Film: A Matter of Size (Israel, 2009)

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin

Only now I got to see ‘A Matter of Size’ or ‘Big Story’ (Sipur Gadol) as the original title in Hebrew goes, a film that surprised both the international and Israeli audiences a couple of years ago. International audiences were surprised as they seem to be any time a film from Israel deals with subjects that are not related to the Israeli-Arab conflict, to war or terrorism or their consequences. There was also however a surprise in this film for the Israeli audiences as well. Those who came to see the routine comedy that this film promised to be taken into account the background where it happens and the actors, were surprised to watch more delicate subjects of personal identity and courage of assuming it being dealt with in a light and spirited manner. The result is not bad, and the mild success that the film enjoyed was in my opinion deserved.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258123/

 

The heroes of the film all come from the lower class environment of a city which can be described as central in location and peripheral as social status in today’s Israel. Herzl (acted by big-eyed Itzik Cohen), his girl-friend Zehava (Irit Kaplan) and his friends all fight an oversize problem, which places them into the class of pariahs in a world obsessed by diets, as their weight places them out of the criteria of aesthetics and social acceptance. To some extent overweight is in the film directed by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor a symbol for all the other inequities of gender, origin or social nature that make people different (which is a normal thing) but can also lead to discrimination (which must be fought). The fight is however not so much with the outer world but merely with the inner personality of the heroes. The physical disadvantage is turned into an opportunity when Herzl and his friends discover that the traditional Japanese sport of sumo can earn them respectability, but as they soon learn sumo is not only about being fat, it is also about proving strength of character and endurance in face of adversity. The tools of personal success or even survival are the same in any context.

 

(video source israelfilms)

 

The film does not take itself too much in serious, and this is both a quality – as it stays pleasant to watch and can be enjoyed by practically any audience – but also a weak point, as it cannot avoid some of the expected clichees of the feel-good movies.Taking upon the sport of sumo in a country that is the opposite of Japan from so many points of view is a comedy subject by itself, and there are a few spectacular moments of comedy with the big fat men running in their red sumo panties in the city or on the roads but the authors were so proud of them that they repeated them three times. Besides the lead roles, Dvir Benedek gives a good performance and so does Togo Igawa as sumo master Kitano (a homage name?) who comes to Israel … for Zionist reasons. It’s overall a movie that is nice to watch for everybody and with enough substance to make even the more sophisticated viewer unable to be sorry for the time spent watching it.

 

 

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Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Posted on August 27, 2011 by admin

Amazing how many times can Hollywood try to squeeze the idea that triggered in 1968 the ‘Planet of the Apes’ series. The original film starred Charlton Heston and led to four sequels in the few years after its original release. A remake by Tim Burton with Mark Wahlberg in the lead role was made one decade ago. And now we have ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ which takes the theme into the techno-thriller space, but which in my humble opinion while technically sophisticated lacks much of the quality and ideas on which the original films were based.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1318514/

 

The evil human origins of the world dominated by apes were the nuclear apocalypse in the original film. The new evil role is nowadays taken by genetics research and medical corporations. Experiments on apes for a drug that can heal the Alzheimer disease go wrong and one smart ape triggers a revolution. The family-adopts-ape plot is extremely simplistic and not much complex then in scores of films and TV shows we have seen in the last few decades. Even so the film which is directed by Rupert Wyatt feels much longer than its 105 minutes.

 

(video source movieclips)

‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ is certainly technically amazing. The imaging technique used already in such films as the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series or in ‘Avatar’ allows human actors to dress into fantastic shapes while keeping expressiveness and emotions.  Here this technique is brilliantly used to create the main chimpanzee character (Caesar) and the crowd of apes, each gaining individual traits. Unfortunately the more sophisticated the technique and the virtual characters the less expressive are the human ones. There is not too much talent to be wasted in the characters of the scientist played by James Franco or his girlfriend played by Freida Pinto, and the best human performance is given by John Lithgow as the Alzheimer disease-stricken father.

