a short film based on an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht`s

Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
JUDITH: A SHORT FILM BASED ON AN ADAPTATION OF BERTOLT BRECHT’S
“JEWISH WIFE”
Adapted, Directed, and produced by: ASADI, Farrokh1
SUMMARY
In May, 2013, The Epic Players of Chicago (www.epicplayers.com) was invited to present
an “epic style” film adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s “Jewish Wife” during the 14th
International Brecht Symposium in Brazil. The film, entitled Judith, was created based
on the following key features of Brechtian Theater: the use of natural setting and
lighting, deliberate episodic breaks in the plot, and actors taking on multiple roles while
merely demonstrating the characters they represent on a surface level. Moreover, the
addition of multimedia tools such as slides, movie clips, and animation were utilized to
challenge the audience and remind them that they are simply watching a manufactured
sense of reality. To further create a disrupted quality to the film, interludes and breaks in
scenes encourage the audience to reflect critically on what will take place next.
Key Words: Science & Art, Brechtian Theater, Epic Style film
Introduction
What does science and Brechtian Theater have in common?
Science can be defined as a systematic study of anything that can be examined,
tested, and verified. Science as a whole shapes the way we understand the universe,
our planet, ourselves, and other living things.
1
Biography of the Author: Farrokh Asadi is currently a self-retired science professor from City Colleges
of Chicago and he is the founder of the Epic Players of Chicago (www.epicplayers.com). Farrokh’s
passion in directing epic style theatre began more than three decades ago, and he has staged numerous
plays both in Iran and the USA. Most recently, he produced and directed Bertolt Brecht’s Fear and Misery
of the Third Reich that was staged at Northeastern Illinois University Recital Hall, Chicago IL, 2012.
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Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
Brechtian (epic) Theater can be defined as a type of methodical critical thinking that
can empower its audience with the knowledge that every individual can effect change
on the world in which he/she lives. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is perhaps the most
influential German dramatist and poet of the twentieth century, who aimed to transform
the stage to a social scientific laboratory, where the genealogy of events and actions
could be treated down to their socioeconomic origins.
Bertolt Brecht's genius was most evident in his simplicity, accessibility, and humanistic
language; however, his work is misguidedly viewed as challenging and unattainable.
More specifically, Brechtian theatre employs various theatrical elements such as the
scientific tools that help form connections with the audience, in order to interpret social
issues that are being analyzed on stage. This allows the audience to raise questions
such as “WHY is this happening,” rather than merely “WHAT is happening?” In many
ways, then, science and theater have one common intention: to investigate and make
sense of life while making it justifiable to live.
Background: Brecht's Original Play, Jewish Wife
Jewish Wife was originally part of a series of sketches that form the play Fear and
Misery of the Third Reich. These sketches are all slices of life in the early years of
Nazi’s supremacy when the horror was slowly beginning to creep into people’s lives.
Once in power, Nazis were quick to express anti-Semitic ideas and attempted to make
life so unpleasant for Semitic-speaking peoples in Germany that they would emigrate.
For example, the Nazis organized a program designed to encourage Jews to emigrate,
and the number of Jews emigrating increased after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws
on Citizenship and Race in 1935. It has been estimated that between 1933 and 1939,
approximately half the Jewish population of Germany (250,000) left the country. It was
also made illegal for Jews to have an Aryan spouse. The Nazis believed that the
Aryan’s superiority was being threatened by intermarriage, and if this was not banned,
world civilization would decline.
Synopsis: Brecht's Original Play, Jewish Wife
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Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
Judith is the wife of an Aryan surgeon, and fascistic propaganda has already begun to
infiltrate their lives. The play opens with a disturbed, angry and nervous Judith who is
packing her bags. At the moment, the combined forces that are dividing her country, its
people, and her own life have made her unconditionally determined about her decision
to leave permanently. She goes to the phone and calls a few people.
One of the
addressees is a close friend who will hear the truth about Judith’s reasons for leaving.
Others will be told that she’s leaving the country for a just few weeks to see some new
faces. After making these calls, Judith turns to an empty chair in her dining room and
starts rehearsing how she will notify her husband of her unavoidable departure. Much
of the Judith's true feelings are revealed in this imaginary conversation with her
husband. In their actual conversation, once he comes home from work, her husband
says exactly what Judith thought he would say. When Judith tells him about her decision
he initially protests, but not strongly, and is obviously relieved that she has decided to
leave. He expresses that a short trip will do her good and he will bring her back in a
couple of weeks when the current political mess has been settled for good.
In the script, Judith’s husband is not portrayed as an antihero but as a victim, a victim of
fear and distrust that has gradually altered him. At the end, Judith, her husband, and the
viewers will understand that this is a dead-end journey for Judith and she will never
come back. Now Judith is seen as a person in danger who is alone to the point that she
feels even her husband will eventually turn against her. Judith’s in-house troubles and
uncertainties have become as fearful as the outside miseries that are enforced by the
autocratic authority.
Key Distinguishable Features from Judith, the Film Adaptation of Brecht's Jewish
Wife:
•
I chose Judith to replace the original title of Jewish Wife in order to apply a more
universal them to the concept that the play can ultimately take place at anytime
and anywhere in the world.
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Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
•
I believe that Brecht himself may have chosen the name Judith for his leading
character based on a fictional hero supposedly set in 587 B.C., who decapitates
the general of an enemy army in order to liberate her own country (figure 1).
