Divine Intervention

Description

At the center of the Middle East conflict, hearts beat in tragic comedy and deadpan irony: a sexy young Palestinian woman defies Israeli soldiers and struts through a check-point as if it were the catwalk of a fashion show, Santa Claus is chased up the sun-drenched hills of Nazareth by a gang of knife-wielding school kids, Israeli police use a blindfolded prisoner to provide directions to tourists in Jerusalem, a Palestinian collaborator casually extinguishes his firebombed house on a daily basis, and a female ninja descends from the sky, holding the map of `Palestine' as her battle shield. These are but a few of the provocative images that filmmaker Elia Suleiman puts forth in his critically-acclaimed satire chronicling the absurdities of life and love on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli border, DIVINE INTERVENTION.

Customer Reviews:

Slow, but worthwhile.......2007-04-10

Let me state first that if you are interested in this movie because of that preview which makes it looks like a Kung Fu Hustle set in the Middle East, you will face (seeming) hours of dissapointment before you reach that brief scene. That said, if you can handle the tedious pace of scenes of daily monotony in a tense region, and if you will not be offended by the anti-Israeli standpoint, the movie has a lot to offer. The scenes with the hands and the balloon are especially nice.

Deceiving trailer cobbles together the surrealistic elements.......2007-02-11

I saw and loved 'Syrian Bride.' It had a tempting trailer for 'Divine Intervention,' so we were enthused to give it a try.

How deceiving trailers can be. It had wrapped up the film's surrealistic elements (it's got quite a few of those) and presented it as almost a wacky comedy. Those who have watched the movie know it's anything but. Rather, it depicts the existence of life in Jerusalem, Ramallah and border checkpoints from the point of view of Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman (also the film's silent - literally - star). As another reviewer aptly points out, while the depiction of that life "may have had them rolling in the aisles in Tel Aviv," as a film it just doesn't travel well at all. With all due respect to Mr. Suleiman (I respect any creative effort), you'll be hard-pressed to follow the intermingled story lines and the mostly wordless action. There's obviously quite a bit of dark, sardonic humor embedded in here. And I like to think of myself as open to film-watching experiences such as this...but I'm afraid most of the film was simply lost on me. I suspect most viewers will feel the same way.

But, I will use this opportunity to encourage you to rent/buy Eran Riklis' outstanding 'Syrian Bride.' It also depicts life from the 'other side' in Israel and Israeli-occupied land ('Bride' is set mostly in the Golan Heights), it was also co-financed by Israeli organizations...but the similarities end there. 'Bride' is first-class dramatic film making with outstanding direction, cast and narrative. You won't regret picking it up.

Hate Thy Neighbor.......2007-01-17

This is one of those movies that manages to be both immediately accessible as well as rewarding in new ways when seen multiple times. Despite its Palestinian locations and the setting of two-thirds of the movie around Israeli checkpoints, its crowning paradox is that it is, in the words of writer-director Elia Suleiman, "not socio-politically specific." Its comedic sense provokes the laughter of recognition and empathy: the sense of feeling boxed in with those whom we cannot stand will be familiar to all but the most saintly viewers. The film holds a mirror up to us, and when we laugh, it is because we look pretty damn silly.

Some moments: a man drives through Nazareth, waving at pedestrians and motorists, cursing each one more elaborately than the last through a clenched smile; a teenager in a soccer jersey accidentally bounces a ball onto a roof--as if just waiting for such an event, the homeowner emerges with a knife and stabs the ball flat before returning it to the boy; some Israeli police are approached by a tourist for directions to the Old City, and when they are unable to help her, a blindfolded Palestinian in their custody is told to direct her--with the blindfold still on, of course; a perspective of a hospital corridor gives an intricately-choreographed view of everyone from medical staff to cardiac patients smoking cigarettes and pacing, some of them with drip bags in tow; a man whose father has just died chops onions and weeps.

The opening 30 minutes all take place in static shots that are placed no more than about twenty meters from each other. Each shot comments on the one before it--as we look out over the terraced cityscape, there is a sense that no matter how elevated one's perspective, there is always an unseen someone watching you with the same bemused malice with which you view your neighbor. There are the kind of coup de l'oeil effects that one associates with Jacques Tati: a low angle view of several men with sticks and a gun appears to show a brutal murder, but the payoff reveals their actions to be quite innocuous.

