Ayelet Zurer's Movies

This is a forum to discuss Ayelet Zurer's Movies.

Coming-of-age comedies about teenage boys with prurient desires for hot older women are a dime a dozen. Make that woman the boy's aunt, though, and now you've got something!

Or something. "Nina's Tragedies," a bittersweet comedy/drama from Israel, is kind of sweet and a little creepy in its attempt to convey adolescent yearning and loneliness. The titular Nina, though, is played by a winsome, beautiful actress named Ayelet Zurer, and her warm persona more than carries the film.

Nina's nephew is Nadav (Aviv Elkabeth), about 14 years old and beginning to develop that dirty-looking half-mustache that teenage boys (and the women of New Jersey) get. He is emerging as Ninasexual -- that is, Nina, his mother's urbane book-editor sister, is seemingly the only object of his desires. With the help of his oily grownup friend Menahem (Dov Navon), he spies on Nina regularly, even keeping a diary of all his secret, lustful thoughts.

Nina's first tragedy is that her husband dies. This is good news for Nadav, though, because his mother asks him to move in with Nina for a while, to make sure she's OK. He is soon jealous of a man named Avinoam (Alon Abutbul), the military man who notified Nina of her husband's death who has since been haunted by the thought of her and seems to desire a relationship with her.

Written and directed by Savi Gavison, the film is often wryly funny, as when Nadav describes his lunatic mother's fashion designs and her stormy relationship with his father. What doesn't work, really, is the structure. Nadav is the narrator, yet we often see things he had no way of seeing, or even knowing about. In addition, the film changes its focus from Nina to Nadav halfway through, leaving us with the feeling that we've watched two half-stories rather than one full one.

But while the young actor who plays Nadav is a bit of a cipher, Ayelet Zurer gives Nina grace, sexiness and a real personality. She's someone you'd want to see a movie about, though maybe you'd wish the movie were a little more polished than this one.
Review by Eric Snider

Trailer: Nina's Tragedies http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/301550/Nina-s-Tragedies/trailers

And, for those of you who might have lost hope in seeing greatness in a small film again, "Lightbulb," voted best feature length film at the Phoenix Film Festival.
Attention creative parties of this film, can we at least attach an exclamation point at the end to give this wonderful feature a marketing chance? This was truly a surprise hit at the festival along with the background of writer/producer Mike Cramm. Audiences kept growing with every performance and the word of mouth spread like wild fire. Funny, touching, and sincere in its character portrayal, “Lightbulb” wins one over by its simple story telling, but eventually throws you a curve ball with its remarkable ending that goes way beyond the norm of comedies of late. In fact, writer, Cramm and director Jeffrey Balsmeyer (the quirky British comedy,” Danny Deck Chair”) have crafted the closest thing to the comedies of Frank Capra in a long time.

Jeremy Renner is Sam, a sales and pitchman for his long time buddy and failed inventor Matt, played with frustrating warmth by Dallas Roberts. Their journey into the madness of small time inventions ending up on late night TV is a new twist on buddy movies and road comedies. To couple that with a ridiculous, yet genuine addiction to gambling makes for a story where we end up loving and caring for all involved. The next best thing since the pet rock or gia-pet may be just around the corner, but in the meantime, heartbreak, angst and disappointment are the hurdles one must jump several times over with rarely an end to the race of success. Along the way, Ayelet Zurer (Munich, Angels & Demons) is Gina, a grounding rod for the antics of the two and Matt’s long suffering girlfriend who unfortunately enables all of his foils for her devotion to him.

Writer, Cramm has written a remarkable comedy/drama that sneaks up and attacks from behind. What at first comes across aimless and lighthearted eventually is thought provoking and inspiring. It’s like the title of his piece, “Lightbulb,” it seems like nothing special till it is turned on and sheds a whole new light. Director Balsmeyer knows exactly what he has been handed and plays it with wonderful alacrity. Renner and Roberts make a great team and we feel their frustration with every downfall. It just gets worse by the moment and we are surprised, saddened and laughing at the same time. This film and its cast are too good to ignore. This is Cramm’s first script and he should be applauded for a story that is a step above so many others with carefully drawn characters that touch are soul and make us thankful that there are a still a few artists left in an industry of tinker toys.

Review by Christopher Stipp

Trailer:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/335938/Adam-Resurrected/trailers


Youtube interview with the director, Jeff and Ayelet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WncJQeok2EQ


Brief clip of Adam & Gina (Jeff & Ayelet)
http://celebrifi.com/gossip/Extended-Adam-Resurrected-Clip-507554.html

Fugitive Pieces Featurette:
http://video.tvguide.com/Fugitive+Pieces/Featurette++Behind+the+Scenes/2540595?autoplay=true&partnerid=OVG


Jeremy Podeswa (whose own father is a Holocaust survivor if I'm correct in assuming) does an admirable job in managing to maintain a certain literary feel to the movie, a kind of visual novelization of the story itself. As I mentioned I have not read the novel so I have no basis to weigh in as to whether this movie does the book justice or if the novel measures-up to the movie.

