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Articles by Neil Rosen

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About Neil Rosen

Neil went to the City of London School and Manchester University graduating with a 1st in economics. After a brief stint in accountancy, Neil emigrated to a kibbutz In Israel. His articles on the burgeoning Israeli film industry earned comparisons to Truffaut and Godard in Cahiers du Cinema. Now one of the world's leading film critics and moderators at film Festivals Neil has written definitively in his book Kosher Nostra on Jewish post war actors. Neil lives with his family in North London. More Posts

Operation Finale

Operation Finale is a Netflix production based on the abduction and trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann in 1960. The first part – being the planning and kidnapping of Eichmann – was a largely accurate but the second part takes considerable dramatic licence with the facts. Eichmann was the [...]

December 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

Steven Spielberg at 75

In the week I watched Mark Kermode interview Steven Spielberg, whose birthday falls today. It’s in the nature of such things that, if you interview arguably the most celebrated film director of our lifetime, you do not ask too many aggressive questions. Although Spielberg was not given a rough [...]

December 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

Valley of Tears

Last Friday I watched the final episode in the present series on More4. A further series featuring the Egyptian offensive in the southern  front in the Yom Kippur  is in production. I have written  before that films made by both sides in World War Two were motivated by propaganda and this is the [...]

December 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

Boris Johnson, Judaism and politics

My niece sent me this Chanukah message from Boris Johnson – see here, courtesy of – TWITTER Like many including the Rust political columnists she cast Bojo as bumbling, lacking genuine conviction, chaotic, rackety, with an unusual personal life. However, even his sternest critics must [...]

November 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

We fight Fascists/Daniel Sonnabend

This is the true story of the 43 Group constituted by Jewish people to fight domestic fascism after World War Two. It is a graphic account of violence, disruption of fascist marches and meetings, and intelligence gathering by a group fearful that – having defeated Nazism – the creed [...]

November 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

Ridley Road, Paris 1900, Paul Verhoeven revisited & The Directors

Ridley Road  finished last Sunday and by and large I was impressed. Without in any way denigrating the Black cause that has suffered such discrimination in my lifetime it’s good that in the anti-racism platform the BBC gives expression to anti-semitism too. Ridley Road was set in 1962 when [...]

October 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Forgotten Battle (2020)

I worked up a full head of steam recently with a feminist film critic I met at the San Sebastián film festival over Paul Verhoven, the Dutch director of Basic Instinct.  She had him down as a subversive, sexually exploitative, cineaste who was now out of date. I pointed out that his earlier films [...]

October 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

Valley of Tears – what happened?

I was very much looking forward on Friday night to the latest mega drama of Israeli TV – Valley of Tears – but searching for it on More 4 I  could find no sign of it – instead 24 Hours in Casualty was being broadcast. I have found no information why it was pulled. I do hope [...]

October 10, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Public School film genre

On Friday at the unusual time of 6 am I watched the 1994 version of The Browning Version.    It was originally the directorial project of Ridley Scott but then taken over by Mike Figgis. The screenplay was by Ronald Harwood (The Dresser) and the stellar cast included Albert Finney, Greta Sacchi [...]

October 9, 2021 // 0 Comments

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