J Hoberman

Thank you sir. French antisemitism (& incipient fascism) is accurately portrayed. Still, there's an element of distance. (Writing in Tablet, BHL was distressed Dreyfus wasn't more Jewish.) P's view as I see it is that antisemitism is a popular mania that lends itself to political instrumentalization

Trump is fine w Jews, as with Blacks, so long as they know their place. He's happy to make use of Jewish mob lawyers, crooked accountants, toadies & in this case pimps.

Dropped clause from 2nd sentence, 3rd graf: "Whatever else he might be, Polanski (now 91) is among the most influential filmmakers of his generation and..."

Pointed out to me that P's karma might extend to movie's belated US premiere coinciding w arch sex criminal Epstein's return from the grave.

Or as Golda Meir put it in a stupefying quote still used to justify... everything: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."

Glad that you're enjoying it. I would have liked to include a map (and more pix) but space is money in the pub world and I felt fortunate get up as many pages as I did for notes, bibliography and index.

Small point but let's please start calling it "Alligator Auschwitz," Alcatraz was a rest home by comparison.

www.villagevoice.com/anarchy-then...
Totally agree--arguably the most innovative political film since Battleship Potemkin

Thanks. Let me know how it turns out...

LISTEN: ‘These Were the Real Culture Wars’

www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/01/j...

Wonderful talking w former VV colleague Alyssa Katz about Everything is Now w an emphasis on NYC in the '60s. (Nat Finkelstein picture below: Gerard Malanga, Warhol & Barbara Rubin at the Factory 1965)

Thanks!

e.wordfly.com/view?sid=MjU...
scroll down to read

"An Officer and A Spy" comes to NYC.
J. Hoberman on J'Accuse: The Polanski Question

YouTube video by thefilmprojector Peter Sellers: A Hard Day's Night

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLEM...
Could AI produce this? Peter Sellers as Laurence Olivier channeling the Beatles?

The enduring brilliance of Peter Sellers: ‘There’s never been a better comic actor’ The actor was born 100 years ago – and his performances still induce hysteria today. Fans and collaborators like Michael Palin, Woody Allen and Lesley Anne-Down explain why

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/au...
Deserved tributes incl Sanjeev Bhaskar's defense of THE PARTY (1967), comic masterpiece defined by Seller's brownface perf: 'I remember thinking: “Is it possible to die from laughing?”' No coincidence PS was a vocal defender of THE (initially reviled) PRODUCERS

The Media Tries and Fails to Teach Mamdani a Lesson Plus: Adams's vendor veto, and more stories to take you into the weekend.

hellgatenyc.com/media-ny-pos...
The first thing Zohran Mamdani did upon returning to New York City Wednesday morning from his 10-day trip to Uganda was visit with the family of slain NYPD Officer Didarul Islam in their Bronx home.

I think they're programming it!

Oh well. Back to the future, I keep forgetting how old I am.

Actually, it's a von Däniken thing, from beyond time & space, an anticipatory avatar of Zohran Mamdani

www.villagevoice.com/saying-goodb... 18 years ago today...

The Kaaba at Ground Zero Was Islam's most potent shrine rebuilt at Ground Zero?

www.tabletmag.com/sections/new...
Granular analysis begins w a confession: "One of the most bizarre yet prevalent phenomena of the digital information age is a form of reality blindness" but fails to note coded msg in The Brutalist--Jewish Holocaust survivor constructs Xstian monument w giant cross!

A syncretic language, Yiddish is closely related to medieval German, albeit with considerable Hebrew, Slavic and [after 1900] a sprinkling of English. Incidentally, Berlin underworld slang incorporated a number of Yiddish words.

Find Me a New Yorker Who Doesn't Support Zohran Mamdani A new poll sees Mamdani decisively on top. And more links for your Wednesday morning.

hellgatenyc.com/mayoral-race...

"Most notably, he leads Jews overall across New York City by 17 points," Bagga said. "That is not a small lead, that is not a medium sized lead, that is a commanding lead." Ahem.

And of course he's probably lower than last place among out-of-town Christian Zionists. The idea of Christians (Republican or not) deciding who is a Jew & how Jewish is sinister to say the least, not to mention a weird inversion of Sartre's Antisemite and Jew.

Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist With a Dark Streak, Dies at 97

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/a...
"Lehrer" is teacher in Yiddish. When I was a kid there was Mad magazine, Tom Lehrer and then Dr Strangelove, to certify the craziness of the adult world.

Egypt’s Hidden Refugee Crisis Thousands of Palestinian evacuees are living in limbo on Cairo’s peripheries, neither able to return to Gaza nor allowed to build lives in Egypt.

jewishcurrents.org/egypts-hidde...
Out of the frying pan...
A stateless refugee for 18 years, Hannah Arendt wrote “the right to have rights, or the right of every individual to belong to humanity, should be guaranteed by humanity itself,” adding “It is by no means certain whether this is possible.”

Hedge Funder Who Voted for Trump Pledges $500K to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor Ricky Sandler, the head of Eminence Capital, wants to kickstart a super PAC to take down the Democratic nominee and "improve the image of Eric Adams."

hellgatenyc.com/anti-mamdani...
So much for fake populism: plutocrats, kleptocrats & assorted fat cats unite to bankroll Trump patsy Adams. (Cuomo cries unfair?)

Columbia's deal with Trump administration seeks to reduce foreign students About 13,750 of Columbia’s roughly 35,800 students – or 38% – are international students.

gothamist.com/news/columbi...
This punishes everyone. I'm sure I'm not the only Columbia prof who thinks that by & large the internationals are most interesting grad students. What's more to judge from their written assignments, many appear more conversant in English than their American born peers.

Assassination on the West Bank. The injustice never ends.

NYC mayoral hopeful Mamdani faces sharp jabs from within South Asian community Some of the blows and stinging vitriol have swayed voters.

gothamist.com/news/nyc-may...
Ain't religion grand? Mamdani —born in Uganda to Indian parents, father Muslim & mother Hindu — & his campaign have received a high volume of Islamophobic attacks incl from Hindus in India & diaspora, acc to the Washington DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate

us18.campaign-archive.com?e=68e7433329...

Read & weep... with rage

I know what the prophet Lenny Bruce would say.