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Footnote (2011)

Director: Joseph Cedar

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7 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Online

Likely, in many ways, to be one of the most unusual films contending for the Palme d’or, this fourth feature from Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar will undoubtedly divide critics; already one eminent French critic told me of his bewilderment that such a heavy-handed, unamusing comedy had been chosen for the main competition. But that’s perhaps to misread Cedar’s intentions; while there are plenty of scenes which this writer, at least, enjoyed for their wry, bone-dry humour, much of the film operates in a rather more serious register. Indeed, it might even be seen as a mini-tragedy about sacrifice and temptation.

It concerns the intense rivalry between a father and son: Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba and Lior Ashkenazi), both professors in the Talmudic studies department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It begins – dramatically – with the worst day in the former’s life, when he has to attend a ceremony welcoming his son into the Academy, an honour he himself never received. Things improve for Eliezer when he hears that he’s finally going to be given, after decades of disappointed waiting, the prestigious Israel Prize. It may, as a chapter heading tells us, be the best day of his life, but it’s also the start of a series of events that are not only morally complicated but, perhaps, infinitely sad.

The film is almost novelistic in terms of the detail and subtlety with which Cedar draws both the many differences and similarities between father and son, not to mention the arcane workings of and divisions within Israel’s academic establishment. At the same time, however – and this is partly where the film’s brilliance lies – he adopts a vividly imaginative cinematic style so that form reflects content; the film’s title, for example, refers not only to a small but crucial detail in the storyline but also to a way in which we might regard the modest but conscientious elder professor and to an aspect of the film’s own narrative structure.

Clearly, this is a film that has been meticulously thought through on every level. So even though many found its orchestral score overly insistent and loud, its tone – reminiscent at times of the late symphonies of Shostakovich, some of which were themselves of course profoundly concerned with Jewish history and suffering – is entirely appropriate to this study of seemingly small-scale familial and academic conflict which nevertheless takes on, for all involved, the dimensions of an epic struggle between the old and the new, truth and falsehood, right and wrong.

Author: Geoff Andrew

Time Out Online Cannes Film Festival 2011

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User reviews of this film

yarden said...

Posted on Oct 27 2011 09:15 Would be brilliant were it not for the abrupt ending. Sometimes leaving a plot open works, here it didn't. The plot also contained some underdeveloped threads that remain nothing but cliches (Uriel's relationship with his son Yosh).

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Laura said...

Posted on Oct 20 2011 06:56 This is a brilliant film, brilliantly acted by Shlomo Bar Aba, perfect with exceptional attention to the minutest detail.

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Daniel said...

Posted on Oct 08 2011 10:06 A beautiful movie! Not mentioned in the review, but of importance I believe, are the subtle (or not so subtle) criticisms of academic rivalry, of the Israeli Ministry of Education (they are unable to find a meeting room with enough space for all committee members!), and the ever-present self-justifying security apparatus.

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ag said...

Posted on Aug 22 2011 22:01 One of the best movies I have seen this year , it has a lot of depth to it that I will have to see it one more time to grasp it all

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joel rutman said...

Posted on Jul 19 2011 14:06 Does Uriel give too much respect to his father? Is the price he pays too great ? Uriel is kicked in the teeth by
Eliezer who , Oedipus -like, puts down his son and
deprives him forever of the prize of success. This father -son relationship is the guts of this fine movie.

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Thanks for sharing. Aylwa said...

Posted on Jun 01 2011 01:41 Thanks for sharing. Aylwas good to find a real expert.

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yael said...

Posted on May 29 2011 20:52 excellent review. Nice observation on the triple meaning of the title. I agree with you that it's much more a tragedy than a comedy (though it has very funny bits) and I found the focus on the word (as in "In the beginning was the word") fascinating.

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