This is also a good movie for the subtitle-phobic, inasmuch as it contains very little dialogue. It also does not have an original score, relying very sparingly on pre-existing music. Yet, its brilliance extends to the sound mix, where everything from birdsong to car alarms acts, in turns, as counterpoint or as emphasis to the action.

DIVINE INTERVENTION is not only for lovers of Keaton, Lewis and Tati, but also for devotees of Lumiere, Renoir, Bresson, Ozu, Donen and Hou Hsiao Hsien. It is a generous film that keeps giving with each repeated viewing.

I want my 90 min. back.......2006-03-19

They say for every cigarette you smoke, you lose 7 seconds off your life; I say every time you watch this movie you lose 90 minutes.

Brilliant movie.......2006-02-10

This excellent film depicts the life of the Palestinians under occupation. Viewers must keep in mind that this film was a joint production of more than one group, including an Israeli cultural fund.
This is not to discredit the work. On the contrary, Elia Suleiman makes the most of his resources as he tells the story of occupation. Such occupation, according to Suleiman, has bred so much frustration among Palestinians that has resulted in their most-of-the--time incomprehensible behavior and redundant routine.
In the movie, you will see short-fused Palestinians using foul language all the time while driving, chain smoking even inside hospitals, throwing garbage at each others house garden space and so on.
The downside of the film, however, was its surreal dimension which was most of the time unexplainable. When Suleiman throws an apricot on an Israeli tank causing it to explode or when a balloon with Arafat's picture on it travels over Jerusalem all the way over the Dome of the Rock are all scenes that seem to be irrelevant.
Surrealism hits a peak when, during a training session for a group of Israeli commandos, Palestine appears in the shape of Jesus and a consequent ninja battle ensues. Again, such surreal scenes were most of the time out of context for an average viewer.
Yet, the movie is one of a kind on the market and all those who are interested in learning about some Palestinian daily life should consult this work.

Average customer rating:

+1/2 ...outlining a rather sad but steamy affair
LouLou
Nelly
Worst French Film I've Ever Seen
Loulou

Loulou
Starring: Isabelle Huppert , Gérard Depardieu , Guy Marchand , Humbert Balsan , and Bernard Tronczak
Director: Maurice Pialat
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000056EWF
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Customer Reviews:

+1/2 ...outlining a rather sad but steamy affair.......2004-01-07

This 1980 French film is a fairly dreary, depressing, anti-romantic character study, featuring Isabelle Huppert as a restless young woman who ditches her boring, tempramental boyfriend for a wild, leather-clad bad boy (played by an incandescent, youthful Gerard Depardieu). The films inches forth through one mildly unsettling scenario to another; the cumulative effect of which is something close to spiritual nausea. It's supposed to be that way, though: this film is very much a precursor to the downcast realism of the 1990s "dogme" scene, skillfully made, but definitely a downer. However, Depardieu is particularly magnetic in this early role... worth it to see him in his prime!

LouLou.......2002-07-14

Just watched it. It is a good film; slow but accurate and interesting. Don't think you need to buy it but worth watching once.

Nelly.......2001-06-07

Director Maurice Pialat's film is more an exercise in star power than any presentation of narrative, with Isabelle Huppert leaving her husband Guy Marchand for the leather-clad ex-con ruffian Loulou played by Depardieu. Even though the tone takes its cue from the character of Loulou as a womanising drifter, the low key seemingly improvised rambling scenes are preferable to the gab-fests of Eric Rohmer, who is responsible for the negative connotations associated with French films by Americans. This film is actually mistitled since although it is Depardieu that is the catalyst for Huppert to change her life, the story is more hers than his. Or perhaps it is that the representation of her crumbling marriage that is more dramatically interesting than Depardieu's "loafing". If Loulou's character is sketched thinly that may to keep him as an enigma, the mysterious bad-boy that women always seem to prefer. At one point Huppert says of Depardieu, "I prefer a loafer who f**ks, to a rich guy who bugs me". And although we can see how limiting Depardieu's world is to Huppert, we also understand her attraction to him, highlighted by a silent image of the couple stumbling down a street in a drunken embrace. Pialat's best moments involve scenes of violence outbursts - a family get together soured by jealousy, the loud music of a disco drowning out shouting, and a brawl between Depardieu and Marchand in a courtyard with a following drink together as evidence of the French form of civilised behaviour. Huppert also has an early scene with Marchand where the camera follows his pursuit and humiliation of her, and here Huppert's anger invalidates the myth of her as a passive performer. The film also shows us footage of her laughing, which is unusual since her situations are usually so glum, and she is funny when she yells in shocked reaction to being hit, in the famous love scene where the bed collapses, and when she falls in the street by accident. Pialat also gives Marchand a laugh by having him resort to playing the saxophone in depression.

