Cinemascope

The 25th edition of the Jerusalem Film festival kicks off July 10th with the Israeli premiere of “Wall-E”. The first festival under the newly appointed manager Ilan De Vries will include some highlights of the 2008 Cannes Festival, before they head on to Toronto.

Highlights include:

“24 City”
Jia Zhang-ke, China

“Of Time and the City”
Terence Davies, United Kingdom

“Liverpool”
Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/Spain/Germany

“Tulpan”
Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Switzerland/Kazakstan/Russia/Poland

“Acne”
Federico Veiroj, Uruguay/Argentina/Spain/Mexico

“Hunger”
Steve McQueen, United Kingdom

IL DIVO
Paolo Sorrentino

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Charlie Kaufman

SERBIS
Brillante Mendoza

Also playing:

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
Errol Morris

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Werner Herzog

MY WINNIPEG
and
BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!
Guy Maddin

The full program is available online.

Read my previous:
“Wall-E” set to open The Jerusalem Film Festival
De Vries takes over Van Leer at the Jerusalem Film Festival

“Repo! The Genetic Opera”, the new gore-fest by “Saw” director Darren-Lynn Bousman had it’s second trailer released this week (see below), and it looks rather amusing, giving the term “Death Metal” back its proper meaning. The story, as much as I gathered from the trailer, tells of a future in which repo-men come to collect organs from those unable to pay their debts. Live Organ Transplants? Sounds brilliant…. BUT - unoriginal. Monty Python did it first in their 1983 movie “The Meaning of Life”: premature organ extractions, repo men AND a musical number. In the Monty Python sketch John Cleese comes to collect the liver from organ donor Terry Gilliam (who, for some reason, has dreadlocks and hears “Hava Nagila” in his home). When the organ donor protests that his donation is activated “only in the event of death”, Cleese reassures him saying “No one who has ever had their liver taken out by us has survived” (the transcript for the sketch is available here). He then goes on a sales pitch to persuade the Mrs. (Terry Jones) to donate her liver as well, right there and then and then segues off into a song.
Well, well, what’s all this then? A coincidence? A tribute? Or should “Repo! The Genetic Opera” be named “Rip-Off! The Generic Opera”?

Judge for yourself: the trailer for “Repo: The Genetic Opera” and below it the Monty Python bit “Live Organ Transplant” and “The Galaxy Song” (careful, it’s bloody):

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“You Don’t Mess With The Zohan” was the number one movie in Israel this weekend, selling 37,529 tickets in it’s first three days of release, that’s almost as much as the opening numbers of “Indiana Jones” and “Sex and the City” a few weeks back. No Adam Sandler movie has ever sold more then 80,000 tickets in Israel, meaning that “Zohan” did in three days half of what the typical Sandler movie does in Israel in its entire run.

AP is reporting from inside Israeli movie theaters where the crowds are cracking up at the over-the-top representations of Israeli culture.

“Zohan”, reports AP, had it’s basis in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch written by Robert Smigel in 1992, called “Sabra Price is Right”, starring Tom Hanks. Hanks’ name in the sketch is Oori Sholemson, the name of the character eventually played by Israeli actor Ido Mosseri in “Zohan”. Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and Chris Rock - all of them now in “Zohan” - are featured in the sketch. Some of the phrases used in the bit appear verbatim in the movie, most prominently the catch phrase in the headline. Smigel - credited as co-writer on “Zohan” - plays Yossi in the movie, the would-be hand-model turned salesmen.

Here is the sketch from 1992:

Read my previous reporting on “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan”:
The “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” glossary
Meet the Groove-combo featured on Adam Sandler’s “Zohan” trailer
Exclusive: Pages from Apatow and Sandler’s “Zohan” screenplay

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E, frontman for The Eels, currently my favorite band in the world, recorded a heartbreakingly beautiful rendition for “Railroad Man” yesterday to be played tomorrow at the memorial service of Anthony Fusaro, a 15 years old Eels fan who died last month from brain and spinal cancer. E, on his blog, told of how he met Anthony at one of The Eels’ shows in April. Then came the news a month later about his death. The home-made video features E, E’s dog, Bobby Jr. and the stuffed pet Anthony gave E to give to Bobby Jr. backstage.

Tomorrow’s memorial will raise money for Fusaro’s charity, helping other oncology patients.

“Hancock” had a preview screening in Tel Aviv yesterday and Eden, one of the readers over on my Hebrew blog saw it and sent in a brief comment. He was not happy with what he saw:

Saw “Hancock” yesterday and it’s a very peculiar movie. Halfway through the movie swerves into a direction not hinted in the trailers. It went into what I think is the wrong direction and nearly ruined the movie with being overly melodramatic. It’s not a bad movie, it was still pretty enjoyable and I think it will make heaps of money but it reminded me of “The Last Action Hero”, a movie that marked the end of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rein as the king of action movies. If Will Smith doesn’t look out “Hancock” could be the beginning of the end for his career.

Oh dear. “The Last Action Hero”? Overly melodramatic? Can anyone else elaborate?

