God's Fiddler -- Film Review

God's Fiddler

Directed by Peter Rosen

  

It is a monumental task to condense a person's life of eighty-six years down to eighty-eight minutes, especially a person the likes of Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), whose life was so full and rich and eventful.  Yet this film does about as good a job at that task as one could ever expect.  It is the first and only documentary film on Heifetz.  It draws upon films and recordings of Heifetz' performances throughout his career, interviews with colleagues and students, including Itzhak Perlman and Ivry Gitlis, a wealth of information about him in the public record as well as private photographs and amateur films made by Heifetz himself.  Heifetz liked cameras and was an amateur photographer and home movie maker.  His own photographs and films provide a rich source of documentation on his life which the film draws upon to great advantage.  This film covers both his personal and professional life.  It mentions his two failed marriages and the fact that he was not on good terms with his own children and explicitly wrote them out of his will.  One gets a feel for his multifaceted character, which was probably difficult to deal with on a close, personal basis.  He was able to relax and smile at parties and social occasions, but his approach to music was stern, sober, and very serious.  Music making was not fun for Heifetz and it was not fun for his students either.  According to the film there was an atmosphere of fear around him for those studying music with him.  People were so in awe of him that even his teachers said that he studied with God.  Only a very few people called him Jascha, and most of those went back to his days as a youngster in Russia.  Nearly everyone called him Mr. Heifetz.  He appears to have been lonely and unable to form close personal bonds with people.  His Jewish heritage is not featured prominently in the film and seems to have been more of a factor in his early life in St. Petersburg, Russia.  At that time in the early 1900s, the St. Petersburg Conservatory had a quota of Jews that it allowed to study.  The quota had been met at the time of Heifetz' application, but he was given a special exception.  The Conservatory also helped him bring his family to St. Petersburg from Vilnius (now in Lithuania).  He and his family left Russia for the United States just in time to miss the Russian Revolution.  He became a U.S. citizen in 1925, and returned to Russia only once in 1934.  He was quite proud of his American citizenship, raising and lowering the flag daily at his house in Los Angeles.  He volunteered to perform for the troops without pay through the USO in World War 2, and often performed on the front lines in dangerous situations.  Heifetz was also a composer.  He wrote pieces for the violin and transcribed and arranged many works for the violin by other composers such as George Gershwin.  He even wrote some popular songs in the 1940s under the pseudonym of Jim Hoyl, one of which became a hit recorded by Bing Crosby, among other singers.  He was one of the earliest environmentalists and had an all electric car built in the 1960s, the first of its kind on the West Coast, to combat the growing pollution problem in Los Angeles.  The film is rich in biographical information and commentary by many people who knew him, but the recordings of his playing are the joy of the film.  His playing truly is superb.  At one point there is a clip of him playing Bach's famous Chaconne in D minor.  It was moving and powerful.  I felt tears welling up in my eyes.  The pain of it cut right to the heart.  Recordings and video footage of his performances can be seen and heard throughout the film.  And what music!  His greatness as a violinist really comes across.  The film does not attempt to analyze, explain, or "understand" Heifetz.  It simply presents him as he was and does it with great clarity and comprehensiveness.  I highly recommend it to everyone, but to musicians, and especially violinists, it is a must.  Seen at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Castro Theater, July 24, 2012.  This film is available on DVD.