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Introduction:

            Nobody’s Business (1996)is a film that delves into the history of a man who doesn’t care to learn or talk about his past.  Alan Berliner, the maker of this film has chosen to interview his 79 year old reclusive, close minded father to find out more about his and his father’s history. This film seemed to be Berliner’s excuse to learn more about his family and ultimately learn about his parent’s divorce. Through this film we learn with the filmmaker about his father and why he is the way he is. As we discover through interviews and pictures about Oscar’s life and family life as a child and his divorce we start to learn more and more why Oscar is so closed off and why he believes that this information is nobody’s business.

Content:

This film was directed, produced, shot, and edited by Alan Berliner. Alan Berliner went to school and studied film at SUNY-Berliner and went to the University of Oklahoma for his education.  This film is 60 minutes long, and in this 1 hour time period we see struggle from the film maker to get out any information from him father, Oscar. "You're wasting your time!  My life is nothing. I was in the army, I got married, I raised a family. I worked hard, had my own business, that's all. That's nothing to make a picture about! Who the hell am I?"(Nobody’s Business) This is exactly what Alan is trying to prove his father wrong about. We see and hear about many amazing things that Oscar has accomplished, but he doesn’t seem to think they mean anything. Alan struggles through the whole documentary to have his stubborn father to see things his way.  

Alan Berliner had a unique way of editing this film, what he did was added old family memorabilia and vintage footage and intercut it into the film.  We see some of the old film and portraits shot in black and white, but all of the current interviews are shot in color. This film is packed full of old family photos and cut with old family movies along with the interviews with Oscar and other family members. The contrast of the happy old time movies and hearing the voice of a cynical old man really added a whole different element to this film. Berliner not only used his father to tell his story, but he used old film shot on 8mm to tell his story. Being able to see both of these forms work together really makes this film come alive. Another technique that Berliner used was adding clips of old boxing matches. This is a humorous comparison to what it is like for him to get any kind of information out of his father. It is literally like fighting and prying to get any kind of legitimate answer out of Oscar. Oscar believes that his life and history is not important and no one will care, but he is ignoring one thing, how much Alan does care.  

Context:

            The context of this film is also very important in understanding why Oscar Berliner’s ideas on family are a little skewed. Oscar Berliner is Jewish and traditionally in Jewish culture knowing about traditional views on family are very important. In the reading, Family Secrets, Michael Renov talks about how American Jewish documentary focused of family is becoming more and more prominent in documentaries.  Renov states, “Jews have always cared about family. Think of the pages of Torah devoted to the recitation of ancestral names.” This makes sense as to why Alan would want to make a documentary focused on his family, but why is it that Oscar could care less about his history. Reading more about how Jews see family as such an important thing in life and watching on how Oscar doesn’t seem to care make his comments and views even more interesting. On the other side of the spectrum we see Alan Berliner, who wants nothing more than to learn about his family and why they are the way they are. This is not the only film where Alan has delved into the importance of family and family background. In 1986 Berliner made a film called The Family Album where he put together numerous home movies of anonymous different families. Another film where he focused on family was Intimate Portrait made in 1991. In this film he puts together archival material to make a film about his grandfather Joseph Cassuto. Knowing about Berliner’s passion of family and background allows the audience to understand why he made Nobody’s Business.

NOBODY'S BUSINESS: OPENING from Alan Berliner on Vimeo.

Scene Analysis:

In the first two and a half minutes of this film Alan Berliner shows numerous different stylistic choices while we listen to his stubborn father speak and it sets the tone for the entire film. In this scene we start out by seeing vintage videos while listening to Oscar Berliner tell an anecdote about a man trying to make a deal of getting a cheaper portrait. This allows us to hear Oscar speak while looking at videos of the time period he is from. After he tells his story we see a vintage looking countdown, by Alan putting a countdown is him preparing us for what is to come. The humor in this is hearing Oscar asking Alan how long is this going to take? It seems as though Oscar wants it to be over before it even starts.  The next thing we here is a ding, the same sound that is used to start a boxing match. This is funny because at the end of the clip we see old footage of boxing matches. Ronov talks about this footage perfectly in saying, “I love the choice of the archrival boxing footage in Nobody’s Business, offering as it does the ideal visualization of the give-and-take between father and son, the face-off between the irresistible force and the immovable object.”(Renov 5) That couldn’t be more true. Alan wants so badly to hear things from his father, but trying to do so is almost impossible.  Next we see an old portrait of Oscar that holds on the screen as we hear him talk glumly about it. Near the end of the clip we finally get to see a current video of Oscar in color. It’s a bit of a revelation because we had yet to see the man we had been hearing talking through the first couple minutes of the documentary. As we hear Oscar talk about how his story is not important and that there are many children of immigrants we see a time lapse of people walking down a busy sidewalk with Oscar standing still in the middle of it. This is of Alan showing that his father’s story is important and it does stand out in a crowd. In this short clip we see many different stylistic choices that Berliner makes to make this film visually spectacular.

Conclusion:

            Contrary to Oscar Berliner’s beliefs that no one would care about or watch this documentary, the documentary was a major success. “The response to the 1997 PBS broadcast of Nobody's Business is now the stuff of legend. After the film aired in June, viewers overwhelmed the call-in line, blowing out the PBS phone system. Nobody's Business elicited three times the response as any previous P.O.V. broadcast. Berliner said he fielded calls and letters from, among others, Inuit women in Alaska and Korean families in California, all of whom felt a connection with Alan and his father. This despite the fact that Oscar at times seems almost a caricature -- the crotchety New York City Jew.” (Silverman) People fell in love with the story because they could relate to it. Maybe Oscar was right, there are billions of stories just like his.  Not only did his film get a great response from PBS, Alan also took it around the world to different film festivals where he also got a great response. The title Nobody’s Business couldn’t be a more fitting title for the film. During the duration of this documentary we see Alan “pulling teeth” to try and get anything out of his father and the overall reason why was because Oscar didn’t think it was anyone else’s business but his own. We see this a lot when Alan tries to ask his father about the divorce. Oscar basically says that it is only the business of his ex-wife and him. Overall Oscar is a reclusive man and he believes that his life is nobody’s business but his own.

Works Cited:

Michael Renov. "Family Secrets: Alan Berliner's Nobody's Business and the (American) Jewish Autobiographical Film." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.1 (2008): 55-65. Print.

Nobody's Business. Dir. Alan Berliner. Perf. Oscar Berliner. 1996. Netflix