SELECTED
SCREENINGS
Edgar G. Ulmer Retrospective, Filmhouse Cinema, UK (2009)
Toronto Jewish Film Festival (2008)
Goethe-Institut Turin, Italy (2008)
Yiddish Foundation, Amsterdam (2008)
Green Mountain Film Festival, Vermont (2007)
Chicago YIVO Summer Series (2007)
Haifa Jewish Film Festival (2005)
UC Berkley Art Museum, Berkley, California (2005)
British Film Institute, London (2004)
Museum Jewish Heritage, New York (2004)
American Museum Moving Image, New York (2004)
Vancouver Jewish Film Festival (2004)
Musee d’Art de Histoire du Judaisme, Paris (2002)
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles (2001)
Vienna Jewish Film Festival, Austria (2001)
Jewish Film Week, Austria (2001)
Festival del Popoli, Italy (2000)
NEWLY
RESTORED 35MM PRINT WITH COMPLETE NEW SUBTITLES
The
Light Ahead is possibly the greatest of Edgar
G. Ulmer’s shtetl films. Here, the director counterpoints
his pastoral Green
Fields to criticize the poverty and superstition that
oppress a pair of star-crossed lovers. Made on the eve of World War II, The
Light Ahead is at once romantic, expressionist, and painfully
conscious of the danger about to engulf European Jews.
Impoverished
and disabled lovers Fishke and Hodel dream of life in the big city of
Odessa, free from the poverty and stifling old-world prejudices of the
shtetl. The benevolent and enlightened bookseller Mendele helps
them, turning small-town superstitions to their advantage. Based on Mendele
Mokher Seforim's story of love frustrated by small-town ignorance, this
luminous allegory of escape marries Edgar Ulmer's masterful direction
with superb acting by members of New York's Artef and Yiddish Art Theaters.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM
“A
gem radiating warmth and honesty.”
– Jewish Weekly
“An
astonishing artifact that is equal parts vaudeville schtick, Talmudic
exegesis, and ghetto melodrama.”
– Village Voice
“Yiddish
film producers will probably look to The
Light Ahead... for their inspiration when new productions
are under consideration. As well they might, for the film touches undreamed
of heights.”
– New York World Telegram, 23 Sept. 1939
“Central
to the film is a riveting performance by Helen Beverley as the blind orphan,
Hodel... Beverley and Opatoshu are perhaps the most beautiful couple in
the history of Yiddish cinema, and their scenes have a touching erotic
chemistry.”
– J. Hoberman, Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds
CREDITS
Produced
& Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer for Carmel
Productions, Inc.
Based
on stories by S.Y. Abramovitch (Mendele Mokher Seforim)
Screenplay
by Chaver Pahver, Sherle (Shirley) Ulmer, Edgar
G. Ulmer
Starring:
Isidore Cashier, Helen Beverley, David Opatoshu, Rosetta Bialis, Tillie
Rabinowitz, Anna Guskin, Celia Bodkin, Jennie Cashier
PURCHASE DVD
The
Light Ahead
$36.00 plus shipping
Home Use Only DVD (Not for Classroom/Institutional
Use) Does
not include Public Performance Rights
Home
Use Policy (pdf) |
The
Light Ahead
$72.00 plus shipping
Classroom/Institutional Use Only
DVD
Does
not include Public Performance Rights
Institutional
Use Policy (pdf) |
Special Offer
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ALSO WITH HELEN BEVERLEY
Green Fields
Overture to Glory
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