Jonathan Glazer's Oscar Speech, Its Parallels to Vanessa Redgrave's 1978 Oscar Speech, & the Meaning of THE ZONE OF INTEREST w/ Corey Atad

Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, freelance writer Corey Atad, who has written in such publications as Esquire, Slate, Hazlitt, and The Baffler, joins the show to discuss his piece in Welcome to Hellworld on Jonathan Glazer's Oscar speech and the reaction to said speech. Glazer decided to bring up the Gaza War when accepting the award for his Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest. He was accused of saying he was "refuting his Jewishness and the memory of the Holocaust" even though the clip was taken out of context. What he said was actually a commentary on the hijacking of Jewish identity and Holocaust memory for political purposes (which is what he sought to refute), a warning/call to resistance against dehumanization. As Glazer explained, he felt that Zone of Interest was not just a film about the past, but also the present. In other words: we need to be aware of where dehumanization has led in the past and where it could lead in the present. Glazer also made reference to Israel's Occupation of Palestinian territories during this speech.

This has all sparked backlash and the aforementioned distortion of Glazer's words. A letter signed by at least a thousand people in Hollywood (some, like Jennifer Jason Leigh, recognizable, but many not) denouncing Glazer. Other, such as playwright Tony Kushner and the Auschwitz Memorial director Piotr Cywiński, have come to Glazer's defense.

Corey joins the show to give his take on the speech as well as to offer his commentary on The Zone of Interest and relaying the tale of actress Vanessa Redgrave's 1978 Oscar speech which cause a similar controversy when she called out the extremist Jewish Defense League (referring to them as "Zionist hoodlums). We'll also delve into The Zone of Interest from the perspective of Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil" concept, Corey's criticism of The Zone of Interest, and the themes of alienation at the heart of The Zone of Interest's story centered on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, his wife Hedwig, and their family against the backdrop of the Third Reich's exterminatory horrors. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.