tordiway

Probably the best film I have seen so far this year. We recently screened it for our Film Festival Selection Committee and the response was near-unanimous - four stars. The previous commenter's accusations of "terminal cuteness" baffle me - this is the best good-old-fashioned solid three-act structure Hollywood movie I have seen in a long time - and it was made in France. The distributor claims that they cannot find an American distributor who will meet their terms - therefore, there are no plans for American release. If you can find it playing at your local Jewish Film Festival (about the only place you are likely to find it in the US - a shame, really, since it is not a film only for Jews)by all means buy your ticket and go.

Upon director Pennell's death last year (2002)the news media reported that Robert Redford credited this film as his inspiration for creating the Sundance Institute. An affectionate and often funny look at two losers who nevertheless refuse to give up on their dreams of striking it rich. Pennell and cast shot this on weekends using short ends b&w film stock and borrowed equipment. Everybody worked for free, including Pennell's brother who provided the guitar soundtrack. Film was a minor sensation on the festival circuit - Pennell followed it across the USA and Europe and was offered work in LA as a result though things did not turn out as everybody had hoped. Leads Sonny Carl Davis and Lou Perry (Perryman) moved to LA immediately afterwards and have worked playing character parts / small parts ever since. Prints have been unavailable for many years now.

The first challenge facing any film of this type is that the audience already knows how the story is going to end before they enter the theater. It starts high, it ends low; we know that already. And let's face it, we are interested in the film because we are morbidly fascinated with the low part. So the filmmaker's task is not to deliver the usual story arch, but instead to both show the character's descent AND to give us new insight into the character, causing us to feel for him and understand his story in a way we did not know before seeing the film. Otherwise it is a documentary or a Biography on the History Channel. On this our group agreed: we left the theater feeling like little more than passive observers into Bob Crane's life. Instead of character development we are treated to a series of vignettes and asked to connect the dots ourselves. As a result, we never cared that much for him (he was shallow, smarmy) and we were not given enough of the people in his life to care for them, so we were never torn apart when he began his descent into hell. The filmmaker's alternate approach is to force us, the audience, to become voyeurs too. Our group sat through the movie both repulsed and attracted to what we saw, but, with no emotional insight gained, we were no better for the experience. Ask yourself this; if the film had been about the life and death of sex addict John Doe would it have worked? No - it would have been booed off the screen. Lacking any real depth, the film requires the audience's obsession with celebrity in order for it to succeed. Movies about descent can be fascinating; just look at "Lost Weekend" or "Double Indemnity" for two classics that come to mind. But "Autofocus" ain't in that league. I don't know about you but I left the theater feeling like I needed to take a shower.

Twenty-year-old Michele (Audrey Tatou, star of the hit film "Amelie") is a successful model but an emotional wreck. Desperate to find something to believe in, she has tried Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and more, all without success. But when she meets handsome Francois, twelve years her senior and a successful secular Jew, she has a religious awakening. Suddenly obsessed with Judaism, she is soon driving Francois crazy nailing up mezuzahs, keeping kosher, observing Shabbat and accusing him of not being Jewish enough! "God is Great...I am Small" is an unusually smart and contemporary comedy/drama that builds its story around controversial issues affecting today's Jewry: Who or what is a Jew? Is a secular or Reform Jew really Jewish? Is it important to speak Hebrew? Can a relationship be successful if one partner is observant and the other is not?

`Hanele' is a timeless tale of generational and ideological conflict set in an enclave of religious Jews in Sub-Carpathian Ukraine in the 1930's. Without a dowry, and refusing to marry the slow-witted village boy who wants her hand, beautiful Hanele escapes provincial Polana by joining a Zionist youth group recruiting young men and women for work in the big city. There she meets and falls in love with Ivo Karadzic, a handsome, successful freethinking secular Jew who has renounced all traditional religious belief. When Hanele brings Ivo home to ask for her father's permission to marry, the resulting collision of the modern and the traditional worlds causes shocks and reverberations that threaten to both ruin her family and end the engagement to Ivo. Award-winning director Kachyna, already in his seventies when making this film, has created a stirring period melodrama about love, belief, family and the difficulty of making choices.

It's the start of the Gulf war, and everyone in Tel Aviv is nervous about the future, including Talila Katz, a smart, sexy and single Tel Aviv advertising executive. Dumped by her self-centered boyfriend, she gives up on love until she meets Noah, a handsome, charming but emotionally remote engineer. Insecure about her relationship with Noah, pressured by her squabbling parents to get married, and admonished by her unhappily married sister to not get married, Talila grows more confused each day while the sounds and sights of war escalate around her. Based on the best-selling novel by Irit Linur, `Song of the Siren' is a breakthrough movie that presents a new kind of Israeli film heroine: irreverent, audacious, funny and contemptuous of the traditional macho values woven through Israeli society. A box office smash upon its release, this Israeli `Bridget Jones Diary' sold more movie tickets in Israel in 1994 than all other Israeli-made films combined.

The commentators so far seem to belong to one of two camps; those who hated the picture for what it is and those who liked, but did not love it, because of what it was not. I think both groups are missing the point. You simply have to accept the conventions of this type of story, just as you do when you read/watch Shakespeare's plays. Do that and you will have a wonderful time with this film. I thoroughly enjoyed it; it was witty, fast paced, sexy, the acting was fantastic (especially Kingsley though Sorvino is no slouch)etc. etc. etc. etc. Just let go and let it sweep over you. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.