Whose lives & loves to save?
Nicolas Duvauchelle (Jean) and Melanie Thierry (Lena) in For A Woman
tion camp, pretending that she was his By Marshall Weiss, The Observer fiancée. In the Talmud, we learn that “whoBut Michel and Léna had only met ever saves a life, it is considered as if a day before the escape; Michel fell in he saved an entire world (Mishnah love with her on sight. Sanhedrin 4:9).” Much of the film plays out immediSteven Spielberg used ately after World War II in Lyon, where this dictum as a tagline the young husband and wife are active to promote his landmark with the communist party. Michel has 1993 Holocaust film, opened a modest suit shop there; Léna Schindler’s List. tends to their 4-year-old girl, Tania (OnBut what happens dine Barry), in their apartment above when the one who was the store. saved lives a desolate life with the one As Léna, Thierry projects the inner who saved her? tension of a woman who’s grateful to That’s the premise director Diane her husband but trapped in Kurys explores in the 2014 Kurys a claustrophobic life with a French feature film For A man she just doesn’t love. Woman. skillfully The tipping point comes The JCC Film Fest will stretches the when Michel’s younger screen For A Woman at the brother, Jean (Nicolas Neon on May 12. suspense Duvauchelle), shows up Kurys is known for across most at their apartment. Michel writing and directing believed Jean had perished films loosely based on her of For A in the Holocaust. parents’ rocky marriage Woman Jean is now on a mission, and her childhood in that but it’s not clear what it is. environment. His air of mystery draws “At the end of the day, I am not making films to heal from a painful past but suspicion from the communists; it also proves irresistible to Léna. to convey emotions,” Kurys said in an Léna’s husband and brother-in-law interview with the French Embassy in couldn’t be more different. Where the United States. “People can relate Michel is cautious and abides the rules, to...other people’s family history.” Jean survives however he can. Even In For A Woman, the father, Michel so, the brothers’ love for each other is (Benoît Magimel), has saved Léna apparent. (Mélanie Thierry) from a concentraIt’s too bad Kurys places the main plot within a frame, as a story within a The JCC Film Fest presents For A story. This formula isn’t necessary. Woman, Tuesday, May 12, 7:15 p.m. Kurys skillfully stretches the susat the Neon Movies, 130 E. 5th St., pense across most of For A Woman. It’s Dayton. Tickets are available at the door, not clear which difficult choices Michel, at jewishdayton.org, at the Boonshoft Léna, and Jean will make in the end: CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville, or each must decide whose lives — and by calling Karen Steiger at 610-1555. loves — to save.
Is your son or daughter graduating from high school this year?
The Observer is happy to offer you a FREE announcement, including a photo, in our June graduation issue. To receive a form for this free announcement, contact Karen Steiger at 853-0372 or KSteiger@jfgd.net. All forms must be received by May 1. PAGE 24
THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • MAY 2015