It is said that ‘Rise of the Planet of Apes‘ is the smartest entertaining film of the summer. I can only imagine how bad must be the other. You can certainly lie back in the chair, and enjoy the popcorn and the apes. Not much more. The scariest thing is that the signs are that this film is the first in a new series.

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Film: Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Audrey Tautou, 2004)

Posted on August 22, 2011 by admin

‘Amelie’ is one of my preferred movies of all times. It brought to my attention the fabulous actress who is Audrey Tautou and also director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. To a large extent ‘Un long dimanche de fiancailles’ plays on the same strings as ‘Amelie’ with Tautou carrying the burden of a complex feminine character which combines fragility and tenacity, and whose big eyes and timid smile dominate any frame she is in and radiate the openness and goodness of a kind but determinate person. At the same time the story based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot also places the movie in a very select company of great anti-war films inspired by the first world war. Kubrick‘s ‘Paths of Glory’ and Losey‘s ‘King & Country’ are the two that come first to my mind. No wonder they were made in the 50s and 60s, as something in Jeunet’s style of telling the story and catching in poignant frames the horror of the trenches and the nightmare that war imposes on their heroes reminds the style of filming of the classical movies made half a century ago.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/

 

Yet, ‘Un long dimanche de fiancailles‘ is also a very different kind of film. This is due to Tautou’s magnetism whose innocence and trust in love and goodness carries away the whole action and crosses the screen right into the hearts of the viewers. This is also because it is before and more than everything a love story. Last this is also due to the sophisticated story building of Japrisot, which brings back from forgiveness the fate of five soldiers who should have all died a non-honorable death in the cross-fires of the French and German front lines, punished for having let their basic human survival instinct prevail over the laws of the patriotic killing in war. As the investigation that Tautou’s Mathilde is running about the fate of her fiancee disappeared in the war progresses we are more and more immersed into the horror of the war and we start to live the fears and hopes of the human beings caught in the middle. Cinematography plays with a number of beautiful techniques and tricks which sometimes create memorable frames. Superb acting accompanies Tautou’s – Ticky Holgado in one of his last roles as detective Pire, Jerome Kircher as Bastoche, and Jodie Foster, guest starring as Elodie are among the best.

 

(video source jolty712)

 

In a recent interview Audrey Tautou spoke about quitting acting. This would be a terrible loss for the French cinema and cinema at large. Tautou merges in her eyes and smile the fragility and delicacy of the other Audrey, Hepburn and the inner light of Ingrid Bergman. She is one of the few actresses nowadays who can put life in any role she plays. Please, Audrey, change your mind!

 

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Film: Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010)

Posted on August 20, 2011 by admin

The opening scene of ‘Animal Kingdom‘ is awesome. A young man just on the eve of maturity and an older woman watch a brainless TV competition show. She seems to have fallen asleep on the sofa. Next paramedics from the emergency service enter. We understand the two are mother and son, and the mother fainted after injecting heroin. The paramedics try to resuscitate her. She actually was dead. The son continues to watch TV without any apparent emotion during all the scene, the eyes stuck to the empty content of the TV show.

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1313092/

 

The scene is symbolic for the empty social and cultural world where the characters of the film move. We may be in the Melbourne of the first years of the 2000s but the story of the family could have taken place in any other time and place, and there are no cultural or moral drives in what the family of gangsters in the center of the story do, there is only the instinct that brings the family together in some kind of spirit of heard of predators, there is greed and there is revenge. In fact the film resembles and is visibly inspired by the Hollywood crime stories and we could easily imagine DeNiro or Pacino taking in the 70s many of the roles. The structure of the crime family is the same as in the traditional Sicilian mafia, with just one twist – the godfather figure is being taken here by the mother of the three bank robbers, but then we already had seen a similar role in Katheen Turner’s Serial Mom which I bet the excellent Jacki Weaver had seen at least once. The rebellious sibyl is the mother who died in the opening scene and it is the fate of the son who is at stake in this film – will he go straight or will he end by being part of the family implacable destiny?

