Itzhak
Itzhak
Ed Sullivan shaped popular music by presenting Elvis Presley and The Beatles, but he also influenced classical music by introducing Itzhak Perlman. In 1958, Sullivan presented the 13-year old, just arrived in America, performing Mendelssohn. It was, as they said back then, a big break. Perlman went on to become classical music’s star violinist.
Alison Chernick’s documentary Itzhak includes interviews and concert footage from the past, but much of its running time is devoted to the present—or, at least, Perlman’s present-day memories of his past. With Chernick in tow, Perlman visits his Tel Aviv birthplace and recounts how his parents drove him to succeed. Walking with crutches and braces from polio, Perlman had to surmount the barrier against disabled people on the classical stage. Perlman comes across as gregarious and open hearted. He reminds us that a musician without an inner reflective life is merely a technician.
“The Best of the Three Stooges, Volumes One-Three”
Some of their physical humor is almost painful to watch, but many of their routines remain hilarious. Those maestros of lowbrow humor from the 1930s-’40s are represented on a multi-volume series of DVDs. The 45 hours of material amassed here include four feature films and a host of short subjects. The trio of miscreants bumble and bludgeon their way through an ongoing sequence of pratfalls, fowling criminals and thwarting the Axis as they go.
You Never Know Women
William A. Wellman was a prolific Hollywood director from the silent era through the late 1950s. Previously lost, Wellman’s You Never Know Women (1926) is out on Blu-ray. The nocturnal urban scenes suggest the influence of German cinema, and the staging of performances by a traveling Russian troop of acrobats and illusionists is interestingly staged. By this time, the grammar of filmmaking had developed to the point where acting was understated and melodramatic gestures unnecessary.
