‘Det Rode Kapel’ which was presented in Israel by cable TV documentary channel 8 succeeds to do what very few documentary film makers succeeded to do in the last few decades – enter the secluded space of the North Korean Popular Democratic Republic and film there. The glimpse that we get of the landscape and people of North Korea is rare, and the documentary value needs to be saluted. It is however also a deformed image, as the group of comedy artists sent in a ‘cultural exchange’ have been taken only to certain places and have been allowed to film only certain aspects of what they have seen.
It is in the permanent discrepancy between the mode of life and thinking of the authors and what they do on screen (and did during the visit) that resides the intriguing character of the film. In order to be allowed to make the film they had to take part in the show prepared by the North Korean authorities, to place flowers at the Leader’s monument, tp participate in an anti-US demonstration and to recite slogans on stage. It was an uneasy compromise, as we understand from the comments made off-screen. To underline the situation the author frames the film within the rules of cinematic creation written by the Dear Leader himself. Sometimes the meetings and dialogs with people in North Korea look more as absurd comedy than what happened on stage. Was it worth? An open question.
We used the last entry in this season’s subscription at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv to see the ‘The Good Soul of Szechuan’ – which is already in its second season. A good performance it was indeed. Brecht’s play written between 1938 and 1940 is known as one of his typical programmatic and dialectic theater exercise, but it’s also a text full of power and emotion, of contrasts between virtue and evil, materialism and idealism, charity and capitalism, womanhood and machismo. As in more than one of Brecht’s plays the ending of this moralistic tale taking place in a world haunted by tired gods disappointed with what mankind has become is open and the question in the final is addressed to the audience placing in its minds the responsibility of answering whether living according to one’s moral standing is possible in a world dominated by greed.
from www.cameri.co.il
It is the second performance that I see in this season with Ola Schur-Selektar in the principal role after ‘Yentl’. It was again a double role in which she had to spend much time in man clothes disguise, which required acting and singing as well. Tonight I became definitely convinced that the Israeli stage has in Ola one of its biggest talents, an actress full of charm and power, who knows to act, to sing, and most of all to move the audiences. Ola is a star.
The second strong part of the evening was the music composed and arranged by local musician and pop star Keren Peles. Peles demonstrates with this performance (in which she does not appear) that she is a very gifted stage music composer, and she also translated the Brecht lyrics together with director Udi Ben-Moshe. Much less inspired were the sets, close to empty stages do not fit any play or directorial concept, and in this case they did not resonate with the colorful musical score and actors approach. Yet this was overall a good evening at the theater, in a season in which the Cameri keeps the lead as the best theater in Tel Aviv.
S-au implinit pe 23 ianuarie 100 de ani de la nasterea lui Django Reinhardt, una dintre cele mai interesante figuri ale istoriei jazzului european, si unul dintre cei mai importanti chitaristi ai tuturor timpurilor.
Originea sa gitana i-a marcat si muzica si stilul de viata. In 1929 caravana in care locuia a luat foc si ca urmare piciorul drept si doua degete de la mana stanga au fost in pericol de amputare. A refuzat amputarea, dar a ramas cu piciorul si cu degetele paralizate. A transformat handicapul la mana stanga intr-un avantaj, creand un stil unic in care canta practic cu doua degete si actiona coardele cu celelalte. In timpul razboiului a supravietuit in Parisul ocupat si a scapat de deportarile la care erau supusi tiganii datorita unui ofiter de aviatie german admirator si amator de jazz. Dupa razboi cand devenise deja celebru a revenit la stilul de viata nomad al gitanilor si mai ales la muzica lor. A murit in 1953, doborit de o congestie cerebrala la intoarcerea de la un concert intr-un club parizian.
Partea dinainte de cel de-al doilea razboi mondial a carierei lui Reinhardt a fost marcata de colaborarea cu violonistul Stephane Grappelli impreuna cu care a intemeiart in 1934 Quintette du Hot Club de France. Formula lipsita de baterie, cu vioara, chitare si contrabas a deschis un stil nou care combina traditia jazzului american cu cea a instrumentistilor europeeni si a muzicii tiganesti pe care Reinhardt o cunostea perfect. Stilul numit Gypsy Jazz, sau Gypsy Swing sau Jazz manouche este continuat si astazi in toata Europa (inclusiv in Romania) si a trecut oceanul si in America intr-o frumoasa reflexie culturala. In mainile lui Reinhardt chitara juca si rolul sectiei ritmice intr-un ansamblu in care lipsea percutia.
