Cinemascope

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”.

Israeli movie “The Bubble”, directed by Eythan Fox (”Walk on Water”), won the GLAAD media award for best movie in limited release.

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“The Band’s Visit” has become the widest Israeli movie release ever on US screens, after expanding to 105 screens this past weekend (the widest release for an Israeli movie in the States so far has been the 48 screens of “Ushpizin” in 2004. Palestinian movie “Paradise Now” got as much as 68 screens after winning the Golden Globe). “Band” is also only the fourth Israeli movie to gross more then a million dollars at the US box office, and if it holds steam, it will surely become - within a month or so - Israel’s top grossing movie in the States ever, beating out 2004’s “Walk on Water”, directed by Eythan Fox, which grossed 2.7 million dollars on 47 screens.

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Ricky Gervais launched a hilarious blog chronicling - in print, audio and side-splitting video - the production of “This Side of the Truth“, his first movie as director (along side Matt Robinson).

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Abe Karpen, a Hassidic Jew from Williamsburg, had to drop out from playing Natalie Portman’s husband on a short film she’s directing. Orthodox jews are not allowed to watch TV or movies, let alone play in one.
Karpen, reports Gothamist, was asked to hold Portman’s hand but refused, “It’s against our religion. You can’t even hold your wife’s hand on the street.”
Next thing they’ll tell me Kelly McGillis wasn’t really Amish.

(Hat-tip: Miri)
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Arthur C. Clarke beamed off this mortal coil into the netherworlds of the heavens, where he will catch up with star-children Stanley Kubrick (director of his “2001″ adaptation) and Roy Scheider (star of his “2010″ adaptation), who have gone forth before him.

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It was a week of Minghellas in the news: Hanna Minghella was promoted to be president of production at Sony Pictures Animation. Her new boss is Bob Osher, who replaced ex-pat Israeli Yair Landau as president of the digital production division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Her brother, Max Minghella, an up-and-coming actor, started principal photography Monday on Alejando Amanebar’s historical epic “Agora”, alongside Rachel Weisz. The film, set in 4th century Egypt, has a plethora of Israeli and Palestinians actors in supporting roles.
But then yesterday, Max and Hanna’s father, director Anthony Minghella, died suddenly, at age 54.

Oh dear, I love Anthony Minghella’s movies (well, almost all of them). I adored his screenplays. The news of his sudden death at London’s Charing Cross Hospital this morning of brain hemorrhage is utterly tragic. I honestly believed the man still had at least one great film in him.

It was exactly a month ago, right before the Oscars that I wrote this, mentioning him:

Anthony Minghella is Oscar’s lucky charm.
He executive-produced “Michael Clayton” (and reportedly helped Tony Gilroy polish the script), and had a tiny cameo at the end of “Atonement” (as Vanessa Redgrave’s TV interviewer). The “write without adjectives” line in “Atonement” is lifted from Minghella’s Oscar winner, “The English Patient”. Now both “Michael Clayton” and “Atonement” are Best Picture nominees.

Not so lucky after all, I guess.

The irony is that Sydney Pollack, who’s fighting cancer, was supposed to be the gravely ill, soon to depart, producer of “Michael Clayton”. But he’s still with us. Minghella, on the other hand, is no longer.

Even more chilling: Minghella got his first break as a screenwriter when he wrote the absolutely brilliant TV series “The Storyteller”, created and produced by Jim Henson. Henson died suddenly in a New York Hospital of pneumonia. He was 54 years old as well. Spooky coincidence.

I loved Minghella love for words and language. He’s the only screenwriter I know who made one movie about adverbs (”Truly, Madly, Deeply” and one movie about adjectives (”The English Patient”). Even his almost-bland “Mr. Wonderful” included great exchanges where the romantic leads try to analyze their love affair while searching the proper words for it. His movies traveled between different scapes of reality: memories, fantasies, stories, imagination. Most of his characters pretended to be someone they are not. Most of them used words to survive.
Minghella’s philosophy was clear: words are deceitful. And his wordsmanship, hence his deceitfulness, was exquisite.

Oh dear 2: Jeffrey Wells’ Minghella obit is absolutely heartbreaking.