Amos Gitai‘s week at this year’s Venice Film Festival, or what? We already shared some cool images and synopsis for Gitai’s Lullaby to My Father project which will screen out of the competition, and now we’re here to share some material for his Carmel project, which will also screen out of the competition, but in Special Events category.
In case you’re familiar with Gitai’s work, then I’m sure you already know that Carmel is not actually a completely new project – it’s a 2009 tapestry of letters written by Gitai’s mother, Efratia, personal reminiscence and Israeli history.
Still, let us just add that this is not a political film, but instead – it’s a passionate expression of director’s anguish at living in a country in a continual state of war.
The movie is based on Gitai’s personal memories and combines extracts...
In case you’re familiar with Gitai’s work, then I’m sure you already know that Carmel is not actually a completely new project – it’s a 2009 tapestry of letters written by Gitai’s mother, Efratia, personal reminiscence and Israeli history.
Still, let us just add that this is not a political film, but instead – it’s a passionate expression of director’s anguish at living in a country in a continual state of war.
The movie is based on Gitai’s personal memories and combines extracts...
- 9/9/2012
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Film review: 'Women'
Acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Moshe Mizrahi, who won a 1977 Oscar for his "Madame Rosa", examines the tricky boundaries of love and faith in the handsomely mounted but dramatically static "Women".
The opening-night selection of the 13th Israel Film Festival (running through Dec. 24 at the Laemmle's Monica 4-plex) is set in a 19th century Sephardic Jewish community in Jerusalem. "Women" stars Mizrahi's wife, actress-director Michal Bat Adam, as the wife of a kind, sagely rabbi (Amos Lavi), who has been unable to bear him any children after 15 years of marriage.
This being long before the advent of fertility clinics, the well-meaning Rebecca talks her reluctant husband into marrying the 18-year-old Sultana (Ilor Harpaz), the wide-eyed daughter of a widowed relative, in the hope that the young woman will bless the rabbi with a son.
Inevitably, all the community elders end up telling Rebecca "I told you so" as her husband finds himself becoming closer to his new wife and drifting further away from his original wife (bigamy was no problem, at least legally, back in those days). To make matters worse, after six months of marriage, Sultana has yet to fulfill her part of the baby-making bargain, and Rebecca grows morose and resentful.
Adapted by Mizrahi from a short story by Yehuda Buria, the meditative film ends up getting caught in its own oppressive emotional underpinnings. Once Rebecca seals her unsurprising fate, the pacing echoes her own dreary aimlessness.
The performances, particularly those of the female leads, are solid and the production values are equally serviceable.
Still, despite Mizrahi's esteemed body of work (he and Bat Adam were honored as part of the first-night ceremonies), the 1996 festival could have benefited from a more vibrant, more involving opening selection especially considering that, given the significance of its 13th year, it has officially entered into adulthood.
WOMEN
Director Moshe Mizrahi
Producers Michael Scharfstein,
Amitan Manelzon
Screenplay Moshe Mizrahi
Based on the short story by Yehuda Buria
Director of photography Amnon Zalait
Editor Tova Asher
Music Avihu Medina
Color
Cast:
Rebecca Michal Bat Adam
Jacob Amos Lavi
Sultana Ilor Harpaz
Running time -- 96 minutes...
The opening-night selection of the 13th Israel Film Festival (running through Dec. 24 at the Laemmle's Monica 4-plex) is set in a 19th century Sephardic Jewish community in Jerusalem. "Women" stars Mizrahi's wife, actress-director Michal Bat Adam, as the wife of a kind, sagely rabbi (Amos Lavi), who has been unable to bear him any children after 15 years of marriage.
This being long before the advent of fertility clinics, the well-meaning Rebecca talks her reluctant husband into marrying the 18-year-old Sultana (Ilor Harpaz), the wide-eyed daughter of a widowed relative, in the hope that the young woman will bless the rabbi with a son.
Inevitably, all the community elders end up telling Rebecca "I told you so" as her husband finds himself becoming closer to his new wife and drifting further away from his original wife (bigamy was no problem, at least legally, back in those days). To make matters worse, after six months of marriage, Sultana has yet to fulfill her part of the baby-making bargain, and Rebecca grows morose and resentful.
Adapted by Mizrahi from a short story by Yehuda Buria, the meditative film ends up getting caught in its own oppressive emotional underpinnings. Once Rebecca seals her unsurprising fate, the pacing echoes her own dreary aimlessness.
The performances, particularly those of the female leads, are solid and the production values are equally serviceable.
Still, despite Mizrahi's esteemed body of work (he and Bat Adam were honored as part of the first-night ceremonies), the 1996 festival could have benefited from a more vibrant, more involving opening selection especially considering that, given the significance of its 13th year, it has officially entered into adulthood.
WOMEN
Director Moshe Mizrahi
Producers Michael Scharfstein,
Amitan Manelzon
Screenplay Moshe Mizrahi
Based on the short story by Yehuda Buria
Director of photography Amnon Zalait
Editor Tova Asher
Music Avihu Medina
Color
Cast:
Rebecca Michal Bat Adam
Jacob Amos Lavi
Sultana Ilor Harpaz
Running time -- 96 minutes...
- 12/12/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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