•
My film adaptation of Jewish Wife is in epic style, a term that is used to describe
Brechtian Theater. The film is episodic, apparently disconnected, and is
presented in a non-chronological way without the restrictions of time or place. I
anticipate and encourage that the audience will arrive at its own conclusion of
how the events are linked together in my film.
•
To make the message of the film more clear, the plot was broken down into
eleven episodes so that each episode can appear as one single action unit.
•
In contrast to Jewish Wife, each episode in this epic film adaptation has its own
message, and starts with a textual and/or musical interlude. My intention was to
prevent the audience from feeling any sympathy with the events and encouraging
them to observe critically.
•
Multimedia effects were used to destroy the realistic unity of the plot in the film
adaptation. For instance, by employing slides, movie clips, animations, music
and/or textual interludes, I aim to encourage the audience to relate actions in an
episode to current social events.
•
In addition to altering the title of the original play, I have also added a few
characters in the film that do not physically appear in the play. These may have
been characters that were referred to by Judith and Fritz in Brecht’s original
version of Jewish Wife, which I have decided to expand on in order to produce
more depth and interaction between the main characters.
•
By presenting this story as a sequence of events between different characters, I
hope to allow the audience to interpret these events through the collective
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behavior of the characters’ relationships. Ultimately, I believe this will create
interplay of social forces from which the film’s messages emerge.
•
Actors in this film were also directed not to fully empathize with their characters,
but instead to try to demonstrate the characters’ behavior.
•
Throughout the film, I have incorporated the concept of verfremdungseffekt (the
alienation effect). I have used various techniques to keep the audience conscious
of the fact that this is a theatrical performance and that they are witnessing an
event so that they can respond in a distanced and objective manner. For
example, actors were directed, whenever it was necessary, to address the
audience directly by looking and talking into the camera. Furthermore, in order to
avoid formation of false moods in a scene, I have utilized natural lighting and
plain settings.
•
The order of episodes that I have arranged in this film differs from the sequence
of units in the original play. When Brecht decided to stage Jewish Wife for the
very first time, he re-ordered the units that appeared in the script. I decided to
shoot the film in the same order with the intension of further challenging the
audience (Table 1).
•
Both Jewish Wife and my epic film script adaptation of Judith are relevant under
today’s political climate. The film offers a view on all regimes around the world
that are oppressive, manipulative, dishonest, corrupt, and create fear and misery
in their societies.
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Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
Figure 1: Judith by Caravaggio (c. 1598; oil on canvas; Galleria Nazionale dell’Arte
Antica, Rome.) Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/vm/paint/auth/caravaggio/judith.jpg
Table 1: Comparing and Contrasting Elements from Jewish Wife and Judith
Description
Style
Characters
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Jewish Wife: Original
Play
•
•
•
•
Non-epic style
Non-episodic
Judith (Jewish Wife)
Fritz (the husband)
Judith: Film Adaptation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Epic style
Episodic
Judith (Jewish Wife)
Fritz (the husband)
Anna (Friend) & her children
Gertrude (sister in-law)
Doctor (a family friend)
Max (a family friend)
Lotte (Max’s wife)
Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
Setting
Opening
Phone
Conversations
•
•
•
•
•
Frankfurt, Germany
March 1935
Evening
Judith is packing
Judith begins to call
various people
Only Judith can be seen
and heard
Order of Phone Doctor, Lotte, Gertrude, and
Conversations Anna
Order of
Scenes
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Anywhere
Any date
Anytime
An introduction to portray
motives for Judith's departure
• Judith is packing
• Judith begins to call various
people
Judith and all call recipients can be
seen and heard
Anna, Gertrude, Doctor,and Lotte
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Judith packing
First call
Second call
Third call
Fourth call
Judith rehearsing
Judith and Fritz
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Judith: Film Cast and Crew
Afsaneh Asadi-Grigsby
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As Judith
Introduction & Prologue
Animation
Judith packing
Animation continues
Judith packing continues
First call
Animation continues
Second call
Animation continues
Third call
Animation continues
Fourth call
Burning of the phone book
Judith rehearsing and Fritz
flashbacks
Fritz & Max scene
Fritz comes home
Judith & Fritz
Judith Departs
Final scene where Fritz calls
Max
Epilogue
Closing credits
Anais do Simpósio da International Brecht Society, vol.1, 2013.
Katie Baker
As Anna, Gertrude, Lotte
Brian Grigsby
As Doctor, Max
Ali Asadi
As Fritz
Mina and Mason Grigsby
As Anna's Children
Farrokh Asadi, Jon Santiago, Ali Asadi
Script Development
Farrokh Asadi, Ali Asadi
Filming
Eric Dossou, Farrokh Asadi
Editing
Idene Saam
Legal and Multimedia Assistant
Sasha Klopanovic
Animation Director for If Sharks Were Men…
Farrokh Asadi
Adaptation, Producer, Director
CITATIONS
BRECHT, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans.
John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. 1964.
BRECHT, Bertolt. The Messingkauf Dialogues. Trans. John Willett. 1965.
BRECHT, Bertolt. Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen, 1985.
PARKER, Tom. Quote "A style of theatre so epic, that it is known as Epic Theatre".1993.
WILLET, John. Editorial notes. In Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic,
by Bertolt Brecht. London: Methuen. 1964.
BRECHT, Bertolt. “A short organum for the theater” Brecht on Theatre: The
Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London:
Methuen. 1949.
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