Hippie sighting in Israel

January 9, 2011 - 1:06 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Movies, Pop Culture 

It looks like Israel finally has its own Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Evidently the young and hip have been descending on the Tel Aviv Cinemateque on Friday nights for midnight screenings of the burgeoning cult film An American Hippie in Israel.

Ben Hartman of The Jerusalem Post called the unknown 1972 film “surely one of the worst films ever made in Israel, or beyond” with “terrible dialogue, worse camera work and editing, heaps of gratuitous nudity and violence,” and best of all, an all-Israeli cast awkward mangling of the all- English completely nonsensical script. In short, it bears all the hallmarks of a classic cult movie – Hartman calls it “undeniably hilarious and enjoyable to watch.”

The movie centers around New York native Mike, the hippie (played by Asher Tzarfati), who, fresh from the killing fields of Vietnam, lands in Israel one sunny morning clad in a white rabbit fur vest, bellbottoms and a bowler hat. He links up with some Israeli flower children and they skipacross the city, eventually making their way to Eilat to build a utopia far away from the rat race. The love fest predictably soon turns into a bloodbath, and floating plastic sharks prevent the crew’s escape from the coral island south of Eilat.

The monthly midnight showings were engineered by Yaniv Eidelstein, a 32-year-old Tel Aviv resident and video store worker who hunted down the film after finding a trailer for it online in 2007. He located one of the actors, now age 77, and invited him to come to his home with a copy of the film and screen it for some friends.

“After that first showing at my house, people kept asking me about it, wanting to know when I’d show it again, some of them people I’d never met even,” Eidelstein told The Post. “A few months ago, Time Out Tel Aviv ran an article about the movie, and afterwards we went to the Cinematheque and convinced them to hold a midnight showing.”

Since then, the crowds have been increasing, and attendees have memorized the dialogue ala Rocky Horror. Eighteen-year-old Matan Portnoi said that one he saw the trailer online, he realized he had to see the entire movie.

He keeps coming back for “the dialogue, the bad acting, the plot – all of it, really.” Just like any good bad cult film should deliver. See for yourself.

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Motion or lack thereof in stop motion

August 28, 2008 - 3:50 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Pop Culture 

Rosenthal and Keret's $9.99, premiering in TorontoRecent developments in the world of Israeli comics and animation have begun to make experts wonder just how big the scene is here, and how much potential it has for growth.

The retro-animated 1982 Lebanon War-themed documentary Waltz with Bashir, which spent four years in production in Israel, Germany and France, turned many heads at Cannes this summer.

Next month, Waltz with Bashir screens at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival, as does $9.99 (pictured), a feature film debut for director/animator Tatiana Rosenthal with Geoffrey Rush serving as voice talent. The movie is based on an Etgar Keret story, the author’s canon having inspired many successful film projects lately.

One blogger wonders if the hype might be nothing but hot air:

There are no animated features produced in Israel. So how could it be that two of the first animated theatrical features made in Israel in over four decades are now getting their premieres at the Toronto Film Festival?

For those not in the know, it may seem that Israel is an animation empire, but the ironic fact is that the two animated movies to be shown next month in Toronto are actually almost the only animated features ever produced over here and their simultaneous premiere is nothing short of a cosmic fluke.

But there’s simply too much going on in the field to consider the buzz completely unwarranted.

Earlier this month, a major Animation, Comics and Caricatures Festival, the eighth such event, took place at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, drawing international industry guests.

Alternative retailer The Third Ear launched its own comics publishing house recently. Domestic popularity and output of graphic novels seems to be growing. Even smaller arts institutes like Sderot’s Sapir College are impressively getting into the animation education game. Aiming to serve as a YouTube for animation that also offers industry connections, Israeli startup Aniboom has recently hosted high-profile campaigns like the band-sanctioned Radiohead In Rainbows video remix contest.

With “flukes” like these, who needs proper trends?

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