J. Hoberman, film critic at "The Village Voice" since 1978, is the author of "Vulgar Modernism" (Temple), which was nominated for the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award, and co-author (with Jonathan Rosenbaum) of "Midnight Movies". He has written for numerous national publications, including "Artforum", "The New York Times", "The Nation", "The New Republic", and "Premiere".
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
The era of Yiddish films extends from about 1881 to 1948 and includes both World Wars, a period Hoberman ( Vulgar Modernism , LJ 10/15/91) calls the most cataclysmic in Jewish history. Moving chronologically and then back and forth between Eastern Europe and the United States, Hoberman does an excellent job retelling the history of each film and recounting the political, economic, and artistic circumstances of the Jewish communities of the era. He offers limited artistic evaluation, and instead stresses the historical or cultural importance of the movie. This scholarly work is essential for Jewish or Yiddish culture collections, and it is also a good choice for academic libraries with an extensive interest in film.
- Marianne Cawley, Kingwood Branch Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Marianne Cawley, Kingwood Branch Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Prodigiously researched and critically astute, this is a readable work of scholarship that takes a well-earned place as the most authoritative word on a very curious corner of film history." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "[A] much-needed spur to revival and reappraisal. If the story of Yiddish cinema is basically, as J. Hoberman puts it, 'the passage from shtetl to city, from Old Country to New World,' he conveys this movement with a vividness of detail that matches the vitality of his subject. Through Yiddish films, he traces the passages inherent in Jewish experience--from profound loss to resilience, and from nostalgia to pungent irony." --New York Times Book Review "An important addition to works on Jewish film and film-making, and an invaluable resource..." --Sight and Sound "[A]s both a labor of love and a work of scholarship, Bridge of Light is highly impressive." --Tikkun "... J. Hoberman's beautifully mounted and superbly researched survey of the entire range of Yiddish film-making...[is] a tribute, indeed a monument, to a world lost forever in the ashes of history." --Film Quarterly
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
J. Hoberman is the senior film critic for the Village Voice, where he has worked for more than thirty years. He is the author of Bridge of Light, The Magic Hour, The Red Atlantis, Vulgar Modernism, and The Dream Life (The New Press) and the co-author, with Jonathan Rosenbaum, of Midnight Movies. He has written for Artforum, the London Review of Books, The Nation, the New York Review of Books, and the New York Times, among other publications, and has taught cinema history at Cooper Union since 1990. He lives in New York.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic,
This review is from: Bridge Of Light (Paperback)
This book is a perfect introduction to Yiddish film. Very little has actually been written about Yiddish film. Hoberman compiles the extant scholarship and couples it with astute and original analysis of the films. He brings Yiddish film away from being a novelty; he contextualizes Yiddish film in such a way as to show its general importance in mainstream film and American and European life. Yiddish movies portrayed the experience of Jews in the world; but more interesting is the effect Yiddish film had in the Americanization of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. For scholars interested in Yiddish film, this is a good first stop. For non-scholars, it is the only book you could want on the subject: entertaining, wonderful pictures and anecdotes, and interesting to browse through.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic,
This review is from: Bridge Of Light (Paperback)
This book is a perfect introduction to Yiddish film. Very little has actually been written about Yiddish film. Hoberman compiles the extant scholarship and couples it with astute and original analysis of the films. He brings Yiddish film away from being a novelty; he contextualizes Yiddish film in such a way as to show its general importance in mainstream film and American and European life. Yiddish movies portrayed the experience of Jews in the world; but more interesting is the effect Yiddish film had in the Americanization of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. For scholars interested in Yiddish film, this is a good first stop. For non-scholars, it is the only book you could want on the subject: entertaining, wonderful pictures and anecdotes, and interesting to browse through.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
IN THE YEARS before the First World War, a new sort of performer joined the itinerant organ-grinders and folksingers who crisscrossed the Russian Empire, traveling from town to town, entertaining villagers with topical songs and sentimental laments. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
IN THE YEARS before the First World War, a new sort of performer joined the itinerant organ-grinders and folksingers who crisscrossed the Russian Empire, traveling from town to town, entertaining villagers with topical songs and sentimental laments. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
35
books
cite this book:
See all 35 books citing this book
- A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song by Jeffrey Melnick on 4 pages
- Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890-1933 by Marline Otte in Front Matter, page 262, and Back Matter
- Klezmer! Jewish Music From Old World to Our World by Henry Sapoznik in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture by Paul Buhle on page 16, page 61, and page 71
- European Culture in the Great War: The Arts, Entertainment and Propaganda, 1914-1918 (Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare) by Aviel Roshwald in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 35 books citing this book
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
