﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:spout="http://www.spout.com/schemas/rss/core/2006" xmlns:cf="http://www.microsoft.com/schemas/rss/core/2005">
  <channel>
    <cf:treatAs>list</cf:treatAs>
    <cf:listinfo>
      <cf:group element="type" label="Type" ns="http://www.spout.com/schemas/rss/core/2006" data-type="text" />
    </cf:listinfo>
    <title>Affliction's Recent Activity - Spout</title>
    <link>http://www.spout.com/</link>
    <description>Recent community activity around Affliction on Spout</description>
    <copyright>Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC</copyright>
    <generator>Spout RSS</generator>
    <image>
      <url>http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg</url>
      <title>Affliction's Recent Activity - Spout</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/</link>
      <width>136</width>
      <height>30</height>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Film:Affliction</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/films/Affliction/114521/default.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<table width='100%' style='font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><tr><td><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' /></td>
<td>
<strong>Title:</strong> Affliction<br/>
<strong>Year:</strong> 1997<br/>
<strong>Director:</strong> Paul Schrader<br/>
<strong>Plot:</strong> <a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nick Nolte</a> and <a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>James Coburn</a> deliver some of the finest work of their respective careers in this powerful but troubling adaptation of Russell Banks' novel. Wade Whitehouse (<a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nick Nolte</a>) is the sheriff in a small New England town; it's a part-time job with few taxing responsibilities, and Wade fills his many free hours by swilling booze, smoking pot, and thinking back on his nightmarish childhood. Wade's father Glen (<a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>James Coburn</a>) was by turns callous, distant, and abusive, and Wade has inherited his addiction to alcohol and inability to deal with others. Consequently, Wade's ex-wife (<a href="/players/P____34101/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Mary Beth Hurt</a>) despises him, his daughter is uncomfortable and frightened in his presence, and the only person who can reach him is his loving but long-suffering girlfriend Margie (<a href="/players/P____67043/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Sissy Spacek</a>). When a wealthy businessman is killed in a hunting accident, Wade suspects foul play and pursues the case with an obsession that puzzles all around him; meanwhile, Wade's mother dies and his brother Rolfe (<a href="/players/P____16547/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Willem Dafoe</a>), the only one in the family to escape Glen's abuse without crippling emotional scars, returns to pay his respects and is caught up once again in the damaged lives of his father and brother. <a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>James Coburn</a>) won an Academy award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Affliction, while <a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Nick Nolte</a> was nominated for Best Actor (he lost to <a href="/players/P____81377/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Roberto Benigni</a>). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide<br/>
<strong>Times Tagged:</strong> 12<br/>
<strong>Number of Lists:</strong> 9<br/>
<strong>Number of blog posts:</strong> 4<br/>
<strong>SpoutRating:</strong> 3<br/>
</td></tr></table>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:10:06 GMT</pubDate><spout:Title>Affliction</spout:Title><spout:Year>1997</spout:Year><spout:Director>Paul Schrader</spout:Director><spout:Plot>&lt;a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Nick Nolte&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;James Coburn&lt;/a&gt; deliver some of the finest work of their respective careers in this powerful but troubling adaptation of Russell Banks' novel. Wade Whitehouse (&lt;a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Nick Nolte&lt;/a&gt;) is the sheriff in a small New England town; it's a part-time job with few taxing responsibilities, and Wade fills his many free hours by swilling booze, smoking pot, and thinking back on his nightmarish childhood. Wade's father Glen (&lt;a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;James Coburn&lt;/a&gt;) was by turns callous, distant, and abusive, and Wade has inherited his addiction to alcohol and inability to deal with others. Consequently, Wade's ex-wife (&lt;a href="/players/P____34101/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Mary Beth Hurt&lt;/a&gt;) despises him, his daughter is uncomfortable and frightened in his presence, and the only person who can reach him is his loving but long-suffering girlfriend Margie (&lt;a href="/players/P____67043/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Sissy Spacek&lt;/a&gt;). When a wealthy businessman is killed in a hunting accident, Wade suspects foul play and pursues the case with an obsession that puzzles all around him; meanwhile, Wade's mother dies and his brother Rolfe (&lt;a href="/players/P____16547/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Willem Dafoe&lt;/a&gt;), the only one in the family to escape Glen's abuse without crippling emotional scars, returns to pay his respects and is caught up once again in the damaged lives of his father and brother. &lt;a href="/players/P___195536/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;James Coburn&lt;/a&gt;) won an Academy award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Affliction, while &lt;a href="/players/P____52916/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Nick Nolte&lt;/a&gt; was nominated for Best Actor (he lost to &lt;a href="/players/P____81377/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Roberto Benigni&lt;/a&gt;). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide</spout:Plot><spout:TimesTagged>12</spout:TimesTagged><spout:taglevel>Tag Target (&gt;10)</spout:taglevel><spout:Numberoflists>9</spout:Numberoflists><spout:NumberOfBlogPosts>4</spout:NumberOfBlogPosts><spout:SpoutRating>3</spout:SpoutRating><spout:FilmCoverURL>http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg</spout:FilmCoverURL><spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL>http://www.spout.com/films/Affliction/114521/default.aspx</spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL><spout:type>Film</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Snow Angels</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/atacta/archive/2008/11/28/37714.