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[singing]

I don't want that. Leave me alone.

[loud banging]

You can keep your diseased chickens!

You leave my chickens out of this!

We made a bargain!

But the terms weren't settled.

We drank on it!

[indistinct arguing]

Quiet! Quiet!

Cut!

All right, hold it there.

Hold it there just for a second.

All right, print that one,
please. Good one.

[piano music playing]

[Raim] Why does the film
mean a great deal to you?

Well, it's because
I think of the challenge

of taking someone,

a play that was so
popular in the theater...

♪ To life, to life, I'chaim ♪

and transferring it to film

and making it believable.

♪ Here's to the father I tried to be! I

♪ Here's to my bride to be! ♪

And bringing it out into the real world.

It's always a challenge for a director.

[upbeat music]

I've been fascinated by
Fiddler on the Roof as a phenomenon.

When the creators
were putting this together,

everyone said,
"This is gonna fail on Broadway."

"There's not enough people
who are gonna care about this."

"It's only for a small Jewish audience.”

"It's gonna die."

And not only did it
not die on Broadway,

it turned out to be
this phenomenal international success.

Fiddler on the Roof was the best version

of the Sholem Aleichem stories
that we could possibly come up with.

I always look for a good story

that will lend itself
to music and theater.

And we found a series of short stories

that Sholem Aleichem wrote
called Tevye's Daughters.

It's not just about a dairyman
with five marriageable daughters.

It's more than that.

There's something else
that gives these shows their power.

["Tradition" plays]

♪ Tradition! ♪

It's about the changing of tradition.

Tradition was changing
all over Western Europe

and those changes were making
their way to Eastern Europe,

and the shtetls were changing.

♪ Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Plan me no plans [

[Jewison] Tevye's problems in life

all stemmed from the fact
that he had five daughters

trying to find a husband,
trying to find a marriage.

Trying to find--

They all had problems.

[Turan] It's the battle between what
the parents want for the children,

and what the children
think is important for them.

Each one has a conflict

over love and romance with their parents.

[crying] Thank you!

First daughter, parents want
her to marry someone wealthy.

She falls in love with a poor tailor.

Second daughter, she falls
in love with a political radical,

where the parents would rather
she married somebody more conventional.

She's dancing with a man!

I can see that
she's dancing with a man!

The third daughter, the worst of all,

falls in love with someone
who is not Jewish.

So, there are three different
areas of conflict with the parents,

where, in many ways,
you side with both sides.

And I think even in
a musical comedy kind of template,

like Fiddler on the Roof,
you still feel the pain.

And I think that's, you know,
the heart of the thing.

["Shabbat Prayer" intro playing]

[Jewison]
Themes of family is universal.

Everybody has a family,

good or bad, right or wrong.

We all have a family,

and we all have our little problems.

But we all end up
sitting around a table.

And this happens in Fiddler.
It happens in Moonstruck.

♪ May the Lord protect and defend you

[Jewison] And I thought,
"This is so common.”

This is something people can understand.

They can understand a family.

They can understand Golde.

Even a poor girl without a dowry
has to look at a husband sometime.

A husband is not to look at.
A husband is to get.

But, Mama, I'm not yet
20 years old, I don't think I have to--

They can understand Tevye.

They can understand
his problems with life.

We have received orders
that sometime soon

this district is to have
a little unofficial demonstration.

And his relationship to God.

Dear God,

was that necessary?

Did you have to make him lame
just before the Shabbat?

I think all of these things,

all put together, make the story

of Fiddler on the Roof so...

compelling.

[upbeat music]

[Williams] I very well understand how

United Artists and Walter Mirisch
would have chosen this man

to do Fiddler on the Roof.

He is so musical.

He had fantastic
sense of rhythm, musically,

which a musician can pick up right away.

[Narrator]
Norman Jewison, a born performer,

mounted satirical musical revues

while earning his B.A. at the
University of Toronto's Victoria College.

He carved out his own path in the
helterskelter world of early television.

When he went to CBS
in New York in 1957,

his work impressed a
multimedia superstar.

Harry Belafonte's Calypso album

was the first LP
to sell a million copies.

♪ I don't know but I've been told
A gopher really don't live in a hole ♪

♪ He don't!

And then came
Tonight with Belafonte,

the first special on American television

starring a Black performer.

♪ Who picked a bale of cotton? ♪
♪ Who put a bale of water? [

[Narrator] Jewison writes:

"As Harry saw it,

the point was to give Americans
back a part of their culture

they were not able to see
anywhere else on television.”

"When the camera
scanned the faces of the actors,

they were both Black and white.”

"Years later, Harry told me
he thought we showed life

as it should be in America.”

I came from
live television and the theater.

And much like John Frankenheimer

and Franklin Shaffner
and Sidney Lumet,

we all came from television,
we came from New York.

♪ You made me love you

♪ I didn't wanna do it
I didn't want to ♪

[Williams] I knew him as
a director of variety television,

high level musical work on television.

Well, it certainly prepared
Norman from the point of view

of what do you do with the camera

when musical performances
are taking place?

Do you want to be
in a close-up of a singer

who's doing a big vocal performance
that might even distort the face?

Do you want to pull it back?

Knowing how to shoot music,
knowing how to shoot dance.

For me it has to come from musicality.

And then, lo and behold,

he became a famous
movie director a year or two later.

[Jewison]
When I came to Los Angeles,

Tony Curtis got me involved
in 40 Pounds of Trouble

which was my first film.

[Narrator] Universal Pictures pegged
Jewison as their light comedy man.

That pigeonhole depressed him.

"I was wretched,"” he writes.

So he found a way out of his contract,

and came into his own as a filmmaker.

Jewison imbued topical movies

with a playful, liberating spirit.

In the Cold War comedy

The Russians are Coming,
the Russians are Coming!

Alan Arkin, as a Soviet officer

whose submarine gets
stranded in New England,

had a warmth and humor
almost as winning as Tevye's.

What would the Russians be doing
on United States of America island

with so many animosities
and hatreds between these two countries?

It is too funny an idea, is it not?

[laugh]

No, we are, of course, Norwegians.

[Jewison]
I was skiing in Sun Valley

and Bobby Kennedy had
his family up there skiing.

And my kid broke
his leg in a ski race.

And Bobby Kennedy's kid
broke his leg in the same race.

So we end up
at the hospital in Sun Valley.

And there was kind
of an awkward silence,

I knew who he was,
he didn't know who I was.

Now, we were sitting there and

he says, "What do you do?"

And I said, "I'm a filmmaker."”

"What kind of films do you make?"”

I said, "Well,
I'm gonna make a film this year."”

"It's about a black
detective from Philadelphia

who gets caught up in a murder
investigation in Mississippi.”

And I told him the story.

And he says, "This could be
a very important film, Norman."

Was Mr. Colbert ever
in this greenhouse?

Say, last night, about midnight?

That's the first time anyone told me

that it could be an important film.

[soul gospel music plays]

And about a year later,

it won the New York Critics Award.

And I went to Sardi's Restaurant
to receive this award.

