Cinemascope

Nuru Rimington-Mkali, a 21-year-old Londoner, won a short film contest sponsored by Web-based production company Filmaka. He will now receive funding of about $5 million for a feature film he will direct.

His winning film is the 3 minute short “And I Refuse to Forget“, a mixtape of “Pi”, “Memento” and “Primer”. Director Neil LaBute, one of the judges, said it’s a “wonderfully impressive paranoid thriller that was told with great economy and vivid imagery.”
Filmaka is now moving forward with new online movie competitions.

This is his winning submission:

What do you think, does it show great promise?

Yossi Harel, who was the commander of the ship “Exodus”, has died yesterday at age 90. Harel was one of the leaders in the clandestine operations to bring Jewish Holocaust survivors to Israel (before the state of Israel even existed). The British rule of Palestine, in the days before 1948, deemed these immigrants as illegal and sent war-ships to thwart their arrival to Palestine shores, and send them back to Germany. Harel was most famous for his operation “Exodus”, in which a beat-up river boat was loaded with over 4,000 Jewish European illegal immigrants that were intercepted by the British near the shores of Palestine. This heroic tale was made famous by Leon Uris’ novel “Exodus” and then by Otto Preminger’s 1960 film of the same name, where Paul Newman played Ari Ben Canaan, a character based on Harel.

Otto Preminger’s “Exodus” actually jump-started the Israeli film industry. Most of the movie was shot on location in Israel. There were almost no Israeli films made before 1960.
But Harel had also a contemporary role in the Israeli film industry, through his daughter, Sharon Harel.
Sharon Harel started out as producer and partner to Avi Nesher in his first two massive hits in the Seventies, “The Troupe” and “Dizengof 99″.
In 1989 she founded the London based production and financing company, “Capitol Films”, and was executive producer on Roman Polanski’s “Death and the Maiden”, Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park” and David Cronneberg’s “Spider”.

Talia Lavie is a promising young Israeli director whose thesis film “The Substitute” - a wry and ironic brilliant little movie about failed suicide attempts - won her prizes in festivals around the world in the last two years. After winning the grand prize at the Munich student film festival, she was asked back this year to sit on the jury of the festival. The president of the jury was Michael Ballhaus, whose turbo camera movements in “The Color of Money”, “After Hours” and “Goodfellas” blew me away. Now, after shooting “The Departed”, he claims he is retired, and back living in his native Germany, and not in Hollywood anymore. Lavie took the opportunity of sitting side-by-side with him on the Munich jury, and asked him to sit down for a little formal interview.
Some the material here is quite revelatory: he tells of how Martin Scorsese felt that “The Departed” may be his worst film and that he thought that Jack Nicholson is stealing the movie from him. He talks about working with Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis and Robert De Niro (”We were grateful for him actually staying in the room”), and the difference between a Scorsese and a Redford. And how a long, but abusive, relationship with Rainer Werner Fassbinder started it all.

Read the Michael Ballhaus interview after the jump:

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For its first 60 minutes (of a total of 126) “Iron Man” manages to overcome quite a few obstacles to become a surprisingly chirpy comic-book action movie.
1) Robert Downey Junior as an action hero? Oh yeah. What seemed as a quirky casting decision turns out as an inspired call. Downey Junior may be the most spot-on actor to portray the alter-ego of a super-rich, self made crime fighter, since Michael Keaton turned into Batman. His glib cynicism saves the movie as the story too often veers into “seen that” territory. Downey Junior’s Tony Stark is a man with no respect for life, one who’s seen it all, done it all, and let none of it sink into his soul (if he has one). Then he has - quite literally - a change of heart, which alters his methods, but changes nothing of his behavior, which remains irreverent.
2) Is this a “Middle East Conflict Movie” masked as a superhero action flic? For a while it looks like “Charlie Wilson’s War” has melded into “Lord of War”. The majority of the film’s first act takes place in a cave in Afghanistan, full with very bad Muslims (and one good one), as Tony Stark confronts the reality of the armed conflict in the Gulf region, that he has helped fuel by his greediness, cloaked by phony patriotism.
3) Oh no, not another origins story. I’m fed up with those. Cut to the chase already. give me the sequel, not the pilot. I get it, he had a troubled conscience but then decided to become a better human being, helping out people instead of killing them. Fine, seen it. Read it. Add to this a not-so-wonderful last act battle sequence - way too reminiscent of Spiderman vs. Goblin, and you’ll get a movie that story-wise treads water.

