esrosedotblog

PAINFUL COMEDY

Today's film, a foreign nominee for the Academy Awards, was

Hearat Shulayim / Footnote (2011)

This searing comedy, yes, searing, tells what happens when a father and son compete in the dry, seemingly drama less world of academia.

Ostensibly a comedy, the story quickly cuts to the ironic heart of the matter.

The father has worked hard in the vineyard for many years with scant recognition for his detailed work. One footnote.

The son, riding on the work of his father and other basic researchers, has popularized the material and written many successful books.

There is enough resentment going around between them that when the son gets chosen over the father for a national honor, some academic and family, long term resentments are spilled.

The committee, in a bit of confusion, calls the father with the news instead of the winner son. They call the wrong academic.

This could be a soufflé of a comedy and the beginning of the film creates this mood. The music is fanciful and light. "Look at these flighty academics".

But underneath are those layers of history. There is blood to be drawn. This even happens once in a surprising outburst of violence.

For all these guys know about the past, they know nothing about real life.

The father is a cold hearted bastard, closed to the world. Someone calls him "autistic". The son is equally out of touch, mean and arrogant. A vicious competitor, a stern father to his own son. Ultimatums.

There is a lot of pain in the unstinting drama that unfolds from this mistake in the award.

Who will break? Who will tell the truth?

I found myself chuckling a lot but underneath, stirred with emotion and anxiety about how this would play out.

It is beautifully realized, this family drama. This comedy with so much pain.

I would not mind seeing it again to watch the currents flow and to observe more closely the fine acting by the father, the son, the wives, the grandson and the symbolic, academic father who sets the whole thing in motion.

A 4 out of Netflix5.

I have seen three Israeli films in the last week. All with rich production values and great acting. In the "old days" when "foreign films" covered the bare few items that made it over the border, we live in a time when the term "foreign" should be dropped. Maybe "international". People still are hung up on subtitles and won't go see these wonderful films. But they should. The films are making it over the borders anyway but the audience could be way bigger. Should be.

Thanks to Netflix' vast updated catalog and on line streaming via YouTube and other venues, we no longer have to depend on an antiquated distribution system and overly commercialized theaters to see good films from all over the world.

Labels: films