Bikur Ha-Tizmoret (The band's visit)
Crit (2007)
Rumor has it that this would have been Israel's nomination for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar except that it was ineligible because it contains too much English. Given that English is the common language of the traveling Egyptian police orchestra and the small-town Israelis they meet as a result of a travel mixup--and given that it is so heavily accented that the filmmakers felt obliged (mostly unnecessarily) to provide English subtitles for the English--this seems like a rather silly technicality, but then it shouldn't surprise me that the Foreign Film committee can't get anything right.
Not that this is an award-worthy film, but it is sweet and funny and idealistic (if only we could just spend some time with people who are unlike us--though at least it's not naïve enough to have made it a Hamas orchestra, say), and it contains a scene of coached romance worthy of Rostand.
Trailers
- Die Fälscher (The counterfeiters)--The Best Foreign Language Oscar winner, and I hope I get a local chance to stack it up against my top ten in the category. I hope the death of Showcase Orange doesn't prevent that.
- Married Life--Just opened in New York and was coolly rev'd in the Times, but with Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, and especially my Future Wife Patricia Clarkson, it has no trouble rising to the downtown bar.
- Funny Games--Oh, golly, this looks unpleasant; will it be good enough to justify the unpleasantness? Opens Friday, limited.
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