Enemies, A Love Story

source: Enemies, A Love Story

Very little in the previous career of director Paul Mazursky gave any hint of the depth and complexity of this comedy drama, adapted from an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about the misadventures of a Jewish refugee (Ron Silver) in New York City shortly after World War Two. Silver has a few problems most men wouldn't mind sharing, including a wife who is more a devoted servant and a mistress as passionate as she is temperamental, but the cozy arrangement is complicated by the unexpected return of his first wife, long thought dead, to act as a ghostly conscience and councilor for her bewildered husband. The film is so well made, with such attention to period flavor and detail, that it seems mean to point out its few nagging shortcomings: the haphazard structure, with too many sudden, incompatible changes in mood, and the equally inconsistent characters (it's never made clear, for example, why all three women are so devoted to this particular nobody). Too bad some of the effort that went into the production didn't first go into the script, but it's still an unusually rich experience, with an added dimension of depth from the specters of the Holocaust still haunting each character.

It's move over darling, with some extra twists. It's the ol "dead wife returns" story. A period piece, taking place in 1949. Ron silver is herman, the jewish writer, who has a very complicated life. A new wife, and a mistress too! It's a little bit brighton beach memoirs, or maybe radio days, with a side of tune in tomorrow. We can see how its all going to blow up in herman's face, at some point. Who has the emotional energy for all this?.. much less the financial means?? The women are all big emotional messes, so it's sometimes hard to watch... who would put up with all that?? But it's just the right amount tongue in cheek, so it all works! Lots of jewish culture thrown in. I do recommend this one. Even though herman is cheating with everyone all around, we're still rooting for the underdog. Very well done! The book must have been really well written. Novel by isaac singer. Directed by paul mazursky... was nominated for five oscars! One was for enemies.

There is a lot of really good stuff here. The acting, direction, and photography are first-rate. There were issues with the sound on my DVD, so I had to turn on the subtitles. But that is almost certainly not the fault of the original film. Ron Silver has never been a favorite of mine, but he turns in some of his very best work in this film. All three of the women were very good, but Anjelica Huston sort of steals the show. It's not clear to me why these women all seem to love Silver's character, as he is neither attractive, nor rich, nor even very agreeable in manner. But overall, it's a decent flick.

I bought this movie (DVD release) after looking for other films by Paul Mazursky after being enchanted by An Unmarried Woman (and finding out there's reportedly a DVD release for that on January 10th) and after reading xavrush89's comments. I didn't know what to expect going into this movie, I usually try to find out enough to get interested but not enough to know what's going on. It worked, in this case. Ron Silver plays a Polish Jew living in Coney Island after the Holocaust. It is 4 years after the end of WWII and he works as a writer and has a wife whom he wed because she protected him from the Nazis. Meanwhile, he's enjoying the company of another woman during 'business trips' when he finds out personally that his original wife thought to have been killed by Nazis is alive and in New York!! It sounds so absurd that you might think this movie is a comedy, but it's not. There are funny moments, but throughout this movie you will become wrapped up in the very serious moral dilemma of a man married to two women while he's in love with another and the conflicting emotions that all of the characters feel and experience. The acting is top notch and every character is played by each respective actor remarkably. Everything they say and do is believable and realistic. Not to mention the excellent environments, although things look a little shiny and new. One of my complaints involves the audio levels. At times it is extremely difficult to hear what the characters are saying, much less understand them with their (excellent) accents. There's dialogue that passed me by even after going back to listen to it twice at times. Another complaint is the video restoration isn't all that great, but it keeps that '1989 look' and it's better than the ultra-crisp visuals of movies today. But I don't have much to complain about as far as the actual movie goes, and that's a good thing. Entirely fascinating and skillfully produced and directed, it's one of those movies that was extremely interesting but hard to enjoy due to the nature of the struggles of the characters. Nonetheless it's a great film that you should see at least once.