Dupa razboi Reinhardt trece oceanul si canta la Carnegie Hall impreuna cu big-band-ul lui Duke Ellington. A fost printre primii muzicieni europeeni care a inteles si iubit jazzul american si l-a asimilat in muzica europeana. In continuarea carierei sale va canta si inregistra si cu Dizzy Gillespie si Louis Armstrong printre multi altii.
In pofida vietii sale relativ scurte acest muzician autodidact a avut o influenta covarsitoare asupra multor generatii de chitaristi si instrumentisti de jazz din Europa si America. Postul de televiziune muzical Mezzo i-a dedicat cateva emisiuni cu ocazia centenarului nasterii printre care un documentar despre ‘copii lui Reinhardt’ -muzicieni de jazz care i-au urmat calea si inspiratia preluand si dezvoltand stilul sau. Despre doi dintre ei – chitaristul Martin Taylor si violonistul Didier Lockwood – pe care i-am vazut intr-un concert in care reluau peste ani dialogurile Reinhardt – Grappelli sper sa am ragazul sa scriu in curand.
I think that it is a mistake to judge a film as what it is not.’Inglorious Basterds’ is not (just) a war film. It is not a historical film. It is not a film about the Holocaust either. It is a film by Quentin Tarantino. A genre by itself.
Tarantino makes entertainment using as starting point different subjects, and develops them his way. One can of course ask whether world war II and the Holocaust can or should be dealt with by films in any genre. I believe that the answer is yes and that this answer was given already many decades ago. The French made I think some of the first comedies about the war (Babette s’en va-t-en guerre with Brigitte Bardot was made in 1960) and later in the past century the Holocaust started to be dealt in various registers, including the comic one, the best example being of course the fabulous La vita e bella by Roberto Begnini.
I liked this ‘Tarantino goes to war’ exercise although I do not think it is his best film. Relative to the the ‘Kill Bill’ two volumes ‘Inglorious Basterds’ seems a little bit too simple and too direct. Yet it figures a triangle of characters that are all acted wonderfully – Brad Pitt as the commander of the Jewish avengers squad is almost hard to recognize in voice and appearance, Christoph Waltz is one of the best villains seen on screen in recent times, and Melanie Laurent provides an exotic mix of revenge, ingenuity and femme fatale. The other point of attraction is the use o a cinema hall as the set for an alternate end to the world war – here Tarantino is at his best and the result is unforgettable. This is enough stuff to make of ‘Inglorious Basterds’ one of the contenders to the Best Film Oscar race especially now that the number of finalists in the category was raised to nine. It will not get the trophy, but it will give a good fight.
My friend Asher Yerushalmi came to Israel as an ole hadash (new immigrant) a few months ago, leaving behind him an attorney career to start all over in a new country. His country. Our country.
Having started to know him I feel that he will be a lawyer in Israel rather sooner than later. In the meantime he learns Hebrew at the Ulpan and lives in the absorbtion center in the city of Raanana. He recently bought a camera and made pictures of the city, and also in the city museum. He graciously accepted to make them available on the blog – so here they are, three wonderful presentations about the history and present of one of the beautiful cities in the Sharon plain.
In the meantime I wish Asher good luck at the Ulpan A exams a few days from now.
The second performance this year in the New Israeli Opera subscription was Gounod’s ‘Faust’. It is my preferred work by Gounod, the very typical example of the French Grand Opera at its best. It’s a story of contrast and absence and the title may be mistaken. The libretto inspired by Goethe does not place Faust in the center of the story, and actually all the reward and penitence drama is cut short to make out of Marguerite the principal heroine, one of the greatest tragical feminine characters in the history of opera. Faust’s tenor part although not deprived of a few great musical moments is only one point in musical triangle which offers space for the Margeurite’s soprano and Mephistopheles’ bass parts to conduct the principal musical dialog in the drama. It also is one of the better and most coherent stories in the grand opera history. Despite of its five acts and more than three hours ‘Faust’ is very well built dramatically, has almost no dead or repetitive moments, and leads the audience to the redeeming finale. It’s a moralistic ending were death and tragedy also mean salvation. While the Devil is almost permanently present on stage for the duration of the story, it is the invisible God that has eventually the upper hand.
