomination. But, like massive project to record the testimonies of thousands of Holocaust survivors, it will be available to present and future generations as an almost unbearably sobering remembrance of this dark chapter in human history.
Directed and edited by James Moll, "The Last Days" focuses on Hungary because it was the last country invaded by Germany and its Jewish population was hurriedly moved to concentration camps in Poland. With the Allies clearly winning the war, the effort to exterminate the Jews was increased. As one participant says, Hitler was determined to not lose the war against the Jews.
We are introduced to five men and women -- U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., artist Alice Lok Cahana, teacher Renee Firestone, businessman Bill Basch and grandmother Irene Zisblatt -- as they recall their country and lives before the war. Although much of Europe was in flames and death camps were already in operation, the suppression of Jews in Hungary came about slowly -- until Germany invaded.
Moll conducts straightforward interviews, utilizes brutally graphic archival footage and shows the five on their painful return visits to hometowns and the camps. Each one of these remarkable individuals has memories that searingly get under one's skin, even after the numerous outstanding works on the subject.
Take, for example, Zisblatt who was born in Poleno, Czechoslovakia (which was annexed to Hungary in the late 1930s and now is part of Ukraine). Initially relocated to the Munkacs Ghetto -- after a terrifying two weeks hiding in their sealed home -- she and her family were herded into cattle cars and told the train would take them to a rural region to make wine.
Sensing that they were headed toward something far worse than forced labor, Zisblatt's mother gave her a few diamonds to use for food should they be separated. Upon their arrival in Auschwitz their worst nightmares were realized. In an initial strip search, she swallowed the diamonds -- and kept on swallowing and recovering them during her long ordeal. Today, they are a family icon to be passed on to the first daughters of future generations.
Zisblatt in the grips of the horror realized "they" wanted something from her. But she vowed they would never have her soul after taking everything else.
THE LAST DAYS
October Films
Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah
Visual History Foundation present
A Ken Lipper/June Beallor production
Director-editor: James Moll
Producers: June Beallor, Ken Lipper
Executive producer"Steven Spielberg
Director of photography: Harris Done
Music: Hans Zimmer
Color, black and white/stereo
With: Congressman Tom Lantos, Alice Lok Cahana, Renee Firestone, Bill Basch, Irene Zisblatt
Running time -- 87 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The October Films release, executive produced by Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg, arrives in theaters just in time to benefit from a possible Oscar nomination. But, like massive project to record the testimonies of thousands of Holocaust survivors, it will be available to present and future generations as an almost unbearably sobering remembrance of this dark chapter in human history.
Directed and edited by James Moll, "The Last Days" focuses on Hungary because it was the last country invaded by Germany and its Jewish population was hurriedly moved to concentration camps in Poland. With the Allies clearly winning the war, the effort to exterminate the Jews was increased. As one participant says, Hitler was determined to not lose the war against the Jews.
We are introduced to five men and women -- U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., artist Alice Lok Cahana, teacher Renee Firestone, businessman Bill Basch and grandmother Irene Zisblatt -- as they recall their country and lives before the war. Although much of Europe was in flames and death camps were already in operation, the suppression of Jews in Hungary came about slowly -- until Germany invaded.
Moll conducts straightforward interviews, utilizes brutally graphic archival footage and shows the five on their painful return visits to hometowns and the camps. Each one of these remarkable individuals has memories that searingly get under one's skin, even after the numerous outstanding works on the subject.
Take, for example, Zisblatt who was born in Poleno, Czechoslovakia (which was annexed to Hungary in the late 1930s and now is part of Ukraine). Initially relocated to the Munkacs Ghetto -- after a terrifying two weeks hiding in their sealed home -- she and her family were herded into cattle cars and told the train would take them to a rural region to make wine.
Sensing that they were headed toward something far worse than forced labor, Zisblatt's mother gave her a few diamonds to use for food should they be separated. Upon their arrival in Auschwitz their worst nightmares were realized. In an initial strip search, she swallowed the diamonds -- and kept on swallowing and recovering them during her long ordeal. Today, they are a family icon to be passed on to the first daughters of future generations.
Zisblatt in the grips of the horror realized "they" wanted something from her. But she vowed they would never have her soul after taking everything else.
THE LAST DAYS
October Films
Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah
Visual History Foundation present
A Ken Lipper/June Beallor production
Director-editor: James Moll
Producers: June Beallor, Ken Lipper
Executive producer"Steven Spielberg
Director of photography: Harris Done
Music: Hans Zimmer
Color, black and white/stereo
With: Congressman Tom Lantos, Alice Lok Cahana, Renee Firestone, Bill Basch, Irene Zisblatt
Running time -- 87 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
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