 

(video source SonyPicturesClassics)

 

The opening scene also is one of the many god moments in a film that never lets you guess it is director’s David Michôd first feature film. To be true however to the end I need to say that the pace is sometimes slow and there are also some moments that let the viewers confused, and not only because of the accent the folks down under speak their variant of English which of course does not help. Overall it is however an entertaining story with a few surprises and turns that keep the attention of viewers, with an atmosphere of authenticity, and no moral judgments – cops do not show up in a much better light than criminals, with a group of rogue policemen taking the law in their hands and playing according to the gang rules the war with crime. The ending is one of the possible endings such movies may have and did not let me unsatisfied. Acting is good and as I know too little about Australian cinema I had the advantage of all actor faces being new to me. Besides Weaver that I already mentioned, I liked James Frecheville who does a fine job in his first lead role and Ben Mendelsohn (an experienced actor according to his IMDB record). Animal Kingdom is not a masterpiece, but is a smartly written and well acted film and I am not surprised that it caught the attention of the jury at the Sundance festival and that is enjoys a fair international success.

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Film: Boker Tov, Adon Fidelman (a.k.a. Restoration)

Posted on August 13, 2011 by admin

The story written by Erez Kav-El for ‘Good Morning Mr. Fidelman’ (translated in English by ‘Restoration’ at the request of the organizers of the Sundance festival) smarty gathers together in the micro-cosmos of the movie many pieces of the puzzle which is the Israeli society today. A society composed or religious people and of non-believers, of Jews coming from European and Middle-Eastern backgrounds, of tradition and modernity, of rich and poor, of locals and strangers. One of the key characters of the film is Anton, and many things remain unknown about his character. He comes from nowhere in the Southern part of Tel Aviv, the humble and vanishing neighborhood located in the shade of the high, modern and expending part of the young city and he will disappear to nowhere at the end of the film. We know little about his identity before and nothing about what will happen to him after, his past seems to be a dangerous mix of art and crime, he is the prototype of the stranger with no roots whose secrets are well hidden and whose identity gets meaning only when reflected into the souls of other. Yet during the film we shall see him earning a spiritual father, learning a new craft which is close to art, falling in love and risking with his presence to break the balance of the family and social fabric around.

(video source kviff)

Anton, the stranger becomes involved in two triangles. One may seem at first sight a traditional husband-wife-lover triangle, but the young woman is pregnant and the husband is the young and greedy finance tycoon-in-becoming who looks so much like many of the materialistic Israeli (and not only Israeli) young men today, so the conflict is not only romantic but also a social one. The second one is a father-son-spiritual son conflict, between the old Mr. Fidelman, his son and again the stranger – which actually reflects as in a mirror the relation between the father, son and partner of Fidelman, Malamud, who dies at the beginning of the story. The relation between father and son seems to be a preferred theme in recent Israeli movies, describing not only the tension between generations, between tradition and modernity, but also the one between the Israel that could have been the the country it became.

 

(video source pctv1)

 

Then we have Sasson Gabai. This wonderful actor is now beyond what can be described as stardom. He more than shines in every role he makes on screen, on stage or at TV – he lives and becomes his characters to the point that he makes them part of our lives. His Mr. Fidelman is a tough and grumpy old man whose whole universe is his antiques shop and his craftsmanship of restoring old furniture, and this universe risks to be lost when his partner dies and his son inherits the business and plans to sell it. His savior may be Anton, the stranger, who seems eager to learn the art and share with Fidelman the feelings refused by his son. Or maybe it is the old piano that may or may not be or become a piece of value which may ensure financial survival. However any of these saving acts would come at the expense of the gathering back of his broken family, and at the climax moment Fidelman will need to make the crucial decision.

