The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent

MUST SEE movie: "The Bubble"

(1/3) > >>

isabelle:
Spending a blissful 3 days completely on my own at home, I took this opportunity to go to the pictures. I'd been wanting to see Persepolis, a French film by an exiled Iranian woman (DO see it if it ever comes out in your country!!), so I went to this small arty cinema, and took their program for the month. Where I saw that an Israeli film called "The Bubble" was playing for only 2 more days. I Read the synopsis and decided there and then I had to see it the next day and... boy was I right! All you BBM fans out there should check it out. I heard it will come out in North America beginning of September, so watch out for it, as it will probably not play in the big cinemas.

I found the following comment on IMDB and I encourage you to read it despite its length: it reflects exactly what I felt (though obviously this person has NOT seen BBM!  ::)):
The film opens on a checkpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian border; For the first few moments, we are unsure about the type of movie we have walked in on. Yet, this is an important element of this film's strength. The political situation, and the extreme tension in the air is constantly in the background. Most importantly, Tel Aviv serves as a character of its own in this film. It is constantly referenced. Street names and restaurant names are constantly exchanged. The skyline and city development is critiqued quite harshly, and ultimately the city evolves along with the film The film focuses on the love between Noam (Ohad Knoller) and a Palestinian immigrant, Ashraf(Yousef 'Joe' Sweid), with the societies of Tel Aviv and Palestine serving as a constant foil. We always know that their relationship is forbidden, and this creates a sense of urgency rarely present in cinema. The love is incredibly strong, and stands as the centerpiece of the film. The secondary relationships and friendships are equally strong: flamboyant restaurant owner Yelli's ( Yousef 'Joe' Sweid) relationship with the ultra-butch and grating golani solider, Golan (Zohar Liba), is particularly a source of amusement. The love scenes which abound in this film are all exquisite, fine crafted works of art, and the cinematography is astounding: In the first love scene of the film, the camera pans down as a male character gives oral sex to Lulu (Daniela Virtzer), and dissolves into a shot of Noam and Ashraf. This shot any many others lead the viewer to realize that all of these relationships are expressions of the very same form of love.

To give away more of the storyline would be a tragedy, but know that there is a lot of political tension and tragedy which touches onto the current world political climate, so I will instead focus on the witty dialogue. Even when watching this movie in my second language, I could not stop laughing throughout. Lines of particular amusement include the question of whether gay suicide bombers receive virgin women or men in heaven, and an analogy of Sampson from the bible as the worlds first suicide bomber. This dialogue shows a particular sense of purity and reality which is rarely seen in Cinema. The music used in the film is also particularly powerful. Music is only used in times when characters legitimately could or should be listening to it, and in one scene the music weakens when a character removes one earphone and stops when he removes the other. Little elements like this truly elevate the film.

I could not give greater recommendation to a film; this is a superb work of cinema which is catharthic as well as extremely well crafted.

I saw it last night, and could not concentrate on anything else afterwards (I went to an Irish pub in my city to meet up with some friends to play music, but couldn't be bothered). I'm telling you, this is some piece of cinema!

Wishes:
Thanks isabelle, I'm surprised no one responded to your post. I am anxious to see this movie but will probably need to wait until it comes out on DVD because I am sure it will not play at a theater near me.  :(

If anyone is interested there is a link to the official site on the imdb page. There are some clips to watch. No subtitles though.

If you have not seen Eytan Fox's other films, try to catch them also.

southendmd:
Hi, Isabelle, just saw your post. 

I saw "The Bubble" at the Provincetown film festival in June and I loved it, very modern and topical, and beautifully told.

Yes, it stayed with me, too. 

Wishes:
The Bubble is on the current cover of the Advocate. I just got mine today in the mail. When I opened it, I yelled loud enough to make my kitty jump!  :)
I was really surprised to see it on the cover.

Penthesilea:
The trailer for The Bubble:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou4UFIiY1wk[/youtube]

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page