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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.
The post Gene Wilder’s Wild Ride Examined in New Documentary first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reaffirms Commitment to Peace With Israel After Iran Attack, Says Ending Treaty Would Hurt Palestinians
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi attends a press conference after a meeting on the Gaza situation in the government’s representation facility in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 15, 2023. Photo: NTB/Stian Lysberg Solum via REUTERS
Senior Jordanian officials recently reaffirmed the country’s commitment to maintaining peace with Israel, despite protests erupting across Jordan against their treaty amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Pro-Hamas protesters have been actively campaigning to end the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, which the two countries signed in 1994 to end the state of war that had existed between them for decades and establish diplomatic relations. The treaty followed the signing of the Oslo Accords, a historic agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
However, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said on Sunday that the peace deal was best for not only his country but also the Palestinians.
“The treaty actualized all our rights and served our interests. Revoking it would not be in Jordan’s or the Palestinians’ interest,” Al-Safadi told Jordan’s official news channel Al-Mamlaka in remarks flagged by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “If we thought even for a moment that revoking it would be in the interest of Jordan or of the Palestinians, we would have done so without hesitation.”
Revoking the peace treaty, he continued, would “harm both Jordan and Palestine and greatly limit our ability to continue fulfilling our main and primary role in providing aid to the Palestinian people … The peace treaty is a source of strength for us and allows us to continue our role of aiding the Palestinian people while protecting our interests.”
Al-Safadi’s comments came one day after Jordan — along with the US, Britain, and France — helped Israel repel an unprecedented direct attack by Iran against the Israeli homeland. Iran fired over 300 drones and missiles at the Jewish state, nearly all of which were shot out of the air. Only one injury was reported in Israel.
The chief diplomat’s defense of the peace treaty also came amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has fueled anti-Israel animus across Jordan. Thousands of protesters have been routinely gathering for weeks to lambast Israel, express solidarity with Hamas, and call for an end to the peace treaty. Al-Safadi addressed such opposition in his comments.
“We respect Jordanian public opinion,” he said. “Back in 1994, when [the treaty] was signed, it protected our interests. We regained all our occupied lands, and the treaty enshrined Jordan’s special role in administrating the places holy to Islam and to Christianity in Jerusalem. Were it not for this role, there would have been a vacuum, and Israel would have exploited this to impose its own sovereignty and administration on the holy places rather than granting them to the Palestinians.”
Al-Safadi wasn’t the only official to recently articulate Jordan’s commitment to the peace treaty amid calls to revoke it and mass anti-Israel protests over the Gaza war.
Jordan’s government spokesman, Muhannad Mubaidin, told Sky News Arabia late last month that Hamas was inciting the Jordanian people against their leadership. The Palestinian terrorist group and its supporters in Jordan, he said, were trying “to force Jordan to choose different options,” but “peace is our strategic choice and the peace treaty [with Israel] is what allows us to fulfill our role of easing the pressures on the people in the West Bank.”
MEMRI was first to report Mubaidin’s comments in English.
The post Jordan Reaffirms Commitment to Peace With Israel After Iran Attack, Says Ending Treaty Would Hurt Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Stops UN From Recognizing a Palestinian State Through Membership
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
The United States on Thursday effectively stopped the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny the Palestinian Authority full membership of the world body.
The United States says an independent Palestinian state should be established through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and not through UN action.
It vetoed a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations.” Britain and Switzerland abstained, while the remaining 12 council members voted yes.
The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a recognition that was granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012. But an application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the Security Council and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly.
The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes six months into a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the West Bank.
“Recent escalations make it even more important to support good-faith efforts to find lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable, and sovereign Palestinian state,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council earlier on Thursday.
“Failure to make progress towards a two-state solution will only increase volatility and risk for hundreds of millions of people across the region, who will continue to live under the constant threat of violence,” he said.
Israel‘s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan said Palestinians failed to meet the criteria to become a full UN member, which he outlined as: a permanent population, defined territory, government, and capacity to enter relations with other states.
“Who is the council voting to ‘recognize’ and give full membership status to? Hamas in Gaza? The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Nablus? Who?” Erdan asked the Security Council earlier on Thursday.
He said granting full UN membership to Palestinians “will have zero positive impact for any party, that will cause only destruction for years to come, and harm any chance for future dialogue.”
The Palestinian Authority, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank. Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from power in Gaza in 2007.
Ziad Abu Amr, special envoy of Abbas, earlier asked the US: “How could this damage the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis? How could this recognition and this membership harm international peace and security?”
“Those who are trying to disrupt and hinder the adoption of such a resolution … are not helping the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis and the prospects for peace in the Middle East in general,” he told the Security Council.
Abu Amr said full Palestinian UN membership was not an alternative for serious political negotiations to implement a two-state solution and resolve pending issues, adding: “However, this resolution will grant hope to the Palestinian people hope for a decent life within an independent state.”
The post US Stops UN From Recognizing a Palestinian State Through Membership first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The value of Jews to Canada today: What would the cost be if the community packed up and left?
Jonathan L. Milevsky is an author and educator. Raphi Zaionz is the founder of mygoals Inc. Both live in Toronto, for the moment. (The latter’s children either have left or are planning to leave Canada.) Towards the end of the film Schindler’s List, there’s a scene in which the famous non-Jewish philanthropist, who saved over […]
The post The value of Jews to Canada today: What would the cost be if the community packed up and left? appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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