Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich was born in 1858 in a shtetl in a remote part of Russia that eventually became Ukraine, and when he grew he eventually became Sholem Aleichem the most celebrated Yiddish writer of all time. His father was a wealthy merchant who managed to go bankrupt make the family penniless, which was something Sholem would repeat often … Continue reading
Sometimes I can be a real glutton for pain (the cinematic kind I should quickly add). As I state at the top of this Blog one of my big no-no’s are horror flicks, and yet hear I am again in a cinema (I’m back in London) to see yet another one from Brit Director Ben … Continue reading
When we first see Simon who has just graduated from College, he’s camping out at a acquaintance’s apartment in Paris and talking out-loud to himself about Michelle his ex-lover back home in New York who caused his current misery when she broke up with him. He’s lonely and somewhat bitter, and in a city where … Continue reading
Jason Wise’s captivating new documentary is a study of sheer obsession. That, with more than a degree of insanity, are evidently two of the essential qualifications you need to become a Master Sommelier. Oh yes, an encyclopedic knowledge of wine helps too. This nail-biting movie follows four such fool-hardy and intrepid young men as they prepare … Continue reading
For his new documentary Joseph Levy chose to profile three wildly different restaurants/eating establishments whose proprietors and chefs had one thing in common : sheer passion that could also be perceived as lunacy too. At the top end of the scale was Alinea in Chicago that had just been voted as one of the ten … Continue reading