FESTIVAL FARE : ‘Buzz’ / ‘Go For Zucker!’

Published on: December 23rd, 2005

Spiro N Taraviras's Buzz [7/10]
    Though its rewards are many, this particular Buzz takes a while to build – just like in the olden days of Hollywood when scriptwriter A I 'Buzz' Bezzerides was plying his trade with the likes of Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Thieves' Highway (1942) and They Drive By Night (1940). Once known as the 'King of Noir' – apparently no less an authority than Francois Truffaut reckoned the Bezzerides-scripted Juke Girl (1942) to be America's first real film noir - Bezzerides is now well into his tenth decade, but on the evidence of this documentary profile he's lost little of what made him a "very energetic, juicy man".
    Director Taraviras traces – in a very square, voiceover-heavy, made-for-TV fashion that takes some getting used to – Bezzerides' exotic pre-Hollywood existence: born 1908 in the Black Sea city of Samsun ('Kingdom of Pont', now Turkey) during the Ottoman Empire, he went to the USA at a very young age and was brought up among the fruit truckers of Fresno, California – which background became source material for several of his novels and screenplays.
    Interviewed between 1999 and 2002 in his roomily spartan Los Angeles residence, Bezzerides proves enormously engaging company as he takes an idiosyncratic tour down memory lane – even if all of his memories and stories seem to involve forcefully vindicating his own actions and ideas. Anecdotes abound, featuring the likes of William Faulkner (with whom Bezzerides had a particularly strong, mutually-beneficial relationship), Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum and many more. Robert Oppenheimer even gets a mention in relation to Kiss Me, Deadly: there's no shortage of material here for film historians present and future, though there's also more than enough to satisfy general, non-expert audiences.
    Bezzerides had a fascinating career – "graylisted" during the McCarthy era, he was one of many talents to suffer from the industrial-style practices of the 'dream factory' in which writers were regarded as being at or near the very bottom of the food chain, and frequently denied screen credits. "Very few of the screenwriters are remembered – it's not fair," states Buzz's collaborator Jules Dassin, interviewed on his balcony in Athens. Pushing 90 himself, Dassin is one of several 'talking heads' who speak knowledgeably about Buzz in particular and the hapless lot of screenwriters in general: Taraviras also includes contributions from academics who put everything in accessible historical context.
    The film-makers don't seem to have had access to any actual clips, however, relying on entertaining suitably hype-heavy trailers ("Bogart meets destiny in a low-cut gown!" – Sirocco). On a couple of occasions these trailers (which carry totally superfluous on-screen 'labels' telling us which film they belong to) pop up more than once, which feels a little sloppy: 'adorned'with an old-fashioned score that seldom lets up, Buzz isn't what you'd call a technically slick package. But it works just fine as a showcase for Bezzerides, his talents and his endearingly crotchety, take-no-bullshit personality. Indeed, what feels initially like it's going to be a two-hour slog ends up flying by in breezy, illuminating and – ultimately – compelling style.

Dani Levy's Go For Zucker!
Reportedly the first 'Jewish comedy' to be made in Germany since the war, Go For Zucker! is an engagingly broad, raucous farce that plays like a cross between last year's bone-dry, Jewish-themed Uruguayan delight Whisky (death of relative triggers deceptions among the living) and that venerable sub-genre in which the rigid stipulations of a will cause all manner of problems for the would-be beneficiaries (such as Mario Zampi's 1951 Laughter in Paradise).
    Levy and co-scriptwriter Holger Franke also chuck in some of the post-reunification elements to be found in Good Bye Lenin! and Netto; not one but two instances of taboo-straining quasi-incest; plus an offbeat subplot involving a lucrative sporting event. Rather a lot for one 90-minute picture to cram in, and Zucker doesn't quite manage to pull it off – encumbered as it is by an awkward structure in which most of the action takes place in an extended flashback. The fact that the results are so watchable is mainly down to the gamely full-tilt performances by veterans Henry Hubchen and Hannelore Elsner in the meatiest roles of the title-character and his wife, and deft contributions from the supporting players.
    The plot is way too involved for quick synopsis, relying as it does on a convoluted family-history backstory stretching back to the construction of the Berlin Wall. A happy-go-lucky, slightly louche Berliner in his early sixties, inveterate gambler Jacky Zucker (Hibchen) has exhausted the patience of his long-suffering spouse Marlene (Elsner) to the point that she's considering divorce. Following the sudden death of his mother in Frankfurt, Zucker – born Jakob Zuckermann – must arrange the funeral and play host to his estranged, Orthodox-Jewish brother Samuel (Udo Samel), who arrives with wife, son and daughter in tow as well as the coffin. Complications ensue as the stressed-out Jacky's familial and religious duties (as set down in mother's will) come into direct conflict with an impending, big-money, open-to-allcomers pool tournament – a contest which he needs to win in order to pay off his various debts.
   Though considerably broader in tone than, say, Whisky, Go For Zucker! yields intermittent wry chuckles rather than conistent belly-laughs. German audiences (and especially German-Jewish) viewers, however, will probably find it scores numerous direct hits on their funny-bone: the movie has been one of the big box-office successes of 2005, scored big at the German Film Awards, and has unsurprisingly popped up at nearly every Jewish film festival in the world. And while it's not hard to find fault with the scriptwriting and perfunctory direction, Go For Zucker! has enough energy and old-fashioned chutzpah to make it nearly impossible to dislike. Nothing out of the ordinary by any means, but a refreshingly boisterous change from the usual run of ever-so-slightly-glum German 'comedies'.
      
Neil Young
19th/20th December, 2005

BUZZ : [7/10] : Germany (Ger/Gre/Neth) 2005 : Spiro N. TARAVIRAS : 120 mins (not timed) : recent film festivals include Thessaloniki & Hof; upcoming – Palm Springs.

GO FOR ZUCKER! : Alles auf Zucker! aka Zucker aka Go For Zucker – An Orthodox Comedy : Germany 2004 : Dani LEVY : 91 mins (timed) : festivals include Vancouver, Moscow, UK Jewish.

Both seen at home in Sunderland (UK) during December 2005:
Buzz on DVD, 19th (with thanks to Spiros N Taraviras)
Go For Zucker on VHS, 18th (with thanks to Bruno Niederprum)