Fiddler on the Roof (film)

Fiddler on the Roof (in English, Fiddler on the Roof) is a 1971 American musical film produced and directed by Norman Jewison. It is an adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and a screenplay by Joseph Stein and based on stories by Sholem Aleichem. Starring Chaim Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon and Paul Mann, the film centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to uphold his Jewish religious and cultural traditions in the face of outside influences encroaching on the lives of the family.

Throughout the film, Tevye speaks to God and directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall. In these monologues, Tevye reflects on tradition, the difficulties of being poor, the Jewish community's constant fear of harassment from their non-Jewish neighbors, and important family decisions. He must deal both with the determined actions of his three eldest daughters, who wish to marry for love, the choice of a husband for each departs from the customs of their faith, and with the edict of the czar who evicts the Jews from the town from Anatevka.

The film was released to critical and commercial acclaim and won three Academy Awards, including best original score for arranger-director John Williams. It was nominated for several more, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Topol as Tevye, and Best Supporting Actor for Frey, who played the tailor Motel Kamzoil. Topol and Frey had performed in stage productions of the musical; Topol as Tevye in the London production and Frey in a minor part as Mendel, the rabbi's son, on Broadway.

Plot

The action takes place in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka, in the year 1905. It is a community in which a Jewish and an Orthodox population live together in a more or less cordial way. Tevye (Tobias), the milkman, tries to maintain his traditional life, and that of his daughters, at a time when times are changing.

Tevye has five daughters, and the biggest concern both he and his wife named Golde have is marrying them all off to a wealthy man, or else one who has a good inheritance in order to end their poverty line. The three oldest, Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava are the closest to marriage.

Tevye one day meets Perchick, a student from kyiv who is considered a radical by the people of the village. Tevye invites him to her house for dinner, for Shabbat, and after dinner she offers him to work as a tutor for her youngest daughters in exchange for child support. During her stay at Tevye's house, Perchick falls in love with Hodel, and even sees how she blindly follows the Jewish family life model that bothers him so much and tries to change it.

Tzeitel, the eldest daughter, marries Motel, a tailor, a friend of her childhood, who, although a little cowardly, is a 'nice guy', honest but poor, so Tevye decides to have the wedding. of his daughter with the tailor. Chava, who is the next daughter in the marriage order, meets Fyedka, who turns out to be a lover of literature who falls in love with Chava. This last union will not be allowed by Tevye since Fyedka was not a Jew and in the two previous engagements he had already defied her tradition. She is she ends up marrying Fyedka which means to Tevye that her daughter is dead. At the time of being exiled from Anatevka they reconcile.

At the end of the film, the problems of the Jewish diaspora in Tsarist Russia are seen, for which they are forced to leave their lands and settle in New York. In turn, the film portrays the general discontent over the Tsar's decisions, and the influence of Marxism on the emerging emancipation groups that would later give rise to the Russian revolution.

Cast

Music

1. "Prologue / Tradition" – Tevye and Company
2. "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" – Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, and Bielke
3. "If I Were a Rich Man" – Tevye
4. "Sabbath Prayer" – Tevye, Golde, and Chorus
5. "To Life" – Tevye, Lazar Wolf, and Male Company
6. "Tevye's Monologue (Tzeitel and Motel)" – Tevye
7. "Miracle of Miracles" – Motel
8. "Tevye's Dream" – Tevye, Golde, Grandmother Tzeitel, Rabbi, Fruma-Sarah, and Chorus
9. "Sunrise, Sunset" – Tevye, Golde, Perchik, Hodel, and Chorus
10. "Wedding Celebration / The Bottle Dance"
11. "Entr'acte" – Orchestra
12. "Tevye's Monologue (Hodel and Perchik)" – Tevye
13. "Do You Love Me?" – Tevye and Golde
14. "Far from the Home I Love" – Hodel
15. "Chava Ballet Sequence (Little Bird, Little Chavaleh)" – Tevye
16. "Tevye's Monologue (Chava and Fyedka)" – Tevye
17. "Anatevka" – Tevye, Golde, Lazar Wolf, Yente, Mendel, Mordcha, and Company

Production

The decision to cast Topol over Zero Mostel as Tevye was somewhat controversial, as the role had originated with Mostel and made him famous during the Broadway musical years. Years later, Jewison said that he felt Mostel's overpowering personality was fine on stage, but he would have movie audiences see him as Mostel, rather than the Tevye character.

Principal filming took place at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. Most of the exterior shots were done in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, specifically in Mala Gorica, Lekenik and Zagreb within the Yugoslav constituent republic of Croatia. Although the area was under heavy snowfall during location scouting in 1969, during filming the producers had to send in marble dust to replace the snow. Three hundred extras conversant in various foreign languages were used, as well as flocks of geese and pigs. and his handlers. Isaac Stern performed the violin solos.