And they said, "Presenting the award

is the senator from
New York, Robert Kennedy."

And I went up,
and he looked at me and he says,

"See? I told you the timing was right."

"Cause he told me it's all about timing.

He said, "Timing is the most
important thing in life,

in politics, and in art,

and in life itself.”

[gunshot]

[Narrator] Jewison writes:

"The night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated,

I sat outside in the garden

staring at the night sky,

thinking that Bobby
had been a beacon for all of us

in the civil rights movement.”

"His assassination meant
that America was so violent a society,

it could not abide its best.”

"First John Kennedy,
then Martin Luther King,

now Bobby Kennedy."

[Jewison]
When he was assassinated,

and I thought he was going
to be the next President.

I felt totally... lost.

[Narrator] Jewison writes,

"I didn't have to tell Dixie

that the night
Bobby Kennedy was assassinated,

I realized that I had to get
out of the United States

to preserve what joy
and hope I had about life.”

"She knew."

"And she knew that I wouldn't be able
to make Fiddler without that."”

[Jewison] Arthur Krim,

who was the head of United Artists,

called me up in Hollywood and said,

would I come to New York
and have a meeting with him?

So I went to the meeting
and Arthur Krim looked at me

and he says, "What would you say

if we were to say, we
want you to produce

and direct "Fiddler on the Roof?"

And my heart came up into my mouth.

And I thought, "Oh my God!"

And I looked over and I waited,

and they waited, and they
all kind of leaned forward.

They thought,
"What he is waiting for?"

And then I said,

"What would you say...

if I told you... I'm a Goy?"

And I saw a few faces go like this...

And Arthur Krim was very calm,

he put his hands together and he said,

"What does that matter?

We don't want a Second
Avenue Yiddish production.

We want a film for everybody."

In the book that I wrote

about my life, the first line is,

And that is true,

because my name is Jewison,

Son of a Jew.

So, naturally,

everybody assumes I'm Jewish.

Even the Gentiles assume I'm Jewish.

And I thought I was Jewish.

And so, when I was five or six,

and going to public school
in the East end of Toronto,

which was a little antisemitic...

It was mostly Irish and Polish,

I could feel it.

And there was only
two Jewish kids in the school,

or in my class.

There was one kid...

Sidney Zahn.

His parents ran a dry-cleaning store.

And then there was myself.

And so, at recess,

somebody would start saying, you know,

"Jew boy. Hey, Jewy! Hey, Jewy."

They called me Jewy.

And I knew a lot about Jewish life,

simply because I went with Sidney

to an orthodox temple
on Kenilworth Avenue.

And I'll never forget,
the Mel a med looked at me and he says,

"Where do you live?”

I said, "Well I live up here.

My parents own a dry goods store.”

"Oh yes.

I never see them in temple.

Why is that?
I never see them on the Sabbath?"

And I said, "Oh no, that's because
we go to church up--"

[laughs]

And so that's when he knew I was treif.

So, he said: "That's fine.

But I don't think you should come here

to study Hebrew."”

When the Mel a med at
the temple told me to leave,

I thought,

[melancholic music plays]

[Narrator] Jewison signed on
to produce and direct Fiddler on the Roof

when Hollywood was coming apart.

♪ The hills are alive
with the sound of music ♪

[Narrator] In a mad rush to duplicate
the success of The Sound of Music,

the studios financed a string
of inept and overproduced musicals

that nearly bankrupt the industry.

These films featured stars
who could not belt out a tune.

♪ But suddenly my words
reach someone else's ear

Or stars of stage hits

who couldn't act for the camera.

♪ 'Old it, flash, bang,
wallop, what a picture ♪

♪ What a picture!
What a photograph

[Jewison] You know,
whether you're doing West Side Story

or whether you're doing
Hello, Dolly!, whatever.

It's always a challenge
to make something powerful out of it.

And I said, "The casting
has gotta be right in this film."

♪ Matchmaker, matchmaker

♪ Make me a match ♪

[Jewison]
I started to get these phone calls

Like Danny Kaye.

Danny Kaye wanted to play Tevye.

Then I get a phone call
from Frank Sinatra's manager.

I think: "Frank Sinatra
wants to play Tevye?!"

I couldn't believe it!

Couldn't believe it.

[Turan]
I saw the original Broadway run,

I bought standing room
when I was in high school or college,

to see Zero Mostel on Broadway.

Oh my God!
Zero Mostel was like,

I don't even know how to describe it.

I mean, he was just
a great theatrical actor.

We've seen him in films,
but he's one of these actors

that's almost too large for films.

Film tries to contain people,

and onstage you can
be as big as you can be.

And he was enormous,

but in a very light-hearted way,

in a very nimble way, he wasn't

like Laurence Olivier enormous.

But he had such a great energy,
such a great spirit.

He was almost like
twinkling on stage.

I can still see him
hopping along the stage, you know,

doing "If I was a wealthy man."

♪ If I were a rich man ♪

♪ Ya ba dibba dibba dibba
dibba dibba dibba dum ♪

[Jewison]
Zero Mostel really threw me off.

I really felt that
he was bigger than the play.

He was doing everything for laughs.

I felt he was too American.

I felt that he wasn't

what Sholem Aleichem had in mind.

I didn't feel he was a Russian dairyman.

[upbeat music]

Sheldon Harnick said,

"You know, there's
an Israeli guy, Topol.

"And he is playing the lead in London."

[Topol]
I was very lucky in Fiddler on The Roof

to be directed by
a genius, Jerry Robbins.

When Jerry auditioned me,

he was a very clear director.

For example, when he talked
to the cast in "Tradition."”

And he said to them,

"All I want from you that
you'll all be proud of your tradition.”

Now, how do you express
pride with your body?

He said, "I want long necks."”

Up. No gravitation.

I mean, up, up, up, up.

And that will...

will project pride.”

Which he was right.

♪ Tradition, tradition

♪ Tradition, tradition

[Jewison]
I flew to London and I saw Topol.

And I saw the play,
and all of a sudden

I felt truth.

I felt believability.

I felt that I wasn't looking
at an American Production

with a guy from
Brooklyn or something.

I felt he was proud

of being a Jew.

[Topol] When Norman Jewison
came in February '68,

which was the last month
I did a show in London,

and I didn't know he was there.

And the company manager
came after the show and said,

"Mr. Norman Jewison would like
to come backstage and see you."

I said, "With the greatest pleasure."

And then he sat down and said,

"I want you to play
the part in the film."

I grew up on Sholem Aleichem.

Sholem Aleichem stories
were my bedtime stories.

My father knew it all by heart,

so he didn't have really to read it.

Really from the day I remember myself,

I remember Sholem Aleichem.

[Turan] I feel a connection
to Sholem Aleichem's stories

the Tevye stories,
for a variety of reasons.

I mean, I come from
a Yiddish-speaking background.

My parents were native speakers,
they were immigrants.

Tevye is really a quintessential
Eastern European Jew.

That was the heart and soul
of Sholem Aleichem's work,

writing in Yiddish,
dealing with those people.