 

script writer Erez Kav-El yesterday at the Herzlya Cinematheque

 

It is so refreshing for me to discover another Israeli director with a distinct voice, making of his only second big screen film such a mature, complex, and sensible piece of art. It is not a perfect one, and the rhythm of the story-telling will limit the satisfied audiences to the small art cinema theaters, but yet the hall was almost full last night at the screening at the Herzlya Cinematheque. If the saying goes true that maturity and fullness of a school of cinema is measured not in blockbusters but in the good average films, then ‘Boker Tov Adon Fidelman’ may be a good sign of maturity and fullness.

source http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1669170432/tt1787663

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Polishuk, Polishuk, Polishuk! …

Posted on August 6, 2011 by admin

If elections were hold today in Israel a political party that never existed and a politician who was born only in the imagination of TV script writers and comical series directors would have good chances to exceed the minimal percentage and enter the Israeli Knesset. The name of the party is The Central Liberal Party (Hebrew acronym is MeLeL) and the politician’s name Ruby Polishuk. The Israeli electorate would not view something exceptionally new in MeLeL which is largely inspired from the liberal-secular Shinui party which about one decade ago increased dramatically it’s presence in the Israeli Knesset up to 15 mandates and entered Ariel Sharon’s government under the leadership of maverick and contested journalist Tommy Lapid, just to implode and disappear from the political scene three years later due mainly to internal conflicts. They would neither get too impressed by the idea of a mediocre politician, all but unknown to the wider public getting into the position of the minister of Social Progress, a ministry with a great name and no budget, as social progressing the weak layers of the society is a great idea in electoral slogans, but not one that gets any attention when elections are over. After all one third of the members of the Israeli Knesseth are ministers or vice-ministers, and a real Mrs. Polishuk was a MK, fact that seems to have been unknown even to the authors of the series. Polishuk is BTW a game of words with multiple meanings in Hebrew, the most obvious being the combination between politics and the Mid-Eastern open market (‘shuk’) the place of all bargains and tricks under the hot sun of the Levant.

 

source http://www.facebook.com/RubyPolishuk

 

While the first season of the series mainly followed the process where the new minister installed as a puppet and cover-up by handlers Humi Schalit (media personality Amnot Dankner in a combination of parody and homage to Tommy Lapid) and Kozo Avital (Guy Loel as the cynical media master in tune with all the political tricks and image manipulation) build the persona of the minister of the ministry with great goals and no budget, the second season that just ended takes a more serious tone and builds the portrait of the politician with a human dimension that was hard to guess previously. To a great extent this is due to the excellent acting of Sasson Gabai, one of the lead Israeli actors, but also to the smart and sensitive writing and gradual building of the character. In a country where every move of the politicians is under the permanent scrutiny of the media, with the tiny dimensions and huge contrasts of Israel it is just natural that the weaknesses of the politicians are our own weaknesses, and the tricks they play at national level are an extension of the tricks of survival that each of us play in the day-to-day life. Gabai’s Polishuk represents the corruption and lack of principles we put on the account of the politicians who lead us, but he also one of us in his mistakes. So seem to be many of the other characters around and those who followed the two seasons of the series until now may have started to care for the single mother and divorced office manager Solly Barzel (Hanna Azoulay Hasfari), for the young, ambitious and always gaffing communication manager Tkuma (Shir Gadani), for the neglected wife Monique or for other members of the staff of the minister. There is something of us in many of those and this helps us identify them as some among us.

 

source http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/02022009/1999655/2_gd.jpg

 

I will not tell too much about the end of the season which is IMO simply genial, human and painful, open and making us want to see a third season come true. As with real life drama mixes into the comical thread which was dominant for most of the two seasons.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZPPZeSn0w

(video source TheIsraeliNetwork)

 

What comes next? I do not know yet if there will be a next season of ‘Polishuk’ – as a viewer I certainly wish it. Israeli viewers cannot miss making the parallel with the wonderful British comical series ‘Yes. Minister!’ which a few seasons later became ‘Yes, Prime Minister!’. In real life the liberal center melted and disappeared in Israel, and the nationalist and religious extremes are nowadays dominant. A Prime-Minister Polishuk would be almost pure fantasy relative to the reality of today’s politics, but maybe a fantasy worth enough for the Israeli voters to make a party that does not exist and a politician which was never born exceed the minimal representation percentage in the elections.

