A.J. Goldmann


Todd Solondz Unpacks Misery in Suburbia

By A.J. Goldmann

Todd Solondz Unpacks Misery in Suburbia
Master of squirm, Todd Solondz, directs a new film that solidifies his role as the Jewish foster child of John Waters and David Lynch.Read More


‘Bach’ to the Future With Wanda Landowska

By A.J. Goldmann

‘Bach’ to the Future With Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska, the Polish-Jewish musician and educator sometimes called the “rediscoverer of the harpsichord,” is the subject of a loving new exhibit at the Bach House, in Eisenach, Germany.Read More


Jewish Themed Films Shine at Berlin Fest

By A.J. Goldmann

Jewish Themed Films Shine at Berlin Fest
The Berlin International Film Festival, which unspools in the German capital each February, is Europe’s largest film fest. This year’s installment, which ran from February 10 to 20, featured four Israeli productions and a number of films that dealt with Jewish issues, not including the Coen Brothers’ “True Grit,” which opened the festival with a splashy star-studded red carpet gala.Read More


‘Lipstikka,’ Powder and Pain

By A.J. Goldmann

‘Lipstikka,’ Powder and Pain
The Israeli director Jonathan Sagall reclines in a futuristic white leather pod, drinking fancy herbal tea in a private lounge on the 24th floor of the Kollhoff Building at Potsdamer Platz. Down below, the film journalists, industry officials, actors and stargazers scramble like ants toward the various venues of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, where Sagall’s new film “Lipstikka” (a curiously rendered translation of the film’s original title, “Odem,” the Hebrew word for lipstick) is competing for the coveted Gold and Silver Bears in the main festival program.Read More


Absorbing Art of an Expressionist Poet

By A.J. Goldmann

Absorbing Art of an Expressionist Poet
Else Lasker-Schüler was one of the most influential literary figures in early 20th-century Berlin. She was known for her literary Stammtisch, or get-togethers, at the Café des Westens and for her bohemian ways. But it was her Expressionist poetry, with its penchant for exotic imagery and neologism, that made her famous.Read More