Topol was many things,
but no one would ever confuse him

with an Eastern European Jew.

And that didn't work for me.

That was a sticking point for me.

I mean, Israeli Jews
have a different physicality,

a different relationship to the world.

They wouldn't take
any guff from anybody.

And I think Topol as an actor
is very much in that tradition.

Topol was a universal Jew.

He was a Jew from everywhere.

Big and strong and
a great father and a great farmer,

and confident.

I see how he fits in with
Norman Jewison's conception.

But Jewison's idea was
to universalize the story.

He wanted everyone to see it.

I hope the Canadians like it.

I hope the Gentiles like it.

[laughter]

Okay. Alright.

[Harris] I realized that
if I wanted what I wanted

I had to do it from my soul

and I had to go after it in a way that

was not gonna follow
the rule book, because

I was a Semitic-looking actor

and, you know, there weren't
a lot of roles for people like me.

Once Barbra Streisand became famous,

I remember, I used to walk
around the halls like this,

covering up my nose, you know.

Like walking profile.

And then when she
became famous, some said,

"Roz, there's someone on
the Ed Sullivan Show looks like you."

And I went to the TV,

"Oh my God!"

And suddenly the hand
came away and I was proud.

Look!

[Marsh] I had done a production

of Tevye and his Daughters
in high school

and I played Bielke,

one of the younger daughters.

[Small] I started doing theater.

And I had done some television,

including some kind of version
of Sholem Aleichem's stories.

So, I come to New York.
I'm studying acting.

And I'm auditioning.

I get a call, "Rosalind, we want
to see you for the understudy to Tzeitel”

who was, at that time, Bette Midler.

And I get the role.
I'm understudying Tzeitel.

One day Bette said to me backstage,

"Roz, did you get
an audition for the film?

Listen, they don't want me,

get your ass down there."

I go, "Really?"”

I go down to the audition,
no appointment,

everyone there with
their agent, their manager.

And I just sat there
and every time they came out I said,

"Hello, I'm understudying
Tzeitel on Broadway

and I'd like to read.
I am Tzeitel."

I read and I sang "Matchmaker”

and they said,
"Get Jewison, he's at the hotel."

Norman says, "Go ahead sing”

and I sang all
three roles to "Matchmaker”

'cause I really didn't
know what else to sing.

|I was in the show!
So I'm singing, you know,

Chava's role and Hodel's role:

♪ Papa! [I
♪ Oh, Hodel! ♪

I'm running around
like a mad woman.

He's going, "Roz!

Sit, sit on your hands.

Sit on your hands
and just sing to Yente.

Just in one.
Just sing to Yente.

♪ Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
make me a match

And he's walking around me like this.

You know, all around,
like with the camera.

I was 22.

I was 22.
Yeah, I was 22.

At that time I was 17,
going on 18.

I sang in New York for Mr. Jewison.

And I sang for Mr. Williams.

Then, they flew me out

for two screen tests.

Because I'm such a strong singer,

they tested me for Chava,

and they tested me for Hodel.

[Marsh] I was in Oh! Calcutta!

The whole cast walked across the stage

and we had bathrobes on, but we--

[laughs]

I was raised very conservatively.

You don't raise your voice,
you don't cause a scene

in public or anything like this.

We were all arrested
for indecent exposure

and we were mugged
and fingerprinted.

I went in. John Williams
was there at the piano.

And Norman was there and
he gave me some adjustments after I read,

and he liked that I took his direction.

And then the inevitable question came,

"So, what have you been doing lately?"

And I said,

[sighs]

"I'm in Oh! Calcutta! but I hate it."

And Norman just looked at me...

And he leaned back,

and he said,

"I was there opening night."

"Hilly Elkins is a friend of mine."

That was the producer, Hilly Elkins.

And I thought,
"I'm screwed. That's it!"

I remember, I was in-between shows,
it was a matinee day.

And I came home. I was exhausted.

And the phone rings.

"Hello Rosalind,
this is Lynn Stalmaster.”

"How would you like to be Tzeitel
in the film of Fiddler on the Roof?

And I said, "Just a moment, please."

"I would love that."

And I put it down and screamed blood--

[screams]

And screamed bloody murder.

He gets back, "Are you okay?"

I said, "I'm fine."

[Marsh] I got a call
from my agent saying,

I was Norman's choice, but he wanted
to hear me sing one more time.

He worried about
my voice being too breathy.

Norman sent Johnny
and I into sound stage

so he could work with me.

About half an hour later,
Norman showed up

and I sang for him.

And Johnny says,
"No, we can make this work."”

"We can make her voice work."”

Norman walked to one end
of the sound stage and walked back...

pensively... and said,

"You've got the part.”

"You're going to be a star."

And I went "ah!"

[Williams] A polished, professional,

experienced, vocal
performance from these kids

may not be exactly what you want.

These are village kids.

You know, you want
to sit down on a chair

and rock and sing something that

is simple and believable, and... felt.

John Williams managed
to harness my singing,

especially singing of ballads.

And almost make the verse
that I do with the shawl

kind of ballad-like,

very whimsical.

♪ Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
I'll bring the veil ♪

♪ You bring the groom,
slender and pale &

♪ Bring me a ring
for I'm longing to be ♪

♪ The envy of all I see ♪

The first thing would be
my going to the piano

with that particular actor, with Norman

and finding a key for the song

that fit that particular person.

♪ Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
make me a match

♪ Find me a find ♪

♪ Catch me a catch

♪ Matchmaker, matchmaker
look through your book [

♪ And make me a perfect match ♪

Ah, can we do it once more, please?

[Williams] And the next thing
to do would be to sit with Norman

and discuss how he wanted
to plan the shooting of the scene.

Because he wants
to make these camera moves

which might elongate a shot,

or he may particularly want to take

a certain line in the song

in a close-up,

and the camera
was going to pull back this way,

which may affect the way
you kind of vocalize that line.

You may want to
project it a little bit more.

[vocalizing]

So it's almost like asking the director

to storyboard what
you're gonna do with musical numbers

as much as possible.

[Small] We sang the score
in the recording studios.

[Williams]
The singer would then go home

with his or her tape and practice for days.

[Small] We were given
a cassette version of the score

and asked to master our delivery.

Then come onto the stage

to a pre-agreed upon
choreography for the scene.

And Norman would shoot it.

All right. Rehearsal.

["Anatevka" playing]

♪ What do we leave? ♪

♪ Nothing much ♪

♪ Only Anatevka ♪

Bringing Fiddler to the big screen

was certainly one
of my great challenges

and also Norman's.

In early discussions about
what to do for the credits of the film,

the beginning of the film,

for which there was no music
from the Broadway show,

we had to create some music,
based on Bock and Harnick's score.

And Norman and I said,
"Who is the greatest fiddler?"

At that time in the world,
we would only say it would be Isaac Stern.

[Jewison] The Mirisch Company said,

"You can't hire Isaac Stern.”

"It's gonna cost too much money."

And I said,
"What are you talking about?”