Worst French Film I've Ever Seen.......2001-05-19

This film almost turned me off French films for good. Fortunately, however, I have seen so many more French films that I adored, that I ultimately just tried to forget about this and move on. I found both of the characters detestable. They were played by Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu. I've liked Depardieu in many other film roles, especially early in his career, but I must admit that I generally do not like Huppert's acting. She has yet to play a character that I didn't find ultimately unworthy of spending 90-120 minutes to get to know in a film. In "Loulou," Huppert is married to someone else but is having an affair with the work phobic, loutish Depardieu. Some viewers found very good ...chemistry between these two actors. I found the two of them together a complete turnoff. Why did I see this film? It played all of the major film festivals and generally got excellent reviews. It beats me how that happened but there were indeed critics and viewers who liked, or even loved, this film. It happens.

Loulou.......2000-05-13

This movie goes back to the early Eighties and I still remember it, since I went to watch it three times within a few days. It was probably due to the scene where the bed crashes down. It is one of the films of the young Depardieu in couple with Isabelle Huppert and with an excellent Maurice Pialat directing it. In reality nothing really important happens, but the love scenes are nice. Depardieu plays a young guy who is rather happy without being fixed up in regular work and Isabelle Hupper leaves her husband to stay with him. She earns their living and also decides to abort, since Depardieu only wants to work after the birth of the child. This is also the sad fact about the movie that in reality does not have an end. There is also a nice scene with an open air dinner, much fun and lots to eat and to drink.

Average customer rating:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM
Age Over Youth
Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Sparkling

Fast Food Fast Women
Starring: Anna Levine , Jamie Harris , Louise Lasser , Robert Modica , and Lonette McKee
Director: Amos Kollek
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00006JMRG
Release Date: 2002-11-19

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Louise Lasser and Robert Modicka put their hearts into the story of a 60-ish couple trying to make a go of it, regardless of his friends' ridicule and her low self-esteem. Their honest acting nearly gives this failed attempt at a Woody Allen-style episode of Friends needed humanity. The problem? Lasser and Modicka are not the lead actors in this film, whose tritely punning title is about the extent of writer-director Amos Kollek's wit. Anna Thomson is the ostensible heroine in this story about the denizens of a New York City diner and their romantic travails. The 35-year-old waitress, unlucky in life and love, seems such a candidate for long-term therapy that her unconventional outlook isn't so much profoundly sympathetic as simply pathetic. Kollek also stretches credulity by allowing a sex-show performer to melt at the badgering appearances of one of her "clients," the creepiest of the whole lot. --Kevin Filipski

Description

Overworked Manhattan coffee shop waitress Bella isn't looking forward to her 35th birthday. Stuck in a relationship with a married man for far too long, Bella takes a chance on frustrated novelist/taxi driver Bruno. Determined not to scare yet another man off with her dreams of marriage and family, Bella plays it cool and tells Bruno she hates children. A tough break for the womanizer since his ex-wife has just dumped two small children on him ... In her coffee shop world, Bella witnesses she's not alone in the bittersweet battle against romance's difficulties. Shy widower Paul struggles through the tender courtship of lively widow Emily. Ornery old Seymour gets a magical shot of youth when he falls for a sexy exotic dancer. Despite love's accompanying twists and turns, everyone holds out for the best. And the persistent Bella discovers fairy tales can come true...even in New York City.

Customer Reviews:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM.......2005-06-07

As films woven around slice-of-life vignettes typically go, this is a relaxed, thoughtful, often meandering film. We follow a couple of tracks strewn with romantic hits and misses, all of which intertwine at the end. No surprise there.

The title owes its wordplay to our characters either working or lurking at a roadside cafe and chomping away their misgivings about Life-And-All-That as a means to grope, often literally, for answers.

The pace is lethargic and lends the film a fey overtone. This probably played a part in my surprise at a certain denouement twist. It's cute, depending on whom you ask.

But the characters I shall take issue with. The lead waitress is an implausible caricature, a former Wall Street banker so jaded by her career that she chose to wait tables at a nondescript corner joint. Her romantic interest is a well educated English cab driver with an immaculate London accent, a budding writer by night. The parallel romance between a 60-something couple rediscovering their atavistic bond could have been sweet but ends up teary and saccharine.

