“Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Dust,” opens on March 19, in a limited number of theaters (Closest to Cincinnati is Cinemark Milford 16 in Milford).
Here’s a short version of the official publicity release: [The film] captures extraordinary live performances of some of Zimmer’s most revered compositions including music from “Dune,” “Gladiator,” “Interstellar,” “The Lion King” and much more. These performances deliver an intimate and unique experience of Zimmer’s most loved movie soundtracks. [Here’s a partial list] of the conversations in the film: Billie Eilish, Christopher Nolan, TIMOTHEE CHALAMET and Zendaya.
The film soundtrack of every film listed above was Oscar-nominated. “The Lion King” and “Dune” won the Oscar (To date, 12 of Zimmer’s scores were nominated. He’s won twice.)
Zimmer was born (1957) and raised in Germany. It’s unclear if his German father, a textile manufacturer, was Jewish. His German Jewish mother fled Nazi Germany, lived in the U.K. and returned to Germany after the war. In a 2014 interview Zimmer said he was Jewish and growing-up Jewish in post-war Germany was not easy.
He began his music career in 1977, playing the keyboard with popular British bands. In 1984, he began writing film scores for British films. In 1988, director BARRY LEVINSON, now 82, was struck by the score of “A World Apart” (a British film about a Jewish couple who battled racism in South Africa).
Levinson hired Zimmer to score “Rain Man.” The score was Oscar-nominated and “Rain Man” got the best picture Oscar (1989). Zimmer settled in America not long after the Oscars ceremony.
What I hoped for came to pass at the Oscars: A Jewish man (ADRIEN BRODY, 51) and a Jewish woman (MIKEY MADISON, 25) won the best actor/actress in the same year. It was the 3rd time that this happened: PAUL MUNI and LUISE RAINER in 1937 and PAUL NEWMAN and MARLEE MATLIN in 1987.
It’s nice this happened. But it was 51 years between 1936 and 1987 and a 39-year gap from 1987 to 2025.
The trend is good, but a lot of Jews aren’t lucky enough to live long enough to see two good years. To paraphrase “Fiddler on the Roof”: ‘Would it spoil some vast eternal plan If two Jews won the best actor and actress Oscar — in the same year — more frequently?’
March Madness begins on March 16. The term refers to the insanely popular yearly tournament to determine the top college basketball team. 68 teams play in a single-elimination tournament (one loss and your team is out). The final game will be played on April 7.
As I write this, Auburn University and Duke University are listed as the #1 and #2 teams in the country, based on a coaches’ poll and an AP poll. Well, the Jewish stars have aligned and both teams have a Jewish coach.
BRUCE PEARL, 64, is the coach of Auburn and JON SCHEYER, 37, is the coach of Duke. They both have so many interesting details that I will only cover Pearl this week, with Scheyer’s profile next week.
Pearl grew up in a Boston suburb. His Hebrew name is Mordechai. He was a co-founder and the first head (2005) of the Jewish Coaches Association. The Association supports Jewish-American college, high school and youth basketball coaches around the United States.
Pearl got his first assistant coach position in 1982 and his coaching talent led him to major university posts as a head coach. He began his tenure as Auburn’s coach in 2014, leading them year-after-year in very good showings.
But I felt that he was something special when I recently came across a March, 2024 CBS Sunday Morning segment entitled “How a student’s friendship with Auburn coach Bruce Pearl Gave Him the Strength to Beat Leukemia.”
In 2017, Sam Cunningham, age 12, was diagnosed with leukemia. His battle with leukemia lasted for years and he was near death many times. Somebody asked (2017) Pearl to send a video to rally Sam. The most memorable thing Pearl said: “You’re going to beat this, son. Cancer picked the wrong hombre — picked the wrong dude to mess with, OK.”
This video and later, personal visits Pearl made to see Sam, helped rally Sam to cope with leukemia relapses. Pearl was so close to Sam that he prayed that God should take him and spare Cunningham.
He told Sam that he would give Sam a position on the Auburn team if Sam was healthy at 18 and an Auburn student. Well, in 2024, Sam became an Auburn student and he’s an assistant on Auburn’s basketball team.
