Re: Film, "The Governess"

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>gee, I guess I had a different reaction from ALice's!!! :)   Judith

I understand your reaction. My ability to get into Shindler's List
was severely hampered by the use of modern Israeli music in the 
soundtrack, and by the family in the ghetto speaking Hebrew. 
Spielberg may not yet have discovered that they are different
languages (and we won't get into the political confusion on this list).

It does sound odd, as you note, to use Ofra Haza, who very beautifully
does Yemenite Jewish music (and equally beautifully, performs it set
to a more universal "world beat" on the recordings that followed her
first), as a representative of Sephardic music.

Despite the anachronism, it might still be effective cinematically--
several people have commented to me about the music. And of course,
now I want to see the movie even more than I did. It is also 
interesting to have a movie that conveys the idea of Sephardic
Jews as "upper class". It is a historical attitude that is also
reflected in the two lanes at Yemin Moshe, a settlement just outside
the Old City in Jerusalem, where originally, the two streets were
segregated, one for the higher class, more educated and sophisticated
Sephardim, and the other for those uncouth Ashkenazim.

A lot of us Ashkenazim forget, I think, that we do not reflect or
embody the single line of Jewish culture, nor even the line that
was considered most cultured.

It's good to see Sephardic cultures being re-examined, and becoming
popular. I just wish that all non-ashkenazic Jewish cultures weren't
being lumped together, incorrectly, as "Sephardic." We be a diverse
people.

ari