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Reviews, previews and chuckling and snorting...
By David O'Connell

David O'Connell writes the website Screen Fanatic as well as contributing to InFilm Australia. He lives in a house weighed down with thousands upon thousands of film scores and VHS tapes slowly dissolving to dust. His favourite directors include Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet, Patrice Leconte, Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg. He also greatly admires French and Swedish cinema (even the ones without naughty bits).





Haim Tabakman’s Eyes Wide Open is a taboo-tackling feature set within an orthodox Jewish community in modern day Jerusalem. The father of Aaron Fleishman (Zohar Strauss) has just passed away, meaning the family's butcher shop is now his sole responsibility. Aaron is a devoted husband and father of four, but when a homeless young Yeshiva student, Ezri (Ran Danker), materialises from the pouring rain in search of shelter one day, his internal life is thrown into conflict by new and shameful impulses that he is at first unable to fathom.

Aaron feels pity for the impoverished Ezri, embracing him into their religious congregation as well as offering him menial duties in the butchery. Does he possibly have any ulterior motive for being here? One scene shows Ezri attempting to initiate contact with another young man. Clearly he’s someone Ezri has shared a secretive tryst with in the past, but the man emphatically wards him off, leaving him despondent.

Working side by side however, something is ignited between Aaron and the newcomer. He seems to become hypnotically drawn to the younger man like a moth to a flame. The pair share looks and gestures from which much, or perhaps little, can be inferred. Then, an intimate conversation late at night changes everything. Aaron is initially resistant to Ezri’s first move, quick to highlight lust as that treacherous terrain of temptation humans are helpless to avoid dwelling upon - and requiring some semblance of divine power to nullify.

It’s in this riveting central relationship that Eyes Wide Open (2009) marks itself as superior drama. From a relatively inert opening, it develops a shape distinguished by subtle, moving performances and a impressive lack of histrionic emotional reaction. Tabakman treats Merav Doster’s screenplay with great finesse, presuming its slow-burn qualities to be gripping enough. And they are for the film is a masterclass in enabling silences and telling, ominous glances as effectively as words.

Zohar Strauss as Aaron


The effect Ezri’s presence has on the local community is brilliantly realised. Nothing explicit is ever spoken but community leaders continually lean on Aaron to redress the situation and dismiss Ezri from their midst. The perception of Ezri from beyond the confines of Aaron’s gaze evolves minutely whilst being juxtaposed with the disabling influence on Aaron’s own life, including the suspicion that takes seed in the imaginings of wife Rivka (Tinkerbell or Ravit Rozen as her birth certificate says!).

Initial skepticism of Ezri transforms into something dark and lethal; his true nature is suspected though never evoked by direct verbal references. He is viewed as something unholy, a poisonous influence slowly corrupting all by association. Aaron is implored to evict this person from their lives, but can he act morally for the sake of himself, his family and the community at large?

Though it appears to unobtrusively plod along through its first half, Eyes Wide Open develops into an extraordinarily effective piece of cinema, stealthily working its way under your skin. Strauss in particular, so effective in his fleeting appearances as the commanding officer in Lebanon, has much to do with its success; here, more than anything, he proves himself an actor capable of powerful understatement.


Ran Danker as Ezri



The 2010 Israeli Film Festival: Melbourne 17 – 22 August
and Sydney 31 August – 5 September


The official website with full details can be found here.





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High Heels

August 19th 2010 06:13
by Matt Shea
High Heels Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodovar’s filmography is so impressive that to come across a work that doesn’t leave you with at least a mirth-induced bellyache is surprising, shocking even. Almodovar labours over his comedy like others do their drama or tension, but in High Heels the gaudy highjinks end up feeling, well, laboured.

