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Gene Wilder’s Wild Ride Examined in New Documentary
It’s amazing to think that Gene Wilder almost didn’t get the role of Leo Bloom in The Producers, which kickstarted his illustrious film career. Born Jerome Silberman, Wilder would go on to film buddy movies with Richard Pryor, and star as Rabbi Avram Belinsky alongside Harrison Ford in The Frisco Kid.
The splendid new documentary Remembering Gene Wilder, showcases the star as an innocent type, with a sudden rage that could come out in his characters. We hear his voice through audio book recordings, and learn that while playing Willy Wonka, he would do unexpected things that were not rehearsed to surprise the actors. We hear from the child actor (now an adult) named Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie. Ostrum says that Wilder helped him by not telling him how he was going to play the scene where Charlie goes to Wonka’s office to collect his prize.
We also hear about Mel Brooks’ The Producers. For example, in the famous scene at the water fountain at Lincoln Center, the person controlling the water had it shoot up higher than usual. In the film, Bloom agrees to a scheme to defraud investors in a play, because he wants his life to be like things are in the movies. And after that role, of course, Wilder’s life became magical.
“That’s why we put that scene in,” director Ron Frank told me in an interview.
Frank said he was happy get the chance to interview Brooks, and that among Brooks’ important stories is that distributor and producer Joe Levine didn’t want Wilder in the film.
There’s also a hilarious scene from Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, in which Wilder falls in love with a sheep.
“There’s a great scene where he is just quiet, but it was too long to put in the film,” Frank said. “I really don’t think any other actor could have done what he did in the film and be so believable.”
Frank said The Frisco Kid was among his favorites of Wilder’s screen work. In that comedy, Wilder plays Polish Rabbi Avram Belinski who treks through the Old West to lead a synagogue in San Francisco. It’s a buddy film, and Harrison Ford got the role that was supposed to go to John Wayne, but for whatever reason, a producer tried to get Wayne to take a $250,000 pay cut and he refused.
It was not often that audiences saw a rabbi in a leading role.
“I think it was important to see not only that he was kind and that he believed in justice, but even when he shot one of the villains in self-defense, he thought he might not be worthy to marry the daughter,” Frank said.
The documentary deals with tragedy in how Wilder fell in love with and married Gilda Radner, who died of cancer. Some of the rage he showed as an actor could also stem from the fact that he was told that if he talked back to his mother, it could kill her. A welcome surprise in the documentary is Harry Connick, Jr., who was a neighbor and friend. We also hear about how Brooks and Wilder’s only argument was whether to include the tap dancing scene at the end of Young Frankenstein, and Brooks acquiesced because Wilder fought for it.
Wilder is my second favorite actor of all time, after Daniel Day Lewis, and I relished the opportunity to learn more about him.
“I hope people will see his great commitment to comedy in giving his all in every role,” Frank said.
The film includes some great clips from See No Evil, Hear No Evil, in which Wilder played a deaf man and Pryor played a blind man. It seems the two were not great friends off camera, though Frank said Pryor did visit Wilder when he was in poor health from Alzheimer’s disease. Wilder’s last wife, Karen, appears in the film and talks about how he decided to take a last swim and was able to do so. She reveals what his last words were.
Wilder is one of the greatest comedic geniuses of this era, and it is a shame he couldn’t have done more films with Brooks. Wilder died on August 29, 2016. Some will clamor for personal gossip, but I don’t need that here. Remembering Gene Wilder is a fitting tribute to a versatile comedic actor who is one of the few to make me laugh out loud.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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At Least 12 Killed in Massive Russian Attack on Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Russia-Ukraine War: About three and a half years after the outbreak of the war, Russia carried out last night (Sunday) the largest air attack since it began. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and dozens more were injured when 367 rockets and missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized US policy, which so far has taken a soft stance towards Russia, and recently hinted that it would stop mediating between the two countries: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such Russian terrorist attack is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in a night attack. According to him, they shot down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage was caused to several areas, including the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In parallel, a prisoner of war exchange deal was concluded. In Russia, reports said that 303 prisoners were transferred from each side. In total, over the last three days 2,000 prisoners, 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 Russians, have been returned to their countries. Zelensky thanked the servicemen of the armed forces, and promised to bring all the prisoners home. “Today, our armed forces, the national guard, the state border service, and the special state transport service are returning home.”
“I am grateful to the team that worked around the clock to successfully execute these exchanges,” he added. “We will certainly bring back each and every one of our people from Russian captivity.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Russian army may reach a severe shortage of manpower and weapons in the next year. The Ukrainian army is also in trouble, and it is offering generous economic grants to new recruits.
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UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a “teaspoon” of aid was getting in following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
The U.N. World Food Program said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity,” it said in a statement.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.
“Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process,” an Israeli military official said.
‘DESPERATION’
With most of Gaza’s 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel’s military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A German government spokesperson said the aid was “far too little, too late and too slow,” adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.
Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centers in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.
The U.N. has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel’s political and military aims.
Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centers and will not distribute aid themselves.
As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
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Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Swiss authorities said on Sunday they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization that plans to oversee aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave.
The move comes after a Swiss NGO submitted a request for a probe into GHF’s aid plan, which the United Nations has opposed, saying it is not impartial or neutral and forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
The GHF, which has said it hopes to start work in Gaza by the end of May, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week after having stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2.
TRIAL International, a Switzerland-based NGO, on Friday said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate whether the Swiss-registered GHF complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law.
The submissions were made to the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on May 20 and 21.
The FDFA on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that both authorities had received the submissions.
TRIAL International said it asked the Swiss FDFA to explain if the GHF had submitted a declaration, in accordance with Swiss law, to use private security companies to distribute aid, and if it had been approved by Swiss authorities.
The FDFA told Reuters it is investigating whether such a declaration would be required for the foundation.
It said that the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations cannot review whether foundations comply with their statutes until they start their activities.
The GHF told Reuters that though using private security firms represents a change from prior aid delivery frameworks, it would ensure aid is not diverted to Hamas or criminal organizations.
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