Yet on the basis of having seen the movie, I thought it was well acted, very sad and melancholic and haunting. While I like the entire cast, I really must mention Ayelet Zurer who for my money is a great actress, and a very beautiful and sensual woman, one that has a certain aura of mistery and intrigue about her.

"Fugitive Pieces" was, in my mind, a wonderful insight into survivor guilt (a topic which I can identify with though not to the extent and themes expressed in the movie), wrestling with one's demons and coming to an understanting with oneself, letting go of all self-imposed burdens and hardships and making peace with oneself and the world around in order to go on living.

As for this issue of a happy ending, I didn't think that the movie sugarcoated the issues it touched upon, I think that there was no guarantee in the end that everything was going to be peachy and perfect. I for one didn't see a rosy outcome. The only thing that the movie concluded with was the promise of a brighter future or a better tomorrow if you will, one that was brought upon by the fact that Jacob finally learned to let go of the ghosts in his past (i.e. his sister Bella and his parents) thus allowing them to rest in peace and him to move forward. Everything came into focus through his love, as total and complete as possible coming from a person damaged and traumatized as he was, for this woman, Michaela, whom he considered an unexpected gift. Another push came through his motivation to leave his story to be told by his "upcoming" child (boy or girl, however I am not sure if the movie made it clear if she was pregnant already).

Yet Jacob's issues don't get magically solved nor does everything wrap-up neatly in a typical Hollywood happy-ending. We are left to wonder what will happen with him and all the people in his life. Another thing to ponder is also the fact that he realized that it will fall to others to tell his story and the story of the countless who perished or survived in/the Holocaust. Due to that fact that he had been so close to those horrendous events rendered him unable to really tell the story...even he says that whenever he was dreaming of his sister, or saw her ghost he always misunderstood the message, which wasn't "hold on", but rather "let go".

That is all I have to say, and it is too much already. This was a good movie overall and definitely one of the movies of the year already.

IMDb Review

Synopsis:
A successful lawyer (Ashkenazi), who has traumatic memories from his army service, is testifying against his best friend from his unit. His wife, a social-worker (Zurer), is trying to save a poor family named Siton (Garti and Adika). The couple's life collapses when the wife get raped by a gang (lead by Abutbul).

My view point:
Now this is just one movie Ayelet really should not have agreed to do. Probably on paper the story/plot may have been enticing, on screen it was a disaster.
Now don't get me wrong both Lior Ashkenazi and of course Ayelet' performances were good as was Neta Garty. The popular and usually very reliable Alon Abutbul, on the other hand was a mess. He made his character a caricature. I felt as if I were watching two different movies, the movie with Lior and Ayelet and then the movie with Alon and his two inept sidekicks.
What a mess!

BeTipul

Unfortuately, the DVD of Season 1 BeTipul with Ayelet does not have English Subtitles.

This Israeli television show includes excellent acting full of deep and meaningful scripts. This show demands from the spectator the use of his/her brain but at the same time patience is needed. While being very sublime in its nature, the show focuses on the depths and the evolution of the characters personality through the process of psychological treatment. Asi Dayan (the psychologist) and Ayelet Zurer (Naama) do a wonderful job. Other cast members such as Lior Ashkenazi, Rami Hoiberger, and Alma Zack also seem to add richness to their characters. if you can understand Hebrew, this is a must!
IMDb Review

Therapy is Complicated: HBO’s Foray into Modular Storytelling with In Treatment
The potential revelatory intensity of the therapy session may not be particularly cinematic, but it has sure proven televisual, especially recently—and especially on HBO. The therapy session, when not written for laughs, is a challenge, and an easy crutch for bad writing as a pre-determined staging instrument for airing pained interiority, in conflict with the “show, don’t tell” principle. HBO’s most recent trips to the couch (The Sopranos, Tell Me You Love Me) have been moderately used, nestled within broader action, a variety of locations, and wider story frame. Not so with its new series, In Treatment, an adaptation of the Israeli Betipul, premiering next week (January 28, 9:30 ET). Here, the treatment, the Tell, is all.

