The Israeli Oscar babies
Filed under: Art, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture
My sons had their film debut this month, and I finally got around to actually seeing the movie. As the babies playing one secretary’s single baby for about a four-minute stretch in Eran Riklis’ “The Human Resources Manager,” they had way more time on-screen than I expected, so that I could actually see which one was in which screen. (Just so you know, it’s Lev who’s crying in Mark Ivanir’s arms in the first piece, Ziv who’s crawling on the floor and Ziv again in the infant seat. And no, didn’t get to meet Guri Alfi or Gila Almagor during filming.)
It was fairly thrilling to see them up on the big screen, and you want to let the rest of the theater know that it’s your kids up there, even though the experience of filming them was a pain in the neck. And I wouldn’t do it again. But hey, seeing their little faces up there? Pre-talking and still crawling? Priceless. And we did stay until the very end to see their names almost at the end of the credits, as well as let two fellow moviegoers know that the baby/ies in the movie were ours.
Of course, we were NOT invited to any premiere — if there even was one — and I am not holding out any hope of getting to the Academy Awards ceremony if the movie — Israel’s nomination for Best Foreign Language film for the Oscars — does become one of the five top-runners. At this point, all I want is a free copy of the film so that the boys will believe us when we tell them they were in a movie when they were just one year old.
But I did like it. And imagine if it does win the Oscar…
Eyal’s bar mitzvah
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Religion
You’ve probably watched this bar mitzvah invite that was making the rounds on Facebook for the last week or two. Created by the Goodman family of Tel Mond, a suburb near Ra’anana, the clip uses a scene from a biblical made-for-TV-movie depicting the reconciliation between troubled twins Jacob and Esau — the parsha for the bar mitzvah boy, Eyal — as the pretext for the invite.
What’s hilarious about the whole video is that it made it’s way across Facebook, receiving 70,000 hits at the last count from the Jerusalem Post, and even a mention from Atlantic Monthly writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who declared his own blog wish to attend Eyal’s bar mitzvah.
The invite seems to have been created by an event planning company, Your Simcha In Israel, and they’ve gotta be pleased by all the free publicity this invite has generated for them. My question is, how did the family feel about having their private invite plastered all over the internet?
Another Israeli film about Lebanon gets award nomination
Congratulations to the makers of the film ‘Lebanon,’ which has just been nominated for five awards – including Best European Film of 2010 by the European Film Academy.
The film’s director, Samuel Maoz, was also nominated for the award of Best European Director and Best European Screenwriter.
The subject matter of the film is, of course, Lebanon. Israel’s invasion of the country in 1982, following years of attacks on its northern towns, resulted in an almost two decade occupation of the southern part of the country.
It’s now regarded as our very own version of Vietnam, and just as scores of films in the US about America’s involvement in Vietnam dotted the screen in the ensuing decades – from Full Metal Jacket to The Deer Hunter to Apocalypse Now – the same has happened in Israel with Lebanon.
Many films made by former IDF soldiers-turned-filmmakers have provided harrowing views of the Israeli experience in Lebanon, like the Oscar-nominated Beaufort and Waltzing with Bashir. ‘Lebanon’ tells its story through the binocular-aided eyes of soldiers like a young Maoz, who himself served there, aboard an armored vehicle as they enter a hostile southern Lebanon village.
The film trade magazine Variety has described the film as the boldest and best of the recent mini-wave of Israeli movies, while the New York Times has called it “an astonishing piece of cinema.”
Whether those accolades are for critics’ natural inclination to like anything perceived as ‘anti-war,’ or whether ‘Lebanon’ is truly a world class film is up for you to decide.
Shaken, not stirred, martinis on the way to Israel?
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Movies, Politics, Pop Culture
The headlines blared this week about Israel suspending all strategic dialogue with Britain in protest at its law on “universal jurisdiction,” which empowers courts to issue warrants against people accused of war crimes, including visiting foreign politicians.
But on the same visit that UK Foreign Secretary William Hague received that news, he and his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman had a strategic dialogue of a different kind that ended up producing a signed cooperation agreement in the area of cinema.
After 10 years of intense negotiations, Israel will become a favorite filming location for British films as production companies will get financial incentives and tax benefits from Israel to shoot in the country. And that could mean that major productions, like part of the next James Bond film, would be filmed in Israel. We’d better learn how to shake those martinis!
The implications for the cooperation agreement are huge for Israel. The British film is ranked third in the scope of production after the United States and India, and generates $8 million annually. According to a report in Ynet, two UK films about the British mandate period are slated to be filmed here and a British delegation is slated to visit Israel in the coming months to consider future collaborations.
And as far as the larger scope strategic dialogue, the day after Israel announced the suspension, Hague told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Britain would act fast to amend a law. “The British government understands that we have a real problem and we are dealing with it,” spokeswoman Karen Kaufman told AFP.
Better call in Bond.
Nostalgia Sunday – 33 1/3 Album Cover Art Exhibit
Filed under: Art, design, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Movies, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel, tv
A new exhibit, “Israeli Records, Local Grooves” opened earlier this month at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’s gallery space in Tel Aviv. The exhibition pays homage to a lost art: the large-format 33 1/13 RPM album cover, and the artists who created some of Israel’s most memorable pop images. For example, David Tartakover’s cover for Shalom Hanoch’s Mechakim La’mashiach (Waiting for the Messiah); a close-up of an ashtray containing all the hallmarks of Israeli impatience: chewing gum, a blister-pack wrapper of some sort of anti-anxiety medicine and, of course, cigarette butts, burnt matches and more cigarette butts.
Aris San was a beloved singer of sad Greek songs who found fame and fortune in the night clubs of Jaffa. He’s credited with bringing Greek and Mediterranean mizrahi music to the wider Israeli audience.
Zohar Argov was known as “The King” as one of the first mizrahi singers to successfully crossover into mainstream popular culture. This album was issued by a company called Galton - something more or less akin to an Indie label – but Argov’s mainstay was the cassette market: recordings purchased at central bus stations around the country.
Haim Topol became famous internationally for his portrayal of Tevye the Milkman in the film version of Fiddler on the Roof. But locally, he will always be remembered for his roles in Ephraim Kishon’s movies Sallah (more about that here) and Ervinke, in which he played a devil-may-care Tel Avivian.
Svika Pick (a.k.a: Tzvika Pik, Tsvika Pick, Henrik or Henryk) is the closest Israel has ever come to a true pop star. He started out emulating David Bowie, as you can see, on this album issued by another more or less Indie lable, Koliphon, run by two brothers out of their record store.
Pick later morphed into a local version of Peter Frampton, Elton John (complete with soccer playing) and more recently, something like Ozzy Osbourne (reality TV show). He wrote Dana International’s Eurovision winning hit, Diva, and has been a judge on the local version of American Idol. His daughter dated Quentin Tarantino. And he does it all with sunglassed nonchalance. And to think it started with a layer of silver body paint.
“Israeli Records, Local Grooves” runs through November 20 at the Bezalel Gallery, 60 Salameh Street in south Tel Aviv.
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