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/130768/default.aspx'>atacta</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/atacta/default.aspx'>atacta Blog</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 11/28/2008 3:16:40 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> This is Altman vs. Anderson, plus Ice Storm and Affliction and a little Sweet Hereafter plus Warner Brothers plus the saddest no dialogue communication scene involving the death of a child (with the possible exception of Sean Penn inMystic River) plus Todd Fields plus a score that could have been much better had DGG hired me.  Plus Warner Brothers (is their final stamp all over it or am I silly b****).  Amy Sedaris (absolutely love her) casting really bad.  Rockwell and Beckinsale earned a new respect from me &ndash; its melodrama that generally gets me anyway.  The random trio (older black man, middle-aged woman and Rockwell) scene is very touching.  The ending - a misogynistic portrayal of divorce?  Been through one, related to the film in that way.First David Gordon Green and I admire it. The Ice Storm (1997) Affliction (1997) The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Mystic River (2003)<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:16:40 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>atacta</spout:postby><spout:postto>atacta Blog</spout:postto><spout:postdate>11/28/2008 3:16:40 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>This is Altman vs. Anderson, plus Ice Storm and Affliction and a little Sweet Hereafter plus Warner Brothers plus the saddest no dialogue communication scene involving the death of a child (with the possible exception of Sean Penn inMystic River) plus Todd Fields plus a score that could have been much better had DGG hired me.  Plus Warner Brothers (is their final stamp all over it or am I silly b****).  Amy Sedaris (absolutely love her) casting really bad.  Rockwell and Beckinsale earned a new respect from me &amp;ndash; its melodrama that generally gets me anyway.  The random trio (older black man, middle-aged woman and Rockwell) scene is very touching.  The ending - a misogynistic portrayal of divorce?  Been through one, related to the film in that way.First David Gordon Green and I admire it. The Ice Storm (1997) Affliction (1997) The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Mystic River (2003)</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: FilmCouch #86: Happy-Go-Lucky and Adam Resurrected, Telluride 2008</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/9/5/34782.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 9/5/2008 9:00:59 AM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> 
The Telluride Film Festival is what Sundance would be if it took place in heaven. Every year the tiny mountain hamlet hosts four days of hassle-free cinema paradise. There were grumblings about the lack of American films, but we still found plenty to love. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) came with his delightful new movie, Happy-Go-Lucky. He sat down for a disgruntled yet insightful interview. Paul Schrader (Affliction, Hardcore) seemed as blow away as we were by his latest film, Adam Resurrected, starring Jeff Goldblum.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
0:00 - Intro, Telluride faves: Waltz with Bashir, Revanche, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Tulpan, The Rest is Silence.
7:04 - Happy-Go-Lucky, with Mike Leigh interview.
19:52 - Adam Resurrected, with Paul Schrader interview.
filmcouch-86 Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:00:59 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>9/5/2008 9:00:59 AM</spout:postdate><spout:body>
The Telluride Film Festival is what Sundance would be if it took place in heaven. Every year the tiny mountain hamlet hosts four days of hassle-free cinema paradise. There were grumblings about the lack of American films, but we still found plenty to love. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) came with his delightful new movie, Happy-Go-Lucky. He sat down for a disgruntled yet insightful interview. Paul Schrader (Affliction, Hardcore) seemed as blow away as we were by his latest film, Adam Resurrected, starring Jeff Goldblum.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
0:00 - Intro, Telluride faves: Waltz with Bashir, Revanche, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Tulpan, The Rest is Silence.
7:04 - Happy-Go-Lucky, with Mike Leigh interview.
19:52 - Adam Resurrected, with Paul Schrader interview.
filmcouch-86 Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Adam Resurrected &amp; Paul Schrader, Telluride 2008</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/9/2/34640.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 9/2/2008 10:01:36 AM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> (Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.)
Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.”
It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable.
Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter.
Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man.
At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized.
When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:01:36 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>9/2/2008 10:01:36 AM</spout:postdate><spout:body>(Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.)
Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.”
It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable.
Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter.
Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man.
At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized.
When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Adam Resurrected &amp; Paul Schrader, Telluride 2008</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/9/2/34639.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t30808jgav4.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/2132/default.aspx'>paul</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/paul/default.aspx'>paul on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 9/2/2008 10:01:03 AM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> (Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.)
Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.”
It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable.
Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter.
Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man.
At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized.
When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:01:03 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>paul</spout:postby><spout:postto>paul on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>9/2/2008 10:01:03 AM</spout:postdate><spout:body>(Complete interview with Paul Schrader available here.)
Adam Resurrected is the new movie by Paul Schrader (Affliction, Auto-Focus) premiering here at Telluride 2008. I was at the first screening which was also the first time Schrader ever watched the movie with an audience. “I realized watching it how exhausting it is, ” he told me right after the screening, “And it’s full of extremes. Literally, that old saying ‘you don’t know whether to laugh or cry’ is true here, and some scenes I think either emotion is fine with me.”
