The ANNOTICO Report

One should anticipate amusing and interesting entertainment, resulting from
the inter marriage cross cultural currents of  Italian and Jewish.

Dave Lewis, the playwright, says "My first wife was Italian and I'm Jewish.
For 13 years, I was married into an Italian family. We have a son, so the
film is an homage to him."

Yet, how can the son feel good about both sides of himself, when the Jewish
housewife is DUTIFUL, and the Italian father is a PHILANDERING milkman.

One also wonders why Lewis chose to switch the genders, from HIS OWN
experience. Is this a chance to "dig" at his divorced wife?

This may be more like  "Matzo Balls and Chef Boyardee". :(

If a reader has a better impression of the film, I would like to hear it.
Write << Annotico@Earthlink.net  >>

Arlington Advocate, MA
By Brooke Leister
Thursday, April 28, 2005

At first glance, "Spaghetti and Matzo Balls" may come across as an
over-the-top comedy, but deep down it's really a story about the
relationship between a father and son.

     "The movie is Farrelly-esque (in the genre of filmmakers Peter and
Bobby Farrelly) over the top comedy, good-naturedly playing against
stereotypes. At the end of the day, the story is really about the
relationship between the father and son," said Paul Blumenfeld, an
Arlington resident who plays a dutifully Orthodox deli owner in the film.

     The short film will premiere at Arlington's Regent Theatre Saturday,
April 30 at 7 p.m. A $10 donation is suggested.

     Cambridge resident Dave Lewis wrote and directed the film, which
chronicles a boy caught between his Italian and Jewish heritages. The film
was shot last summer at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Arlington, as well as in a
Cambridge deli and a Belmont home.

     "It's very much a story we all know. Everyone has felt out of place
for some reason or another, and this little boy feels extremely out of
place. It's not until the end of the movie that he understands why," Lewis
said. "In the end, there's a reunification of father and son."

     The film opens in 1969 and tells the story of Joey Manischevitz, the
son of a dutiful Orthodox Jewish housewife and a philandering Italian
milkman.

     The film runs for 22 minutes, and Lewis, who produced Arlington
resident Joe Gatto's 2004 film "Overserved," hopes to use it as a
springboard to secure financing for a feature-length film based on the
story. He's working on a full-length screenplay titled "Mob Yoga."

     "I've been studying yoga for four years and realized there hasn't been
a spoof yet on yoga," said Lewis, who added, "My first wife was Italian and
I'm Jewish. For 13 years, I was married into an Italian family. We have a
son, so the film is an homage to him."

     He hopes to secure at least $1 million to $1.5 million in financing
for a feature-length film, as well as shop the short film around to various
festivals. Emmy-winning photography director Will Barrett shot the film.

We've been working on post production for eight months. We shot it on 35
millimeter film because it's the highest media we can use," Lewis said.

     He continued, "The cast and crew did an amazing job. As a filmmaker,
you have a vision of what you want your script to look like when it hits
the screen, and what we have fits very closely to what we set out to do."

     "Everybody's Got One," a film he co-produced with J.P. Ouellette of
Yankee Pictures, won the 2003 Boston Society of Film Critics' Best New
England Feature/Comedy prize. In 2002, he founded Maven Productions.

     Blumenfeld, whose day job is an executive recruiter for software
startups, was drawn to the script because of its familiarity.

     "I thought it was funny," he said. "I could relate to the characters.
It mimicked a lot of people I knew... This is a part I really coveted. It
really tapped into my Jewish roots."... It's a cute little film," said
Blumenfeld...

http://www2.townonline.com/arlington/
localRegional/view.bg?articleid=233611