Showbiz meets shtetl
 |
Luzer Twersky, right, consulted on and plays a chasidic character in the forthcoming film “Felix and Meira.” Julie Landreville |
When it comes to chasidic characters in movies, film consultant Elli Meyer believes that the real deal trumps a random actor in costume.
But that approach isn’t without its challenges.
Mr. Meyer, a New York-based Lubavitcher chasid, recounted one occasion when he was hired to cast extras for a film but refused upon learning that shooting would take place on Yom Kippur.
“Who told you to hire Jews?” one of the producers said, according to Mr. Meyer, though ultimately the shooting was postponed.
Mr. Meyer is among a handful of Jews from charedi Orthodox backgrounds who have carved out an unusual niche in show business as occasional consultants on films and TV shows aiming to depict chasidic life authentically.
These consultants often find themselves having to dispel misconceptions about chasidim as they advise on language, costuming, and plot, sometimes even stepping into rabbinic roles as explainers of Jewish law.
Mr. Meyer, 59, has been doing this kind of work for a decade. In 2014 alone he has acted in, consulted on, or done casting work for more than half a dozen TV shows or movies.
He said he was motivated to get into the consulting business because he was appalled by the sloppiness of many characterizations of chasidic Jews.
“They think they can slap on an Amish hat and a long black robe, and they’ve created a chasid,” he said of directors and producers in general.
Isaac Schonfeld, an Orthodox Jew who graduated from Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah high school in Queens, has consulted on several independent films.
Most recently, Mr. Schonfeld consulted for the 2013 comedy “Fading Gigolo,” directed by John Turturro, who stars as a novice prostitute being pimped out to female clients by a friend, who is played by Woody Allen. One of the major plot lines focuses on a budding romance that develops between Mr. Turturro’s character and a lonely chasidic widow who hires him as a masseur.
Mr. Schonfeld brought Mr. Turturro and several crew members to Chulent, a social gathering he runs in New York, that is popular among many former chasidim and others on the margins of the charedi world.
Mr. Schonfeld has other acquaintances who also helped with the film. One, Malky Lipshitz, contributed religious artwork and consulted with Vanessa Paradis, the French actress who played the chasidic woman in the film. Others submitted voice recordings for actor Liev Schreiber to use to practice his inflection in his role as a member of a chasidic community patrol vying for the widow’s affections.
Mr. Schonfeld pointed to one significant change that resulted from his advice. He said that Mr. Turturro had planned to name the chasidic widow Avital, wrongly believing it to be an authentic-sounding chasidic name. Mr. Schonfeld noted that some people have a tendency to believe that Israeli and charedi names are interchangeable.
Mr. Schonfeld recommended similar alternative names that would be more plausibly chasidic but would still accommodate Mr. Turturro’s attachments and artistic considerations. In the end Avital was renamed Avigal.
But the naming of characters was a minor challenge compared to another conundrum: finding a Yiddish word for “pimp,” to be used in a scene before a rabbinic court, where Mr. Allen’s character is accused of providing a male prostitute for a chasidic woman. Finding the one word, “alfons,” which is rarely if ever used in contemporary chasidic parlance, required a significant amount of research on Mr. Schonfeld’s part.
When it comes to meticulousness, “Fading Gigolo” does not stand alone. “Felix and Meira,” a forthcoming independent Canadian film that follows a chasidic woman from Montreal who engages in an extramarital affair with a non-Jewish man, also required significant research, consultation, and visits to the charedi community.
Several former chasidim consulted for the film in varying capacities. Rivka Katz, formerly a Lubavitcher chasid, consulted on the script, while Luzer Twersky and Melissa Weisz, who studied at Satmar chasidic schools growing up, both acted and consulted. Mr. Twersky plays the protagonist’s husband and Ms. Weisz has the part of a chasidic woman, a minor character in the film.
They pointed to the verisimilitude of a scene set during a Shabbat meal.
“The shtreimel” – fur hat – “was real, the bekeshe” – frock coat – “was real, the chicken soup was real,” Mr. Twersky said.
Even though it was not actually shot on Shabbat, the scene seemed so authentic that Ms. Weisz, who acted in the scene, said that on a visceral level it felt wrong to be engaging in un-Shabbat-like activity like filmmaking.
Afterward, when conversation turned to the movie, “I got mad,” Ms. Weisz recalled, “because they shouldn’t be talking about that on Shabbos.”
But film consultants do not always agree with one another on what makes for the most authentic depiction of chasidim.
On Twitter, Mr. Twersky had criticized the 2010 movie “Holy Rollers,” starring Jesse Eisenberg as a drug-running yeshiva student, for its costuming choices and other issues. He tweeted: “guys with peyos don’t wear short suits and fedora hats.”
Mr. Meyer, who worked on the film, says he advises a “mish-mosh look,” piecing together the hat from one chasidic sect and the side curls of another, unless the director has a particular sect in mind.
To Mr. Twersky, that was one of several of the film’s failings.
But he acknowledges that departures from authentic portrayals of chasidic life are not always such a bad thing.
“We need to get over the fact that we don’t own the story of chasidic Jews,” Mr. Twersky said.
He noted that artistic considerations often result in departures from reality.
“Nobody wants to see regular people doing regular things,” Mr. Twersky said. “That’s not a movie.”
JTA Wire Service
comments