The current staging is directed by Paul-Emile Fourny, the general and artistic director of the Opera of Nice, and the result is more than satisfying. With help from set designer Poppi Ranchetti, Fourny localizes the action of the timeless story in the European landscape of the end of the 19th century, so that the wars connotation and the ambiguous French and German balance receive an very exact political and historical connotation, in a dark post-Gothic and almost mono-chromatic atmosphere. The cast of singers is extremely well balanced, maybe the best balanced cast that I have seen on the stage of the NIO in many years. Paata Burchuladze is a favorite of the Israeli audiences who love him and whom he loves, and the chemistry between him and the public compensates for the slightly fading vocal capabilities. The Swiss soprano Noemi Nadelmann who was a sensible and impressive Margueritte, has a very pleasant and well rounded voice that fit well in the dimensions of the character. American tenor Scott Piper sang a fair Faust, while Israeli Shira Raz and Georgian Stella Grigorian had smaller but just to the point performances that made us wish to hear them more and in more extensive roles. The young conductor Omer Welber who at the age of less than 30 became house director of the opera orchestra (and Rishon LeZion symphony orchestra) led well the musical part in one of the good opera evenings of the season.
It was the first time today that I visited the Petakh-Tikvah Museum of Art. Established in 1964 in a beautiful park once at the margin, today in the center of the city, the museum has undergone renovation and reopened five years ago, with a focus on collective exhibitions and art with a political message. It is t the last category that the exhibition ‘Georgeopolis’ by the young photographer and video artist Dor Guez belongs.
the Petakh-Tikvah Museum of Art
Georgeopolis is the byzantine name of the city of Lod, a place that most people know because of the main international airport of Israel located in its proximity. Yet, it is one of the oldest cities in ancient Israel, mentioned in the Bible as one of the places where Jews returning from the Babylonian exile came from. It also was one of the centers of the Jewish resistance during the Roman-Jewish wars and the Maccabees revolt.The byzantine name of the city comes from Saint George who was killed here in 303 for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The city maintained a Christian presence since these times, and the troubled identity of its Christian inhabitants of today is the theme of the exhibition.
Jacob Monayer's Wedding - 1948
This is the story of three generations of the Monayers, a Greek-Orthodox family in today’s Lod. The Greek Orthodox are a minority among the Christians in Israel, who are minority among the Arabs, who are a minority in the Jewish State. A minority amongst a minority amongst a minority.
the ruins of Lydda
The entry hall exposes the wedding photos of Jacob Monayer in 1948 – the year of the independence of the state of Israel, the year when the Arabic Lydda was occupied by the Jewish Israeli forces and the majority of its Arab population fled and became refugees. Only about 700 people stayed, and the Monayers were among them.
St. George's Church in Lod
The principal hall of the exhibition is covered on its walls with photos of the very few remains of the Arabic city of Lydda. The ruins are in decay and most of them have been swallowed or covered by the new and expansive city that was built here in the last 60 years. I have lived in Lod for the first two years after coming to Israel as a new immigrant and I never knew about them. Neither did I know that the St. George church in the city (co-habitating with the mosque – this is how the Ottoman rulers accepted to allow the church to be rebuilt in the 19th century on a previous 15th century structure) contains the sarcophagus of St. George. A video projected in the same hall pf the exhibition shows the service in the church. The religious ceremonies are performed in Greek, a language that the Arab Christians of Lod do not speak. A translator stands near the priests and translates during the service.