The Israeli original, created by Hagai Levi, the son of two therapists and a veteran of Israeli telenovelas, and Ori Sivan, a self-described “therapy true-believer” became a cultural phenomenon. Winner of virtually every television award, and proclaimed by critics as “the most important achievement in a drama series” and “the best Israeli television show ever,” Betipul (literally “in treatment”) was noted for an unprecedented one million video-on-demand downloads in its cable run (nearly half of all Israeli households). The show’s casting alone identified it as the epitome of Israeli quality drama: Leading the cast of Israel’s cinematic elites was acclaimed actor-writer-director Assi Dayan (son of Moshe Dayan and known as much for his public outbursts, volatile personality and critiques of the Israeli right, as he is for an impressive body of cinematic work) as the psychiatrist, Reuven Dagan; Gila Almagor (“first lady” of Israeli stage and screen, described by one critic as “the Israeli Judy Dench”) as Reuven’s therapist and past mentor, Gila; and several of Israel’s most recognized stars, led by Ayelet Zorer and Lior Ashkenazi (familiar to some U.S. film audiences; Ashkenazi for Walk on Water and Late Wedding and Zorer for Nina’s Tragedies and Munich).

But it was most noteworthy for its format: The program ran nightly, in half-hour segments for five nights each week. Monday through Thursday, the psychiatrist held appointments with that day’s regular patient; on Friday, he met with his own therapist. On-demand and DVD options allowed further flexibility in the audience’s experience of the narrative: Viewers could watch the show in chronological order (a week at a time), or follow any particular patient’s storyline individually.

The patients, at first glance, presented the usual grab bag of psychological dysfunctions, frayed relationships and pained histories. Yet, overtime, their revelations, in parallel with Reuven’s own crisis, offer a particularly riveting and televisually-specific narrative structure. Na’ama is a young paramedic with daddy issues who precipitates Reuven’s unraveling with her insistence that their relationship go beyond therapy. Orna and Michael are a couple contemplating an abortion as their own relationship deteriorates. Teenager Ayala is a promising gymnast who’s suspicious accident appears more and more like a suicide attempt.
Yadin is a cocky fighter pilot, who seems chillingly indifferent to the carnage he caused after bombing a Palestinian apartment building and who’s own gradual deterioration serves to deconstruct the crushing consequences of Israel’s military ideology. At the end of each week, as Reuven unloads his rage and confusion over his failing marriage and his panic that his clinical skills are also failing, he struggles with his ex-mentor, Gila, as their own complex history and contained hostility seep through the professional veneer of their counseling sessions.

Something Sweet:

I saw a clip of this movie and quite frankly it didn't look too particularly interesting. Ignoring my first impression, I ordered it anyway. What a pleasant surprise! This has become one of my favorite Israeli movies.

Along with the story I also enjoyed the incredible scenery and lush landscape of this section of Israel. This movie failed to garner any award attention, probably due to the simplicity of it but nonetheless it's very worth watching.

The one fault I have with Israeli movies - many contain the unnecessary comedic inclusions. Most of the time the actors brought in for the few humorous scenes are a nuisance and take away valuable moments that could have been utilized elsewhere. Thankfully not here, the director as well as lead actor Dan Turgeman actually utilized the two or three comedic characters seaming them nicely into the plot - which did not make them appear as an after thought.

This movie was my initial introduction to the middle and younger sister played by actresses Tamar Kenynan and Avital Abergel. All one can expect from actors is to make you believe they are who they are portraying, and these two ladies did this quite well. As for the older sister portrayed by the wonderful Ayelet Zurer, there just aren't enough adjectives to describe the talent of this lady. Actually, the entire cast was good.

For a nice easy watch, I recommend this movie (which does have English subtitles).

IMDb review

Munich Trailer:
http://video.tvguide.com/Munich/Trailer/2543460?autoplay=true&partnerid=OVG


A Mossad officer and his small team of assassins try to track down and kill those responsible for the kidnapping and murders of members of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team.

With his latest film, the simply titled "Munich," director Steven Spielberg looks back on those fateful days. Yet, rather than focus solely on that incident and what led up to it, the filmmaker shows us what happened afterwards, at least as inspired by what's been reported about Israeli's response. The result is a completely riveting and engaging, dramatic thriller that doesn't have the telltale signs of being a Spielberg film, yet is one of his better works and is easily one of the best films of the year.

Eric Bana is fabulous in the role as the agent who's torn between duty and questioning the long-term success of their actions. Those making up his team -- Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz and Hanns Zischler -- might not be as flashy as their counterparts in "The Untouchables," but they're nevertheless good, especially Hinds who should get some nominations for his work. Supporting efforts from the likes of Ayelet Zurer as Bana's wife, Mathieu Amalric as a nebulous French informant and especially Geoffrey Rush as the team's only officially unofficial government contact are also on the money.

Entertainment Review





Quote from Eric Bana regarding a scene with Ayelet:
"To me, the most powerful part of that scene was the reaction of my wife at the end of it. To me, that's what that scene was about as much as the physical acts of the flashbacks to Munich and so forth. The actress who plays my wife, Ayelet Zorer, did the most incredible job. I thought that was one of the most brilliant female characters I have ever seen on film. If found it incredibly moving."