George Carlin, 71, one of the funniest men in America, died tonight of heart failure. Read one of the last interviews he gave to Salon.

Remembrances are starting to pour in.

In this routine he says that there in no God, and that he prefers to worship the Sun, Humpty Dumpty and Joe Pesce instead. He ends the bit saying: “If God exists may he strike me down now”. Well, it seems God was preoccupied and could attend to Carlin’s request only tonight. I’d love to hear Carlin now, after his death, and to know once and for all if it is indeed Humpty Dumpty greeting the deceased at Heaven’s gates.

And here is his 1978 HBO special:

Acidic Jew

Seen Adam Sandler’s hilarious “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” but didn’t understand a word he said? Live from Tel Aviv, the fizzy bubblech capitol of the world, I’m proud to present: The Silky Smooth Dictionary to Zohanisms. Everything you wanted to know about the hybrid Hebrew/Arabic/Yiddish/Gibberish that Sandler and his screenwriting partners - Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel - concocted and then wrapped up in an undecipherable accent (more Kazakh than Israeli, a common mistake in these post Borat days, where an Israeli actor played a Kazakh reporter).

If you are on your way to the see “Zohan” pre-load this page on your iPhone browser and refer to it mid-screening, whenever a word unfamiliar to you pops up (I’ve tried to arrange the words in the order they appear in the movie).

- Zohan (Gibberish). This is the character’s first name (Zohan Dvir is his full name), which would suggest this name does exist in Hebrew. It doesn’t. Zohar is a rather common Sabra name, both for males and females, meaning Glow or Halo (and I would guess you’d find dozens of Zohar Dvirs in Israel), but Zohan is a made-up name, which rings more Persian than Israeli. Maybe they branded “zohar” with “cohen” and came up with “Zohan”, or maybe they just misheard. (Ido Mouserri, who plays Oori in the film, said in an interview today that Sandler and Co. knew that Zohan is not an actual name but they feared of getting in trouble with an actual Zohar Dvir who could sue them).

- Dagim (Hebrew). DA as in DArfur, GIM as in GIMble. Fish. or as Zohan says in the second scene, while standing naked next to a barbecue (or Mangal in Hebrew): “I’m cooking dagim”.

-Yalla (from the Arabic but commonly used in the Hebrew vernacular): a rather rude, but useful, cry for the purpose of speeding one up and demonstrating impatience. Common usage: “Yalla, let’s go”. Or: “Yalla Yalla”. (This is the Arabic equivalent to the Russian “Noo”, that was commonly used in the Jewish vernacular earlier in the 20th century).

- Sababa (from the Arabic but commonly used in the Hebrew vernacular). Cool. Fine. The Best.

- Kapara (Hebrew slang). Darling. Honey.

- Motek (Hebrew). Sweetheart, Baby, Honey.

- Eize basa (Hebrew/Arabic): “What a bummer”

- Aba (Hebrew): Dad. Father.

- Imma (Hebrew): Mom. Mother.

- Feigale (Yiddish): Gay.

- Tatale (Yiddish): Kid, Child.

- Babaganoush (Culinary). Eggplant and Tehina salad. Very tasty.

- Beseder (Hebrew): OK. All is Well.

Bed, Beach and Beyond

- Poontachat (Hebrew/Gibberish). Vagina. This word doesn’t really exist, it was made up by the writers. Poon is the American slang word for the female genitals, and Tachat is “Ass” in Hebrew. Add one to the other and you get a throaty word that sounds vulgar in three different languages.

- Fizzy Bubblech (Gibberish). A true mystery: where did this word come from. This is the Orange soda Zohan chugs down throughout the movie, but it’s not like anything you can actually find in Israel. Which made me realize: Apatow or Sandler must’ve visited Israel once, either in the late Seventies or early Eighties (Smigel admitted he’s never been here), and “Zohan” is based on what they saw back then - the hair, the music, the beaches, the blood-thirst, the sexual ambiguity. And also the soft drinks: back in the Seventies the American Fanta was named Kinley over here, and the Orange flavor soda indeed tasted a bit more acidic than in the States, add to that two locally brewed brands that competed - Crystal and Tempo - all in bottles resembling a curvaceous woman, and you’d see were the inspiration comes from. But that was before globalization. Crystal and Tempo disappeared, Fanta is now readily available, and “Fizzy Bubblech” is not something you’ll find in Israeli supermarkets.

- MUCHENTUCHEN (Gibberish). Ditto. The restaurant chain owned by former terrorist The Phantom (John Turturro) sells Shawarma (or Gyro, or Hero in Greek, or Doner Kabab in Turkish). MUCHENTUCHEN is not an actual word. It’s the closest thing to “Akalakalaka Street” in “Team America”.

- Hacky Sack (English). AKA Footbag. Supposedly a middle-eastern specialty sport, common enough to unite even the bitterest of enemies. Actually Footbag is completely unknown in this neck of the wood. According to Wikipedia all Footbag record holders are west-coast or mid-west Americans. The middle-east is ga-ga over soccer, and Israel is also nuts on Basketball, and the sad truth is that when Israeli teams make the cut and join a world tournament, Arab teams immediately drop out (and not for fear of losing).