 

 

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TV Series – The Borgias (first season – 2011)

Posted on July 15, 2011 by admin

I like a lot some of the previous work of Neil Jordan. ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘The Crying Game’ were superb films, two of the best I have seen in the 80s and in the 90s. My problem with the prolific writer and director is that Michael Collins was the last film of his that I really liked and it’s dated mid-90s. Since then he entered genres that I am not that much fond of. Now he writes and directs ‘The Borgias’ – which belongs to a TV genre that catches popularity in the last few years – the historical drama starting from the real history dynasties, events and periods and developing into a combination of soap opera, crime and erotic drama. When it’s good (like the first season of ‘Rome’ was) it can be very catchy. In other cases the experience can be mixed, as was the case with ‘The Tudors’ or this version of ‘The Borgias’.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1582457/

 

The story of the Borgia family can certainly be a source of great historical novels, drama or film, and now that I think about it, it is surprising that it did not generate more literature (or maybe it did and I am not aware about it). The events of the first season happen between 1492 and 1494. 1492 was one of these years in history when events seem to accelerate – the year of the discovery of America by Columbus, the year of the expulsion of the Moors and of the Jews from the Iberian peninsula. It was also the year when the first Borgia, Alexander VI ascended to papacy, history says by means of corruption. His reign is historically considered as one of the most scandalous in the history of Catholicism, although this view is disputed by more recent research. He forged alliances with the rulers of other cities in the Italian peninsula sometimes through the marriages of his illegitimate children. He tried to extend the dominance of Rome, but he could not prevent the occupation of Rome and the fall of Naples under the French forces of king Charles VIII. He somehow maneuvered to stay on the papal throne, and Machiavelli who is a character in the series had a lot to learn from him.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBarSY1Bwo

(video source wchannel)

 

While the material of the Borgia story is certainly promising the result falls well below expectations. This genre typically succeeds when it combines complicated intrigues and interesting characters, is well acted and the production recreates the epoch in a credible manner. Neil Jordan’s script is unexpectedly thin material for three episodes seem to have been diluted to nine and this is very surprising for a writer with his experience and record. His characters also fall too much exactly the expected track. A few of them are saved by superb acting, Jeremy Irons above all creates a memorable combination of evil intelligence, debauchery and sense of family, cynicism and treachery. Colm Feori (Cardinal Della Rovere) and Sean Harris (paid killer Micheletto) also step ahead the ranks. From the Borgia children it is Lucrezia (Holliday Granger) who succeeds to be the credible very young daughter married into the Sforza clan for the seek of political alliance. As we know what she developped in real history it will be interesting to see how acting develops as well (if she stays in the role). Michel Muller also constructs an interesting composition, but he somehow does not look like a king of France.

Follow-up seasons of historical series tend to be not as good as the first one. I just hope here we have a case where the opposite will be true.

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The Black Pharaohs

Posted on July 11, 2011 by admin

A new country is born – South Sudan. A painful birth after many years of savage war, atrocities and indifference of the international community. By coincidence I fell these days upon an articled published three years ago in National Geographic   http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text about the area south of the ancient Egypt, which at one point in the history dominated Egypt and for about 75 years in the 8th century BC ruled on a territory that extends from today’s Sudan, the Kingdom of Egypt, the Bible lands and until today’s Lebanon.

 

source http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text

 

One of the interesting facts that I learned from reading this article is that the ancient world had no notion of racial differences, at least not on what skin color is concerned. Some of the pharaohs of the more ancient times are believed to have been of black African descent, and the more recent period which is in the focus of the article written by Robert Draper led to a period of renaissance and recovery of the old dynastic values in an Egypt that had lost much of the power and glamor of the Old, Middle and New Kingdom. The interaction of Egypt with the Land of Kush (the word describes until today in Hebrew the colored-skin people) was permanent, but during the Black Pharaohs era the territory south of Egypt stopped to be just a source of slaves and gold, unified with the kingdom and dominated the political class.

