Adam Resurrected (2008)

Director:

Paul Schrader

Writers:

Yoram Kaniuk (novel)
Noah Stollman (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 December 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

In a world gone mad, being insane was just a way to fit in.

Plot:

In the aftermath of WWII, a former circus entertainer who was spared from the gas chamber becomes the ringleader at an asylum for Holocaust survivors.

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Circus | Holocaust | Concentration Camp | Nazi

Cast

Jeff Goldblum	...	Adam Stein
Willem Dafoe	...	Commandant Klein
Derek Jacobi	...	Dr. Nathan Gross
Ayelet Zurer	...	Gina Grey
Hana Laszlo	...	Rachel Shwester
Joachim Król	...	Abe Wolfowitz
Jenya Dodina	...	Gretchen Stein (as Evgenia Dodina)
Tudor Rapiteanu	...	David
Veronica Ferres	...	Frau Fogel
Idan Alterman	...	Arthur
Juliane Köhler	...	Ruth Edelson
Dror Keren	...	Dr. Uri Slonim
Shmuel Edelman	...	Dr. Shapiro (as Schmuel Edelman)
Yoram Toledano	...	Tarshish (as Yoram Tolledano)
Mickey Leon	...	Golomb

Also Known As:

Adam Ben Kelev (Israel: Hebrew title)
Ein Leben für ein Leben - Adam Resurrected (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for some disturbing behavior, sexuality, nudity and some language.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Germany | USA | Israel

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Portugal:M/16 (Qualidade)

Filming Locations:

Castel Film Studios, Bucharest, Romania

Company:

July August Productions

Trivia:

Moni Moshonov was cast as Arthur but had to drop due to schedule conflict and was replaced by comedian-actor Idan Alterman.

Quotes:

Adam Stein: I live in a lovely valley, but the heights are gone forever. There are no more frightful deserts, and I no longer leap into the fire, I am afraid I will get burned. Sanity is pleasant and calm, but there is no greatness, no true joy, nor the awful sorrow that slashes the heart.

Adam Resurrected is a Disaster

I am a huge fan of both dark movies and independent films. When I went to go see Adam Resurrected at the AFI Dallas film festival, I was confident I would love it. Although people had warned me not to go see the film, I simply assumed they couldn't appreciate good film or "art." Boy, was I wrong- I should have taken their advice.

Adam Resurrected is a complete joke. The performances are over-the-top and ridiculous, and the plot is- well- about a man in a mental institution who thinks he is a dog, who happens to mentor a young boy who ALSO thinks he's a dog .

The man had been forced to act like a dog to survive the Holocaust and is now haunted by his "dog" past.

This is not a joke.

Watching Jeff Goldblum walk around on all fours eating dog bones and trying to interpret it as "art" is utterly ridiculous. Watching him change the life of a young boy/dog was even more ridiculous. And of course, the movie is trying to be a "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", for all of the crazy mental patients seem to idolize Goldblum. The mental patients give unbelievably over-the-top performances, and the sex scenes involving Goldblum and the nurse (I will never forget his line when she gets on all fours for him and barks- "Less like a shnauzer, more like a wolf!") are truly horrendous.

This movie is pretentious and trying to be profound, yet it is actually a complete joke. It is incredibly disrespectful to any Holocaust survivors to portray a man forced to bark like a dog for a Nazi general as one of the hardships the Jews faced.

DON'T SEE THIS FILM.