The year in Israeli movies had its ups and downs, but the ups took us very high, while the downs will never bring us back to the pre-2001 era, in which the country produced only one or two quality films a decade (if that many). It will be remembered as the year that Israel garnered its first Foreign-Language Film Oscar nomination in 24 years, for Joseph Cedar's Beaufort, as well as the year that this very serious film was the focus of a silly controversy.

The year was also notable for the release of an extremely original documentary, Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir, which generated an enormous amount of buzz at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened in the main competition. But other than Waltz with Bashir, there were few new high-quality films. The local film industry seems to be settling into a cycle of spectacular years - last year was one, in which Beaufort and Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit garnered attention and prizes around the world, along with several other locally made gems - and simply good ones, like this year.

That's partly a function of the fact that the most celebrated local directors, such as Cedar and Kolirin, simply can't make a movie a year, as some filmmakers (although few serious ones) manage to do abroad. After their movie is released, directors here generally spend a year taking it to festivals, gathering prizes and acclaim along the way, and only then return to start their next project, which usually takes at least a couple of years to complete.

Around this time last year, the big Oscar fight kicked off, when the Ophir Award, the prize of the Israeli Academy for Film and Television, went to The Band's Visit, an audience-pleasing but still thought-provoking film about the culture clash between an Egyptian orchestra lost in the Negev and the local residents. Beaufort, a hard-hitting adaptation of Ron Leshem's novel about the last IDF soldiers stationed in Lebanon, won four Ophir awards, but only the winner of the Best Picture Ophir becomes Israel's official selection to be considered for one of the five nominee slots for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

The rules in this Oscar category are rigid on one particular point: The bulk of the dialogue in the nominated films must be in a language other than English (a rule that drew criticism this year, but which is intended to give a boost to filmmakers who work outside the English-speaking film industries). The Band's Visit, in which much of the dialogue between the characters is in their one shared language, English, was disqualified, and Beaufort, the runner-up, became the country's representative and received an Oscar nomination. The sniping in the press between admirers of the two films reached a fevered pitch, although, to their credit, both directors remained above the fray.

This flap highlighted several issues, one positive, the other negative. On the plus side, it drew attention to the embarrassment of artistic riches in the local film industry: Who would have dreamed 10 years ago that two very different movies in a single year would realistically have a shot at winning an Oscar?

But the downside is the focus on a single prize. True, there would have been a national celebration if Beaufort had won an Oscar, but to focus so much on that award is simply an insult to Cedar and Kolirin. After all, both works are wonderful movies that we can all enjoy here and take pride in when they captivate audiences abroad. Both films played all over the world this past year, including the hard-to-crack US market, and, in the period since their release, won awards at dozens of major festivals, including the European Film Awards (where The Band's Visit won two prizes in December, including a Best Actor for Sasson Gabai).

THIS YEAR, one movie dominated the scene in terms of sheer quality, ambition and originality, and that was Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir. Like the Iranian-born writer/director Marjane Satrapi, who turned her autobiographical memoir, Persepolis, into an acclaimed animated film, Folman used an animated format for his documentary.

Waltz with Bashir tells the story of Folman's and his friends' memories of their time in the First Lebanon War in 1982 and the events leading up to the massacre in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps of Palestinians by Phalangist militia. These memories had been haunting Folman since he served there in his early 20s, and the need to examine the experience gradually became more intense.

Folman is perhaps best known for writing the acclaimed television series In Therapy, and directing the haunting, offbeat 1996 film Saint Clara. Although he doesn't draw and had to work with an animator, he told The International Herald Tribune that "animation was the only way to tell this story; I was sure of that."

A typical talking-heads documentary would not capture the intensity of his and his friends' memories, and he had no intention of making a conventional anti-war or political film. "It doesn't deal with the other side, or what we do or don't do to them. The basic statement is: War is useless. But there's nothing you haven't seen before or that we didn't know."