So how come after all this, “Iron Man” is - for at least 3/4 of the movie - so much fun? Because of it’s tone. This superhero is self-serving, an egomaniac, but he’s well aware of his defects and wryly self-dissects his own flaws. And he’s a man living in the “real world”, so he is also the self-conscious superhero, aware of story mechanisms that has become cliches.
“Iron Man” is a mixed bag. Slick, snappy, wonderfully witty, and at time more of an irony-man than just plain “Iron Man” (”it’s actually ‘titanium-alloy man’”, says Stark in his usual blasé mode), yet at time a routine action movie with no real inventiveness, plot-wise. Politically it tries to be liberal minded at first - putting the blame for wars on profiteering by arms manufacturers - but in fact this is an conservative old-fashioned picture, about a nation looking for a dude to fight its wars for it, abroad and at home, and do it with as little accountability as possible. Its a childish movie for grown ups, that allows the viewer to root for the fetishistic gadget-laden chauvinistic power-happy capitalist playboy, while liberal minded viewers may feel safe here, because of there are no flag waving and anthem chanting, just a guy, in a super-cool suit, playing with his toys, that keeps reminding the viewers this is only a movie. And a barrel of fun as such.

Oh, and by the way: Gwyneth Paltrow is absolutely wonderful. She’s quite the revelation here. Hope she doesn’t disappear again.

This is huge here: Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer will play the female lead against Tom Hanks in “Angels and Demons” (a sort-of-sequel to “The Da-Vinci Code”). France’s Audrey Tautu was the the female lead in “Code”.
Zurer is a huge star in Israel, and a magnificent and moving actress. See her as the heartbreaking titular character in “Nina’s Tragedies”. She also originated the demanding role on TV’s “In Treatment” (now remade by Melissa George in HBO’s American shot-for-shot remake). After being cast as Eric Bana’s wife in Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” Zurer packed her husband and son and relocated to Hollywood, in pursuit of an international career. A minor and disappointing role in “Vantage Point” was her last achievement, but now comes this.

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More movie news from Israel: a year after “The Band’s Visit” captured hearts in Cannes and “Jellyfish” won the prestigious Camera D’Or, two new Israeli features will make their world premiere in the upcoming 61st Cannes festival.
The highly intriguing “Waltz With Bashir” directed by Ari Folman will compete for the Palme D’Or in the official competition. It’s an labeled as an “animated documentary”, but looks to be a subjective and personal mind-ride inside the memories of the director (who was one of the writers of the above mentioned “In Treatment”) as an 18 years old soldier in Lebanon in the 80’s.
The 3 minute pilot, made three years ago by animator Yoni Goodman, is astonishing. Narrated by Folman himself this looks like an animated “Apocalypse Now”:

(original video is downloadable here)

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And “Les Sept Jours” (”Seven Days”, or “Shiva’a”) an Israeli-French co-production, directed by Issraeli poerhouse actress Ronit Elkabetz (”Late Marriage”) and her brother Shlomi Elkabetz, is slated to spool as a special screening in the Cannes sidebar The Critic’s Week.

2008’s “The Band’s Visit” made 2,718,000 US Dollars

It took longer than I expected, but Sunday estimates have Eran Kolirin’s critic-darling “The Band’s Visit” with a cummulative figure of 2,718,000 US Dollars, which makes the film - as of today - the top grossig Israeli film ever in the States. Previous record holder was Eytan Fox’s 2005 “Walk on Water” with 2,713,932 US Dollars. “The Band’s Visit” is now placed at #98 on Box Office Mojo’s top foreign language releases in the US. “Walk on Water” is #99.

2005’s “Walk on Water” grossed 2,713,932 US dollars

Internationally, the film - that made headlines after being disqualified in from the foreign language categories at the Oscars and The Golden Globes, for having too much English dialogue - has been Israel’s best achieving export ever, earning nearly 10 million dollars globally (more than twice than “Walk on Water”’s global take of 4.4 million dollars).
With a release on 121 screen at its highest, “The Band’s Visit” is also easily the widest Israeli release ever on US screens - previous record holders were Palestinian “Paradise Now” (65 screens) and Israel’s “Ushpizin” (48 screens) - reaching cities that have never seen an Israeli picture before.
With a per-screen average of less than $800 on it’s 10th week it now looks that “The Band’s Visit” will not break the 3 million dollars mark in the US, which I originally thought it would.

The Band’s Visit is only the fifth Israeli movie to earn more than a million dollars on US screens. The five are:
The Band’s Visit (2008): 2.718 million dollars
Walk on Water (2005): 2.713
Late Marriage (2002): 1.6
Paradise Now* (2005): 1.45
Ushpizin (2005): 1.4
(* A Palestinian film funded mostly by European money, but directed and produced by Israelis, with shooting locations in the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The movie won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar in the Foreign Language category).

An interesting point of interest is that in the top four movies, Hebrew dialogue is the minority: “The Band’s Visit” is mostly English with Arabic and Hebrew; “Walk on Water” is in English, German and Hebrew; “Late Marriage” is mostly in Georgian, and only the Hassidic-Capraesque “Ushpizin” is all in Hebrew.

