Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: FOOTNOTE

This is topic FOOTNOTE in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=001855

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 04-16-2012, 08:31 AM:

Sunday, April 15, 2012 at Kew Gardens Theatre, NYC 3:30 PM, #6

An Israeli film in Hebrew with English titles, Footnote concerns the relationship between two Talmudic scholars, the father a philologist and his son a teacher. When a prestigeous award is bestowed on the father through a secretary's error, an emotional and ethical tangle results, revealing rivalries, jealousies, and long standing feuds within academia.

The film is serious in its psychological probing into character and values between father and son, and their colleagues. A scene
where secret deliberations of the Committee is held in a ridiculously small room symbolizes the claustrophobic tightness
of the academic world. There is a seemingly incongrous scene that reminded me of the use of dream sequences by Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

The conflict is temporarily resolved, but the film is open-ended to the extent that it does not reveal how the relationship between the father and son will develope in the future.