Films Worth Seeing
Araya. Made in 1959, acclaimed at Cannes but skimpily released, this exceptional documentary is very deservedly brought forth again. Shot in stunning black and white, this account of salt workers on the coast of Venezuela tells the truth about their lives in quasi-poetic style. (Reviewed 11/4/09)
Films Worth Seeing
Araya. Made in 1959, acclaimed at Cannes but skimpily released, this exceptional documentary is very deservedly brought forth again. Shot in stunning black and white, this account of salt workers on the coast of Venezuela tells the truth about their lives in quasi-poetic style. (Reviewed 11/4/09)
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest celluloid gala in the world. Not as vaunted and haunted by the publicity machines but intellectually more serious than Cannes. The Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, a most prestigious element of the Venice Biennale, bestowed its Golden Lion award, its top honor, on an Israeli film called Lebanon. It is a relentlessly honest film about war itself but also specifically about Israel's first real war in Lebanon. (There had been skirmishes before, especially in 1978, and more than skirmishes since, as in 2006.) Read about this motion picture in The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz.
I have not yet seen Lebanon. But I know what it is, given the characteristically (and thank God) self-conscious and self-critical disposition of all of Israel's arts. Yes, they fight heroically but they also ponder. Would that there were even a bit of this doubt or even detachment among Arab intellectuals and artists. Alas, there isn't. The Arab dissident has left for the West or is silent.
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest celluloid gala in the world. Not as vaunted and haunted by the publicity machines but intellectually more serious than Cannes. The Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, a most prestigious element of the Venice Biennale, bestowed its Golden Lion award, its top honor, on an Israeli film called Lebanon. It is a relentlessly honest film about war itself but also specifically about Israel's first real war in Lebanon. (There had been skirmishes before, especially in 1978, and more than skirmishes since, as in 2006.) Read about this motion picture in The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz.
I have not yet seen Lebanon. But I know what it is, given the characteristically (and thank God) self-conscious and self-critical disposition of all of Israel's arts. Yes, they fight heroically but they also ponder. Would that there were even a bit of this doubt or even detachment among Arab intellectuals and artists. Alas, there isn't. The Arab dissident has left for the West or is silent.
To describe Roman Polanski's film The Pianist in less than superlatives might get one branded obtuse or hard-hearted. "A powerfully meticulous epic," extolled Richard Corliss in Time. "A remarkable story, handled with an expert lack of sentimentality," the New Statesman's Philip Kerr agreed.
To describe Roman Polanski's film The Pianist in less than superlatives might get one branded obtuse or hard-hearted. "A powerfully meticulous epic," extolled Richard Corliss in Time. "A remarkable story, handled with an expert lack of sentimentality," the New Statesman's Philip Kerr agreed.
