Footnote (2011)

the audience applauded

Instant Favorite.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

What to say: the rhythm is perfect, the tone is expertly controlled by the director, the acting is close to sublime. This character-driven narrative lacks nothing and, yes, it is unpredictable at times. The autistic father is played with deceptive ease and gusto by Shlomo Bar Aba and, when you think about it, his finding of the truth could only be unavoidable given his expertise with the written word and his penchant for making nearly impossible (for us poor mortals!) connections between expressions, phonemes and other linguistic beasts. The fact that the film ends up with us wondering if Eliezer, the father, will accept the prize or not is part of the quality of the movie: it depends on you as a viewer, as well as your personality. I think he can only accept as to level off the playing field, so to speak, and to let his son think he (his son) is in control. But who knows? Last word? Excellent!

Though Joseph Cedar's Footnote is a look at the Israeli academic community's insularity and hubris, the problems it raises are universal and the film could most likely take place anywhere in the world. One of five nominated films at this year's Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, Footnote allows us to take a peak behind the hallowed walls of academia and it is not a pretty sight. With its exposure of political maneuvering, egotism, ambition, and tightly controlled orthodoxy, the film makes clear its point of view that professors who are out of the mainstream are marginalized and passed over for recognition by their peers.The film centers on Eliezer Shkolnik (Schlomo Bar Aba), an aging Talmudic scholar and philologist, who has become a bitter and aggrieved man after having been passed over for the prestigious Israel Prize for twenty years. Eliezer arrogantly denounces the selection committee for the Prize as people who have forgotten the meaning of true scholarship. He has spent his career researching corrupted Jewish texts that deviate from the original Talmud, but whose only recognition has been a citation in a footnote.Ill at ease in the hallowed walls of academia and in relationships in general, Eliezer sleeps in his office and only ventures out to go to the library. He continues to schedule classes even though as little as one or two people enroll. His relationship with his wife Yehudit (Alisa Rosen) appears strained and distant and, when he is at home, he blocks out the world by putting on gigantic yellow earphones. His behavior is contrasted with that of his more sociable and outgoing son, the bearded Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi) who is also a Talmudic scholar but one whose work is more attuned to popular tastes. His father, unfortunately, is generally disdainful, calling him a "folklorist" and a scholar subservient to the prevailing academic status quo.The film opens with Eliezer sitting in an auditorium with a dour and rigid look on his face as Uriel is being inducted into a scholarly academy, an honor which the father has never received. Despite the downbeat beginning, the first part of the film is fairly lighthearted with Cedar entertaining us with inter-titles describing the background of the characters and Amelie-like cutesy cinematic tricks bouncily scored by Amit Poznansky. Halfway through, however, the film takes a more dramatic turn when Eliezer learns that he has finally won the Israel Prize after waiting for twenty years, an event that threatens the resentment he clings to so obsessively.Unfortunately, a ridiculous faux-pas by the Nominating Committee only serves to place more obstacles in the father-son relationship. It is, unfortunately, not an easily correctable mistake but a true ethical dilemma and one that precipitates a confrontation between Uriel and the academic committee in a tiny room, an absurd scenario that would be funny if it did not have so many potential disastrous ramifications. The brunt of Uriel's attack is directed towards Yehuda Grossman (Michah Lewesohn), a scholar who has either rejected or ignored his father's work and whose publication of his own Talmudic discovery undermined all the meticulous research Eliezer had been doing for years. In the film's most dramatic sequence, the confrontation escalates into highly articulated personal attacks, ultimatums, and even a bit of physical violence.While Uriel is defending his father at the committee meeting, Eliezer is doing the opposite, criticizing his son during an interview, lumping him in with those whose Talmudic studies he considers to be shallow and superficial. Needless to say, this even further exacerbates their troubled relationship. Footnote is an engaging film marked by exceptional performances by Lewesohn, Ashkenazi, and Bar Aba and you can enjoy it whether or not you care very much whether or not the current version of the Talmud correctly reflects the original ancient texts. The depiction of Eliezer, however, is one-dimensional and the father's incessant self-righteousness turns the film into a sour and mostly unpleasant affair. In addition to its depressing tone, numerous plot points are introduced and then dropped without further comment.Eliezer is seen talking to another woman, a sequence that leads to a bedroom discussion of the event between Uriel and his wife Dikla (Alma Zack), but soon morphs into an argument, its purpose obscure. Also in another thread that goes nowhere except to add to the general unpleasantness, Uriel's son Josh (Daniel Markovich) goes on a hiking trip and comes home having to confront his father's anger at his ostensible lack of ambition or goals. Although the film's loose ends are particularly annoying, we are caught up in its very compelling scenario. Cedar knows how to build up the tension and we eagerly await some sort of resolution but, as is the trend of late, the director feels that his film is more valuable as a gigantic set-up than as a satisfying resolution and the result is a film that leaves us thinking that the projectionist inadvertently cut out the best part of the movie.

Eliezer Shkolnik is seated at a ceremony honoring his son Uriel Shkolnik's admission to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities an honor that has never been accorded to him. He appears uncomfortable barely forcing himself to rise to his feet in perfunctory applause before quickly sitting down. Hence begins "Footnote" the brilliant Israeli 2011 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. Both Shkolniks are Talmudic researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem but that is where the similarity ends. Eliezer is an obstinate traditionalist and loner who rejects new ideas and the establishment that embraces them. As a result he is relegated to obscurity by his colleagues who deny him any recognition beyond the dusty footnote he received in the book of an old revered scholar. Uriel on the other hand is popular and adopts the changes his father despises. One day Eliezer receives a phone call informing him that he is the recipient of the Israel Prize. What he doesn't know is that the call is a mistake. It is his son Uriel who is the intended recipient. The roles of father and son are beautifully played by Shlomo Bar-Aba and Lior Ashkenazi respectively. Micah Lewensohn is excellent in a supporting role as a rival of Eliezer's who refuses to relent in his dislike of his old academic adversary. The screenplay by director Joseph Cedar was inspired by a real life incident in which he received a phone call notifying him of an award he suspected was really intended for his father. Anyone interested in something fresh at the movies should find this film compelling and thought provoking. "Footnote" asks us how much does a father owe a son and vice versa. It also asks us to think about the different ways we have of arriving at the truth and how much we're willing to sacrifice for it.

This is a very good movie, but it could be better. The feel of the whole story very much reminded me of the Coen Brothers movie 'a serious man'. It has the same sense of general awkwardness in its characters. The story is very well told. It has a chapter structure and the parts of father and son have kind of symmetry to it, resulting in a feeling of bittersweet irony. If you like irony in all its layers and subtleties, then this is definitely something to watch. The one thing that could make this movie better in my opinion, is the climax that the whole movie is building up to, but which is left to your imagination. In my taste a little too much so, but decide for yourself!