Cinema
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Ted Kotcheff · 1974
Synopsis
Montreal, 1948, the Jewish neighbourhood. Duddy Kravitz, son of a taxi driver, barely out of adolescence, has learned his grandfather's lesson: a man without land is nothing. Working as a waiter in the summer at a Jewish hotel in the Laurentians, he discovers a lake with Yvette, an employee of the hotel, and decides to buy the land around it. To raise the money, he hires Friar, an alcoholic English filmmaker, to film weddings and bar mitzvahs, takes up pinball machines and crosses paths with Dingleman, the neighbourhood boss.
Context
The film is drawn from the novel by Mordecai Richler, a friend of the filmmaker, with whom he had shared a flat in London; Richler himself reworked the screenplay, first written by Lionel Chetwynd, and both were nominated for the Oscar. The title role was Richard Dreyfuss's first major part, a year before Jaws. Filming took place in Montreal in 1973, including on Saint-Urbain Street. It was the first Canadian film to exceed a million dollars at the box office in the country.
Who it is for
Two hours, funny and fierce; the character is odious and the film makes no attempt to make him likeable.
Prizes and reception
Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1974; first Canadian feature film nominated for an Oscar, for its screenplay.
Sources for this page 19
The pages consulted to check this page.