German Studies Professor Leads Post-Film Discussion on “A Real Pain” at The Grand Cinema
By Graham Whitney
On Saturday, Nov. 16th, dozens take shelter from the rainy skies inside downtown Tacoma’s bright, bustling Grand Cinema Theater. Filing into the theater, people take their seats and get ready to watch “A Real Pain,” a comedy-drama written, directed and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, who stars in the film alongside Kieran Culkin. “A Real Pain” is Eisenberg’s story of two Jewish-American cousins who travel to Poland to attend a tour of Holocaust memorial sites and to visit their late grandmother’s childhood home. Eisenberg’s character David is a nervous, hardheaded father and NYC digital ad salesman who is accompanied by his cousin Benji (Culkin), a free-spirited drifter whose connection to his late grandmother is deeply emotional. The cousins are joined by a cast of characters on their Holocaust tour, all with unique connections to the Jewish experience.
About halfway through the film, Benji is hit with a visceral wave of awareness while the tour group is traveling by train to a new part of Poland.
Benji asks the group, “Anyone else feeling this?” He continues, “This creepy feeling that we are royalty on this train. Does no one see the irony here … Sitting up here when 80 years ago we would have been herded in the back of these fucking things like cattle.” “Benji, I don’t think anyone wants to hear that right now” replies Marcia, who is in attendance to discover her family’s history. “Well, why not?” asks Benji.
Benji’s stark realization on the train is a large part of Eisenberg’s message throughout the film, challenging what can be known as “Holocaust tourism.” Benji’s provocative “why not?” challenges everyone in the tour group, including their nerdy and annoying tour guide. Eisenberg uses Benji’s character to ask tough questions throughout the film. If you are here to visit, learn and understand your family’s history, why try to mask these darker feelings and harsh realities with first-class tickets and lux accommodations? Should you be allowed to have fun on a Holocaust tour?
For Eisenberg and other third-generation Holocaust survivors, they share their families’ histories and stories through humor. “A Real Pain” was billed as a comedy/drama and was indeed funny. Culkin’s character Benji is filled with inadmissible and joking comments towards other members on the tour. Benji’s lightness and humor contrasts with David’s stress and stiffness, and this dichotomy is on display when Benji decides to mail himself marijuana to their first hotel in Poland.
The term “Holocaust tourism” was raised again after the screening in a post-film discussion led by University of Puget Sound Associate Professor of German Studies and Environmental Arts & Humanities Kristopher Imbrigotta. To start the conversation, Imbrigotta asked the group, “do you consider this a Holocaust film?” While, on the surface, “A Real Pain” poses itself as a brotherly buddy-travel comedy, the group unanimously agreed that Eisenberg told a Holocaust story, just from a new angle.
In an interview with The Trail, Imbrigotta described what Eisenberg did differently when reinventing a story that has been featured in film countless times, specifically from a third-generation viewpoint. “They are wanting to tell different stories about the Holocaust, and are wanting to tell those stories in different ways,” Imbrigotta said.
Regarding the humor in “A Real Pain,” Imbrigotta says this is something unique to these third-generation stories about the Holocaust. “Laughter is one in which humans process things, so in a way, it’s natural, even for such a horrible, inconceivable event.” Introducing humor into such a dark subject as a means of storytelling seems impossible, yet Eisenburg does it with ease. By contrasting hilarity and laughter with more somber moments, like a visit to a Nazi concentration camp, the audience is immediately silenced and stunned.“I think they succeed with that in this film,” Imbrigotta reflected.
Next spring, Imbrigotta will teach an upper-level connections course that will travel to Germany in the summer for a five-week study-abroad trip. During the trip, the class will visit a preserved Nazi concentration camp located outside of Berlin. As Imbrigotta puts it, “Students who have been on this program say this is one of the most impactful experiences, not only on the trip but in their lives.”
Next year, Imbrigotta also plans on teaching a brand new class, GERM395: Holocaust & Contemporary Cinema, which will specifically explore Holocaust cinema. “We will look at German films but also films throughout Europe and the United States and the UK, and there might be a film or two from Israel,” Imbrigotta said, “And I think we need more of that on campus.”
No matter how confusing “A Real Pain” can be, its emotional cinematography and dialogue — or lack thereof — helps Eisenberg succeed in creating the core of this film: a story about family and a family’s journey to find home, history and connections between each other, in a time afflicted with loss.