Half a Century of the Fiddler on the Roof
On October 21, 1971, the premiere of Norman Jewison's musical "Fiddler on the Roof" took place in Amsterdam (Netherlands).
The plot of the film "Fiddler on the Roof" is based on the cycle of stories of the classic of Jewish literature Sholem Aleichem about Tevye the milkman. Soviet theater lovers are well aware of the productions carried out in the USSR based on these stories: the television performance of Sergei Yevlakhishvili "Tevye the Milkman" (1985) with Mikhail Ulyanov in the title role, the performance of Mark Zakharov "Memorial Prayer" (1989) at the Lenkom Theater with Yevgeny Leonov in the role Tevye. True, back in 1938 in Kharkov, Solomon Mikhoels staged a play based on this work of Sholem Aleichem. But I don't think any of the channel's readers have seen this production.
In the United States, the adaptation of stories about Tevye the Milkman to the theater stage was carried out in 1964. The theatrical musical based on the libretto by Joseph Stein for almost 9 years on Broadway withstood 3.242 performances with a constant full house, which led to the awarding of nine Tony Theater Awards. In 1969, the musical was staged in London, where it went on for another 2.030 performances.
The overwhelming success of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" on stage in New York and London prompted the producers of the film company United Artists to launch a project to create a film based on the musical. The producers had no doubts that the film should be directed by a director of Jewish nationality, and therefore the choice immediately fell on Norman Jewison. The reason is simple: Jewison literally means "Jewish son". But the director first told the producers that he was not a Jew. It was inconvenient to admit that the choice was made according to ethnic, rather than creative, criteria, and Norman Jewison was approved as the director of the film.
Norman Jewison, in turn, sought to ensure the complete authenticity of his film, and therefore was going to shoot it in the area described in the stories of Sholem Aleichem, that is, in Ukraine. But he faced with a number of obstacles. Firstly, due to the three destructive wars that swept through it (the First World War, the Civil War and the Second World War) and collectivization, the area acquired a completely different look than in 1905. There were no villages similar to those described by Sholem Aleichem. And, secondly, the Soviet authorities, represented by the Ukrainian communist leadership, were not eager to contribute to the production of a film about Jews and pogroms. Ukraine as a location for filming has disappeared. But unexpectedly, the then leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, extended a helping hand. As a result, most of the film was filmed in several Croatian villages and the Croatian capital Zagreb.
The most authoritative American film critics have met the film "Fiddler on the Roof" by Norman Jewison, to put it mildly, ambiguously. Most, however, dedicated the film to laudatory reviews. But, for example, Vincent Canby, a film reviewer for the influential The New York Times, filled his film review with very caustic remarks, such as: "Life for the Jews in this shtetl, we are told, is precarious at best, yet it looks and sounds incomparably rich.... When Tevye moves about his barn singing "If I Were a Rich Man," he is accompanied—very loudly—by what sounds like the entire London Symphony. Close-ups of Tevye, played by the Israeli star Topol, reveal a vigorous young actor who, with no great effort, could probably flatten half of the Czar's troops....I wouldn't go so far as to advise anyone not to see it. ... Yet it requires its audience to display less in the way of imagination and identification than sheer physical endurance."
The impressions of the guru of American film critic Roger Ebert were also far from complete delight. And, although he gave the film three stars out of 4 possible, in his review he noted: "The problem with "Fiddler" is that it's so fantastically far from the roots of its story that it might as well be moved to Ireland, where the peasants could grow potatoes instead of corn. There is nothing particularly Jewish about it except the costumes and set decorations (although the word "Jewish" itself is allowed to creep in once in the three hours plus). Every ethnic group on Earth shrugs its shoulders and has a special relationship with God and is philosophical about things and wants its kids to marry the correct person in the correct way...."Fiddler on the Roof" has been around a long time, has become an institution and has added some good songs to our memories. But in the process it's become so polished, so packaged, so distanced from the real feelings that inspired the original stories of Sholem Aleichem (who didn't even make it onto the mimeographed list of credits) that it's become just another pleasant product of American entertainment industrialism. So why do I give it three stars? Because what it does, it does well. It's just what the public wants; I doubt if they'd like a better "Fiddler" more."
Norman Jewison's film received slightly higher ratings from the cinematic community. In early 1972, Fiddler on the Roof received 4 nominations for the American Golden Globe Award and won two of them, including one of the most important - Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. In the Best Director nomination, Norman Jewison lost to William Friedkin, director of the film "The French Connection".
A little later, "Fiddler on the Roof" received 8 Academy Award nominations and won three of them. But only in technical categories. The most important nominations - Best Film and Best Director - "Fiddler on the Roof" and its director again lost to "The French Connection" and William Friedkin, respectively.
Norman Jewison's film "Fiddler on the Roof" has not won much success at European festival venues, except for three technical nominations for the British BAFTA prize and the Italian David di Donatello prize awarded to Chaim Topol for Best Foreign Actor.
Norman Jewison's film "Fiddler on the Roof" seems to have made a bigger impression on Russian film critics than on American ones. Sergey Kudryavtsev rated the film 8.5 points on a 10-point scale and noted in his review: "The color and originality of the Jewish mentality, small-town humor and almost natural optimism of the nation, which has grown stronger in wandering around the world and persecution, the tragicomic pathos of the protagonist on the rubble the world collapsing before our eyes - all this, fortunately, did not become a reason for a more frivolous and purely comedic playing out of situations. Chagall's sad violinist on the roof (in this capacity was the famous violinist Isaac Stern), embarking on a journey after Tevye in the finale, is an exact find-metaphor of the sad fate that awaits the old Jew and his people. "
In the same vein, another well-known Russian film critic, Evgeny Nefyodov, described the merits of Norman Jewison's film. According to him, “"Fiddler on the Roof" thoroughly reconstructed the life of Eastern European shtetl Jews with almost no blunders inherent in the “dream factory” (by the way, unlike the stage original, where the scenery was quite abstract), which, we note in passing, would be it is impossible without the assistance of Yugoslav filmmakers ... the "light" form of the musical, both sad and funny, did not prevent to touch on key aspects of Jewish history, culture, or, more precisely, mentality. "
The moviegoers' assessment of Norman Jewison's "Fiddler on the Roof" movie half a century ago can be judged by its box office. With a budget of $ 9 million, the film grossed more than $ 83 million.
The evaluation of the film by modern moviegoers can be judged by its ratings on IMDB and Kinopoisk. 70% of users of these sites gave the movie ratings from 8 to 10. And 24% of users gave the movie the highest rating - "ten".
With that said, Norman Jewison's "Fiddler on the Roof" was rated 8.085 by FilmGourmand, placing it 594th in the Golden Thousand.
