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88.
The Pawnbroker
Sydney Lumet
USA
1964
The Pawnbroker
Sydney Lumet
USA
1964
But this little brain, that's the real key you see. With this little brain you go out and you buy a piece of cloth and you cut that cloth in two and you go and sell it for a penny more than you paid for it. Then you run right out and buy another piece of cloth, cut it into three pieces and sell it for three pennies profit. But, my friend, during that time you must never succumb to buying an extra piece of bread for the table or a toy for a child, no. You must immediately run out and get yourself a still larger piece cloth and so you repeat this process over and over and suddenly you discover something. You have no longer any desire, any temptation to dig into the Earth to grow food or to gaze at a limitless land and call it your own, no, no. You just go on and on and on repeating this process over the centuries over and over and suddenly you make a grand discovery. You have a mercantile heritage! You are a merchant. You are known as a usurer, a man with secret resources, a witch, a pawnbroker, a sheenie, a makie and a kike!
A tale about an old Jew that survived Nazi Holocaust, lives day by day hiding his emotions from himself and the world until he is forced to face the past and everything he left behind.
Lumet had this ability to make every single actor on his set give the perfomance of a life-time! It's no different with Rod Steiger, as the old man running from the living. His array of emotions is mindblowingly wide, going from extreme coldness till an overwhelming burst of emotions.
Also, a great direction from Lumet, making wonderful use of all the settings and a beautiful black and white cinematography.
