Jewison, Norman

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    Oscars’ In Memoriam: Academy Honors Aleksei Navalny and Andrea Bocelli Performs

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    The in memoriam segment at the Academy Awards opened not with a Hollywood star, but with a clip of Aleksei A. Navalny from “Navalny,” the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader who died last month in a Russian prison.“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,” read a quote of Navalny’s on the screen.Taking a moment to recognize those in the film industry who have died since the previous Oscars ceremony, the telecast also paid tribute to stars such as Harry Belafonte, the barrier-breaking performer and activist, and Chita Rivera, the Broadway star who also appeared in films, as well as filmmakers such as Norman Jewison, the lauded director behind “In the Heat of the Night,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Moonstruck.”To accompany the tributes, the superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli sang “Time to Say Goodbye” — with a new orchestration by Hans Zimmer — alongside his son, Matteo Bocelli.Chita Rivera, the Broadway star who also appeared in films, was honored in the Oscars’ in memoriam segment.Amir Hamja/The New York TimesHere are some of figures the Academy honored:Alan Arkin, the acclaimed actor who won an Oscar for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine”Andre Braugher, a film, TV and theater actor who had roles in Spike Lee and Edward Zwick filmsMichael Gambon, the acclaimed Irish-born actor who played Albus Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” moviesWilliam Friedkin, director of the box office hits “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist”Bo Goldman, the admired Hollywood screenwriter who took home Oscars for his work on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Melvin and Howard”Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who turned to politics in her 50sPiper Laurie, a respected actress with three Oscar nominations, including for her role in “Carrie”Bill Lee, a jazz bassist and composer who scored the early films of his son Spike LeeRichard Lewis, the acerbic stand-up comic who became a regular in movies and TVRyan O’Neal, who became an instant movie star in the 1970 hit film “Love Story”Matthew Perry, the “Friends” star who had roles in movies such as “The Whole Nine Yards”Paul Reubens, the comic actor behind Pee-wee Herman who had scores of movie and TV creditsRichard Roundtree, one of the first Black action heroes who was catapulted to fame in the movie “Shaft”Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most prominent composers, who scored the films “The Last Emperor,” “The Sheltering Sky” and “The Revenant”Tina Turner, the pop sensation who appeared in films such as “Tommy” and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”Carl Weathers, a former pro linebacker, who played Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies More

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      Norman Jewison Streaming Guide: ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ to ‘Moonstruck’

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      From “In the Heat of the Night” to “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Moonstruck,” the director always brought heart and humanity to his work.The oeuvre of director Norman Jewison, who died this past weekend at the age of 97, can’t be simply categorized. His versatility was rarely matched by any of his peers. He made epic musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof,” heart-stirring romantic comedies like “Moonstruck” and tense social thrillers like “In the Heat of the Night.” Over his decades in Hollywood, he directed everything from the Cold War comedy “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” (1966) to the sexy heist feature “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968) to the based-on-a-true-story drama “The Hurricane” (1999). While the divergent tones could imply that Jewison was something of a journeyman, instead he brought a humanity to every story he touched, treating each one, regardless of subject matter, with the grace it deserved. Here are some films of his available to stream, no matter your mood.‘Send Me No Flowers’ (1964)Early in his career, when Jewison was under contract with Universal, he made the last of the three Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies, “Send Me No Flowers.” In a divergence from the pair’s earlier collaborations, this one finds them not as warring city dwellers but as a married suburban couple who undergoes a crisis when the husband, George Kimball (Hudson), a hypochondriac, begins to think he’s going to die. Without telling his wife, Judy Kimball (Day), George goes about trying to make sure she is set for when he dies, including finding her a new man to marry when he’s gone. Naturally, misunderstandings ensue. It’s a classically zany rom-com from the era, but the film also shows Day and Hudson at their most vulnerable as they untangle all these complications. It’s a sign of what was to come from Jewison, who always found the emotional core of his characters and allowed actors to do some of their best work.Rent or buy on most major platforms.‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967)From the very first moment of “In the Heat of the Night,” a close-up of a fly crawling across a calendar, there’s an unsettling air to Jewison’s film about a Black police officer, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier). He first is wrongfully accused of a murder in small-town Sparta, Miss., and then is tasked with solving the crime. Poitier’s forceful delivery of the line “They call me Mister Tibbs” — a declaration of his personhood in the face of racist dehumanization — is perhaps what’s best remembered from this Oscar winner for Best Picture. But it’s a towering film in every respect, a document of the insidiousness at the heart of places like Sparta and in American culture in general. Jewison’s careful framing of Poitier makes sure he’s the most dominant person in every scene, even as the shadows of this nasty place encroach on him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Norman Jewison, Director of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘Moonstruck,’ Dies at 97

