Classic 2024 Archives - Page 2 of 3

Ed Wood

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton film

The acclaimed film director Tim Burton brings life to the unbelievable story of the legend of trash cult films – Edward Wood, who is considered one of the worst filmmakers ever, brilliantly portrayed by Johnny Depp.

The film follows a time period of six years where we delve into Ed Wood’s personal life and his struggles to create one of his best known films, an autobiography named “Glen or Glenda” which depicts Wood’s personal fetish for women’s clothes. The film also follows Wood’s connection with Bela Lugosi, a horror films star in the 1930’s (Martin Landau in a breathtaking performance). Lugosi was most famous for his role of Dracula, but stopped working due to drug problems, and Ed Wood was the one who helped him get into rehab and make his last film “Plan 9 from Outer Space” which is considered to this day to be one of the worst films ever made.

Based (somewhat) on a book by Rudolph Gray Jr. ” Nightmare of Ecstasy: the Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr”

A must see film! Screening of a 35 mm copy.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

The Favourite

Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

For the first time on the big screen in Israel, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”, the film that earned Jessica Chastain the Oscar for Best Leading Female.
The film is based on a documentary by the same name from the creators behind “RuPaul’s Drag Race”.

In a heartwarming performance, Jessica Chastain undergoes a full transformation and becomes Tammy Faye Bakker, an evangelist TV host that led for years an extravagant missionary talk show. A woman who built, alongside her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) an empire that is worth millions of dollars. Tammy Faye was popular with her choices of colorful outfits and extreme make-up. While she soared in the Christians circles she became a laughing stock of late night talk shows and skits such as SNL, which turned her into a popular culture icon even for those who never saw her actual show.

Director Michael Showalter (“The Big Sick”) brings to the big screen an honest and merciful portrait of a woman, far from the caricature Tammy Faye had become. From her humble start as child, through the wedding her parents didn’t approve of, to the huge success and Jim’s conviction of fraud. Even though Tammy Faye was an evangelist Christian, she supported the LGBTQ community and was one of the first conservative Republicans to interview with compassion an AIDS patient during the height of the pandemic, a move that enraged a lot of her supporters as well as the evangelists leader, rev. Jerry Falwell.

Chastain is nothing short of amazing, stepping into Tammy Faye’s shoes. She manages to create a humane and colorful personality who always shows up in full make-up- ready to give a performance of a lifetime, even if the camera isn’t rolling.

The movie is also available on Disney Plus

“All About My Mother” & panel

Before the screening: A panel of cinema and television actresses hosted by Esti Zakheim (“Afula Express”, “Leylasede”), who will be joined by Hadas Yaron (“Fill the Void”), Moran Rosenblatt (“Paper Wedding”, “Fauda”), Sivan Levy (“Six Times”, “Bitty ‘Ahou’vatty”) and Lioz Levi (“HaMedovev”, “Malach Mashchit”).

25th anniversary of the film “All About My Mother”

Winner of the 2000 Foreign Film Academy Award. Almodovar’s 13th film is a wonderful melodrama about the journey of Manuela from Madrid to Barcelona, in search of the man she left 18 years ago, in order to tell him about their son, whom he never got to meet before the son was killed in a car accident.
“All About My Mother” is Almodovar at his peak, with unforgettable characters, incredible aesthetics and sharp humor next to emotional maturity, deep understanding of the human soul and the ability to combine all these into a cinematic bomb of emotions.

In association with the Embassy of Spain

Bar 51

Amos Guttman’s second feature film tells the story of a brother and sister from the country, who decide to find their luck in the big city Tel Aviv after the death of their mother. They meet Apollonia, the owner of a sleazy joint called “Bar 51”, who employs them at the bar, mostly because of her strong attraction to the brother, who in turn, is secretly in love with his own sister.
Apollonia is played by Ada Valerie Tal, the first Israeli transgender actress, and her character is based on Gila Goldstein, who used to perform at the real “Bar 51”.
“Bar 51” is a stylish creation that reminds of the early works of Fassbinder and Almodóvar.

Contains depictions of violence, including sexual assault and self harm.

This movie is part of Amos Guttman Retrospective

“Drifting (Nagu’a)” & show by Aviv Shriki

Before the screening: short musical performance by Aviv Shriki – songs inspired by Amos Guttman’s work.

