FOUR SEASONS LODGE (Andrew Jacobs, 2008)
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, January 24, 6:00
212-924-7771
www.symphonyspace.org
www.fourseasonsmovie.org
“Life is not easy for everyone,” Olga Bowman says about midway through Andrew Jacobs’s spectacular cinéma vérité documentary, FOUR SEASONS LODGE. “But life can be beautiful even when it’s not so easy.” For twenty-five summers, a group of Holocaust survivors, mostly Polish Jews, would meet at the Four Seasons Lodge in the Catskills, where they would talk, dance, argue, eat, hug, discuss their latest aches and pains, and primarily revel in life despite the horrific things they suffered through and witnessed at such concentration camps as Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Jacobs discovered this heartwarming community while researching a series of articles for the New York Times; when he heard that the lodge was being sold and that the 2006 season might be the group’s last, he decided to make a movie about it. Seeking advice from the legendary Albert Maysles, Jacobs actually landed the master documentarian as his chief cameraman, giving FOUR SEASONS LODGE the feel of such classic Maysles brothers’ works as SALESMAN and GREY GARDENS.
Jacobs is like the proverbial fly on the wall, focusing on ten primary characters who don’t mind sharing their simple existence with the rest of the world. “I am full of life,” one woman says, and that is what the film is really about, even as this collection of extraordinary people are staring at their own mortality. They might have survived the camps, but as they reach into their eighties and nineties, they understand that death is near – but they refuse to let a little thing like that stop them from enjoying some lox and herring, schmaltzy music, bad jokes, and, most of all, each other. Audiences will fall in love with such couples as Hymie and Tosha Abramowitz (Hymie’s pronunciation of the word herring is worth the price of admission all by itself), Tobias Buchman and Lola Wenglin, and the endearing Olga Bowman and Genya Boyman, who are all charming in unique, unexpected ways. FOUR SEASONS LODGE is an extraordinary accomplishment, a subtle yet unforgettable experience that is one of the best films of the decade.
When two famous people are caught together at a hotel in the mountains, a scandal breaks out as a lurid gossip magazine prints their picture and makes up a sordid romance that is not true. With their reputations tainted, they consider suing the publication, but they run into problems with their ragtag lawyer, who has a bit of a gambling problem. Akira Kurosawa regular Toshirô Mifune stars as Ichiro Aoye, a well-known painter who likes smoking pipes and riding his flashy motorcycle. Yoshiko Yamaguchi is Miyaka Saijo, a timid pop singer who is terrified of the unwanted publicity. And Takashi Shimura is Hiruta, the struggling lawyer devoted to his young daughter, who is dying of TB. The first half of the movie is involving right from the roaring opening-titles sequence, with good characterization and an alluring story line. Unfortunately, the film bogs down in the second half, especially during the hard-to-believe courtroom scenes, the only ones of Kurosawa’s career. And the Christmas bit is tired and cliché-ridden, even if might have been unique at the time for a film made in postwar Japan. But Kurosawa’s attack on the media is still valid today, even if he did fill it with sappy melodrama.
For everyone who thought Lyme disease was a minor little annoyance that is going away, Andy Abrahams Wilson is about to open your eyes. In UNDER OUR SKIN, the director-cinematographer details horrifying stories of men, women, and children stricken with the tic-borne illness who have often been misdiagnosed for years by doctors and health-care companies that believe their symptoms are all in their head — or that they are actually suffering from fibromyalgia, lupus, MS, or other diseases. Wilson, who refused to believe that his twin sister had contracted the potentially debilitating illness many years ago, speaks with people battling Lyme disease — which affects the neurological system, causing both physical and psychological problems — as well as family members dealing with difficult situations, doctors who are finding it harder to get funding to do research into the causes of the disease, and even one physician who seems to be on a personal mission to prove that most people who claim to have Lyme disease do not — and that they should not be covered by insurance companies. Unsurprisingly, as with so many health-related issues, it’s always best to follow the money, which Wilson does, uncovering some fascinating and infuriating information. UNDER OUR SKIN is a powerful, important film, one that will leave you scratching your head — in addition to other parts of your body.
