Page - 109 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

Review: Movies and Midrash | 109www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 107–109 speech impediment, understands the film as a mashal to think further about Moses’s “heaviness” of speech, and more generally, the importance of words and hearing for Judaism. Comparing the halting, stammering speech of Bertie and Moses with Hitler’s fluency and rhetorical skills, the reading of the film in relation to Moses’s story in Exodus leads to the insight into the demonic quali- ties of fluent rhetorics over against a stuttering, stumbling approach to the un- sayable truth of God. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, US/UK/FR 2009), the only film discussed in the volume that is set in an explicitly Jewish context, is itself interpreted as a parable about parable and the use and function of para- bles in the Jewish tradition and theology. While each chapter focuses on one film, references to other relevant films are frequent and situate the respective film in the broader context of film history, and thus a filmography – in addition to the bibliography and index at the end of the volume – would have been very useful to readers. The uniquely Jewish perspective of the volume is apparent both in the au- thor’s reference points in the Jewish tradition (although not exclusively so) and in her interpretative methods, such as the careful attention to the meaning of names and words and to etymological and semantic relationships across differ- ent contexts. Occasional comparisons to readings from a Christian viewpoint (for example in the discussion of Stranger than Fiction by Marc Forster [US 2006] with regard to the religious significance of the central character) show clearly the impact of one’s religious and intellectual tradition on one’s inter- pretations, and thus underline the importance of broadening the scope of the film-and-theology conversation beyond the dominant Christian tradition in or- der to gain a fuller understanding of popular cinema’s potential for theological reflection and insight. For readers not familiar with Hebrew or with some of the sources, the author provides sufficient explanation, context and transcriptions to guide them through her reasoning so that the volume is accessible to readers (like myself) from non-Jewish traditions as well, who will profit from her careful, complex film analysis and theological reflections. FILMOGRAPHY A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA/UK/FR 2009). Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA 1999). Stranger than Fiction (Marc Forster, USA 2006). The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, UK/USA/AU 2010). The Truman Show (Peter Weir USA 1998).