"He's the best violinist in the world,

and he's a Russian Jew!"

[stutters]

"I'm telling you,
it will mean something to him."

So I flew to Chicago

where he was appearing
with the Chicago Symphony.

["Violin Concerto in D minor"]

And I said, "I want you to be

the fiddler on the roof.

He says,
"I can't climb up on a roof!"

I said, "No, no.
You don't have to play it."

I said,
"I will get an actor to play it."

"I'll get a musician, a violinist,

and he will sync with your recording,

but I want your sound.”

"I want your talent.
I want your love.”

"I want your devotion to this."”

So I got back on the plane

and flew to Los Angeles.

And I was so excited.

I called John Williams and I said,

"I met with Isaac Stern!"

"I think he's going to do it!"

["Prologue” playing]

[Jewison] And John Williams,

the conductor and arranger on the film,

was very excited to have Isaac Stern.

And so, John wrote this wonderful

cadenza in the opening music.

My musical chore was to write something

in a Jewish tradition for Isaac

to accompany five,
six, or seven minutes

of a camera probe
of a Marc Chagall painting

which could have been very beautiful.

Marc Chagall was famous for
Fiddler on the Roof and that image.

But sadly, we never got the painting,

but we got the cadenza and variations.

In the years since then,
I put it into a kind of concert version

which we played all over the world.

There's a...

a tear, there's a tear,

there's pain.

In Polish, Russian, Romanian,

I want to say Yiddish music.

I know we had him
for two days in London.

[Jewison] And I'll never forget
when Isaac Stern came in,

all the orchestra went,

"Maestro, Maestro."”

And he walked in with his fiddle.

And then I had bought,
at auction in Sotheby's,

a Chagall.

And it was a sketch of The Fiddler.

So now, as Isaac Stern
walked into the orchestra

to record, I held up The Fiddler

and I tapped on the glass

and he looked, and he says,
"We have Chagall here?"”

"We have The Fiddler here?"”

And he says,

"I'm going to play it
a quarter tone flat."

Because, he said,

"Chagall's uncle used to get drunk

and climb up on the roof

and play the fiddle.
That's where he got the idea!”

["Prologue” plays]

[Jewison] The production designer

is the one relationship
that a director has

that starts long before the film begins

and doesn't end until the last shot.

And the good ones
can have a great effect

upon the look of the film itself.

[door closes]

[Tevye sighs]

And all this from killing
innocent animals.

-Don't touch anything.
-All right.

[Jewison]
Bob, as a production designer,

could bring to each story

a look that seemed to be organic,

that seemed to be part of
those people and their lives.

With Norman, you get
together and you talked a lot.

And you discussed
mostly these human values.

What were we after?
What were we trying to say

about this situation or this person?

[Jewison]
I was in awe of Robert Boyle

because he had done
all those films with Hitchcock.

[Narrator]
Robert Boyle had recently designed

another movie version
of a Broadway smash:

How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying

♪ This book is all that I need {

[Narrator] The big numbers
were choreographed for studio sets

and shot as if the camera
were facing a proscenium.

[cow mooing]

[Narrator] /In Fiddler,
Jewison aims to stage the numbers

throughout his own
little piece of the Old Country.

He wants Topol to sing
"If I Were a Rich Man"

as Tevye feeds his horse, in a barn.

Working with John Williams
and choreographer Tommy Abbott,

Boyle lays out the barn

so Topol can climb to the loft

at a precise moment in the song.

♪ There would be one
long staircase just going up ♪

♪ And one even
longer coming down ♪

♪ And one more leading
nowhere, just for show ♪

♪ I wouldn't have to work hard ♪

♪ Ya ba dibba dibba dibba
dibba dibba dibba dum ♪

♪ If I were a biddy biddy rich ♪

[Williams] Just parenthetically,

just showing me that
little bit of Topol up on the barn

that's worth the price of the ticket.

Just watching just that little... piece!

The collaborative process
of making a musical number

fit all the choreographed
action in the scene

is sort of basically... arithmetic.

Like Topol going up
the ladder in his barn.

How many beats do we need
to get from here to there?

We've got to take one step
off the ladder so he gets up quicker.

Or we've got to add two beats of music

so that he can get up there
a couple of beats later to make his turn.

Jewison is one of the few
directors who understood that.

How do we do that musically?

[Boyle] The idea of
Fiddler on the Roof is very concrete.

We understand the idea,

but to make it understandable
in a physical sense,

we have to organize all of
the different things that go into it.

Tevye's house.

Tevye's synagogue.

Tevye's relation of
the religion to the community.

All of this has to be
synthesized in such a way

That it becomes dramatically... involving.

What is important about a community?
It's the people within it.

Look at this!

Look what it says in the paper!

[Boyle] So we have
to make it physically possible

to bring all of the people into focus

so that they don't become too confusing.

We have to understand the people.

So we have to make it possible

for them to be understood.

"In a village called Rajanka,

all the Jews were evicted,

forced to leave their homes."

For what reason?

It doesn't say.

Maybe the Tsar wanted their land.

Maybe a plague.

May the Tsar have
his own personal plague!

Amen!

The research for the film was,

a lot of it was right in this house.

My wife, Bess,
had been a child actress

in the Yiddish theater in New York

and was steeped
in the Yiddish language.

She could speak it.

She knew all about Sholem Aleichem,

and all of these stories, so

I didn't come to this
without some previous knowledge.

[Jewison] I remember Bob
bringing me a whole book

of photographs by Vishniac.

And he came to me and he says,

"I have found it."

"I have found the answer
to the whole film."

He said, "We've got costumes,
we've got everything.”

Because he was taking
photographs of shtetl life.

This became our bible, Vishniac,

those photographs,
because they were so honest.

They were so real.

And I based all my costume design

and everything on
these photographs of shtetl life.

[Narrator]
The Russian-French artist Marc Chagall

inspired the creators
of the Broadway show

with paintings of a fiddler
floating just above the roof,

or standing with one foot on the roof

and the other on the ground.

Jerome Robbins and his
production designer Boris Aronson

emulated Chagall's sprightly
and often surreal visual style.

The fiddler became
the show's key metaphor.

Tevye says:

Could we have Tutti on the roof?

Dick, tell Tutti to get on the roof!

[Narrator]
Jewison wanted to make Chagall's

archetype fiddle
and dance in the real world.

Go on, children.
Another story tomorrow.

[Jewison]
I felt the ambience and the reality

you found on location,
where a story actually took place,

put the actors into a different mode.

[Boyle] When we looked for locations,

we know we're going
to do a musical play.

So we carried the music from the musical

with us on tapes,

and whenever we go into a village,

we'd turn on our tapes,

and try to feel how this music

or how this village
was reacting to the music.

If it felt wrong,
we'd pass up that town.

I'm not a dancer nor do I sing.

But I had this tape recorder,

and I would try
to pace out the distances

according to the musical beats.

Because in doing a musical,

we were dependent
upon the choreography.

In other words, how long it took
to get from point A to point B.

