Word: klutz
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...soft klutz who never exercised anything but his ego, Selznick was the son of one of the industry's pioneer pirates, a high roller who was quickly rolled over by better organized competitors. Thomson hints at a streak of madness in the Selznick line (one brother, Myron, a legendary Hollywood agent, died of alcoholism; another was institutionalized for many years). But in David's case it looked at first like genius. He was head of production at RKO at 30, had his own unit at MGM a year later, his own company four years after that. And he oversaw some...
...wrong hands, this material could get pretty twee and reductive; give the kid a disease, and you have a TV movie of the week. And, in fact, the second half of Little Man Tate threatens to take sides, to turn Jane into an exploitative klutz, to provide a happy, even triumphant solution to the dilemma, full of hats and horns and two birthday cakes. But, really, that's just dessert to a film that offers much chewy food for thought. The comforting dream of communion at the end can't erase the picture's careful wit about good people...
Myself, I knew I was Jewish, but was not sure what made me so. The things that I called Jewish culture were universally embraced--Johnny Carson says "klutz" and "schlemiel," bagels are eaten everywhere, and Woody Allen is loved by Jews and non-Jews alike--so how did they make me Jewish? I knew I did not want to marry someone who wasn't Jewish, but I could not reconcile that with my commitment to interethnic tolerance and understanding. And if it were only cultural and family ties that made me Jewish, why not marry someone of another background...