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      His movies — from dramas to comedies and musicals — became magnets for Oscars, but he was best known for socially conscious films, like “In the Heat of the Night.”Norman Jewison, whose broad range as a filmmaker was reflected in the three movies that earned him Academy Award nominations for best director — the socially conscious drama “In the Heat of the Night,” the big-budget musical “Fiddler on the Roof” and the romantic comedy “Moonstruck” — died on Saturday at his home. He was 97.His death was confirmed by a spokesman for the family, Jeff Sanderson. He declined to specify where Mr. Jewison lived, saying that the family requested privacy.Mr. Jewison, whose career began in Canadian television and spanned more than 50 years, was, like his close friend Sidney Lumet and a select few other directors, best known for making films that addressed social issues. The most celebrated of those was “In the Heat of the Night” (1967), one of his earliest features and his first Oscar-winning film.A story of racial tensions in the American South filtered through a murder mystery that brings together a Black Philadelphia detective (Sidney Poitier) and a white Mississippi police chief (Rod Steiger), “In the Heat of the Night” could not have been more timely: It opened weeks after racial violence had erupted in Detroit and Newark. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor, for Mr. Steiger.Mr. Poitier was among the many actors who had fond memories of working with Mr. Jewison. “He gives his actors room and keeps them as calm as he can, because it’s easier to speak with them when they’re calm,” he told The New York Times in 2011. “A director has to keep the actors on their toes while the camera’s running, but when the scene is done, they should be relaxing, nothing on their minds. There can’t be a constant level of seriousness. And with Norman, there’s always a lot of laughter.”Mr. Jewison lost the best director award for “In the Heat of the Night” to Mike Nichols, who won for “The Graduate,” and he never did win an Oscar for directing. But his films, and the actors in them, garnered many Oscars and 46 nominations.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      ‘Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen’ Review: Making a New Tradition

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      Daniel Raim’s admiring documentary uses interviews and movie clips to detail the making of Norman Jewison’s beloved movie musical.Once, movies released on home media came with an ancillary disc holding a catalog of behind-the-scenes extras. Daniel Raim’s gleefully reverent documentary “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen” has the feeling of such specials, mingling interviews and movie clips to chronicle the making of Norman Jewison’s 1971 musical movie and salute its enduring success.Despite his name and a lifelong interest in Judaism, Jewison is Protestant, and he worried that fact would preclude him from directing “Fiddler on the Roof.” Hollywood proved him wrong. Raim is interested in how Jewison sought to preserve the story’s essence while making creative updates, and in doing so “Fiddler’s Journey” touches on issues of Jewish representation but does not interrogate them.The documentary’s most moving segments involve music. Raim wisely works in many instances of “Fiddler” actors and music department members reciting lines or singing lyrics from the movie, often from memory. Raim intercuts these contemporary moments with the original scenes, accentuating how the power of cinema lies in its ability to endure even as its creators fade.Other making-of stories — perhaps most notably, “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” — show film sets as sites of chaos, mishaps and folly. Here was a production that instead came together under seemingly minor stress, with all of its players eager to bare their hearts for the camera.Fiddler’s Journey to the Big ScreenNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. In theaters. More