The premise for this 1991 feature is simple. Becky Del Paramo (Marisa Paredes) and her daughter, Rebecca (Victoria Abril) share a long, troubled relationship. Becky is a torch-song singer returning from Mexico to her native Madrid for the first time in over 20 years. Rebecca, a television newscaster, hasn’t seen her mother in all that time, and as a result mistrusts and resents her, best illustrated by an ill-conceived marriage to Manuel (Feodor Atkine) – Becky’s ex-lover.

Manuel’s murder kicks off the film’s central machinations, but it turns out to be the most uninteresting element of the film. It doesn’t help that Rebecca is an unconvincing newswoman, and Becky even less so as a hugely popular singing star. Not enough is done to illustrate the frayed early relationship between the two women to allow the subsequent death to have the sort of effect it should.

High Heels turns out to be a lot more interesting in its subplots and sidelines, a fact almost bashfully admitted by Almodovar given the amount of time he spends on them. The most engaging of these elements is Femme Lethal (Miguel Bose – godson of Pablo Picasso, would you believe), a good friend of Rebecca, as well as the cross dressing impersonator of Becky. Femme Lethal is a dynamic presence onstage, so much so that he’s probably more convincing than Becky (Bose’s history in the Spanish music industry probably doesn’t hurt – or help, depending on your perspective). Femme Lethal will turn out to play a bigger part later in the story, but not in a way you completely suspect – at least Almodovar would like to think you don’t.



The whole affair comes off as a patchwork of ideas, like the writer-director was flaking unused stickies from his wall and stringing them together to make the plot of a film. Still, while an Almodovar bad day is arresting, it’s probably the equivalent of apricot pie for lesser filmmakers. And despite the ramshackle nature of the film, there are elements that will make it pay for some people.

Abril is one of them, the star of the previous year’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! underlining an adorable screen presence despite the weaker elements of her character. Bose is good also in the main supporting role, his mild hamming providing some of the film’s funnier moments. And indeed, it’s nice to know that despite all the lunacy Almodovar’s allowed to get to the screen – from superfluous characters to WTF? song-and-dance sequences – the Spanish maestro will always know how to tickle the funny bone. Elsewhere, probably too good for the film is a brilliant, smoky jazz soundtrack, courtesy of Ryuichi Sakamoto.

In hindsight, High Heels emerged during a transitional period of Almodovar’s career that many might consider a slump. Later in the 90s the filmmaker would truly begin to deliver on the promise he’d earlier illustrated to international audiences with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. As it is, High Heels is nothing more than a mildly pleasant diversion or, if you’re operating on the Almodovar scale, a frustrating disposal of 109 minutes.


I say: A flat and often disinterested film – one for Almodovar completists only.

See it for: Victoria Abril and Miguel Bose both do their best to entertain.




*This image is from MovieMail
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In Memoriam: Bruno S. (1932-2010)

August 19th 2010 01:41
by Matt Shea
Bruno S. Stroszek

From Berlin last week came the sad news of the passing of Bruno S. He was 78. For many 20/20 Filmsight readers, Bruno S.’s name would barely register, but the man is a firm favourite round these parts, having starred in the Werner Herzog films The Enigma of Kasper Hauser and Stroszek. The illegitimate son of a prostitute and beaten so badly as a child that he was deaf for a time, S. spent most of his years between the ages of three and 26 inside mental institutions. A gruelling upbringing, it was one that eventually produced a man of intense focus and narrow social skills. Herzog had a great deal of admiration for S., fascinated that his experiences didn’t shape some sort of monstrous sociopath, but a quietly inquisitive individual of steady gaze and almost saintly virtue. If you’ve seen either Hauser or Stroszek, you’ll know what Herzog is talking about. If you haven’t, then perhaps you should take a look at either Cib’s review of the former or my write-up of the latter, and then get on down to the video store. RIP Bruno.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Walls @ The Israeli Film Festival

August 13th 2010 06:03
By David O'Connell

David O'Connell writes the website Screen Fanatic as well as contributing to InFilm Australia. He lives in a house weighed down with thousands upon thousands of film scores and VHS tapes slowly dissolving to dust. His favourite directors include Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet, Patrice Leconte, Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg. He also greatly admires French and Swedish cinema (even the ones without naughty bits).
[ Click here to read more ]
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Dekalog

August 2nd 2010 06:07
by Matt Shea
Dekalog

The Three Colours trilogy made Krzysztof Kieślowski in the West, but the Polish filmmaker had developed a knack for turning heads long before the Cold War thawed. His most substantive work before the Berlin Wall came toppling down was Dekalog, a ten-hour long film cycle loosely based on the Ten Commandments.

