Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
Tim Roth, Clive Owen, Catherine McCormack. Norman Lebrecht has had a long career as a music critic and journalist. He springs into uncharacteristic action. As he prepared for his first public concert, he seemed as consumed by music as ever, but his mysterious late-evening ventures hinted at darker involvements. Martin’s British family took in young Polish-Jewish violin prodigy Dovidl as the Nazis were conducting their reign of terror across Europe, committing to his safekeeping and musical education. There is a spark of genius in Dovidl’s music-making, one that cannot be allowed to be snuffed out by WWII. Martin’s phlegmatic heart leaps up. The Song of Names is a symphony of flat notes. Based on a novel by Norman Lebrecht (the screenplay is by Jeffrey Caine) and directed by François Girard, “The Song of Names” is a pointed demonstration that “survivor’s guilt” is a rather more complex state than the slightly glib phrase suggests.In his late adolescence, agonizing over the still-unknown fate of his family, Dovidl renounces Judaism and acts out in other ways. For as much time as we spend with present-day Martin, we never really get to know him, so singular is his focus on a man we can’t see – a man whose whereabouts prove far less interesting than the emotional and spiritual journey he took to get there, and which ultimately gets the short shrift. Yet always he felt a hollowness at its core.
Or is it?
Indelible performances and pungent dialogue make that film great, whereas the answers to its narrative questions are largely an afterthought (with one question notoriously never answered at all). Initially antagonistic, the two boys, who are roughly the same age, eventually become very close, fueling the older Martin’s obsessive desire to learn why he disappeared and what became of him thereafter. "The Song of Names" is a book about the Holocaust, with a personal twist.
Sometimes a life is shaped more by a missing presence than by its existing relationships and deeds. Rated PG-13; language, sexual content, thematic elements, smoking, ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It’s about the ravages of war on faith and what it means to worship. Sadly, though, everything else flatlines.
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. SUBSCRIBE NOW.
The settings it explores—wartime London, the world of classical musicians, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community existing in conscious challenge to modern Jews—immerse readers in unfamiliar but fascinating subcultures.
Only $5 for 3 months. The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. Martin and Dovidl (played as adults by Tim Roth and Clive Owen) were brothers in spirit if not by blood or faith. “The Song of Names” is a movie with deep meditations on its mind. Director François Girard has long worked translating music for the medium of cinema, most notably in “The Red Violin” (1998).
More: ‘Gretel & Hansel’ puts the dread in dreadful. The boys’ friendship feels thoroughly generic, perhaps in part because they’re played by multiple actors at different ages. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. But weighty topics do not a weighty movie make if the execution fails to rise to the task, and in nearly every way the craftsmanship of “The Song of Names” manages to underwhelm. The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers.
The music feels authentic, and occasionally rapturous, thanks to the work of composer Howard Shore and Rey Chen, the Taiwanese-Australian solo violinist who lends Dovidl his genius.
Start your 48-hour free trial and unlock all the summaries, Q&A, and analyses you need to get better grades now. Forty years later, a chance event hints that Dovidl is still alive. Consequently, adult Martin’s quest to find Dovidl carries little emotional weight, with Roth often looking more weary than determined—this guy might as well have been hired by a client, frankly. Who can even remember, for example, what Bogart’s gumshoe gets hired to do, or even what he ultimately discovers, in The Big Sleep?
Would that he could have lent the turgid and self-important screenplay some of his genius, too. Then, on the night of his grand coming-out concert in 1951, Dovidl and his angelic violin go missing, leaving Martin’s family in financial and emotional ruins.
Did events really happen the way they tell them? Dovidl was coping with being the only member of his family to survive, so Martin gave his friend’s other activities the benefit of the doubt. Some films simply don’t work for some unknown and unidentifiable reason. Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad. Thirty-five years later, a middle-aged Martin, now a music consultant, experiences a spark of recognition when he notices another violinist’s ritualistic fiddling with a hunk of rosin. It’s not spoiling anything to reveal that Martin does find Dovidl, since Clive Owen, who plays the character in adulthood, gets above-the-title billing alongside Roth (despite not showing up until the film’s second hour). Got it! It’s an unnecessarily complicated puzzle-box construction that only serves to cheapen the story and diminish its impact.
Far from heightening the sense of mystery, the flashback construction renders the present-day dramatically inert, giving fine actors little to do save deliver exposition. What he discovers is powerfully moving, but every step of his journey—and of the copious flashbacks that fill in various blanks—tests the viewer’s patience. Here’s the test case. Soon the mystery is solved. Is a mediocre film worth seeing for a single magnificent sequence that only works properly in context? These questions give the book an unexpected depth.
Learn more. It's the story of a young Polish Jewish genius violinist who is brought to London in the summer of 1939 by his f Norman Lebrecht is a British social critic and the author of several novels and works of non-fiction. It recalls an old habit of Dovidl’s and sets Martin off on a scavenger hunt around the globe to track down his long-lost brother and at last solve the mystery of his disappearance. Their reunion triggers a devastating flashback to what happened on the night of the concert, which involves both the film’s title and the fate of Dovidl’s family, of whom he had heard nothing after they were shipped to Treblinka.
They shared adventure and even a sense of security during the Blitz, after Martin’s music-impresario father agreed to shelter and mentor the young genius. In late adolescence Dovidl subtly changed. Then came the night of Dovidl’s much anticipated concert, but the young genius did not appear.
It’s about post-World War II Jewish identity. In a good detective story, the investigation tends to be more important than the solution. And, oh my goodness, is The Song of Names ever one of them!Directed by François Girard and produced by Robert Lantos, The Song of Names seems like a sure-fire masterpiece. Save 83%. This lengthy, beautiful scene is the story’s raison d’être, and director François Girard (who previously helmed such music-themed films as The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould) does it full justice; no eyes will be left dry. And while the revelatory flashback partially compensates for the lackluster setup, it’s not even the movie’s climax, which ends up hinging, quite ludicrously, on that concert abandoned 35 years earlier.
With a solid reputation in musicians’ circles, his seemed to be a moderately successful life.
Above all, it’s about music: what it means to make it, to devote one’s self to it and how it can be used to exalt the ego or the divine.
‘Song of Names’ is a needlessly complicated story exploring the sudden disappearance of a young violin prodigy in the years after World War II.
(Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction). The Song of Names is his first novel, an impressive addition to his other achievements. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Or is Dovidl a masterful escape artist, and Martin’s sense of loss just an excuse for underachievement?