If, according to the music,

let's say Miracle of Miracles
or one of those,

you would sort of do a dance!

♪ Wonder of wonders,
miracle of miracles ♪

♪ I was afraid that God would frown ♪

♪ But like he did
so long ago in Jericho ♪

♪ God just made a wall fall down [

[somber music playing]

[Jewison] ] said to Bob Boyle,

"Our biggest problem
is to make this film

and make it look
like we're in Russia."”

Now we can't go to Russia

because of the political system.

Let's get as close as
we can to that look.

So then, someone said,

"You should try Yugoslavia

because Tito has the biggest
standing army in Europe

and he has his own independence,

the Russians won't
come in to Yugoslavia

because Tito was too strong."

And I said, "Does he like movies?"

And they said,
"Oh yeah, yeah, he does like movies."

So we flew to Zagreb.

And then we went out
into the countryside

and we found this
little village called Lekenik.

And I said, "You know,
this could be Anatevka, right here."

"Look at this village."

"These little old houses, barns."

"Look at this place.”

"We can build our own synagogue,

we can build Tevye's little barn."”

Bob Boyle says, "You know,

this looks exactly like it would

150, 200 years ago.”

So that's when we started
to negotiate with Tito.

There were no wooden synagogues left

in Europe after the Holocaust.

Those had all been burned.

We found records
of the old wooden synagogues

and we managed to build
a synagogue based on those records.

We relied on peasant workmen.

People who were used to building barns

and houses out of wood.

And we found that
the systems of construction

and even the kind of wood that was used
in the building of the synagogue

were almost identical.

[Narrator] Critic and professor
Alisa Solomon, in her book

Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History
of Fiddler on the Roof,

was the first to note
how critical the synagogue was

to defining tradition in Jewison's movie.

Solomon marvels
at Boyle's Anatevka shul,

"with images of a curly-horned
ram against a lavender sky,

a pair of scales balanced just so,

a brown scorpion
crawling on a blue field."”

"This enchanting folk art,

which mixed images of nature and text,

secular hope and sacred prayer,

was not widely known among Americans,

Jewish or not, in 1971."

As Solomon concludes,

"It made the movie's shul
lovely and strange:

an old-world relic of quiet grandeur.”

Now, it would be nice...

What if we just went opposite?

We follow them around
with a hand-held this way.

Then they come back into us this way.

-Yes
-Now they're tight to us.

Now they start that way.

And we go this way.
And all you would get is just--

That's right. Yes.
That would be fine. Fine.

It's excitement,
even if it's only good for--

["Wedding Celebration
And The Bottle Dance" plays]

[Jewison] Ozzie Morris

was one of the most brilliant
cinematographers in England

at that time.

And I knew he
had worked with John Huston

and I knew he loved challenges.

[Morris] Fiddler was
a cinematographer's dream.

It really was. I mean,
it had everything in it, you know,

dawn, day, dusk, sunset, night,

winter, autumn and summer.

I went out early with Norman Jewison

to look at the locations

and he said, "I want you to come up
with a color style for the film."

[Jewison] I said, "It's got to have
a faded look to it."

"It's got to have browns

and no vibrant colors,

no hot colors.”

[Morris] So I said, "Look, I'll get
a crew and I'll go out

and we'll do some tests.”

Now, I noticed that where we did it,

a place called Lekenik,

everything was the color
of the soil, a rich brown.

All the people,
the men that worked on the soil

had it ingrained
in their faces, in their hands.

The houses had this sort of gray,

brown veneer on it almost.

And the interiors are the same.

It's the dust from the soil.

And I thought, well this is an idea,

but how do I make
everything sort of brown?

[Jewison] So he said to me,

"Maybe I should shoot it
through something?"

And he looked at a girl walking

down the... hall

and he said, "You know, if I had a...

maybe a silk stocking...

and I could cut a piece

and put it in front of the camera--"

I said, "Put it in front of the lens?!"

"Are you crazy?"

"You can't put it in front of the lens!"

[Morris] In those days,
they didn't have seamless stockings,

They had a seam down
the back and we had a big lens.

The front lens was very big,

so I needed a bit of stocking

that would cover the whole of the lens.

So I sent a clapper boy into Zagreb

to buy a whole bundle
of ladies silk stockings,

the largest size there was.

So the clapper boy comes back
with all these stockings.

And we did some tests.

And we sat and ran them.

And I remember Norman saying,

Let's go.

"Ozzie, that's the way I think
Fiddler on the Roof should look."”

And the world was my oyster then.

[Jewison]
I was an actor myself,

and that's helped me a great deal
in my relationship with actors,

in the way I work with them.

But I don't think a director's ego
should ever get in the way.

It's about Lazar Wolf, the butcher.

A good man. A fine man.

And I don't have to tell you
he's well-off, no? Yes!

[Harris] On stage, I don't think
I did a characterization of Yente.

I think I did it as Tzeitel.

But when Norman
saw me do it, he said,

"No, no, I want you
to impersonate Molly Picon."

♪ Hodel, oh Hodel!
Have I got a match for you! ♪

♪ He's handsome, he's young! »

♪ Alright, he's 62

♪ But he's a nice man,
a good catch, true?

♪ True!!

[Harris] And that was new for me.

I wish I'd even done it bigger.

♪ Tzeitel, oh Tzeitel!
Have I made a match for you! ♪

You know. So, I was young.

But it was enough, it was enough.

[Small] Sometimes,
Norman Jewison would actually--

Not so much in the dramatic scenes,

but sometimes in the fun scenes,

I think maybe he couldn't help himself,

and he would become a girl

and become one
of the daughters and kind of

do the reading.

Not that he was giving us line readings,

but it was such a delight

to see him turn
into a 16-year-old girl.

[Harris]
Part of his genius is that he hires actors

that know their part,

and that are
magically connected to their role

and just work.

And then he kind of
stays out of the way.

[Marsh] Norman was a very gentle,

supportive director.

And then he would give suggestions

of what you were missing.

I felt insecure, not being Jewish.

I felt insecure that
he was gonna change his mind.

I have a couple of letters,

notes that Norman wrote

to me that just mean the world to me.

Let me see, I have to--

It says,

"Dearest Michele,

something to carry you
through this film and always."

"I hope this will be one of the most
memorable experiences of your life."

"You are everything
I wanted Hodel to be."

I'm going to tear up now.

"Much success and joy
attends you always."

"Love, Norman."

I mean...

I'm a very good teacher.

I heard once that the rabbi
who must praise himself

has a congregation of one.

[laughter]

Your daughter has
a quick and witty tongue.

I think that Hodel really
has kind of a mind of her own.

And she's not afraid to go with it.

I believe she was very brave.

In many ways I was... I still am,

insecure.

But that's where
I found some confidence,

or I found my strength,

when I was playing a character.

So I discovered Hodel

as I was discovering myself

playing Hodel.

[Small] The chemistry
with the sisters came pretty naturally.

We were all young women

and we were all
living in the same place.

[Harris] The girls were my family.
They were my sisters.

Michele and I were closer in age

and we would do girl talk.

