Vonia
The title comes from a painting by Russian artist Marc Chagall called "The Dead Man" which depicts a funeral scene and shows a man playing a violin on a rooftop. It is also used by Tevye in the story as a metaphor for trying to survive in a difficult, constantly changing world. The best musical numbers: "Tradition", "If I Were a Rich Man", "To Life", & "Miracle of Miracles". Each of the performances had their highlights, but Topol, who played Tevye, stood far above the rest. Without him, I am not sure the musical would have been as impressive. The entire film had a down to earth, farm life feel. Thus, I was not so shocked as amused when I discovered that the entire film was shot with a pair of brown nylon stockings over the lens. The weave can even be detected in some scenes. One of the most fun, playful musicals I have seen. Which made the sudden ending all the more depressingly stark in contrast.
James Hitchcock
To celebrate my 1600th review for this site I turn to another of my favourite films. Like a number of other cinematic genres, such as the war film and the Western, the traditional Hollywood musical was to go into something of a decline in the late seventies, but the early part of the decade had seen two very fine examples, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret". "Fiddler" is set in the Russian village of Anatevka in 1905. Actually, Anatevka is really two villages, one Jewish and one Christian, and there is little interaction between the two. Nearly all the main characters are drawn from the Jewish community.It amazes me that anti-Semites have sometimes attempted to brand Jews "rootless cosmopolitans", as Jewish communities have always struck me as very conscious of their roots, their traditions and identity. The film, like the Broadway musical on which it is based, can be seen as an exploration of the role of tradition in Jewish life. In the opening song, actually entitled "Tradition", the main character Tevye explains the importance of tradition to him and his neighbours. Several Jewish traditions, including a wedding and a Sabbath meal, are reproduced in the film.The film, however, also shows how the traditions which Tevye holds so dear are being challenged from within and threatened from without. Within Anatevka and the wider Jewish community the younger generation are starting to question the values which their parents have lived by. The threat from outside comes from state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the form of the pogroms. The film's title comes from a line of Tevye's; he compares the predicament of Russian Jews to that of a fiddler on the roof, desperately trying to keep his footing and to play a merry tune while in a precarious situation. Tevye intends this as a metaphor, but an actual fiddler appears in the film at various points.The story is a simple one. Tevye, a poor village milkman, and his wife Golde have five daughters but no sons. The three elder girls are all of marriageable age (the younger two are just children), and all three find husbands who, in one way or another, represent a breach with tradition. Tzeitel, the eldest, would rather marry her childhood sweetheart Motel, a poor tailor, rather than the wealthy but elderly widower found for her by the village matchmaker. Hodel, the second daughter, falls in love with Perchik, a politically radical student, and stands by him even when he is exiled to Siberia for his part in a demonstration. And the third daughter, Chava, wants to marry a Gentile. (Motel and Perchik are both Jewish). Marrying outside the faith is a step too far for Tevye, even though his love for his family has led him to give his blessing to Tzeitel and (rather reluctantly) to Hodel. He refuses Chava his permission to marry, and disowns her when she defies him by marrying her beloved in a Christian ceremony.There are a number of reasons why I have long regarded this as one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest, of all screen musicals. The first is that the songs (music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick) are very fine ones. They range from the rousing ("Tradition", "To Life!") to the deeply moving ("Sunrise, Sunset", "Far from the Home I Love") to the humorous ("Matchmaker, Matchmaker"), although the humour is sometimes rather dark. The song "If I Were a Rich Man", for example, contains some humorous descriptions of Tevye's imagined life if he were to become rich, yet is also a complaint addressed to the heavens against his poverty.The second reason why I love this film is the performance of Topol in the central role. Tevye is the dominant figure in the film, not only its main character but also its narrator, addressing the audience directly. Topol, only 36 at the time, was considerably younger than the part he was playing; Tevye, the father of three adult daughters, is probably supposed to be at least ten years older. The makeup department do a good job in making him look older, but Topol nevertheless brings a younger man's energy and vitality to the part, making a Tevye powerful, larger- than-life figure. He also has a fine singing voice. There are too many good supporting performances to mention them all, but I must single out Norma Crane as Golde, Leonard Frey as the timid Motel and a pre-"Starsky and Hutch" Paul Michael Glaser (here billed simply as "Michael") as the idealistic Perchik.My final reason for loving the film is the direction of Norman Jewison. (According to one story, he was only given the job because he was wrongly thought to be Jewish because of his surname). The original Broadway production was dominated by bright colours, inspired by the art of Marc Chagall, but the look of the film is much more realistic; the only time it veers into fantasy is during Tevye's dream sequence. (Location shooting actually took place in Yugoslavia, about the only part of Eastern Europe where American film crews would have been welcome in 1971). I think that this was the right decision; what works well on stage is not always the right choice in a film. Jewison's sombre photography helps to anchor the film in a particular place and time but also adds to its timeless appeal. The villagers of Anatevka are people we can identify with, who speak to us through the years about the problems of their own time and of ours. (Nobody can watch the film without being uncomfortably aware that in years to come the Jewish population of Eastern Europe were to suffer tribulations far worse than anything the Tsarist regime could devise). Jewison, Bock, Harnick and all those involved with the film invest it with the universality which is the hallmark of all great art. 10/10
David Holt (rawiri42)
After 43 years, I eventually got to see Fiddler on the Roof and it was well worth the wait! What a touching, beautiful portrayal of life in an exiled Jewish community in Russia (or was it the Ukraine?) around the turn of the 20th century. The star of the film is undoubtedly Topol as Tevye a subsistence milkman, the head of his family of wife and five daughters but there were certainly many others. His wife, Golde (Norma Crane - who died just two years after "Fiddler" of breast cancer) and his three oldest daughters Yente (Molly Picon), Hodel (Michele Marsh) and Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris) captured the modest yet determined characters of male-dominated Jewish women at a time when traditions (a word yelled by Tevye many times in exasperation throughout the movie) were irreversibly changing. As we learn during the story, Tevye and Golda first met each other on their wedding day and were told that, in time, they would learn to love each other. The scene where they actually admit this is absolutely beautiful.However, starting with Yente, Tevye and Golda's daughters rebel against century-old tradition and choose their own marriage partners - even though old ways don't die easily and, being the soft-hearted, loving father that he is, Tevye succumbs to their wishes until Tzeitel announces her love for a gentile and that is just too much for her father who (initially) disowns her.One amusing (to me) scene was where Hodel and her man, Perchic (played by Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky and Hutch fame) express their love for each other. As I watched the scene I was frequently reminded of Sheldon and Amy of TV's Big Bang Theory. (I guess you need to watch both to see it but it did make me smile!)I won't write about the ending to the movie as that would tend to be a spoiler too far. Just let me say Fiddler on the Roof is a very believable story of love, loyalty and sheer doggedness that is an inspiration to anyone who is experiencing difficult times. As I say, well worth the long wait!