The film starts off with a scary sequence that could give children (and perhaps some adults) nightmares, as a pack of wild dogs roams the Tel Aviv streets, which leads into the memories of his friend, Boaz, who was responsible for killing dogs in Lebanese villages, so they wouldn't bark and alert residents to the Israelis' presence. Twenty years later, he and his friends still cope with the absurdity of the situation into which they were thrown, and grapple with their feelings over the murders committed so close to them in the refugee camps.

In an age of 24-hour news channels and instant sound bites, there is something almost revolutionary about examining an event that took place 25 years ago, and Folman manages it with an intensity that is hard to describe.

Source:

Editor - Reader Lanny R. Middings (Letters, Aug. 3) is correct that picking the 10 best movies is subjective. He disagrees that "Vertigo" should be on the list. I'd put three Hitchcock films on the list: "Vertigo," "Psycho" and "Rear Window" (leaving off Hitch's purported favorite, "Shadow of a Doubt"). I'd include only two of Middings' 10: "High Noon" and "The Godfather."

Then, to complete the list: "Penny Serenade" (Irene Dunne, Cary Grant), "The Graduate," "The Best Years of Our Lives," "Bell, Book and Candle," "Picnic," "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" and "The Court Jester" (OK, so that's 12).

As for this century's two best films: "Waitress" and "The Devil Wears Prada." And that's leaving off a lot of excellent movies.

Pete Kossoris

Thousand Oaks

I dare you, Chronicle

Editor - I've been enjoying the reprints from your archives of some of your old columnists, and the ones by Charles McCabe are specially welcome. Now I dare you to reprint the classic from Art Hoppe, "Seven Little Words," first published Jan. 13, 1978. I've had this in my files for years, and it's worth more every time I look it up.

J.W. Larson

Hollister

One more political movie to consider

Editor - The Pink section of Aug. 24 lists some noteworthy political movies but omits "The Parallax View," one of the best political movies ever. Warren Beatty plays an investigative reporter who discovers a sinister corporation that hires out political assassins.

George Gilbert

San Francisco

Critic got it right about Chihuly

Editor - I should have written earlier, but apparently the flak is still coming (Letters, Sept. 7).

I saw the Dale Chihuly exhibition in the first couple days after the opening at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and was in remarkable agreement with Kenneth Baker's review.

I have seen Chihuly glass in Washington and Palm Springs and in photographs of several of his installations in Venice and Florida. Although the glass was colorful, and probably a triumph to shape, most of it was essentially bright glassware. The display is more extensive than one we could see in an expensive hotel gift shop. Whether it decorates a hallway, garden or dark room, the display of pieces was essentially decorative. To me, only the earth-tone and milky vessels, set amid the inspiration of native woven baskets and rugs, suggested thoughtful art. Were those glass shapes a dreamy rendition of a woven basket in a smooth medium?

If objects are pretty, but don't make you think, are they significant art or just artful? I appreciate the controversy initiated by Baker's article; there was nothing controversial or even questioning about most of the Chihuly glassware.

Aileen Frankel

Oakland

Let's hear it!

Readers - This is your space to tell us what you think about something you read in the Pink, or about culture, arts, entertainment and leisure at large.

Send e-mail to Sunday Datebook Editor Sue Adolphson at sadolphson@sfchronicle.com; or letters to Editor, Sunday Datebook, The San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Letters may be faxed to (415) 495-2067.

Please include your name and city of residence for publication and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Source: SFgate

AT Read or Die, we think about how to get more Filipinos reading, and reading more fiction and non-fiction written by Filipinos in particular.

Personally, I’m placing a lot of stock in the power of showbusiness in getting more people off their couches, and into bookstores.

Sounds silly? Maybe it does. After all, why would people look for a book if it’s already been made into a movie? Or, why would people want to go out and buy this particular romance novel (or series of romance novels) if a teleserye or radio drama has already been made out of it?

Well, we might be surprised. There are already numerous reports about how Hollywood drives up book sales in the United States and everywhere else in the world. Publishers of the Narnia books, for example, reported a remarkable increase in sales when the first Narnia movie, which was based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, came out in 2005 - 55 years after it was first printed!

