{"id":608,"date":"2015-10-27T07:25:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T14:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/?p=608"},"modified":"2015-11-09T12:42:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T20:42:26","slug":"questions-that-make-you-go-%e2%80%9chmm%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/archives\/608","title":{"rendered":"Questions that make you go, \u201cHmm\u201d…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening night at the San Diego Film Festival<\/a> this year screened the U.S. premiere of \u201cSeptembers of Shiraz<\/a>\u201d starring Adrien Brody<\/a> and Salma Hayek<\/a>, a story about a rich family (Brody plays an Iranian Jewish jeweler whose family and he become persecuted under the Ayotollah\u2019s regime). This film for the record, was not my favorite—ever. It felt all the same—not enough shifts in the emotional tone of the story and frankly, the story despite the heavy subject of the very real persecution of Persian Jews in Iran was flat and unemotional for me. It was a lot of telegraphing by music and dialogue of what was to happen next and not enough showing.<\/p>\n

The gorgeous Hayek was ill cast in my humble opinion. She did not feel authentic for me as a Persian Jew—her accent still sounded Mexican and her personality did not strike me as a 1970s Middle Eastern woman…and nothing pulled me out of the story faster than those four inch platform designer shoes while everyone was running around in flats on the dusty streets! And I am not talking Elton John platform (apropos for the \u201970s —I am talking, \u2018short woman complex with a lot of money I will tell the stylist what I want to wear platform shoes\u2019.<\/p>\n

Brody\u2019s earnestness and commitment to the character couldn\u2019t save it either. He didn\u2019t seem comfortable in the role and therefore, neither was I comfortable for him.<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes into the movie, Hayek calls her husband, \u201cBaby\u201d and it rang so false, I cringed physically and for the rest of the film, it felt like watching a bad accident. I blame the director, Wayne Blair on this. He couldn\u2019t hear this falsehood…and a few others?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shohreh Aghdasloo <\/a>was the only authentic quality in the film other than the perhaps, the Manischewitz (I presume) wine served at Shabbat. Even the location seemed less than par. I think everyone\u2019s heart was in the right place with this story but unfortunately, it really was not only too long but dull performances and dull storytelling.<\/p>\n

The Q & A afterward revealed a very shy Adrien Brody which Tonya Mantooth<\/a> handled with her usual gracious and sensitive dexterity.<\/p>\n

My favorite question that made me go, Hmmm—was from a man in the audience directed at Brody:<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you use a butt double for your naked scene?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, you can imagine the laughter (relief from the film being over?) that ensued, myself included. Brody\u2019s response was sincere flabbergastedness (I made this word up)…he couldn\u2019t even answer and professed he didn\u2018t know how to. For the record, the naked scene was a torture scene of Brody in prison which even the torturing couldn\u2019t elicit sympathy. Sigh. I really wanted to respect this film—but it simply couldn\u2019t rise to the powerful true story of \u201c12 Years a Slave<\/a>\u201d opening two years ago.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Actor Adrien Brody receiving the Cinema Vanguard award at the San Diego Film Festival Tribute<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Geena Davis also at the Tribute receiving the inaugural Reframed Humanitarian Award<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Social Justice Panel at Sparks Gallery – San Diego Film Festival<\/p>\n

From left: Filmmakers, Thomas Morgan<\/a>, \u00a0Hayley, Jack Robbins<\/a>, Leslee Udwin<\/a>, and Kweku Mandela<\/a><\/p>\n

Someone in the audience asked if politicians were a good avenue for making change and Ms. Udwin answered they were a complete waste of time and the audience cheered and clapped. That was a question that made me go, \u201dHmmm\u201d because I disagreed and contemplated making the disagreement public and then…<\/p>\n

\n

The absolute perfect conflict was when Mr. Mandela (Nelson Mandela\u2019s grandson) intervened vehemently by disagreeing and said that politicians were indeed a valuable resource and that they should always be held accountable for being part of any change for the better.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And I applaud his contention and say AMEN, brother!!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all folks. Be well,<\/p>\n

jeanne<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening night at the San Diego Film Festival this year screened the U.S. premiere of \u201cSeptembers of Shiraz\u201d starring Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek, a story about a rich family (Brody plays an Iranian Jewish jeweler whose family and he become persecuted under the Ayotollah\u2019s regime). This film for the record, was not my favorite—ever. • Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,93,91,92,89,26,90,94],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fresh-drinking-water-governor-brown-twin-tunnels","tag-adrien-brody","tag-jack-robbins","tag-kweku-mandela","tag-leslee-udwin","tag-salma-hayek","tag-san-diego-film-festival","tag-septembers-of-shiraz","tag-thomas-morgan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeanneferris.com\/LatestNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}