Chicago – Answering the question, “Where are all the great film thrillers about Talumdic Studies?,” the awesome film “Footnote” considers that very subject, pitting the always complicated relationship between a father and son against an treasured academic prize. Even though it sounds starchy, it actually had more verve than most spy movies.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Oscars (losing to “A Separation”), this Israeli work defines the country and its atmospheric landscape through the plot, which is another remarkable achievement. There is more cultural acumen to be gained from viewing this film than a hundred showings of “Fiddler on the Roof” (which also gets a sharp and funny poke in the story). The pacing and the style of director Joseph Cedar uplifts the whole narrative, he touches upon the humanity of the situation in a way that maintains the dignity in all of his marvelous characters.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the recent Oscars (losing to “A Separation”), this Israeli work defines the country and its atmospheric landscape through the plot, which is another remarkable achievement. There is more cultural acumen to be gained from viewing this film than a hundred showings of “Fiddler on the Roof” (which also gets a sharp and funny poke in the story). The pacing and the style of director Joseph Cedar uplifts the whole narrative, he touches upon the humanity of the situation in a way that maintains the dignity in all of his marvelous characters.
- 3/16/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Joseph Cedar‘s Footnote, winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and one of four runners-up to Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation for the most recent Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is a curiously uneven depiction of a brewing father-son rivalry. It’s far from a smooth affair, in that the quite satirical comedic tone, while certainly contributing a unique humor, manages to liquify most of the potential for emotional epiphany. Patchy, too, is Cedar‘s tension within himself — as self-sufficiently word-driven as his screenplay is, he approaches the material with a very noticeable directorial personality, and it’s a decision that, creatively eager though it may be, produces mostly mixed results.
The familial pressure in Cedar‘s story stems from the opposite personalities with which the two main characters conduct themselves in the same profession — the study of Talmudic Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The familial pressure in Cedar‘s story stems from the opposite personalities with which the two main characters conduct themselves in the same profession — the study of Talmudic Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
- 3/9/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Updated through 5/17.
"An intriguing tale of an ethical dilemma complicated by academic rivalries and family tensions is told in erratic fashion in Footnote," begins Todd McCarthy in the Hollywood Reporter. "In his fourth feature, New York-born-and-trained Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar arrestingly tackles what feels like deeply felt personal material, a simmering intellectual and emotional feud between a comparably brilliant father and son, but makes several crucial miscalculations, beginning with the use of one of the most intrusive and overbearing musical scores in memory."
"Eliezer Shkolnik [Shlomo Bar-Aba], a curmudgeonly professor, and his son Uziel [Lior Ashkenazi] are both well-known Talmudic scholars and researchers," explains Barbara Scharres, blogging for the Chicago Sun-Times. "Uziel, however, reaps awards and honors galore, while his jealous father has suffered a career of being overlooked. Uziel wins a major academic award in their mutual field, but through the mistake of an office assistant, Eliezer is informed that he is the winner.
"An intriguing tale of an ethical dilemma complicated by academic rivalries and family tensions is told in erratic fashion in Footnote," begins Todd McCarthy in the Hollywood Reporter. "In his fourth feature, New York-born-and-trained Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar arrestingly tackles what feels like deeply felt personal material, a simmering intellectual and emotional feud between a comparably brilliant father and son, but makes several crucial miscalculations, beginning with the use of one of the most intrusive and overbearing musical scores in memory."
"Eliezer Shkolnik [Shlomo Bar-Aba], a curmudgeonly professor, and his son Uziel [Lior Ashkenazi] are both well-known Talmudic scholars and researchers," explains Barbara Scharres, blogging for the Chicago Sun-Times. "Uziel, however, reaps awards and honors galore, while his jealous father has suffered a career of being overlooked. Uziel wins a major academic award in their mutual field, but through the mistake of an office assistant, Eliezer is informed that he is the winner.
- 5/17/2011
- MUBI
Time for a story of insane competition, the admiration and envy for a role model, bringing father and son to a final, bitter confrontation.
That’s exactly a description of Footnote, Israeli drama directed by Joseph Cedar, that is, as you already know from our previous reports, scheduled to premiere In Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. So check it out.
Footnote is “…the story of a great rivalry between a father and son. Both eccentric professors have dedicated their lives to their work. The father seems a stubborn purist who fears the establishment.
His son, Uriel, appears to strive on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition. But one day, the tables turn. The two men switch places when the father learns he is to be awarded the most valuable honour one can receive. His desperate need for recognition is betrayed, his vanity exposed. Uriel is torn between pride and envy.
That’s exactly a description of Footnote, Israeli drama directed by Joseph Cedar, that is, as you already know from our previous reports, scheduled to premiere In Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. So check it out.
Footnote is “…the story of a great rivalry between a father and son. Both eccentric professors have dedicated their lives to their work. The father seems a stubborn purist who fears the establishment.
His son, Uriel, appears to strive on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition. But one day, the tables turn. The two men switch places when the father learns he is to be awarded the most valuable honour one can receive. His desperate need for recognition is betrayed, his vanity exposed. Uriel is torn between pride and envy.
- 4/19/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
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