by Jon Reinsch

Accidental Twins: Two Films with the Same Plot

A Walk on the Moon, The Harmonists, and A Place Called Chiapas

uppose I described a recent, well-acted, biographical film as follows: it's about an artist whose career was cut short, and in the end was brought down by neurological dysfunction. This film is more intensely interested in its protagonist's sexuality than in their artistry. Am I talking about Hillary and Jackie (the artist being cellist Jacqueline du Pré), or Gods and Monsters (about director James Whale)? This phenomenon -- of two contemporaneous movies sharing many of the same themes -- is not an isolated one. Stuart Klawans, film critic for The Nation, recently pointed out that in a sense, Shakespeare in Love and She's All That are the same movie.

Well, it's happened again. Now we have two films with mostly Jewish characters, caught up in tumultuous times that create tensions within a kind of family. A woman is torn between two men: one Jewish and one not, one coolly self-assured and one not). Sadness is offset with gentle humor, and music is central. The films sharing these characteristics are A Walk on the Moon and The Harmonists.

A Walk on the Moon

A Walk on the Moon takes place during a family's annual visit to a resort in the Catskills, during the summer of 1969. In the very first scene, as they drive to the resort, and a couple of non-establishment types are seen by the side of the road, the kids yell out with delight "hippies!" And the film rests on what is assuredly an idealized view of 60's counterculture.

Diane Lane plays Pearl, an increasingly discontented housewife. Her wish for excitement is not satisfied by the announcements over the loudspeaker that "The knish man is now on the premises." But Woodstock is not far away, and will prove an irresistible lure.

The film recreates the period mostly through the soundtrack, with songs by the likes of Dylan, Richie Havens, and the Grateful Dead. Pearl's initiation into the mysteries of hippie love (in a bus, naturally) is serenaded by Jefferson Airplane, with accompanying images of the Apollo 11 moon walk. As silly as it sounds, it's erotic nevertheless.

Many people contributed to the success of this film. It's the first directing effort by actor Tony Goldwyn. But it's especially impressive that the screenplay was Pamela Gray's film school thesis. She seems to have wisely chosen to write about what she knows.

The acting is good all around, but Tovah Feldshuh, playing Pearl's mother-in-law, makes a special impression. She conveys a centeredness missing in the other members of the family.

More than once in the course of this film, something in the light will subtly presage a turn of events. Pearl is walking down the road, and the surroundings take on an unmistakable pre-rain greenness -- but we know more than just rain is coming. We can credit moments like this to cinematographer Anthony Richmond, who's previous work includes Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now and Walkabout.

Unlike films that are constantly in a hurry to move on to the next scene, this one sometimes lingers on a character for an extra half-second. Doing so makes them more real to us. Another truly admirable thing about this film is that it gives every character an opportunity to speak their piece. No one is treated with the disdain so common in movies these days. But of the main characters, Pearl is perhaps the least able to articulate her grievances. Confronted by her husband, her daughter, and her mother-in-law, she isn't sure herself what is missing from her life. Given the vagueness of her dreams, it's not surprising that she seeks liberation through a man. Perhaps something will come of it.

The Harmonists

The Harmonists tells the real-life story of a different kind of family: the German musical sextet called "The Comedian Harmonists", who performed from 1927 to 1934 and become immensely popular. Sounding pretty corny to '90's ears, but adventurous for their time and place, they invested their material with syncopation and sexual innuendo. Still, I sense that the film doesn't quite convey how audacious the group really was.

The core of the group is formed by Harry Frommermann (played by Ulrich Noethen, who somewhat resembles Roberto Benigni), and Robert Biberti (played by Ben Becker). Their relationship has elements of both friendship and rivalry.

There's an obligatory scene in movies like this, showing how the group finally finds their sound, and gets it right. One of the few treats in The Doors was watching the band figure out "Light my Fire." Here, the group does a fun a capella version of Ellington's "Creole Love Call," and the film comes alive.

Half of the group's members are Jewish, but at first it's not an issue. Only gradually does anti-Semitism make its presence felt. At the same time as historical forces beset them, there are also the usual internal tensions of a music group -- creative and otherwise.

Toward the end of their career, the group travels to the United States, and considers remaining. But chillingly the scene cuts from New York to a view of Nazi banners back in Germany.

Klaus Richter and Ulrich Limmer, writer and script consultant on the project, had high ambitions, to show "that entertainment - especially that! - always has a political side to it." As they say, "those who are not interested in politics sometimes have to make the bitter discovery that politics are interested in them."

At times, the film tugs a little too insistently on the heartstrings. Although it's unfair to compare the fate of the group to that of those who went to the concentration camps, it's unavoidable. By that standard, the Comedian Harmonists were rather lucky. Perhaps that's what prevents the film from achieving the heights of drama for which it aims.

The Harmonists and A Walk on the Moon are two very different movies that intersect in interesting ways. They are scheduled to open March 19 and April 2, respectively (theaters to be determined).

A Place Called Chiapas

On an entirely different plane is the documentary A Place Called Chiapas, about the Zapatista uprising in Mexico. Here we learn that even for military leader Subcomandante Marcos, coming to Chiapas was like visiting another planet. To mention just one challenge, your fluent Spanish may not be understood by people who speak languages like Tzotzil.

Filmmaker Nettie Wild clearly sympathizes with the Zapatistas, but that doesn't stop her from wondering if they are above playing realpolitik when they see fit -- as when refugees appeal for help at an inconvenient time.

There are extraordinary images of tanks moving through the jungle, of Zapatistas in indigenous dress attending peace talks, of tiny Comandante Ramona journeying to Mexico City.

As the film makes clear, the Zapatistas struggle against the same forces of globalization as do progressives here. It reminds us of the internal document drafted within Chase Manhattan Bank, calling on the Mexican government to eliminate the rebels. And after all, the Zapatistas deliberately began their insurrection on the first day of NAFTA's implementation. Crusaders against injustice in this country might learn something from people for whom the struggle is for survival.

A Place Called Chiapas plays April 23-29 at the Egyptian.