Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 181m
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Paul Michael Glaser
Synopsis:
A Jewish community lives precariously on the fringes of a rural town in Tsarist Ukraine, unassimilated but unmolested for the moment. Tevye, the local dairy farmer, reflects on the traditions that hold them together, at the same time as his daughters' marriage plans threaten to explode them: one wants to marry a penniless tailor for love, another a political radical, and a third a gentile. Meanwhile the threat of officially sanctioned pogroms hovers over the land.
Review:
Perhaps an unlikely subject for a filmed musical, coming as it did at the end of a (very expensive) rash of productions which began with West Side Story, although Jesus Christ Superstar was showing things could be done more cheaply. Either way, it may have affected the Mirisch Company's choice of Yugoslav locations and a cast of unknowns. The latter, together with the sets, work well but the colour is nondescript and muddy. The staged numbers, such as they are, sit awkwardly with material which cannot help but recall the Holocaust, a subject itself as yet untreated by commercial cinema. Still, the solemn conclusion is quietly effective, even if the fiddler himself is and has always been out of time with Isaac Stern's playing: you would think the budget might have stretched to actually having someone who played the violin given it is a non-speaking role!
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 181m
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Paul Michael Glaser
Synopsis:
A Jewish community lives precariously on the fringes of a rural town in Tsarist Ukraine, unassimilated but unmolested for the moment. Tevye, the local dairy farmer, reflects on the traditions that hold them together, at the same time as his daughters' marriage plans threaten to explode them: one wants to marry a penniless tailor for love, another a political radical, and a third a gentile. Meanwhile the threat of officially sanctioned pogroms hovers over the land.
Review:
Perhaps an unlikely subject for a filmed musical, coming as it did at the end of a (very expensive) rash of productions which began with West Side Story, although Jesus Christ Superstar was showing things could be done more cheaply. Either way, it may have affected the Mirisch Company's choice of Yugoslav locations and a cast of unknowns. The latter, together with the sets, work well but the colour is nondescript and muddy. The staged numbers, such as they are, sit awkwardly with material which cannot help but recall the Holocaust, a subject itself as yet untreated by commercial cinema. Still, the solemn conclusion is quietly effective, even if the fiddler himself is and has always been out of time with Isaac Stern's playing: you would think the budget might have stretched to actually having someone who played the violin given it is a non-speaking role!
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 181m
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Paul Michael Glaser
Synopsis:
A Jewish community lives precariously on the fringes of a rural town in Tsarist Ukraine, unassimilated but unmolested for the moment. Tevye, the local dairy farmer, reflects on the traditions that hold them together, at the same time as his daughters' marriage plans threaten to explode them: one wants to marry a penniless tailor for love, another a political radical, and a third a gentile. Meanwhile the threat of officially sanctioned pogroms hovers over the land.
Review:
Perhaps an unlikely subject for a filmed musical, coming as it did at the end of a (very expensive) rash of productions which began with West Side Story, although Jesus Christ Superstar was showing things could be done more cheaply. Either way, it may have affected the Mirisch Company's choice of Yugoslav locations and a cast of unknowns. The latter, together with the sets, work well but the colour is nondescript and muddy. The staged numbers, such as they are, sit awkwardly with material which cannot help but recall the Holocaust, a subject itself as yet untreated by commercial cinema. Still, the solemn conclusion is quietly effective, even if the fiddler himself is and has always been out of time with Isaac Stern's playing: you would think the budget might have stretched to actually having someone who played the violin given it is a non-speaking role!