The series Rabbi´s Cat - Le Chat du Rabbin (10 volumes already as for the end of 2020) - made Joann Sfar famous, but his career includes besides being a cartoonist and comic artist, writing novels and film directing as well. Currently living in the lovely Nice, Sfar has a mixed Askenazi - on the side of his Ukranian mother, a singer - and Sephardi - his father is an Algerian-born lawyer involved in various legal trials against neonazis. Last week, I had the chance to go through some of his works that I am happy to review and share with my readers.
The Rabbi´s Cat - The Movie
The movie based on the cartoons series in development was released in 2011, but as a movie, it condensates interesting unique motives related to Jewish life in Algeria, as well as Jewish destiny in general. I´ve watched the movie in the original French, and I laughed more than once, as there are so many hilarious grotesque moments. However, there are some serious issues introduced, how for instance the sheer discrimination against local Jews by the colonial authorities from France, who requested them to pass a French test in order to be accepted in public positions. Or the interdiction of Jews and Arabs to visit certain local public spaces, such as coffees.
According to Décret Crémieux (1870) Jews of Algerian origin - were allowed to acquire French citizenship, that was withdrawn by the infamous Vichy government. Since 1948, around 25,681 Algerian Jews emigrated to France, with a very small local community still resident in Oran, Blida or Algiers.
The questions the humanistic - hairless - cat who is able to read Le Rouge et Le Noir by Stendhal are echoeing curiosities about Jewish identity going beyond its religious definition confines, as well as about exile and . It raises doubts and questions in a smart, intellectual way, while displaying beautiful drawings on a pleasant musical backround resonating works by the Jewish Algerian-born Enrico Macias.
It may be enjoyable for Jewish viewers from the bar mitzva age onwards.
Chagall en Russie - 1&2
The following BDs - cartoons - are the least enjoyable from the list of Sfar´s works. For instance, I haven´t enjoyed too much Les Olives Noires - made in collaboration with Emmanuel Guibert - featuring the life under the Roman-occupied Judea. I´ve personally found the story very disorganised and redundant, until I did my best by following all the installments in the series.
The second work I enjoyed much better - for the script, as was not terribly impressed by the drawings - was Chagall en Russie, a fictionalised story of the Belarus-born painter, with a deep touch of Russian fairy-tales of Chassidic inspiration. It also has serious Fiddler on the Roof snapshots and a grotesque Golem. (´Il y a des droles de gens dans ma Russie´). From the Lubavitcher to the repeated pogroms, there is so much Jewish history to learn about, while getting fully immersed in a story that may be or may be not Chagall´s.
Gainsbourg, a Heroic Life (2010)
Sfar is a self-confessed fanatic of Gainsbourg and had the chance to direct a multi-awarded movie about his idol´s life. One of the most important figures of French´s pop, Gainsbourg - born as Lucien Ginsburg whose parents were Jews from Ukraine - was shaped by his experience as a Jew during the German occupation. The self-destructive haste to outline himself, his extravagant life and professional achievements. By creating a visual narrative outlining the strong influence of the childhood experiences into his mature life, the story is punctuaded by alternation between movie sequences with actors - among which Laetitia Casta, Eric Elmosnino or Lucy Gordon - and animations which give to the movie a surrealistic dimension. I must reckon that more than once I´ve checked online several times many details that were shared in the movie, as my knowledge about Gainsbourg´s professional journey seemed to have been limited to his musical repertoire only.
Gainsbourg. A Heroic Life reveals so much about the extravagant artist - who bought a Rolls Royce with the movie he got for a movie he filmed in Yugoslavia or created a reggae version of La Marseillaise - but whose life will keep the gaze of a child who experienced the Occupation, being forced to leave his childhood too fast behind.
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