It was very much like
the family dynamic, to be truthful.

It didn't feel like acting.

[Marsh] Getting to know
the actresses who played my sisters,

I would hang out
with them and compare notes

on how a scene is going for you or not,

I think that brought
us close together,

which gives you the sense of family.

["Wedding Celebration
And The Bottle Dance“ plays]

Doing the wedding scene,
Roz and I were very close.

She was just following through
an instinct to give me a hug,

Michele, Neva and I decided

that we are really Method Actors

and we should be real to the time,

turn of the century in Europe.

So we all decided
to grow our hair, everywhere.

And we're filming "Matchmaker?”...

♪ Matchmaker, matchmaker,
you know that |

And Norman says, "Stop the cameras.”

"What the heck's going on here?"

"Well, we want to be real.”

"We wanted to look
like European women."

He says, "Okay."

"I'm going to stop filming.
Go back to the hotel,

shave your pits."

When we were filming "Matchmaker”,

I was always stuffing my apron

with donuts and things,
and iced donuts and cupcakes.

Fabulous food, you know,
for the crew and the cast.

We gained weight,

and Norman said,
"You're getting to be pudgy.”

He had to close down
shooting for about a week.

[indistinct yelling]

What's your line? What's your line?

"If the terms..."

"We drank on it,
but the terms weren't settled.”

"Once a butcher, always a butcher."

Stop. Stop. Stop.

[Topol] On top of being lucky

to be directed by Jerry Robbins,

I had the privilege
of working with Norman Jewison,

who needed to make it
now right for the camera.

Not for the last row in the theater.

But for the camera,

which is three yards away from you

or two yards away from you.

So what can we do?

So that was a process

that definitely helped me

not to overdo things
which you're allowed on stage,

so to speak, but to minimize, really.

Golde?

♪ Do you love me? ♪

Do I what?

♪ Do you love me? ♪

I remember the feeling, you know,

of translating it, so to speak,

transferring it from
scenes that I do on stage.

It's a retrospect that he sings:

"The first time I met you
was on our wedding day."”

♪ The first time I met you
was on our wedding day ♪

♪ I was scared
3 I was shy!

♪ I was nervous ♪
♪ So was !'

"But my father and my mother..."

♪ But my father and my mother ♪

"Told me that
we would learn to love each other.

Now I'm asking..."

So now I'm asking, Golde,

♪ Do you love me? [

[Topol] So you can
do it in a hundred ways

especially if you are on stage

and we were not restrained
by Norman Jewison

who says, "The camera sees every nod

and every blink in your eyes”

and so on and so forth.

Don't work too hard.

Well, Anatevka hasn't exactly
been the Garden of Eden.

That's true.

[Topol] After we are told that
we have to leave Anatevka,

Tevye says,

"Someone should have set a match

to this place long ago."

And that's my father.

Someone should have
set a match to this place

years ago.

A bench.

A tree.

What's a house?

Every night, when I say it,

I know it's my father.

When I worked in Poland,

I went to Volomin, to the shtetl
where my father came from,

near Warsaw.

I took a camera and I went
to the house he lived in

and I photographed the staircase

from the point of view
of a young child.

And I took photographs of the apartment

and of the house from the outside,

of the courtyard, and so on
and so forth, of their shop.

And when I came back home,

I went to my father
and I showed him the photographs.

And I remember his face.
He looked at it, I said to him,

"Do you recognize it? This is your..."

And he looked at it

and he wiped

all the photographs... to the floor.

Obviously, I knew why he did it.

I mean, that's the place
that his parents,

his sisters didn't want
to leave when he left

and thought that
he was nuts to leave.

And none of them have survived.

And he was saying,

"I knew that
that was going to happen.”

So when I play Tevye,

it's commemorating my father,

my grandfather,
and my grand grandfather.

It was quite possible,
I was worried about it,

but I found it was quite possible
for me to identify with Tevye.

And to identify
with the Jewish religion.

The more I studied it
and the more I exposed myself to

Jewish homes, more orthodox homes.

I spent quite a bit
of time in Jerusalem and

I identify I think with
certain aspects of the Jewish religion.

I find it a very personal religion.

And any deep feelings I have at all

about God and about my own religion

are very personal.

[Narrator] Jewison
embraced Tevye's monologues

as dialogues with God.

Sometimes God is Tevye's straight man.

I know, I know.
We are the chosen people.

But once in a while,
can't you choose someone else?

[Narrator] And sometimes,
Tevye is God's fall guy.

Really. Sometimes I think,

when things are too quiet up there,

you say to yourself,

"Let's see. What kind of mischief

can I play on my friend Tevye?"

[Narrator] But God is always
present around him.

Whether Tevye is conjuring
some serious mischief

about a graveyard dream.

Or beseeching God
to explain injustice.

[Jewison]
You know, Topol was wonderful.

And it was remarkable

how well he did.

[Raim] Was he really looking at--
on a boom poll, a white dot?

Yeah. And he said...

And I said, "For instance,
you're always talking about God,

and you look up
there and you see him."

"And you should be able to--

But you must always
look at the same place.”

♪ You decreed I should be what I am ♪

♪ Would it spoil
some vast eternal plan ♪

So, he said,
"Well, how can we do that?"

And I said,
"I'm going to put a stick."

So |I got a big pole

and I put a white card on it.

And I held it up.

And he would look at the camera

and then he would look up at God.

And that worked.

[drum resounding]

[Jewison] We were always
looking for sunrises and sunsets.

And I'll never forget
when we did the wedding scene.

I wanted it to be shot just at sunset,

just with candles

lighting everybody's faces.

That's the way I see it.

I said it would be wonderful
if everybody brought candles

and we lit the whole
thing with candles.

Isn't there some way
if we shoot it the mystic hour?”

So Ozzie Morris got three candles,

put them together, lit them all,

and made enough candle power.

And I must say that whole scene,

the wedding scene
is probably the best

lit scene in any film I've done.

I mean, it is just magical.

And we managed
to get the right tone

for the song and for
the wedding number.

[Tevye]
♪ Is this the little girl I carried? ♪

♪ Is this the little boy at play? ♪

[Golde]
♪ I don't remember growing older ♪

♪ When did they? ♪

[Jewison] "Sunrise, Sunset”

is probably in my opinion,

one of the best songs
in the whole score.

The lyrics of the song
that Sheldon Harnick wrote

are so beautiful.

He's now in his 90s.

He's still alive.
He's the only one who's still alive.

[Harnick] "Sunrise, Sunset”
is about being a parent

and watching your children grow.

And when I worked
on "Sunrise, Sunset”

I wanted it to be a song that
they could sing at that ceremony.

So I thought, I don't even
think I thought about it,

it's just when I started working it,

I guess unconsciously, was the idea
that this is about a parent

singing about the children
who have grown up

and thinking about that process.

The music is played at every wedding

[laughs]

Since 1972.