Jacob Monayer - July 13
Four video installations complete the exhibition. In the first Jacob Monayer describes the events that happened at July 13, 1948 – two days after the Israeli army entered Lod. Most of the Arab inhabitants of the city fled to Ramallah in the heat of the summer, some perished, the rest became refugees. Those who staid where not allowed to keep their houses and lived in a ghetto for the next five years, under military rule. This is where the marriage we had seen the pictures in the first hall happened.
the second generation
If Jacob made his testimony in good Hebrew. His four sons speak perfect Hebrew. They all went to Jewish schools because they were better by the time they grew up in the 60s. Their identity is problematic. While they have received the same education as theur Jewish colleagues they are not fully accepted in a society that has much to do in order to reach real equality. They are a minority wherever they go – among Jews or among Arabs. Yet, the political situation makes them feel more and more on the Palestinian than on the Israeli side. For their children they have chosen to send them to Arabic schools, so that their identites are less in question.
'Dear Jennifer'
The last two videos describe the humiliating experiences related to their Arab identity that undergo two of the young women in the third generation. They look and dress like any Israeli girl, they speak perfect Hebrew as well, and they try to live their lives inside the Israeli society. Yet, when Jennifer’s tutor at the university discovers that the gifted and fair-haired student with a Western name is an Arab she feels not only surprised, but also somehow betrayed. The video shows Jennifer reading the letter received from the tutor.
I found on youTube a fragment of the last vide titled ‘Sa(mira)’. Samira is also a student in Jerusalem, and works as a waitress as many other students do at her age. One day the manager of the restaurant asks her to change the name on the tab to something tha sounds more ‘Jewish’. The reasons – some customers complained not about the service but of the fact that they were served by an Arab.
Dor Guez succeeds to bring the members of the family to open themselves in front of the camera. They never look angry, they never look hateful, although their stories are not easy. They seem more to be asking questions about themselves and about the society they live in. Our society. Their uncertain identity as a small piece in the complex puzzle of the Israeli and Palestinian reality is a subject of reflection for whoever visits the exhibition.
The exhibition is open until February 27. It is announced that in the closure day there will be a meeting with the artist.
The third concert in the ‘Hot Jazz’ series at the Tel Aviv Art Museum had as guest the American singer Vanessa Rubin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaW2alvEZcE
Born in Cleveland, Vanessa Rubin moved in 1982 in New York and started a singing career, in parallel with a teaching and jazz evangelist path. She sang with Lionel Hampton, the Mercer Ellington Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, the Woody Herman Orchestra, and the Jazz Crusaders. Her teaching and coaching activities include music consultancy and student classes at such institutions as the Thelonious Monk Institute, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Her repertoire includes many standards from the great female vocal American songbook, and works of composers such as Duke Ellington, Gershwin, and Dizzy Gillespie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTBS_t0cpw
The show in Tel Aviv tonight was unfortunately partly spoiled by very bad sound engineering, one of the worst if not the worst in my memory in the many years since I watch this series of jazz concerts. The acoustic bass of Assaf Hachimi was almost permanently too loud, covering the rest of the players, and especially the the clarinet of Ilan Salem. For the clarinet to take the place of the saxophone in a jazz band, it needs not only instrumental talent and personality which Salem may have, but also clarity of sound and musical space, which was missing tonight completely. Young and gifted pianist Nitai Hershkowitz was the instrumental surprise of the evening. Shai Zalman did his usual gigs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLfOolonDWc
Vanessa Rubin tried her best in the given conditions, she slalomed valiantly through the technical difficulties in the first part, and succeeded to catch the attention and affection of the audience, with a series of standards which made good service to her vocal and emotional capabilities. After the break she seemed to be tired, tried to reconnect with the audience by telling some stories, but abandoned and cut short the performance after only another four or five songs. The few recordings that I found on youTube show that we missed the opportunity to know better a great singer, whose performance could have been memorable on a better night.