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Farewell

July 1st 2010 13:23
by Matt Shea
l'affaire Farewell

Everybody remembers their childhood as a simpler time. Girls were bad, cowboys were great, and marmite (I’m a kiwi) on toast was de rigueur as an afternoon snack.

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Joy Division

June 22nd 2010 06:39
by Matt Shea
Joy Division

The rockumentary is a difficult beast to get right. Often laden with sycophancy, crippled by fractious claim and counterclaim, or perhaps just hopelessly one-eyed, you’d be a brave cinemagoer to swan into such a non-fiction film without at least some idea about its actual quality.

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Born Free

June 21st 2010 06:00
By David O'Connell

David O'Connell writes the website Screen Fanatic as well as contributing to InFilm Australia. He lives in a house weighed down with thousands upon thousands of film scores and VHS tapes slowly dissolving to dust. His favourite directors include Billy Wilder, Sidney Lumet, Patrice Leconte, Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg. He also greatly admires French and Swedish cinema (even the ones without naughty bits).
[ Click here to read more ]
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Win Tickets to see Farewell!

June 18th 2010 06:06
by Matt Shea
Farewell film ticket giveaway

There's something of a two-decade rule with filmmakers. If you’re looking to examine an event or period of some historical importance, best give things twenty years to mature before you make your masterpiece. It happened with World War II in the 60s, Vietnam in the 80s, and now it’s the turn of the Cold War.

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Exit Through the Gift Shop

June 1st 2010 05:09
by Matt Shea
Exit Through the Gift Shop

The talk surrounding Exit Through the Gift Shop’s validity as a work of non-fiction has been as loud as the discussion of the film itself since its debut at Sundance earlier this year. As soon as it appeared on the festival schedule, the more hip critics were indulging in rabid Internet hogwash, lining up the potential for the film to be one elaborate prank.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Streetdance 3D

May 26th 2010 01:10
by Matt Shea
Streetdance 3D

I’d be kidding if I said I was expecting Streetdance 3D to be any good. In the line-up for the preview I found myself talking a little louder than usual, getting it across to anybody within earshot that I wasn’t quite there by choice. ‘Yeah, I need to review this for my site. I wouldn’t have come over this side of town but I had to return some tapes. No, I don’t know the Harlem Shuffle. I’m going home later to watch Citizen Kane.’

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Win tickets to see Fish Tank!

May 12th 2010 03:42
by Matt Shea
Fish Tank film

You could say it’s taken too long for Fish Tank to make it to Australian shores. First introduced at Cannes almost exactly a year ago, writer-director Andrea Arnold’s film nailed the Jury Prize at that festival and has since gone on to garner critical acclaim across the globe.

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The White Ribbon

May 7th 2010 03:33
by Matt Shea
The White Ribbon Das Weisse Band

Sitting like a third point to Heart of Glass and Children of the Damned, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon has travelled half the globe on a wave of praise, the Austrian writer-director’s examination of the beginnings of German 20th century fascism proving potent medicine for many critics and cinemagoers.

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The Concert

May 4th 2010 08:19
by Matt Shea
The Conert film radu mihaileanu

Radu Mihaileanu isn’t known for a lack of heart, but even his most ardent fans must blush when considering the mawkishness the Romanian-born, French-based writer-director has packed into his latest feature, The Concert.

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