“Do you think he’s dead?”
“It doesn’t look good”
Sample dialog from “88 Minutes”

You may have heard that “88 Minutes” is a bad movie. That is correct. However, as bad movies go, this one’s pretty good. In an awful kind of way. The major disappointment from “88 Minutes” has to do with Al Pacino’s involvement with the flic. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Pacino play his roles with integrity, intensity and at the very least superb craftsmanship. Seeing him sleepwalking his way in a movie, phoning it in, doing the job of the lowest class hack, is quite shocking. You can see the level of disrespect he has for the role by the way his hair is groomed. Hair is like a mask for actors, a tool they use to build the character physically. There’s no way a real man - who is rich, powerful, seductive and a pro in his field - will be so awfully coiffed. But Pacino must’ve insisted: this is his way to hide himself in the movie, distance himself from the character.

Hence the dire disappointment from “88 Minutes”. Digitally alter Pacino and replace him with either Rob Lowe or James Spader and you’ve got yourself an OK, bottom shelf straight to cable thriller, that’s done with some old-fashioned style and seriousness, but alas by folks who are tragically out-of-touch with modern film tastes and techniques. This one plays like a cheesy eighties sex-and-violence noir - think of “Saw” by way of “Bad Influence” - that’s lazily written and flaccidly directed. It’s got an OK story line, but the recipe is stale.

Over on my Hebrew blog I often bitch about how long it sometimes takes for a high-profile American movie to cross the Atlantic and reach screens over here. Sometimes it takes eternity (”Into the Wild” and “The Assassination of Jesse James”, as well as anything starring Will Farrel, were straight-to-DVD releases over here). But with “88 Minutes” roles are reversed: this one was released theatrically about a year ago, and is now already available on DVD. Only now it reaches American screens. Too bad for you guys. (Remeber that Avi Lerner and Danny Dimbort, the film’s producers, are Israeli ex-pats, and that Samuel Hadida, the film’s French co-financier, has a ownership stake at the megaplex owned by the film’s Israeli distributors).

This is an OK film to stare at on Cinemax at midnight, when you drowsily trying to figure out who those people are. Is that a young Julianne Moore? (no, it’s Alicia Witt). When did Helen Hunt grow so tall? (she didn’t, that’s Leelee Sobieski), and who’s that Russel Crowe dude downgraded to a mere extra (that’s that “OC” guy. kissing his career goodbye, learning not to jump for joy when his agent tells him they want him on the new Al Pacino movie). And hey, that’s William Forsythe there alongside Pacino. Quite the “Dick Tracy” reunion, isn’t it? I like Millenium/Nu Image pictures when they are at there sleaziest, making rough policier B-Movies, filled with dead strippers, but whenever they try to go legit (as in “”The Black Dahlia”) it just turns out way too cheesy.

So the true mystery of the movie remains: how did Pacino end up on it. Jeff Wells said on his site it must’ve been for the pay-check. But for the check you go do a Jon Turtletaub movie for Disney (think of Bruce Willis in “The Kid”), not a Jon Avnet movie for Millennium. How big a pay-check could they possibly offer, or how desperate must you be to accept? And these are the guys - producers and director - that are responsible for the upcoming Pacino/De Niro mash-up. It’s just too tragic.

Something amusing is happening in Tel Aviv’s main street: an inflatable giant-size duck was placed upon the roof of city-hall, with its foot dangling right outside the window of Tel Aviv’s mayor.
The duck was inflated to the cheers of hundreds of on-lookers yesterday at twilight. This was done to commemorate Dudu Geva, a comic-book artist and humorist who passed away suddenly three years ago (I had the privilege of working with him). His son, daughter, friends and disciples worked effortlessly for three years to persuade the humorless mayor of Tel Aviv to agree that it’s a splendid idea to have a duck on top of city hall - in reference to an idea Geva drew once where he called to “duckify” Tel Aviv (in hopes of bringing comic-book colors to a gray city). It took three years, but ultimately they prevailed. On the eve of Tel Aviv centennial, the duck will sit for 3 months on top of city hall, bringing smiles to those who pass by.
Geva, in fact, had a duck-fetish. He once wrote “The Duck Book”, a compendium of all his comic-strips that starred ducks. In one of the pages he introduced his signature duck to Donald Duck. He was promptly sued by The Walt Disney Corporation for copyright infringement and lost.

This is the view down Ibn-Gvirol Street (few feet away from my house), in a rare, and blessed, case of urban humor gone mad:

My field trip is over. Regular postings resume now. Stay tuned for many new reports and reviews. As summer season starts, many tentpole Hollywood movies open day-and-date in Israel so I’ll have some of my reviews up here as fast, sometimes even faster, than my American counterparts.

But first, a disturbing snapshot from my travels:
Although I’m far from being a Bush supporter, this T-shirt, on sale on a Bangkok street market (and snapped on my cell), sent shivers down my spine:

What do you think?

I’m traveling these days in Asian countries where power-cuts are frequent and wi-fi service is sparse. I have some posts I want to file in the next several days, as soon as I find a place that doesn’t disconnect so frequently.
But until then, I’m handing this blog over to you: what’s happening, cinematic-wise, in your neck of the woods? Please share.