- Gay Shlufen (Yiddish). “Go to sleep”. (This has nothing to do with the queer “Gay”. “Gay” in Yiddish is the verb “Go”). Zohan says this to the dogs - Coco and Mr. Scrappy - on the plane. You’d hear Yiddish from people who are mostly over 70 in Israel. It’s an elderly language. If you hear someone in his early 30’s talking Yiddish amongst himself it means last time you visited Israel is in 1976.

- Boker Tov (Hebrew). Good Morning.

- Yofi (Hebrew): Good, wonderful. (The actual meaning is “Beauty”, but the vernacular usage is less refined so ultimately Yofi, Sababa, Achla and Beseder are interchangeable).

- Yofi Tofi (Hebrew slang): Goodie-Goodie. Hunky-Dory.

- Kneidelach (Yiddish): Matzoh ball.

- Sheket (Hebrew): Quiet! (used for the purpose of shushing one up).

- Mensch (Yiddish). Person, man. But it’s used to distinguish someone as an exceptionally good human being, a person with heart. As in with “Gay Shlufen” usage of this word in a character that’s in his 30’s in Present Day is an anachronism.

- Sharmuta (Arabic): Whore.

- Zikpa (Hebrew): Erection (hat-tip: orrk)

Does John Lasseter and company know how big they are in Israel? “Wall-E”, it was announced today, will be the opening night film at the Jerusalem Film Festival on July 10th, two weeks after the American release. It will be the second Pixar movie in a row to open the Jerusalem Fest, after last year’s “Ratatuoille”. I wonder if the fest’s name shouldn’t be changed already to The Jerusalem Pixar International Festival Festival. Organizers picked “Wall-E” over “Kung Fu Panda”, which was also offered to them as opening night fare.

Wall in Jerusalem

Wall-E in Jerusalem

Although the Jerusalem Film Festival, celebrating it’s 25th edition this year, is known for excellent high brow festival titles from Europe and Asia and home-made premieres, the opening film was always a lighter, commercial, mostly family friendly movie due to the location of the opening night ceremony. The opening night films are screened on a giant outdoor screen in front of an audience of 5,000, in a valley shadowed by the ancient walls of Jerusalem. It is truly a spectacular way to see a movie. It also gives “Wall-E” a new meaning for his name. Wall indeed.
Previous festival openers, “Ratatouille” and “Shrek” went on to become that year’s top ticket selling film locally. And indeed, in the last few years the festival favored computer animated movies as openers.

Now “Wall-E”, which was scheduled to open on July 3rd, will have to move back a week to accommodate to the festival’s opening night date. Meaning that it will go head-to-head with “Hancock”, both opening the same day in Israel.

Read my previous related post: Critics banned from reviewing “Hancock”, “Wall-E”, “Narnia”, “Sex and the City”

I just watched (belatedly) HBO’s riveting “Recount” - a primer in US mob politics - when I heard Tim Russert died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 58. Russert appears in several archive footage shots, most importantly the one where Joe Lieberman, appearing on “Meet the Press”, fumbles Gore’s recount efforts.
Russert was not the first. Two and a half weeks ago Sydney Pollack died, two days after “Recount”’s premiere. Pollack was the designated director for “Recount” but handed the job over to Jay Roach due to his illness (Dave Grusin, Pollack’s regular composer, remains the only testament to Pollack’s early involvement). “Recount” is produced by Mirage - the production company co-owned by Pollack and Anthony Minghella. Minghella died prematurely a year ago. Maybe that election was indeed cursed.

If you saw “Recount” you should see this: in 2002, two years after Bush-Gore election debacle, Spike Lee directed a breathtaking and heart quickening documentary about the same story - and did it in 10 minutes. The segment is called “We Wuz Robbed” (it’s included in the anthology movie “10 Minutes Older: The Trumpet“), I show it to my students every semester, it is a true masterpiece of documentary storytelling and political filmmaking told in breakneck speed:

We Wuz Robbed

You’d think a flop is when a movie is released and no one shows up to see it. But when it comes to “The Happening”, the new M. Night Shyamalan movie, this one looks like it’s an a-priori bomb. Case in point: the Israeli release - out today, 24 hours before the north American roll-out. I, a Tel Aviv film geek, have practically nowhere to see the movie. At least, not a place with adequate screening conditions and hours. The movie gas all but been buried.

It seems international exhibitors regard this one as DOA. “The Happening” is opening today in Israel but in Tel Aviv it will roll out without critic screenings, almost zero billboards and is booked on only one screen. It’s booked in the second smallest auditorium in the biggest multiplex in the city, for only 2 shows on opening day, both of them early evening shows (the youngster hours, for a film classified as 16 here). Meaning, if I read the signs properly, that they know no one will show up, and they’ll try to make sure it happens.