[laughs]

[Harnick singing]
♪ Is this the little girl I carried? ♪

♪ Is this the little boy at play? ♪

♪ I don't remember growing older ♪

♪ When did they? ♪

♪ When did she get to be a beauty? [I

♪ When did he grow to be so tall? ♪

♪ Wasn't it yesterday
When they were small?

3 Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset

♪; Swiftly fly the years ♪

♪ One season following another ♪

♪ Laden with happiness and tears ♪

You're not crying.
What, how come?

What a lot of people may not
know about Norman Jewison

is that he's a man who is
fiercely committed to social justice.

I've met very few people
who have his kind of passion,

where it's just
in every aspect of his life.

[Jewison]
I was in the Canadian Navy

and I joined up when I was very young,
I was only 17-and-a-half.

And I only served a
year-and-a-half or so, or two years.

And then the war was over.

But they gave you leave at the end.

So I got very excited
because I thought,

"Well, I'll take a trip!"

I've always wanted
to go to the States.

Go all the way to New Orleans.

I love jazz.

So I got on this bus.

And I sat at the back of the bus.

And then I heard the bus driver,

and he was looking
in his rear vision mirror

and he says,
"You trying to be funny, sailor?"

I said, "What's the problem?”

And he says,
"Can't you read the sign?”

And I looked up,
and there was a sign in the bus.

And all it said was,
"Colored people to the rear.”

So I looked around me, and

there was a couple of African
American people sitting there.

And then I looked,
and then sure enough,

the whole front
of the bus was white.

And they were all looking at me.

And I didn't know what to do,
and I was very embarrassed.

"Cause I was a kid, you know,

I was very young, 19 years old.

I didn't know.

So I didn't know what to do, so |

picked up my sea bag and I said,

"Let me off the bus.”

He opened the door very...

[laughs]

Thankfully, I would imagine,

and put me off the bus.

And I stood there in the sun,

watching the bus pull away.

And I thought to myself,

of all the thousands
of African American soldiers,

sailors, airmen,

all of those men and women

many of them who gave
their lives defending America.

And I thought, "This isn't right.”

"When they come home,

they have to sit
at the back of the bus?"

"They can't sit where they want?"

I thought, "This isn't right."

I was totally disillusioned in America

It was the politics. It was the fear

of what was going to happen
to America at that time.

And there was problems in Israel,
there was problems in Europe.

And unfortunately, two actors
that I was supposed to audition,

Hanna Maron and Assaf Dayan,

were injured on trying to get to me

when the plane landed in Munich

and there was a terrorist attack.

So, there were things
happening in the world.

And there was things happening
in the world of Anatevka, in the story.

So I think it all started
to churn together

as I was making the film.

On my way.

Where are you going?

Chicago. In America.

Chicago, America?

We are going to New York, America.

The exodus

of all the people in Anatevka,

going to different parts of the world,

some going to Israel,
some going to America.

It's the history, in a way,

of the Jewish people moving

out of Eastern Europe
and out of Russia,

at a period in history where
they were being forced out

through antisemitism and pogroms.

[people screaming]

[glass shatters]

And so I wanted to put up
a pogrom into the film.

I thought we could do something
that they could never do in the play.

I wanted to show the Cossacks.

I wanted to show
a little bit of the violence.

I wanted to take Perchik,

I wanted him to wave a red flag

and to show the rise of communism

against the Tsar,

against the establishment at that time.

[crowd cheering]

The time has come.

And the time is now.

Now we stand here before you

Not one, but many.

Many like you.

Students, workers,

striving for a better life.

Your father is coming.

Chava, let me talk to him.
Let me tell him about us.

No, Fyedka. That would be
the worst thing. I'm sure of it.

But let me try!

No. I'll talk to him.

I promise.

[Harnick] Chava, in one of
the Sholem Aleichem Tevye stories,

she marries a Russian.

She marries outside of the faith.

Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon.

[Harnick]
And in the original Tevye stories

and in our show, Fiddler on the Roof,

at that time,
Tevye had to declare her dead.

That was what it meant
to be a truly, deeply orthodox Jew.

If the daughter married out of the faith

you declared her dead.

[Topol]
I can tell you that this is the point

that I cherish in the second act.

I'll tell you more than that,

I deliberately kill the jokes there.

Fyedka is not a creature, Papa.

Fyedka is a man.

Who says he isn't?

It's just that he is
a different kind of man.

As the Good Book says,

"Each shall seek his own kind."”

When he says, "A bird may love a fish,

but where would they build
a home together?"

That's a very good joke.

But I stretch it in a way

that they'll get the humor,
but won't laugh.

The world is changing, Papa.

No, Chaveleh.

No.

Some things do not change for us.

Because I don't want them to laugh there,

I want them to be with Tevye

who in a few minutes will say,
"Chava is dead to us.”

I want them to cry together with me.

Chava.

[Harnick] In one of the
Sholem Aleichem Tevye stories,

when Tevye and the other
children who are still with them,

when they have to leave Anatevka,

Chava comes back.

She has left her husband.

The relationship has not worked out.

And I was so glad
we didn't know about that

because originally,

Joe Stein had to figure out
how to end the Chava story.

What Joe did,
he had Chava marry Fyedka.

Papa?

We came to say goodbye.

And they come to say goodbye

to Tevye and Golde and the family

when they're leaving for America.

Tevye, who has declared her dead,

just goes on with his
packing and ignores her,

and ignores her and ignores her.

Goodbye, Papa.

Mama?

And then finally,
just before they leave,

he can't stand it anymore,
and he turns to them and he says:

And God be with you.

And it's so moving.

She's his child.

And God be with you.

We will write to you
in America, if you like.

We will be staying with Uncle Avram!

Yes, Mama.

And no matter what's happened,
she remains his child.

And he loves her
and he has to connect with her.

So that's the last thing he says to her.

And then they leave.

[Raim] That's Joe Stein?

And that's Joe Stein.

Joe invented that ending.

We need the first light snow,

which I'm hoping we'll get, you know

just a very light November snow.

I found that if we used
marble dust very lightly,

didn't try to make it look like
there was a heavy snow...

I think it's fairly successful in the film

because we only shot on
days where the sky was darker

than the snow itself.

Which really gives you
an indication of winter.

They insisted I shoot
the Hodel farewell scene

when she goes to Siberia
and Tevye takes the railway.

And they insisted I shoot that

regardless of the weather in Yugoslavia.

But I refused and came back to London.

[Narrator] According to Oswald Morris,

the wedding celebration
precipitated a crisis.

The cinematographer
writes in his memoir:

"The shindig called for men to prance
around with bottles on their heads."

"By now the nights were getting colder.”

["Wedding Celebration
And The Bottle Dance“ plays]

"The dancers approached Norman,

who decided that the set should
be rebuilt at Pinewood Studios,

where they would feel safe

and so perform
much more spectacularly.”

["Wedding Celebration
And The Bottle Dance“ plays]

"We spent over two months at Pinewood

completing the wedding
and bottle dance sequences,

the famous dream scene,

and the confrontation in the bar."”

"When our small nucleus
returned to Yugoslavia

in mid-February for the farewell scene,

what did we find?"

