SCHOOL TIES (Robert Mandel, 1992)

During the run of the television series Seinfeld, its gifted star, Jerry Seinfeld, opined that anti-Semitism no longer exists in the United States. On the surface it would certainly seem so, with Seinfeld’s own immense popularity and success—Seinfeld is Jewish—certifying this happy development. However, reports of the demise of American anti-Semitism are greatly exaggerated. Public […]

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Max Ophüls, 1948)

Time is capable of reversing judgments, and certain films now cherished were at the time of their initial appearance dismissed, even disparaged. In 1948, in the United States, Letter from an Unknown Woman, directed by Max Ophüls during his Hollywood sojourn, was regarded as sentimental in the extreme. The contemporary reviewers had their day, and […]