Director Paul Mazursky's "Enemies, A Love Story" interplays wondrous ironies, narrative twists, humour, and wisdom. With a keen eye for historical nuance and detail (which the director describes in a voice-over commentary on one DVD edition), he explores the limits of suffering and survival—the loss that one cannot transcend against a community that does transcend immense evil. I very much like Fred Taylor's elegant cinematography as well as subtle editing by Stuart Pappé. These are important components of films. Casting seems to be perfect in a film with great depth worn (for the most part) lightly. Some of the film deeply bothered me because I suffer from chronic depression. I could not watch this film more than twice. However, Roger Simon and the director have created a splendid adaptation from the Isaac Singer masterwork. Ron Silver, always a gifted actor, never did any better work than this depiction of the paranoid, driven, and almost broken Herman Brother. Małgorzata Zajączkowska's tender Yadwiga, Herman's Polish Catholic savior and wife, centers the narrative by being more faithful to Judaism than her husband or his corrupt rabbi employer. Alan King as Rabbi Lembeck recalls for me a number of corrupt Protestant pastors I have known or for whom I worked. King plays this role with great skill. No one but Anjelica Houston could play Tamara, Herman's first wife, and the one who with the second wife redeems tradition and the future. Lena Olin's Marsha overwhelmed me. She is why I cannot watch the movie again. What a powerful portrait of despair. This is a great film. Watch it. It is a blessing and a boon.

First of all, let me say that the production design of this film is amazing. Without CGI they recreated mid 20th century nyc with verisimilitude if not absolute fidelity. The photography is mesmerizing and I'm so grateful to have come across this Mazursky gem while scrolling through my cable movie channels. I haven't read the Singer novel, so I can't make comparisons, but I'm imagining that Enemies, a Love Story would stand alone as a true work of art. The complex emotions and motivations that drive the stories of theses wonderfully written and acted characters in the aftermath of the Holocaust are effectively portrayed. I laughed, I cried, I was moved. If you can find it, watch it!

Paul Mazursky's best film but then he was working with great material, in this case Issac Bashevis Singer's novel about a Holocaust survivor who, having moved to America after the war, finds himself with three living wives; he's a bigamist more by design than choice, believing his first wife died in the concentration camps, he remarried in America, (now wife number three is a whole different story). This is a great tragi-comedy; the situation is farcial and sometimes very funny but the horror of the Holocaust permeates every frame and Mazursky treats the material with the respect it is due. This is a movie that comes close to perfection from the superb period design down to the faultless performances of the entire cast. Ron Silver is superb as Herman, a man confident enough to try to balance three relationships at once, convincing himself he loves all the women in his life, Angleica Huston, the wife who returns from the dead, Margaret Sophie Stein as the simple servant girl he marries after the war and Lena Olin as the clinging beauty who emotionally blackmails him into marriage. Herman is a liar and a cheat and a shyster but Silver makes him hugely sympathetic, an amoral man who, nevertheless, wants to do right by everyone but who is constantly doomed to failure. This is a great movie that deserves to be better known.

After reading the novel this film was based on, I thought: "No way! There is absolutely no way they can portray these raw emotions on film!" But that's exactly what the amazing actors do! The three women are as different as they could be, but each character is spot-on. Between these 3 women (Lena Olin, Anjelica Houston and Margaret Sophie Stein) is Ron Silver, whose character's emotions are clearly displayed on his face - I don't know if he is the anchor in the movie, because at times he is overshadowed by his female co-stars, but he makes me sympathize with him. The "old" feel of the movie is great, and I do believe that it's a realistic image of New York in the late '40s. It might be a bit depressing, but it should be seen if not only for the acting - trust me, it's fantastic!

I once read about how Paul Mazursky's career as a director has gravitated between very well done ("Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice", "Moscow on the Hudson") and what-was-he-thinking?! ("Scenes from a Mall", "The Flying Pickle"). Well, I can say with certainty that "Enemies: A Love Story" is one of his good ones. Portraying Holocaust survivor Herman Broder (Ron Silver) living in New York in 1949 and suddenly surrounded by three women (his current wife, another married woman, and his first wife whom he believed to be dead), the movie presents an eye-opening situation. It's like a slice-of-life story taken one step further. As the three women, Margaret Sophie Stein, Lena Olin, and Anjelica Huston do a very good job. Definitely worth seeing.