A 2006 article in the New York Times titled "Backlist to the Future" has some interesting figures for us: "In 2004, Vintage shipped about 50,000 copies of ‘In Cold Blood’; this year, after the movie ‘Capote’ appeared, it shipped 400,000. Houghton Mifflin saw sales of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy rise 1,000 percent — to 25 million copies — when the movies were in theaters from 2001 to 2003. Surprise endorsements also help. When ‘The Letters of Abelard and Heloise,’ was mentioned in an episode of ‘The Sopranos,’ Penguin Classics saw a spike in sales of its edition."

’’One Hundred Years of Solitude’’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is another example - it enjoyed a spike in sales in the United States after it was billed as a selection in Oprah’s Book Club.

So here’s my question to local movie and TV producers: if you happen to be interested in literature too, why not invest in programs or segments that would foster greater interest in literature? Why not use the power of your chosen medium to promote Filipino-made books and comics?

WHY TIE-INS ARE PROFITABLE

It may stand to reason that publishers would profit more with an arrangement like this, but that’s not to say producers won’t profit at all! It won’t be a one-way street - while movies and TV programs promote books, books can also promote movies and TV programs. Here are some of the reasons why I think movie and TV tie-ins would be profitable for publishers and producers alike.

1) In the Philippines, movies and TV are far, far more accessible than books. Or, at least, books that cost above R100 and are more often than not identified as "highbrow literature" or scholarly reading.

People are generally more interested in visual media, as well! A PCIJ article by Alecks Pabico titled "Tactile Television" cites that two out of three Filipinos watch television every day. And that the average viewing time in the Philippines is three hours - less than the four hours a day that the average British or American spends in front of the box (let it not be said that we are a nation of couch potatoes!).

Simply saying that a movie/TV program was based on a novel or a comic is its own style of marketing. It would drive up the interest of his/her viewers, who would then think, "The story must be that good, to be turned into a movie!" It’s a powerful enough pull that experts in audio-visual entertainment found a certain story interesting enough to share with their faithful audience; the chances of assured patronage may be greater.

2) People who have seen and liked a movie or TV tie-in, will want to read the source material to see how faithful the tie-in was. On the other hand, people who have read a specific book and enjoyed it, would be curious to see if its audio-visual version is true to the text. Everybody wins!

3) Books and comics are an endless supply of story material. Not that there would ever be a lack of fresh ideas from network creative teams, but still - why turn down an opportunity for a ready-made plot outline (and even storyboard, in the case of comics)?

Incidentally, the power of comics in driving up literacy should definitely not be ignored. It’s easy enough to imagine that a comic book rendition of a novel would drive more people to seek that novel out, and even help them enjoy it! I know this was certainly what happened with me and the Hunchback of Notre Dame; I read the comics first, then found it much easier to read and appreciate the English translation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel with the images in my head.

A similar principle operates with movie and tv tie-ins. A movie retelling of the "Noli" or "El Fili" would establish "visual aids" that would help readers along, when it’s time for them to read the text. A more contemporary setting, using visual and musical elements that are familiar to modern audiences, would perhaps even help younger readers better identify with the characters and situations presented in classical text!

Just think of how much a reprint of the original Darna comics would sell if the TV renditions would reference actual chapters, and not simply invent new episodes for our beloved classic superheroine! Of course, the original comics would have to be made more widely available, but this is where publishing houses come in. Publishers would be in the best position to determine the conditions that would make a reprint profitable for them, and at the same time palatable to the reading public.

Of course, it’s not as simple as it sounds. For one thing, I don’t see this arrangement working if 1) the reading materials are hard to get a hold of or too expensive for the reading public to begin with, or if 2) a production team does not respect the source text enough, thus producing an audio-visual version that is so "beefed up" to become more sensational, that the story and the original "flavor" of the text is lost. Making a successful movie/tv tie-in of an established literary work - or even a novelization of a popular movie/tv presentation! - is a risky venture if there is a lack of dedication and coordination.

Nonetheless, I sincerely believe that it’s a venture worth looking into.

