Movies That Time Forgot: Solomon & Gaenor
It was a hot April night in Israel. My friends and I had just driven 5 hours from Jerusalem to Eilat, where we got a room in a dubious hotel for a night before continuing on to Egypt in the morning. I can't remember where Elliot and Josh went off to, but Leigh and I flipped channels on the TV while Jason dozed off in the corner. After deciding that Elf was too weird to watch subtitled in Hebrew (during Passover, no less), we switched to the next movie channel--and were greeted with a pretty graphic sex scene. I wondered if we would have to pay for this channel, but the high production values, classical score, and plaintive dialogue assured me that this was a legitimate movie. And sure enough, we were greeted to lush landscapes and period costumes. Complications set in when I suddenly couldn't understand the characters. Where did the English go? Bah, I can't understand it because the subtitles are in Hebrew! Oh, wait, they are speaking Yiddish now! This could get very interesting . . .
I eventually found out that movie was Solomon & Gaenor, written and directed by Paul Morrison and released in 1999. There were two versions, one where most of the principal dialogue is in English, and one that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar that is entirely in Welsh and Yiddish. Starring Ioan Gruffudd as Solomon and Nia Roberts as Gaenor, the film touts itself as a twist on Romeo and Juliet. Frankly, I wish R+J would be put out to pasture. This film proves there are only so many ways to remake it. Solomon is the son of Jewish immigrants living in a small mining town in Wales in 1911. He lies about his heritage to, well, get in Welsh shiksa Gaenor's pantaloons. And that appears to be all that their "relationship" is based on. They never appear to talk about their lives or common interests, and I'm not even sure that they have any sort of attraction beyond the physical. Solomon does little but earn my contempt. He finds a young woman who is willing to sleep with him after knowing him for 5 minutes, yet he is surprised and angry when he finds out he wasn't her first? And for that matter, how did he deduce that she wasn't a virgin? Because she actually enjoyed sex? Solomon's lies also make it very hard for the audience to be sympathetic to his situation. Many parts of the movie that are supposed to come off as tearjerkers failed because of this flaw. His actions have a much greater potential to ruin her life than his, which is exactly what happens.
As is wont to happen when there is a lack of birth control, Gaenor gets pregnant. She is thrown out of her church and her family arranges for her to live with a far-off aunt and give the baby to another family. Solomon is sent to live with relatives in Cardiff. They plan on running off together, but some inconvenient anti-Semitism surfaces for the sole purpose of keeping them apart. Why didn't they run off sooner? They could have gone to London, Scotland, America, anywhere. I imagine it was much easier for people to change their identities in the days before the Internet. As for the ending, I will go with a quote from the Roger Ebert review: "It's one thing to be a victim of fate. It's another thing to go out looking for fate and wrestle it to the ground . . . the only person who couldn't see the ending coming from a mile away was Solomon."
The film is availabel on DVD, but since they are no longer being issued they fetch a steep price. I checked out a VHS copy from the local library. The movie isn't entirely worthless. The landscape is gorgeous, Roberts and Gruffudd turn in good performances inspite of the material, and I was thrilled to hear Yiddish in a movie. Welsh is also meant to be heard because on paper it looks like the alphabet threw up. If you watch it, however, I am sure you will agree with me that the best parts of the movie are when dialogue isn't that essential . . .
Coming up: I might review the one movie I should NEVER be allowed to watch.
I eventually found out that movie was Solomon & Gaenor, written and directed by Paul Morrison and released in 1999. There were two versions, one where most of the principal dialogue is in English, and one that was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar that is entirely in Welsh and Yiddish. Starring Ioan Gruffudd as Solomon and Nia Roberts as Gaenor, the film touts itself as a twist on Romeo and Juliet. Frankly, I wish R+J would be put out to pasture. This film proves there are only so many ways to remake it. Solomon is the son of Jewish immigrants living in a small mining town in Wales in 1911. He lies about his heritage to, well, get in Welsh shiksa Gaenor's pantaloons. And that appears to be all that their "relationship" is based on. They never appear to talk about their lives or common interests, and I'm not even sure that they have any sort of attraction beyond the physical. Solomon does little but earn my contempt. He finds a young woman who is willing to sleep with him after knowing him for 5 minutes, yet he is surprised and angry when he finds out he wasn't her first? And for that matter, how did he deduce that she wasn't a virgin? Because she actually enjoyed sex? Solomon's lies also make it very hard for the audience to be sympathetic to his situation. Many parts of the movie that are supposed to come off as tearjerkers failed because of this flaw. His actions have a much greater potential to ruin her life than his, which is exactly what happens.
As is wont to happen when there is a lack of birth control, Gaenor gets pregnant. She is thrown out of her church and her family arranges for her to live with a far-off aunt and give the baby to another family. Solomon is sent to live with relatives in Cardiff. They plan on running off together, but some inconvenient anti-Semitism surfaces for the sole purpose of keeping them apart. Why didn't they run off sooner? They could have gone to London, Scotland, America, anywhere. I imagine it was much easier for people to change their identities in the days before the Internet. As for the ending, I will go with a quote from the Roger Ebert review: "It's one thing to be a victim of fate. It's another thing to go out looking for fate and wrestle it to the ground . . . the only person who couldn't see the ending coming from a mile away was Solomon."
The film is availabel on DVD, but since they are no longer being issued they fetch a steep price. I checked out a VHS copy from the local library. The movie isn't entirely worthless. The landscape is gorgeous, Roberts and Gruffudd turn in good performances inspite of the material, and I was thrilled to hear Yiddish in a movie. Welsh is also meant to be heard because on paper it looks like the alphabet threw up. If you watch it, however, I am sure you will agree with me that the best parts of the movie are when dialogue isn't that essential . . .
Coming up: I might review the one movie I should NEVER be allowed to watch.