 

source http://kingpiye.blogspot.com/

 

Three kings in the dynasty – Pyie, Shabaka and Taharqa ruled over Egypt for about 75 years. Some of the deeds are described in the National Geographic article and in other materials on the Internet, I even found a blog of the first king in the dynasty http://kingpiye.blogspot.com/ 🙂 Expanding their influence over the land of the ancient Hebrews the Black Pharaohs closed an alliance with them against the Assyrians who were trying to conquer Jerusalem. Saving Jerusalem around the year 700 delayed with about one century the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the First Temple, which was of a decisive influence in the history of Judaism and indirectly of Christianity and Islam derived from Judaism – as it allowed the time for much of the holy books that compose the Bible to be written. When the Temple fell and the exile followed the spiritual cement of the Jewish people was in place already and allowed it to overcome one of the first major tragedies and exiles in its history.

 

source http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2051

 

Eventually the conflict with the Assyrians and the revolt of the local nobility prevailed and the Black Pharaohs were deposed. So ended the last great period of extension in the history of ancient Egypt. The foreign influences and conquests that followed – Assyrian, Greek, Roman – did not respect any longer the Egyptian gods and tradition and although the Egyptian culture was strong and rooted enough not to be wiped out but rather mix and combine with those of the conquerors and influence them at least to the same extent those influenced it, the original path and development of the ancient traditions was cut short. Today the material testimonials of the great civilization of Egypt survive the millenniums, but a lesser known fact is that there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. The conquered people who for a short period became the rulers of Egypt had taken back to their lands the Egyptian traditions and preserved them close to their original form for several centuries more. The little explored desert areas of Sudan keep some of these remains intact until today.

 

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Jazz: Ceumar in Tel Aviv

Posted on July 9, 2011 by admin

I hesitated on the title of this note about the concert last night, the last of the season in the Hot Jazz series at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, a season about I already wrote that it was one of the best in the history of the Friday night jazz series. My hesitation was about calling the music played by the Brazilian singer Ceumar and the Israeli-Brazilian ensemble Chorole, as jazz or world music. The dominant stye of the music played was choro which is a traditional Brazilian music style, and the overall sound and atmosphere was far from the usual jazz that the subscribers of Hot Jazz. So ‘world music’ or ‘jazz’? Well, after all categories matter less, what counts is the music.

 

 

Ceumar was born in Sao Paolo, but currently lives in  Amsterdam. She plays the guitar and percussion but is first of all a singer with a beautiful voice and a warm presence on the scene. She loves the music that she is making and the audiences feel it. Telling a little more about the Brazilian music for audiences that are less initiated in it (as I am) would have been very useful, but on the other side I am not a fan of those kind of concerts which include too much talking and risk to turn into lectures.

 

(video source bmendez1984)

 

The ensemble Chorole is led by Salit Lahav who last night played the flute and the accordion. Based in Israel it is close to the traditional choro band instrumental structure, and composed of two Israelis and two Brazilian musicians. They toured Brazil twice, and their repertoire includes besides the traditional Brazilian music also their own pieces which mix the Middle Eastern and Brazilian sounds. They played two of these last night and they were quite good.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CZWEhYjHX0

(video source afratus)

 

I remain however with mixed memories from the performance last night, which somehow fell behind the best evenings of the season. I am sorry to say it but there was a difference of quality between the remarkable Brazilian singer, so gifted and in her element with her music and the Israeli musicians. Lahav’s flute sounded strident at some instances, and I am not sure if this is her style or the fault of the sound technicians. The dimensions and the setting of the air-conditioned concert hall in Tel Aviv seemed not to resonate well with the style of the music and although the public eventually reacted warmly it was only a partial joining and it looked and sounded a little artificial. This performance would have fit better in the outside, maybe on an open stage and in the heat of the Tel Aviv  harbor.

