What I'm Watching #263

Just watched Eyes Wide Open, an Israeli film by director Haim Tabakman that has completely cleared out my sinuses and cost me the better half of a box of kleenex. The short of it is: it's devastatingly beautiful and profoundly heart-breaking. It flows to a climax like Barber's Adagio for Strings, opus 11. The story is simple, the acting poinant, the characters become part of you as they become parts one to another.

The cinematography allows you to see the characters; but more importantly, it lets you see what the characters see. This dual perspective is missing in most films, because the technical participants in the process are ignorant of it's power, or the demands and limits of the process find it too difficult or pointless to incorporate. Yet, I say this, it is the heart and soul of every great expression of story-telling. Be it Tolstoy's Anna Karinina or Salles' Central Station. As Tabakman clearly "gets" this, I look forward to seeing his vision in more films.

There is a scene where the two principle characters Aaron and Ezri take a bath in a remote spring that forced me to stop the CD while I brushed away the tears caused by the profound sense of humanity it engendered in me. In another, an older rabbi and friend of Aaron's tries to warn him about the young man as they drive together to a charitable obligation. One thing to know first, the film began at the death of Aaron's father, and the dialogue as they drive through the narrow streets of Jerusalem goes like this:

RABBI: He's from Sefad.

AARON: Who?

RABBI: Your apprentice.

AARON: I know, he studied at "Or Vachesed".

RABBI: I know. He was thrown out.

AARON: Why?

RABBI: He did too many mitsvas (good deeds).... Nothing good can come out of this. Send him away.

(PAUSE)

AARON: And what about the community's duty of charity? My father would have hired him. It is his shop. I help him to get closer to God.

RABBI: Your father would have hired him? Are you sure?

(PAUSE)

AARON: He helps me get closer to God.

Among it's many virtues is the film's intimate exposure of the world of Orthodox Judaism. It is in Hebrew with sub-title, but don't let inhibit you. This one is moving into my top track like a rocket.