It’s in the navigation of extremes that my crush on Jeff Goldblum, who plays the title character, was born. I’m not one to get into Oscar buzz, but I will with Jeff and even add easily excerpted blurbs: Jeff Goldblum is magnificent. Jeff Godlblum’s peformance is a tour de force. I want to make out with Jeff Goldblum in the back of his Toyota Prius. Like how Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview (There Will be Blood), would have seemed flat or absurd in another actor’s hands, Jeff Goldblum’s wry delivery and velvet wit take the absurdity of Adam Stein and make him believable.
Based on the wildly imaginative novel by Yoram Kaniuk, Adam Resurrected begins in 1961 in Tel Aviv where an aging, witty and debonair Adam Stein has gotten a little too rough with his landlord/girlfriend and she has him committed again to the Seizling Institute out in the Negev desert. Founded by an American philanthropist, the institute is an asylum for concentration camp survivors living in Israel. It’s purpose is to somehow restore a reason to care about humanity and god when they carry the weight of being survivors to unspeakable horrors perpetrated on everyone they loved. Each patient is a walking abstraction of a type of survivor: A speechless woman carrying a babydoll, a young man who was a Nazi servant, a man who couldn’t protect his daughter.
Adam Stein is a susperstar in the asylum. The head nurse (Ayelet Zurer) is his mistress, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi) his biggest fan. A famous performer in Berlin, Adam was a one man circus who could throw knives, read minds, play violin, do magic, impersonate animals and, strangely, cause himself to bleed on command. Through flashbacks, we see his rise from a Cabaret performer in 1924 to a celebrity in 1936. One night as he works the audience, he reads the mind of an unstable audience member–played by Willem Dafoe–and makes him the butt of a joke. In 1945 when Adam and his family enter a concentration camp, Willem Dafoe has become Commandant Klein, head of the camp. He belittles Adam by getting him to impersonate a dog and charm his German Shepherd. From that night on, Adam literally becomes the Commandant’s pet: A dog whose a man.
At the asylum, he finds what he thinks to be a dog. As if lifted from some horrific parallel dimension, the dog is a boy brought to the asylum. If Adam can turn this dog into a boy again, then maybe he can put away his past as a dog, as the commandant’s pet who survived the camp where his wife and daughters were brutalized.
When I asked Paul Schrader what sparked his interest i the book he said, “Just the strength of the metaphor: The man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy. I’m not jewish, I’m not as invested as some others in issues of survival guilt and Jewish identity, but that aside, these are really universal themes.” It is universal. Dense with emotion and humor, Adam Resurrected is about the complicated path back from being treated as a dog, a non-human, to becoming a full person again. It’s a powerful metaphor that could have crushed another actor, but it’s the part Jeff Goldblum has been building up to his entire career. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:murder</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/murder/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/murder/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>murder</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 8748</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 157</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 830</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:57:25 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>8748</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>157</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>830</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:drama</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/drama/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/drama/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>drama</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 527</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 102</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 627</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:01:29 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>527</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>102</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>627</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:mystery</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/mystery/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/mystery/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>mystery</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 156</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 82</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 208</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:01:30 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>156</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>82</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>208</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:thriller</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/thriller/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/thriller/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>thriller</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 201</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 74</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 247</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:01:30 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>201</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>74</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>247</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:father</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/father/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/father/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>father</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 3580</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 51</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 213</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:51:56 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>3580</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>51</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>213</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:abuse</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/abuse/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/abuse/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>abuse</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 760</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 38</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 74</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:57:35 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>760</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>38</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>74</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:based-on-a-book</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/based-on-a-book/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/based-on-a-book/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>based-on-a-book</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 173</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 37</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 278</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:52:06 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>173</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>37</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>278</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:alcoholism</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/alcoholism/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/alcoholism/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>alcoholism</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1151</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 35</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 64</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:16:58 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1151</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>35</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>64</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:snow</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/snow/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/snow/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>snow</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 149</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 34</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 62</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:56:39 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>149</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>34</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>62</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:delusion</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/delusion/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/delusion/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>delusion</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 99</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 12</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 13</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:05:14 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>99</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>12</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>13</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:frustration</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/frustration/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/frustration/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>frustration</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 110</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 12</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 16</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:48:06 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>110</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>12</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>16</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:sheriff</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sheriff/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/sheriff/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>sheriff</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 700</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 11</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 22</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:53:34 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>700</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>11</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>22</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:alcoholic</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/alcoholic/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/alcoholic/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>alcoholic</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 11</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 8</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 11</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:00:15 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>11</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>8</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>11</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:mentalbreakdown</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/mentalbreakdown/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/mentalbreakdown/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>mentalbreakdown</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 153</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 8</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 12</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:02:27 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>153</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>8</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>12</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:childabuse</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/childabuse/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/childabuse/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>childabuse</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 257</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 7</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 7</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:02:59 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>257</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>7</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>7</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
  </channel>
</rss>