Movie : Footnote, or: How antics produce a forgettable film
Link : Footnote, or: How antics produce a forgettable film
Footnote, or: How antics produce a forgettable film
Footnote (Hearat Shulayim) (2011)
Directed by Joseph Cedar
Directed by Joseph Cedar
***SPOILERS***
It speaks volumes that Footnote’s greatest scene is antic-free. I mean, it shouldn’t speak volumes, but because director and writer Joseph Cedar was so adamant in stealing the show, such an arresting scene feels like an anomaly in this jumbled, erratic film. I can just imagine Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar-Aba) running down the football field, ball tucked safely as he crosses into the endzone untouched. And, oh, what’s this? There’s something going down on the field…the referees are conversing…OK, here comes the official call:
“Director’s interference, Joseph Cedar. 15-yard penalty. Footnote will repeat second down.”
I share in the collective groan from the home crowd. What happened? It’s not like I find Eliezer and Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi) to be disenchanting. Nor do I find this inconsequential family debacle to be an unfit premise for film—in fact, Footnote owns a riveting premise that’s enhanced by a pair of dynamite performances from Ashkenazi and Shkolnik. The fact that the Israel Prize is bogged down by politics and a decades-long family tiff gives the award a paltriness that’s outweighed by internal conflict and momentous significance. Thus, delving into the inter-workings of the crooked system and the small community it affects becomes fascinating in and of itself, lending to the most enthralling scene of the film, featuring Uriel arguing with the long-time president of the Israel Award. But stripped of this lone direct, inelegant scene, Footnote owns a truly strange approach to attracting the audience. It’s an approach that’s offhandedly entertaining in its capers, but disingenuous to the characters on the screen.
Be careful when you trash Cedar’s attempt at a Looney Tunes-like historical recap of Uriel and Eliezer’s professional careers. In scope, it owns a striking resemblance to Wes Anderson’s masterful opening sequence in The Royal Tenenbaums. First of all, Anderson’s whimsical recap remains in compliance with the film’s mood and style. Cedar makes it clear from the beginning that he has no intention to remain consistent, immediately following a quiet opening scene with a bombastic, rapid-fire summary of a years-long conflict. Second, The Royal Tenenbaums’ opening sequence is an introduction, creating a feeling for the characters instead of bluntly laying out their struggles. Footnote’s seemingly quiescent opening scene reveals more about Eleizer than Cedar’s strange film school antics. After we learn the basics about Uriel and Eleizer, the lively recaps seem like a cop out, choosing to accelerate the film instead of allowing the age-old dilemmas to creep up and open old wounds.
More than anything, it is, plain and simple: director’s interference. Creativity exists beyond an ambitious camera, proving that Cedar may be much more prolific as a director than a writer. The opening scene is enticing, fixating on the empty space next to Eliezer to indicate the infinitely spacious disconnection shared between father and son…a division seems persistent in beating into the ground. Eliezer, despite being the father of the keynote speaker, doesn’t own a blue bracelet. An exchange between him and a security guard indicates both his stubbornness and his exclusion from the formal academic society he’s spent his life working for. But hey, don’t worry, Cedar is right there twenty minutes later with an elongated and strenuous reminder of said stubbornness. It’s not that these recaps’ style isn't impressive in its own right. In fact, such a style can own a place in this minimal and dour film. The real problem lies within the screenplay, which cannot balance a subdued storyline and a director’s ego without tipping the scale dangerously in both directions.
It also shows Cedar knows little about setting tone. The chair shuffle during the argument between the president and Uriel is subtly genius, recalling Charlie Chaplin’s similar rendition in The Great Dictator’s most dire moment. Great humor derives from A) organic development, B) timing, and C) character disclosure. This scene performs all three. Organic, because the situation has been set in motion, stemming from Uriel’s received phone call to the awkward moment where he must squeeze himself into such a confined space. Timing, because the awkward shuffle comes immediately after a screaming match that adds to the tension, but also offers a sense of aloofness that’s both sudden and stiffly hilarious. And disclosing, because while the award means everything to these men and women, they are, essentially, a gathering of misfits resorting to childish antics to protect the small community they’ve immersed themselves in. This moment exists without interference, thus it is both revealing and comically adept.
The second Cedar joins the party is when such a mood is dissipated. He wishes to balance the grimness with humor because these men behave like adolescents, fighting over an award like teenage boys fight over a cute girl. There’s a level of ridiculousness lying beneath these men’s conceited actions, and it’s best brought out by the characters themselves. Rarely does this occur. Cedar is always there, whether it’s rapidly rousing through Eleizer’s books looking for a single quote or reverting back to Uriel’s childhood to capture “the moment he decided to become a Telmud scholar.” Coupled with a quietly depressing moment featuring Eleizer’s wife laying down with her scorned and misled husband, Footnote knows exactly what kind of film it wants to be, but has no idea how to set the tone to get there.
This would explain why, despite owning some incredible scenes and compelling performances, Footnote never successfully perpetuates its own obvious themes and dynamics. Eleizer separates himself from the academic society through his work, but his giant yellow headphones indicate this more than Cedar bluntly laying it out in ADD form. We never see Eleizer and Uriel converse with one another, representing the distance amidst a binding family fiasco and the hesitation on Uriel’s part to confront his father. The meticulousness and trivial components of the decision-making process regarding the Israel Award are fascinating, inconsequential in their own right, but wholly relatable in their importance to this small community. But the tone shifts, chopped screenplay and the director’s inflated ego are troubling, never mixing into a constituted gathering, but lumping together in a chunky, uneven, weirdly colored soup that smells a bit off-putting. Ambition is rewarded in this business, but not when it bogs down what we care about most: the characters.
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