Award-winning filmmaker Eytan Fox is best known for his films
dealing with strongly delineated characters and homosexuality, incorporating a
strong use of artistic design and aesthetic elements.
Born in New York in 1964, Fox immigrated to Israel with his
family at a young age and grew up in Jerusalem.
He studied at the Dept. of Film and TV at Tel Aviv University. He made two films about homosexuality in the
Israeli army: Time-Off (1990), a short drama which won First Prize at the
Munich Student Film Festival; Yossi and Jagger (2002), which won Honorable Mention
for TV drama at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Fox's first feature film, Song of the Siren (1994), based on
the acclaimed novel by Irit LInur, was one of the most popular Israeli films of
the 1990s. His dramatic television
series Florentene (1997-99), based on
the American TV series, Friends, which examines the lives of young people in
Tel Aviv, won First Prize in the television category at Jerusalem (1997). His short musical comedy, Gotta Have Heart
(1997), won a prize for Best Short at the New York NewFest (1999).
His highly acclaimed and award-winning Walk
on Water (2003) is a complex film about the emotional baggage that Israeli men carry as a result of
living in a society at war (see previous review on this blog). His most recent
feature film, The Bubble (2006), is about the homosexual scene on Sheinkin St.,
about the terrible divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and the
humiliations that Palestinians face on a daily basis contrasted with some of
the everyday life in Tel Aviv.
Eytan Fox's latest film, Yossi, which premiered recently at
the Tribeca FIlm Festival and is currently playing in Israeli cinemas, is a
sequel to Yossi and Jagger. Ten years
after Jagger died in Yossi's arms during the war in Lebanon, Yossi (Ohad
Knoller) is still in the closet. He is a
cardiologist in a Tel Aviv hospital, but has not had a love relationship of any
kind since his deep attachment to Jagger during his army service. Red-eyed and haggard looking, he is
desperately lonely and in need of a vacation.
Driving to Eilat for some time off, he picks up a group of soldiers,
also on their way to party and vacation in Eilat.
According to Eytan Fox (interviewed on Israeli Radio Reshet
Bet, last week), "I left the image of Yossi in a not very good place, and
I decided to return to try to change that." He explained that the story is a variation on
his own life, on the path that he himself experienced, and also it is about how
Israeli society has changed. Ten years
have gone by and Israeli society has changed, but Yossi is still stuck where he
was at the end of the previous film.
Music is beautifully integrated -- as it is in all of Fox's
films. But Yossi and Jagger was a
different kind of film -- produced on the background of war, it had much
tension and drama. This film is more
about life and learning how to love again.
Gestures and glances are crucial elements -- rather than action and
drama -- making the film more of a psychological study than a narrative film.
No comments:
Post a Comment