Source: Mb.com

Eagle Eye

If you're a 14-year-old who prefers whizzing bullets and random explosions to coherent filmmaking, here's a movie for you. The ubiquitous Shia LaBeouf plays a guy who finds himself framed for a terrorist plot, forced to follow instructions from a mysteriously omniscient female voice on his cell phone. Meanwhile, a single mom (played by Michelle Monaghan) must follow instructions from the same mystery woman in order to save her son.

The convoluted plot gets more ridiculous from there as director D.J. Caruso attempts to establish himself as a modern-day Hitchcock with obvious nods to "North by Northwest" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

It seems like a loose-knit collection of action sequences fueled by the cheesy device of an all-seeing, all-knowing mysterious voice. Even worse, the movie seems to think it's making a serious political statement on government surveillance.

Source: Mlive.com

Confusing cuts, length hinder great story

When Spike Lee publicly chastised Clint Eastwood for failing to include a single African-American face in his Iwo Jima epic, “Flags of Our Fathers,” and Eastwood told Lee, in effect, to “shut his face,” Lee did not stoop to responding in kind.

Instead, he did the right thing — he made his own World War II epic to drive home the point that plenty of black Americans fought for their country in that conflict.

Sprawling over more than 2½ hours, “Miracle at St. Anna” features a huge cast, numerous narrative switchbacks and tangents, lots of scenes with German and Italian subtitles and a mesmerizing cameo by Axis Sally (Alexandra Maria Lara).

There’s just one problem: The story, adapted from James McBride’s 2002 novel, is not epic in scale or scope; rather, it’s a tightly drawn character study that Lee strains, mightily but ineffectively, to pump up to something more.

The story focuses on four black “Buffalo Soldiers” of the 92nd Infantry Division, which went up against the Germans in Italy’s Tuscany region in 1944. The four are separated from their unit while crossing a river when their idiot white captain mucks up a fire support mission and rains artillery down on his own troops.

They are the stoic Stamps (Derek Luke), the senior soldier; Bishop (Michael Ealy), a sly, smooth-talking playa from Harlem; the low-key Hector (Laz Alfonso), a black Puerto Rican who knows just enough Italian to converse with the locals; and Train (Omar Benson Miller), a big, sweet-natured teddy bear.

Soon after they’re cut off, Train stumbles upon a traumatized Italian boy (Matteo Sciabordi) hiding alone in a barn. Against the wishes of his comrades, he insists on taking the boy to the relative safety of a nearby town.

Once there, the four become involved with an Italian family that includes grizzled patriarch Ludovico (Omero Antonutti) and his hot ’n’ spicy daughter Renata (Valentina Cervi).

As they try to figure out their next move, they ruminate on the fact that they’re fighting for the very freedom and democracy that they don’t have in their own country; get mixed up with some Italian partisans; and learn more about the boy, who just may be a wee messenger from God (not for nothing is his name Angelo).

All the actors give good performances, especially Miller as the “gigante cioccolato,” willing to go to any lengths to protect his defenseless charge.

And to be sure, the film has its interesting moments. But they’re scattered widely enough that they never gel into a satisfying whole, especially when other issues keep getting in the way.

To start with, a framing story set in 1984 at the front and back ends of the film feels seriously contrived.

Then there are the flashbacks, which fracture the narrative and stall the momentum. Case in point: After we’ve been in Tuscany for an hour, the story jumps back a year to the black soldiers getting a taste of homefront racism while training in Louisiana. Coming when it does, the scene feels misplaced.

But the ultimate off-key note is a scene featuring an atrocity by German troops against Italian civilians — warning: bayonet and baby ahead — that’s as gruesome as it is unnecessary. Is anyone still not clear about who the bad guys were in the Big One?

Unquestionably, Lee’s heart is in the right place, but the fuzzy and disjointed “Miracle at St. Anna” ends up being a film that you want to like much more than you actually do.

Source: Airforcetimes

Summit Entertainment and Imagi Studios announced today that the long wait for a CG animated take on Osamu Tezuka classic Japanese manga and anime character Astro Boy will soon be over, as Summit plans to release the movie nationwide on October 23, 2009.