The choice of the repertoire seems however to belong to a trend which already started in the previous seasons and is more clear in the program of the next year season. Roughly half of the performers in the next season belong to the Latin space. This is nice and this not completely new, as in the past the series brought in Israel such performers or other belonging to the world music space, the memorable concerts of the Irish band The Willin’ Fools are the first to come to my mind. I have already bought my subscription for next year, but it looks like for the true jazz (classical and modern) sound I may need to look also for other sources.

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Tourist in Romania / 6 – The Agapia Monastery

Posted on July 8, 2011 by admin

I realize that the cycle of blog entries about the trip to Romania last year advances too slowly. There are a few reasons and a few excuses that I will not list here, but it may be a good outcome as well. As the memories sediment and the emotions I felt during that trip get some rest, I can better structure the story of this travel which was from many points of view different from any other trip I took recently. Here is the second stop we made in the second day of the trip, at the beautiful and so special monastery of Agapia.

 

The name of the monastery and of the neighboring village comes from the name of the hermit Agapie who according to the tradition built a wooden church in the second half of the 14th century in a place located about 2 kilometers from the current location. As the church was destroyed by a snow avalanche on a Easter Day, it was rebuilt close to the current place, and later in the 15th century a monks monastery was built around. Several kings of Moldavia donated lands and contributed to the building of the monastery and churches inside – Petru Rares, Alexandru and Bogdan Lapusneanu, Vasile Lupu, Petru Schiopu (the Lame). By the end of the 18th century the monastery is turned to the nuns, but it is almost completely destroyed by fire during the events of the Greek revolt and Russian occupation that followed.

 

It is after the destruction in 1821 that the monastery was rebuilt and took its present form. Painted in sparkling white the church of the monastery is not big in dimensions, but strong and elegant. The building is built on the foundation of stone, with thick impressive walls. The side wings, a new porch and the old narthex were added in 1858-1862. The roof is simple with a low inclination, pierced above the nave by a slender tower with octagonal base.

source http://www.viziteazaneamt.ro/2010/08/opera-lui-nicolae-grigorescu-la-manastirea-agapia/

 

The most impressive art elements in the monastery are the paintings of Nicolae Grigorescu, one of the most important names in the history of Romanian art, founder of the Romanian school of painting. Grigorescu was only 20 when he received this work, and between 1859 and 1861 painted the walls of the church leaving here an important mark for his artistic career, as well as for the whole Romanian church painting and art in general.

 

Iisus rugându-se în grădina Ghetsimani - source http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%83n%C4%83stirea_Agapia

 

Inspiring himself from works of the great masters of the Renaissance, the artist added his own touch. As many other great artists dealing with Bible subject (El Greco comes the first to my mind) he took as models for the characters of the Gospels from the people he met around – nuns, monks, peasants. He added his personal touch as well as sensitivity and devotion for the subjects he dealt with.

 

source http://cadelnita.blogspot.com/2010/05/agapia-nicolae-grigorescu.html

 

The remarkable composition and dramatic power of telling the story are impressive in many of the more complex paintings.

 

Sfanta Treime - source http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fi%C8%99ier:Biserica_Agapia_-_SfTreime.JPG

 

Also exceptional are the way Grigorescu uses the architectonic details, paints every available space and corner and succeeds to provide to the ensemble a sense of complex beauty and monumental despite the relatively small dimensions of the church. Immediately after finishing the work at Agapia, Nicolae Grigorescu travelled to Paris, He studied at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, had Renoir as a colleague and Miller, Corot and Courbet as acquaintances, associating himself to the school of Barbizon and later to Impressionism. Back in Romania he painted on the front of the Romanian Independence War in 1877 and became the most important founding figure in the history of Romanian painting.

 

Back to the courtyard we could admire the museum of the monastery (with more works of the young Grigorescu) and the lodgement of the nuns, some available to visitors guests of the monastery. Church economy developed around the monastery, many of the nuns working on gardening and farming around – a tradition that also continues an older way of life and living.

 

However newer ways of communication are also present – as you can see in the photo of this nun talking on a mobile phone.

 

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