A Fish in the Bathtub

OCOpen Caption screening
Additional program content
SFSensory Friendly. Details HERE

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Poster for the film A FISH IN THE BATHTUB

A Fish in the Bathtub

This laugh-out-loud tale of the sudden bust-up of a long marriage—which distresses children, grandchildren, and an entire suburban New York neighborhood—is not to be missed! Real-life husband and wife Jerry Stiller (Sam) and Anne Meara (Molly) have been “happily married” and bickering nonstop for 40 years. When consummate grouch Sam, a retired owner of a ladies’ garment shop, refuses to remove his pet carp from their spare bathroom, Molly can’t take it anymore. She ups and leaves him, moving in with her grown son, Joel (the superb Mark Ruffalo) and his family. It’s a zinger of a romantic comedy, with a happy ending. 

"It’s possible that no one in the history of big screen couples loved each other more than (Stiller and Meara) did. In A Fish in the Bathtub, the audience is the beneficiary of that love, excavated through their performances and Silver’s immense gift for parsing her characters’ interior lives."
Andy Crump, Paste Magazine

PAST EVENTS

Q&A filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver and cowriters John Silverstein and David Chudnovsky with RECEPTION
Sunday, Mar. 19 2017, 4:00
This event is over. View all of our upcoming events.

In early 1970s, Joan Micklin Silver, a blossoming television writer/director, was ready to make her first feature film, Hester Street. Studio heads praised her credits but insisted that women were “one more problem” they didn’t need and that Jewish films would never reach a general audience. So with the support of her husband, Raphael Silver, who raised its $400,000 budget and became the film’s producer, Joan Micklin Silver made and released Hester Street, to critical acclaim—and it grossed over $5 million in the United States (an unheard-of amount for a small indie film), garnered her a Writers Guild nomination for Best Screenplay, and earned Carol Kane an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Micklin Silver, one of the country’s premier independent film directors, continued to defy film industry insiders for over 40 years. We’re thrilled to host her Jewish trilogy—Hester Street, Crossing Delancey, and A Fish in the Bathtub—and look forward to having her and other special guests here at the JBFC.

John Silverstein was born and raised and continues to live in Toronto. In his varied and checkered past he has been a public art gallery curator and director, a university art history lecturer, and the proprietor of a business called Hot Property that supplied props and set decoration to the film, television and advertising industries. He is also a life-long lover of classic Jewish humor and along the way had the good fortune to have his and writing partner David Chudnovsky’s script for A Fish In the Bathtub made into a feature film. Despite a near total incompatibility with David, often leading to fisticuffs and even rude name-calling, the two have maintained a warm and close friendship for almost fifty years. Go figure.

David Chudnovsky grew up in Toronto. There, at York University, he met the amazing John Silverstein. David studied film at Sheridan College and acting at the Loft Studio in Los Angeles. In 1978, the fledgling Toronto film industry, fueled by tax shelters and a sixty cent Canadian dollar, was taking off. David hopped on board. For thirty years, he worked various on-set jobs, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Big Bird, Tony Curtis, Christopher Walken and Mr. T. Despite the glamour, eventually the appeal of an eighty hour work week began to wane. In 2013 David opened Geary Guitarworks, a studio where he builds custom electric guitars and teaches guitar building.

This film is part of the Jewish Film Festival 2023 series.



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