Directed by David Boyers, the film features the voice of Freddie Highmore as the title character with other voices provided by Nicolas Cage, Kristin Bell, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane and more. The last animated feature film from Imagi Studios was TMNT, the most recent take on the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

The full press release follows:

Los Angeles, CA (September 22, 2008) – Summit Entertainment will release Astro Boy in North America on Friday, October 23, 2009, it was announced today by Rob Friedman, Co-Chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment, and Erin Corbett, President of Imagi Studios U.S. Summit and Imagi are putting together the final details on a marketing plan designed to reach both the family movie-going audience and adult fans of Astro Boy alike. Plan includes a commitment from a major fast food restaurant partner as well as alliances in the areas of toys, games, books and others, soon to be announced.

Produced by Imagi Studios, the CG-animated motion picture will bow on over 3,000 screens across North America. International release dates for the film are to be announced soon.

“We are pleased to bring the exceptional world of Astro Boy to the big screen for movie-goers in North America,” said Friedman. “We have lined up some key marketing partners for the film and our October date allows us to put the film out at the right time enabling our partners to reach their targeted audiences with on-going marketing programs tied to the film.”

“A beloved icon for over half-a-century, this marks Astro Boy’s first time on the big screen, making our film one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year,” stated Corbett. “We’re thrilled to be bringing this remarkable and enduring property to fans – both old and new – as a grand-scale action-filled adventure with cutting-edge CG technology.”

Astro Boy’s all-star cast features the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role. David Bowers (Flushed Away) is directing Astro Boy from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris (Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop), with Maryann Garger producing.

The iconic character Astro Boy has found global popularity since his creation in the early 1950s by Japan’s Osamu Tezuka, known as the “god of manga” and “father of anime”, and has been the hero of three acclaimed animated television series aired around the world.

Set in the future, Imagi Studio’s Astro Boy is a classic superhero origin story about a young robot with incredible powers, created by a brilliant scientist, and his adventure-filled journey in search of his identity and destiny, taking him into a netherworld of robot gladiators before he returns to save Metro City.

Summit Entertainment, which entered into a global alliance with Imagi Studios earlier this year, will distribute Astro Boy worldwide except for Imagi’s reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China.

About Imagi Studios
Imagi International Holdings Limited (“Imagi”) is listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Imagi’s principal business is the development and production of CG-animated theatrical feature films. Imagi’s first motion picture TMNT was released in March 2007, opening number one in U.S. box office revenue, only the third time in history that an Asian-made film has achieved that honor. Imagi has development operations in Los Angeles, California, and CG production studios at its Chai Wan (Hong Kong) headquarters.

About Summit Entertainment LLC
Summit Entertainment is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production and distribution studio. The studio handles all aspects of marketing and distribution for both its own internally developed motion pictures as well as acquired pictures. Summit Entertainment, LLC also represents international sales for both its own slate and third party product. Summit Entertainment, LLC plans to release 10 to 12 films annually.

Source: ComingSoon

Los Angeles-based Harbor Light Entertainment and Tokyo-based Lotus have assembled an international consortium to remake helmer Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic "Rashomon."

Action will be moved from ancient Japan to contempo America, where a court must decide the facts about the rape of a woman and the murder of her husband.

Harbor Light and Lotus will be joined by L.A.’s Lexicon Filmed Entertainment and Singapore’s Upside Down Entertainment on the English-language project, "Rashomon 2010."

Harbor Light announced a "Rashomon" remake in 2001, but struggled to get the pic greenlit.

The partners are also gearing up to make "The Masque of Black Death," a feature toon based on an unproduced Kurosawa script penned in 1977.

The partners plan to have the remake and the toon in theaters in 2010 as part of a 100th anni celebration of Kurosawa’s birth.

Kurosawa planned to have Japanese anime auteur Osamu Tezuka make the pic, but the project never got off the ground before Kurosawa’s death in 1998.

Set in Russia in the early 20th century, "The Masque of Black Death" depicts a disease that kills most of the population.

Source: Variety