Narrative, 2007
Director: Jan Schutte
Austria, Germany, USA/ English
86 minutes
Why this story is so charming is almost amazing to me as the central character is a potentially adulterous older man, not usually the best pick for an empathetic hero, but somehow it works. The key is the wonderful character of Max Kohn and the delightful performance of Otto Tausig. Director Jan Schutte weaves this narrative from three short stories of Nobel Prize winning Yiddish writer Issac Bashevs to tell the story of an elderly New York writer who drifts in and out of fantasy and his own stories.
Throughout we watch this endearing character deal with what it's like to still be full of life and dreams, desire and masculinity at an age where you are supposed to pack up your life and put it on the shelf and only look backwards instead of ahead. This story reminds us that inside we are all still young, still dreamers, still alive no matter the wrinkles and the grey, and that being elderly does not make you any less a man or a woman or with any less humor and personality and needs. It is truly a delightful story.
Lucy Cruell