Postul de televizune francez Mezzo a transmis in cadrul seriei de concerte inregistrate la New Morning recitalul integistrat in 2004 cu pianistul de origine cubana Omar Sosa.Nascut in 1965 Sosa a copilarit si s-a format ca muzician in Cuba, absorbind ritmurile muzicii cubane, dar si facand cunostiinta inca din tinerete cu clasicii jazzului intre care Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Harret, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, dar dintre toti Thelonius Monk a avut poate influenta determinanta. In 1993 se muta la Quito, in Ecuador, apoi in Statele Unite la San Francisco. Aici, odata cu imprimarea primelor discuri in Statele Unite are ocazia sa cunoasca de aproape creatori si sunete diverse din muzica lumii. Dupa ce primele sale succese si premii Grammy il pozitioneaza ca unul dintre primii interpreti de Latin jazz interesele si gama sa interpretativa se extind spre muzica nord-africana si un stil de fuziune care imbina jazzul clasic, sunetele din Caraibe si muzica cu intonatii oriental-mediteraneene.
Concertul din 2004, inregistrat cativa ani dupa ce Sosa trece oceanul si se stabileste la Barcelona il intalneste pe pianist cu muzician tunisianul Dhafer Youssef . Youssef este un muzician extrem de versatil, care poate canta aproape la orice instrument. La New Morning el ii da replica lui Sousa cu parti vocale extrem de originale si secvente de oud – instrument traditional arab care sub mainile sale devine o componenta capabila de tot ceea ce un instrumente de jazz poate sa ofere. Programul imbina stilurile nord-african si cubanez si le extinde spre free jazz si world music, intr-o combinatie care este spectaculoasa in multe momente fara a face rabat calitatii.
Sper ca va va placea ca si mie concertul, pe care l-am gasit pe youTube. Dintre cei care mai apar in formula de la New Morning urmariti-i si pe excelentul saxofonist Louis Depestre si pe basistul Childo Tomas.
My two preferred TV series (and actually the only ones that I am following) are back on screens with their new seasons. The Israeli cable TV channel Hot 3 transmits the episodes one or two days after their airing in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvBEpAIvQlA
It’s the last season for Lost or so they say. It looked like kind of a dramatized ‘Survivor’ in the first season with flashbacks into the past lives of each of the characters, to evolve towards a combination of science-fiction and horror story in the 2nd and 3rd season. Then seasons 4 and 5 saw the story line getting more complicated, with multiple threads. The strike of the script writers crippled one of the last seasons, and with the number of episodes reduced to half, and the jumps into past starting to alternate with jumps into future as well as parallel presents generated by time travel, everything started to look more and more complicated. Sure, we became attached and some of us addicted to some of the characters, and felt like personal losses when some of them died, but at some moments the story lines seemed to become too many and too intermingled. For this reason I believe that the idea of the series producers to start the season with a look back into the previous seasons was very good. The prologue was really excellent, many of the blurry details from the previous season cleaned-up and became now more clear, some of the mystery characters found their places in the puzzle. The first two episodes aired last week start building up towards the final confrontation that will determine the fate of our heroes, of the island, and maybe of the planet. The good news is that with time travel and parallel life spans now well built into the logic of the script all characters have a second or third chance – even those we have seen dying in the previous seasons. At its pick ‘Lost’ is one of the best series in I have seen, getting close to the mythological ‘X-Files’. The thrill of great adventures that flows through good quality science fiction from Jules Verne to Spielberg is present here. Hopefully the great expectations will not be followed by a great disappointment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399Hiwua0J4
24 has quite a different history. The best seasons were the first two ones in my opinion, as the concept of the 24 episodes telling in real-time one hour each of a story that happens during one calendar day was fresh. The initial team of actors were blessed with strong characters, and the intrigues in the halls of the counter-terrorist unit combined with the highest political level conflicts provided an interesting combination. As the show advanced in the next seasons the formula remained the same, so new thrills had to be found, new threats, new villains, new paths of treason. There is however a limit in how many ways the world can be saved in 24 hours, and after we have seen atomic bombs dropped on LA, ballistic rockets launched from the Mid West, dirty bombs contaminating DC, chemical attacks on the Big Apple, hostages at the White House and US presidents guilty of treason there is not much left even to the imagination. The problem with the last seasons of the show is that we almost can predict from start and with half a minute accuracy the murders, the lies, the cover-ups, and when will Jack Bauer torture and when he will be tortured. Unless something special happens and there are no signs in the first four episodes of the 8th season, it’s time for ’24’ to be put to rest.