Amos Guttman’s debut film is a groundbreaking cinematic piece and considered to be the first Israeli feature film that deals directly and seriously with the subject of gay men in Israel.
Robi lives with his grandmother and works in her grocery shop. Robi has two obsessions – men and movies. All his sexual encounters are channeled towards fulfilling his dream – becoming a film director.

This movie is part of Amos Guttman Retrospective

Keep Not Silent – Ortho-Dykes (Et SheAhava Nafshi)

Celebrating 20 years of the premiere of Ilil Alexander’s groundbreaking film

Following the screening we will conduct a Q&A session with the creator of the film and a number of notable religious lesbian activists.

An Israeli documentary film from 2004, which won the Ophir Award for best docu, directed and produced by Ilil Alexander.
The film follows three Ultra Orthodox lesbian women living in Jerusalem and struggling with their sexual preference and their attraction to women. The film details the conflicts standing in their way – the wish to fulfill their desires and be authentic in their love and their loyalty to their families and their religious faith, and follows their lives and struggles.
The Hebrew name of the film comes from Song of Songs, 3:1 – “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not.”

The film was screened in cinemas and on TV in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Poland, as well as in Israel.

Marzipan Flowers

A special screening in memory of Rotem Kalderon, mother of Adam Kalderon
All the proceeds from the screening will go to the rebuilding of kibbutz Be’eri

Before the screening: Opening words
After the screening: conversation with Mika Kalderon, actresses: Nouli Omer, Tal Kalay and Efrat Aviv, and the producer Ori Hod.

Adam Kalderon, a native of kibbutz Be’eri, filmed there his debut feature “Marzipan Flowers” during the military operation “Amud Anan” (2012). The script was inspired by events from his mother’s life, who also assisted with the production. A decade had passed since the release of this special and different film. Kalderon’s 2nd feature “The Swimmer” screened at TLVfest 2022.

Hadas is working at the kibbutz laundry, when she’s informed that her husband Moshe was killed in a traffic accident. In one second Hadas’ entire world crashes down. After a hard year of mourning, the kibbutz is getting too stifling for Hadas and she realizes she can’t move on with her life. She decides to leave the kibbutz, where she lived her whole life, in favor of a new life in Tel Aviv. Penniless and provincial, she shares an apartment with Petel, a vibrant trans woman, and works as a waitress. The journey to the big city makes Hadas confront the fact that her youth is gone, but also with the dreams she never fulfilled, and she decides to realize those desires: she opens up her own place and experiences a late marzipan blossoming.

Himmo, King of Jerusalem

Amos Guttman’s third film is an adaptation of a book by Yoram Kanyuk.
Even though the film doesn’t deal with explicit LGBTQ themes, but with the Israeli War of 1948, it is steeped with criticism of the existing societal norms and the ideal of masculinity. Guttman’s unique style and cinematic language are imbued well in this film. There is a prevalent subtext of homoeroticism and complex relationships between the soldiers, especially Frangi and Assa (played by the young Amiram Gabriel and Dov Navon).
Hamutal, a young nurse who volunteers in a military hospital improvised in an abandoned monastery, is inexplicably drawn to Himmo, a soldier severely injured during the battle for Jerusalem. Favoritism sparks jealousy among the other wounded soldiers and highlights the tension between attraction and revulsion, compassion and pain, the life force and the wish to die – a conflict that is accentuated by Edna Mazia’s macabre and humoristic dialogues.

This movie is part of Amos Guttman Retrospective

Fabric Stories

After the screening: conversation with the reporter Itay Yakov and the designers Dorin Frankfurt & Yuval Caspin.

Amos Gutman’s first film, discovered in the Channel 1 archives and restored, tells the story of Israeli fashion. But more than that it reveals the birth of one of the most important local filmmakers.
The film was made in 1978, 5 years before Gutman’s directorial feature film debut “Drifting“ (“Nagu’a”). On the surface it’s a documentary focusing on the Israeli world of fashion in the late 70’s, but in fact, the film uses that world to produce a cinematic
language incorporating different styles from scene to scene. Rather than your typical talking heads and fashion footage, this is a much surrealistic journey of what Gutman himself saw and perceived as fashion.
At the time, the film did not sit well with TV executives and after single screening was sent to the archives.

In association with the Film Archives of Israeli Television – Channel 1

This movie is part of Amos Guttman Retrospective