Not the biggest of quibbles, I guess, New York is a city of surprises. Plus it's an indie so warts shouldn't be shocking. Certainly a worthy rental if you don't mind the usual holes that accompany an offbeat package.

Age Over Youth.......2005-03-31

At first, Anna Thomson's botox lips, nose job, and silicone distracted me. I notice that this look is big in Hollywood, the bee stung lips of so many movie stars, their big boobs on a starved stick of a body makes the young guys pant, but the girls can't possibly match the impossible can they? Anna is an educated woman that has rejected Wall Street to work as a waitress in a diner. She's 35 and her mom's applying the pressure. Her Broadway paramour, a married man has strung her along since she was 23. Enter Jamie Harris, starving taxicab driving, failed novelist. Suddenly ex-wife dumps Jamie's kid plus one on him. Naturally through a series of unlikely big city moments, Anna and Jamie hook up, lose each other, and love.

Then there's the autumn autumn match of still spry, 70 year old Robert Modica and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, ex-Woodie Allen wife Louise Lasser. This relationship of seasoned citizens so rare in film took the show away from the yougen's. We cared whether or not sweet, only had sex with someone he loved, Modica can get it up for willing Lasser. We hoped the drugstore was stocked with Viagara.

The screenplay offered some silly city shtick to be New York City hip, but these scenes fall flat. Nevertheless, this one, the babe and I enjoyed.

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow.......2003-05-06

This movie was filled with stereotypes and characters that just didn't make me care. The editing was self-indulgent and slow and there were several scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor. It is an uncomfortable movie with little warmth and an overdose of angst. The quirks that they tried to work in for the characters to make them human were very contrived and made me conscious I was watching a movie rather than allowing me to get involved in the story and characters as people. The actors did their best - but couldn't overcome the flaws in directing, editing and story line.

Louise Lasser does it again!!!.......2002-08-12

Louise Lasser is as brilliantly funny in this movie as she was in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman over 25 years ago. Although she has a supporting role, she fills the screen with her familiar style of comedy and sweetness. I recommend this film just because of her.

Sparkling.......2001-08-01

... I have to write about this glorious film as the average rating is way below acceptable. I saw it twice in one week, living in Greece this spring. This is an unusual, refreshing film about Bella, an unusual mid-30's NY woman, who refuses to live typically and a whole set of Big Apple characters she interacts with who share her life and her free spirit. How can you not adore a woman who throws her perfumed just-out-of-the-tub lush towels out the window to tantalize and warm the hobos under her apartment, a woman who still cares for her unkind older lover whom the camera has no sympathy for, and who herself has an elegant compassion for the colourful characters she waits on in her diner workplace or who interact with them? These include the exhibitionist peep show intellectual, the older guy with the shyness of an adolescent, as well as the taxi driver/closet writer and young father who is overawed by Bella's unique outlook and femininity, and you should be itching to know about the fantastical 5-D fairy tale outcome to a chance confrontation in the heroine's NY life. I can't wait for the video...when's it coming out?

Average customer rating:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM
Age Over Youth
Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Sparkling

Fast Food Fast Women [Region 2]
Starring: Anna Levine , Jamie Harris , Louise Lasser , Robert Modica , and Lonette McKee
Director: Amos Kollek
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00005JHK7

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM.......2005-06-07

Age Over Youth.......2005-03-31

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow.......2003-05-06

Louise Lasser does it again!!!.......2002-08-12

Sparkling.......2001-08-01

Average customer rating:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM
Age Over Youth
Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Sparkling

Fast Food Fast Women
Starring: Anna Levine , Jamie Harris , Louise Lasser , Robert Modica , and Lonette McKee
Director: Amos Kollek
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00003CY2M

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM.......2005-06-07

Age Over Youth.......2005-03-31

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow.......2003-05-06

Louise Lasser does it again!!!.......2002-08-12

Sparkling.......2001-08-01

Average customer rating:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM
Age Over Youth
Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow
Louise Lasser does it again!!!
Sparkling

Fast Food Fast Women [Region 2]
Starring: Anna Levine , Jamie Harris , Louise Lasser , Robert Modica , and Lonette McKee
Director: Amos Kollek
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00005O085

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

MOSTLY CHARMING "MOMENTS" FILM.......2005-06-07

Age Over Youth.......2005-03-31

Wooden, 2-Dimensional and Slow.......2003-05-06

Louise Lasser does it again!!!.......2002-08-12

Sparkling.......2001-08-01

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