"Bright, crisp sunshine,
and not a speck of snow!"”

"We completed the opening
and closing long shots

at first light, before the sun had risen

and after it had set.”

"I used graduated filters

to give the sky an eerie effect.”

"I felt I had imbued the scene

with the right sombre, isolated quality."”

"Though I readily admit
that having real snow

would have made it perfect.”

[Marsh] Probably before Perchik,

it never had dawned on Hodel
that she would leave home.

It's a very difficult decision,

but... that's where her heart is.

And she has to go.

Will I even remember the words?

[laughs]

♪ How can I hope
to make you understand ♪

♪ Why I do what !I do? &

♪ Once I was happily content to be I

♪ As I was ♪

I'm going to start crying.

♪ Where I was ♪

♪ Close to the people
who are close to me ♪

♪ Here in the home |I love

♪ Oh, what a melancholy
choice this is I

♪ Wanting home, wanting him ♪

The last day of filming was

"Far from the Home I Love".

Papa!

God alone knows when
we shall see each other again.

Then... we will leave it in his hands.

[Marsh] And the last shot
for me is climbing on the train

and waving goodbye to papa.

And then that was it.

It didn't feel real.

It didn't feel real,
didn't want it to be.

It was the most important thing
I've ever worked on.

And I don't think anything
ever matched it again.

I don't think anything ever could.

I mean, what a gift
I was given, what a gift.

[Harris] This film, for 30 years,

was a credit on my resume,

and that was a very good credit.

One day, I was taking a course

and it was a seminar,
and I stood up and I said

"Look, some of you may remember me

from the film I did
when I was very young,

Fiddler on the Roof,
and I played Tzeitel."

I thought a bomb went off,
because I went

"What's happening?"

Because there was
this huge uproar of applause.

Wow! And I go, "What is that?"

And suddenly, it was a legend

and suddenly I was a celebrity.

And I went, "Wow!"

[Small] What Fiddler on the Roof
means for me today

is the joy that I have
when people tell me

"I saw the movie with my grandmother!"

"I played the part in high school.”

All of that.

[Turan]
The film is almost of a piece.

It's almost like Brigadoon.

It exists in and of itself.

These actors came together,

and it wasn't
a launching pad for anyone.

You know, it just
existed in and of itself.

They created this world

and then like Brigadoon,
they just went away.

One of the last things
you see in the film

is it says, "Made in Yugoslavia.”

This is another place
that is no more.

It is no more, you know.

Country is gone.

And it's just something very
poignant about this kind of loss.

They didn't know that
when they made the film.

They thought Yugoslavia was like Spain.

It would be there forever.

But now people say
"The former Yugoslavia."

I mean, I guess that's one
of the things that Fiddler is about.

Nothing is permanent.

They think they're
going to be there forever.

They've always been there,
and then one day

the authorities shows up
and they say, "You're leaving.”

And the same thing
happened with Yugoslavia,

I think those people
thought that country would last.

And for variety of reasons it did not.

[Topol] I saw it in Yugoslavia.

I saw it in Turkey.
I saw it in Tokyo.

And it doesn't matter whether
they are Jewish or not Jewish.

I mean over
one billion people saw the film.

So they couldn't all be Jewish.

And the issues

that Sholem Aleichem has brought in

and deals with are universal issues.

[Jewison] I'll never forget
when United Artists called me,

and they said,
"We just opened in Japan

and the Japanese love this film!"

And I said, "They love it

because it's the
breaking down of tradition.”

"And they know
all about that in Japan.”

"And I'm telling you,

Sholem Aleichem
is going to speak to the Japanese

through Fiddler."

And they're going to understand

so much about not only
about Jewish culture

and Jewish life,

but also about the problems

that have created
Israel in the first place."

I'll never forget,
when the film opened,

we had our first screening in Israel

for Golda Meir.

And Golda, the first half of the film,

she sat with Topol.

And then, for the second half,

I sat beside Golda Meir.

And I was waiting,

looking at her,
out of the corner of my eye.

Does she like this?

And I was waiting to see
what her reaction would be.

And then when they sang "Anatevka"

and everybody had to leave,

I was watching her and I saw...

she didn't want me
to see that she was crying...

But she went, "Ah," like that.

I thought, "Oh I think she likes it."

And then she just put her hand out

and squeezed my arm.

And I thought...

Powerful.

And that was like a blessing.

And it meant a great deal to me.

In a way, I found myself
in making the film.

I met Ben-Gurion in Israel,

because I was making
Jesus Christ Superstar.

And I found that he was living

on the edge of the Dead Sea,

close to where I was shooting.

And I jumped in the jeep,

and we drove down
to this tiny village.

Drove up and I went in

and a housekeeper came in
with a little silver teapot,

poured me a cup of tea,
with a little piece of sugar beside it.

And then in came Ben-Gurion

with the white hair
all pulled out, you know.

And he says, "Norman Jewison."

"Norman Jewison."

"What kind of a Jew are you?"

I looked at him and I said,

"What is a Jew,

President Ben-Gurion?"

He looked at me,

got very quizzical.

"Anybody who is crazy enough

to want to be Jewish is Jewish!"

[laughs]

So I just thought,

"Thank God, I got it from Ben-Gurion."

"If I'm crazy enough
to want to be Jewish, I'm Jewish."

"He told me that."”

"I accept that."

When I got married to Lynne

here in Malibu where we have a house,

I asked the local Rabbi,

which was a woman,
if she would marry us.

And she said,
"Well, I can marry anybody."

And I said, "We would like
to get married under the chuppah.”

So we got a chuppah,

put it up, and we invited

some very close friends
of ours to be the chuppah holders.

[laughs]

And we had...

a true Jewish wedding.

[Williams] I remember it
as a great personal experience

working with Norman.

It was a life experience.

I haven't worked with him since,
sadly, but he's a pal for life.

He said to me on the phone last night,

he said, "John, I'm older than you are.”

And I said to him,
"Norman, you will never be older than I..."

"You'll always be younger than I am."

And he's younger
than all of us, I think.

He's a very, very
special, treasured man.

What is it about
the fiddler and the fiddle

that we can't let go of?

I'm a musician.

We love the violin.

It's our inspiration as musicians.

It's the closest thing
to a human voice that there is.

That's a fiddle.

That's why we need fiddlers.

[Jewison]
When they're leaving in great despair

again it happens.

[Jewison hums]

And he turns and he looks
and there's the fiddler,

standing all alone.

He says, "You're going to forget me?"”

"Are you going to leave me behind?"

"Are you going to leave
your spirit behind?"”

So essentially the fiddler
is the spirit of the Jewish people.

Whatever that is,
whatever that means.

It's magic.

[loud applause]

Ladies and gentlemen

the The Irving G.
Thalberg Award recipient

Mr. Norman Jewison!

["If I Were A Rich Man" playing]

[loud applause]

["If I Were A Rich Man" playing]

[Jewison sings]
♪ If was a wealthy man, ♪

♪ Oy! ♪

Oy!

Not bad for a Goy!

[audience laughs]