Tag Archives: Maximilian Schell

Telling Lies in America (1997) Guy Ferland, Kevin Bacon, Brad Renfro, Maximilian Schell, Drama, Music

Telling Lies in America (1997)
Karchy (Brad Renfro) is a boy in school who has moved from Hungary to America in the 1960’s. He is struggling in school and trying to adjust to America’s culture. He then hears about a radio DJ Billy Magic (Kevin Bacon) who holds a contest for a Student Hall of Fame every week. When Karchy finally wins after several weeks, he spends more time with Billy Magic…a man with money, girls, and glam. Karchy thinks that by spending time with Magic, he can become “cool”. He then starts telling lies, to make himself seem greater than he really is. But when his lies begin hurting the people he cares about, he realizes that it isn’t worth telling lies if it affects your friends. Afterwards, he learns to accept himself for the person he is, and gives up lying. And as for Billy Magic, it turns out that he pays his price for all the lies that he has told as well….
Read More »

The Chosen (1981) Jeremy Kagan, Maximilian Schell, Rod Steiger, Robby Benson, Drama

The Chosen (Jeremy Paul Kagan, 1981)
Brooklyn 1944. Despite being the same age, having grown up within blocks of each other, and both being Jewish, late teens Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter don’t really know each other – knowing each other only by name and by sight – as Orthodox Danny stays largely within his own Hasidic community, which is just fine in Reuven’s mind. An incident between the two which on the surface threatens to tear them even further apart instead blossoms into a friendship between the two. They begin to learn more and more about the other and their lives, which for Danny includes becoming a rabbi, solely as it is a several generations old family calling. In Reb Saunders’ mind, he who rules his family by strict Hasidic traditions, Danny becoming the next rabbi in the family is not even a question, despite Danny, deep in his heart, wanting other secular pursuits which he has not told his father. Conversely, Reuven has modern sensibilities, being raised in a two-person household by his widowed academic …
Read More »