Enemies: A Love Story (1989)

A ghostwriter finds himself romantically involved with his current wife, a married woman and his long-vanished wife.

Director:

Paul Mazursky

Writers:

Isaac Bashevis Singer (novel), Roger L. Simon (screenplay)

Stars:

Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ron Silver	...	Herman
Anjelica Huston	...	Tamara
Lena Olin	...	Masha
Malgorzata Zajaczkowska	...	Yadwiga (as Margaret Sophie Stein)
Alan King	...	Rabbi Lembeck
Judith Malina	...	Masha's Mother
Rita Karin	...	Mrs. Schreier
Phil Leeds	...	Pesheles
Elya Baskin	...	Yasha Kobik
Paul Mazursky	...	Leon Tortshiner
L.J. Dollinger	...	Reb Nissen Yaroslaver
Zypora Spaisman	...	Sheva Haddas
Arthur Grosser	...	Doctor
Burney Lieberman	...	Yom Kippur Cantor
Nathaniel Katzman	...	Wedding Cantor

Storyline

Set in 1949 New York, a Holocaust survivor who makes a living as a ghostwriter for a Jewish rabbi, finds himself involved with three women - his current wife, a passionate affair with a married woman, and his long-vanished wife whom he thought was killed during the war and suddenly reappears. The film concentrates on the views of the Jewish survivors, who no longer abide by religious morales and question a God who could let the Holocaust occur.

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Plot Keywords:

survivor | jewish | rabbi | holocaust survivor | central park manhattan new york city | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 December 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Enemigos - Una historia de amor

Filming Locations:

Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$9,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$7,754,571

Company Credits

Production Co:

Morgan Creek Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was one of a number of movies in a 1980s Hollywood cycle of pictures about divorce. Initiated by the Best Picture Oscar winning film Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the cycle included that movie as well as Shoot the Moon (1982), The Champ (1979), Author! Author! (1982), Table for Five (1983), Heartburn (1986), Irreconcilable Differences (1984), Enemies: A Love Story (1989), The Good Mother (1988), The War of the Roses (1989) and The Last Married Couple in America (1980).

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Quotes

Tamara: Don't worry. She won't divorce you. If she does, you can always go to the other one. She throws you out too -- you can come to me.

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Connections

Referenced in Siskel & Ebert: Blue Steel/Lord of the Flies/Nuns of the Run/The Last of the Finest/Black Rain (1990)

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Soundtracks

Leap Frog
Music by Joe Garland and Les Brown
Performed by Les Brown and His Band of Renown

User Reviews

worth a second look

Very little in the previous career of director Paul Mazursky gave any hint of the depth and complexity of this comedy drama, adapted from an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about the misadventures of a Jewish refugee (Ron Silver) in New York City shortly after World War Two. Silver has a few problems most men wouldn't mind sharing, including a wife who is more a devoted servant and a mistress as passionate as she is temperamental, but the cozy arrangement is complicated by the unexpected return of his first wife, long thought dead, to act as a ghostly conscience and councilor for her bewildered husband. The film is so well made, with such attention to period flavor and detail, that it seems mean to point out its few nagging shortcomings: the haphazard structure, with too many sudden, incompatible changes in mood, and the equally inconsistent characters (it's never made clear, for example, why all three women are so devoted to this particular nobody). Too bad some of the effort that went into the production didn't first go into the script, but it's still an unusually rich experience, with an added dimension of depth from the specters of the Holocaust still haunting each character.