Fiddler on the Roof

Rewatched the 1971 film over the weekend for the first time in 10 years. Superb in every regard. Topol's Tevye is tragic, angry, helpless, complex. I haven't listened to the original cast recording with Zero Mostel or seen a stage production, but I imagine I'll get to both eventually. Is there film footage of Mostel?

There was no thread for Fiddler so here it is.

YouTube doesn't seem to have any clips of Zero.

There is a hit revival in NY currently, presented for the first time entirely in Yiddish, directed by Joel Grey.

i've only ever saw a stage production of this when i was a teenager and have never revisited the soundtrack or anything and songs from it are still stuck in my head. maybe i'll watch the movie this week

yeah same, silby convinced me to screen now

its a beaut

Haven't seen the film (just a few scenes on TV). Know a few of the big songs (they made us sing "Sunrise, Sunset" in Catholic grade school).

btw i can confirm i didn't hallucinate this: on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1970, Art Carney sang "If I Were a Rich Man" as Ed Norton, head and elbows poking out of the sewer.

https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=ed&p=111&item=B:06221

The original Broadway cast included Bea Arthur (as the matchmaker), Bert Convy, and Austin Pendleton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler_on_the_Roof#Original_productions

I could easily have seen the 1976-77 revival with Zero if I'd been a smarter adolescent.

Was in a community production of this, it's a fantastic show to be in. I played Hodel. Our Tevye was great, indelible in my mind. We had Cossack dancers and everything. Seen and heard whatever versions are out there.

Ha, listening to the movie soundtrack now. But I remember playing "Herschel Bernardi sings 'Fiddler on the Roof'" in the house.

...but Anthony Newley as Tevye is just WRONG!

The movie has Barry Dennen aka Pontius Pilate.

the Topol one is one of my favorite movies of all time. In college I got to see some of his Israeli films, he was just a dynamo

I've always avoided the film bcz movies of Broadway juggernauts seldom get it right, and I didn't think one directed by Norman Jewison (still living at 92) could do the trick.

Only have seen Topol in... For Your Eyes Only.

hard to make dancing thrilling in a movie but the bottle dance and cossack dance in the film ver is pretty wonderfully done

I'd say the film succeeds in that it doesn't try to replicate the spatial coherence of a stage production. It indulges in some filmic "devices" e.g. teleporting Tevye's daughters into the background out of focus when he's soliloquizing, which you could argue is an overcorrection, but it stretches its legs, between town and field and road, and the changing seasons.

Compare to West Side Story 1961 dir Wise and Robbins which I really don't care for at all and as best I can recall appears to have been shot on a playground

Only have seen Topol in... For Your Eyes Only.

You've never seen "Flash Gordon"?

Most of WSS was shot on studio sets, just the opening sequence was shot on location I think.

And of course Jerome Robbins choreographed it on stage and screen, and he directed and choreographed the original Fiddler.

I have not seen FG, Tom.

Compare to West Side Story 1961 dir Wise and Robbins which I really don't care for at all

― moose; squirrel (silby), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 17:19 (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

rip silby dead to me 3rd apr 2019

Sorry deems I’ve trashed it on here before so I should’ve been dead to you sooner

we were willing to turn a blind eye for expediency hitherto

if the only thing the movie did wrong was making "Somewhere" into a sex duet I would still hate it

WSS is the kind of stuffed-and-mounted film of a stage musical I was talking about

(Spielberg will fix all)

hard to make dancing thrilling in a movie

Nope on that.

I'll come clean that that was a canned remark I acquired from somewhere else, I don't really have a sense of how hard or not hard it is.

sure it's hard, on a Kelly-Donen level

NYers will get to see this at Film Forum next month

http://filmforum.org/film/tevya-yiddish-cinema-6-16

Was just viewing the "Matchmaker" bit on Youtube last night...Odd how Jewison moved on to "Jesus Christ Superstar" (another fave of mine) directly after this one

Are you sure he didn’t do Rollerball in between?

I have a Cannonball Adderley lp of the score recorded in the mid 60s somewhere.

Rollerball was after both

Watching w my daughter, first time in at least 25+ years...? Topol is so good.

Norman Jewison (still living at 92)

... still living at 93!

Topol also still alive!

I wasn't sure about Topol tbh. Next year is a big one for Norman, his 10th wedding anniversary is coming up.

... what am I talking about, it's this year, happy anniversary, Norman!

Topol has died at 87, with 3,500 Tevyes under his belt

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/movies/topol-dead.html

He endured his daughters getting married 10,500 times

Meanwhile, Norman Jewison will be 97 in July.

I think I would call Tevye the 20th century’s great tragic hero; Topol’s performance is commensurately iconic