The Band's Visit
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Movie Reviews of The Band's Visit
Movie Review: Most reviewers have missed the point of this film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Unfortunately it seems that most of the reviewers have missed the point of this film- which is understandable, as when I initially first saw it, I missed the point too. It's very subtly expressed
and depends on an insider's understanding of Israeli society.
Expecting a tale of cultural rapprochement, of an underlying common humanity despite cultural differences, I was disappointed to find precious little bridge building taking place. I kept waiting for the moment of enlightenment, the turning point, a climax which never came, not even in the final sexual encounter. I left wondering what the point was.
Upon analysis, I realize that the film is not about Egyptians and Israelis meeting each other, and reaching accross cultural difference. The film is about Israelis looking for a part of themselves that has been lost.
The first clue is the location of the fictional town of Bet Hatikva: A dusty desert town in the Negev. The type of town that would have been initially settled by North African Jews, the parents and grandparents of the film participants. So we are not talking about people from accross cultures; we are talking about people from nearly the exact same culture! How did such a gap develop?
The second clue is language: The film was not admitted to the foreign language competition because too much of the dialogue was in English. But why are the Egyptians and Israelis speaking English to each other? This is not just a political statement- that neighboring countries don't know each other's language. This goes beyond that, if you realize that ARABIC was the first language of the parents of the Israeli film participants. (Remember how Dina recalls how the whole neighborhood used to shut down while everyone watched Arab movies on TV?)
The cultured Egyptian band members contrast markedly with the Israeli 'arsim (an Arabic word that has become Israeli slang for uncultured, and unsophisticated people, a stereotype often directed at North African Jews). How did these Jews wind up with "No Arab culture, no Israeli culture, no culture at all"??? Upon meeting the Egyptians, the Israelis sense a shadow of their lost selves, and sense a longing to fill it. Dina is not just a slut looking to bed an exotic stranger in uniform. She seeks a lost part of herself, and she seeks in sex, what she failed to accomplish in speech and in deed.
In an ironic twist, the film reverses the mythical role of the Jews in the world: In the diaspora the Jews were the wandering, the homeless, the sojourners who birthed two great religions and in many other ways imparted culture to their host societies. But in their homeland, in this little town of Bet Hatikva, it is the wandering Egyptians who arrive bearing culture, from their music to their guidance in matters of romance.
This is a film about Jews in search of themselves in the aftermath of cultural upheaval, in my opinion an unacknowledged source of many social tensions (class, ethnic, religious) in modern Israel today.
Movie Review: An Arab-Israeli "Fish Out Of Water" story that draws you in...
Summary: 5 Stars
Other reviews here detail the story and the plot, so there is no need to repeat that. The Band of Egyptians ends up in a small town (small? I think the population must be less than 100 residents) for the night when they get off at the wrong bus stop and there is only one bus per day.
Originally I though that that it would have the Arabs lost in a big Israeli city with a different culture. But this small town is not the typical Israeli big city with its own cultural prejudices. This two is much more laid back. "Laid back" and "subtle" are two phrases that constantly came to mind as I viewed this quiet 87-minute gem of a film. No one rushes. There is no loud screaming or yelling. And there are moments when there are no words.
This film is really tri-lingual. Much of the dialogue is in English. When called for, the Israelis speak in Hebrew and the Arabs speak in Arabic. And it's not always consistent. When the dialogue is not in English, there are easy to read English subtitles in yellow. It's interesting that the final credits - which must go on for more than five minutes - are in Hebrew and Arabic with no translation as to which cast members played which roles. You will learn this, however on the 10 minute "Making of" featurette that, along with a "photo gallery" forms the "Bonus Features". There is no commentary. The "Making of..." doesn't add much, except to identify the MAJOR cast members.
I agree with the others that the scene at the roller rink is the most memorable one. It really stands out.
This film won lots of awards - and deservedly so - and should attract more fans as it hits DVD shelves later this month.
Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
Movie Review: Slowwww....
Summary: 5 Stars
... and I'm an easy mark for slow movies! Most of my favorites are slow, sly, and understated - Wild Strawberries, Babette's Feast, Ikiru, for examples. "The Band's Visit" isn't quite that good, but it's one of the most intelligently slow films I've seen recently. The redoubtable Grady Harp has done a competent job of summarizing the action and introducing the characters, leaving me free to be tangential. Being tangential goes hand in glove with loving slow movies, and The Band's Visit is one huge tangent on the insanity of the Arab-Israeli hate fest. The very ordinary Israelis and the quirky but also ordinary Egyptians in this film show an ability to accept each other's humanity that would win them all Nobel Peace Prizes if they were in charge of anything.
"The Band's Visit" is also wryly funny. Not the loud guffaw kind of funny. Mostly the tightly engaged chuckle kind of funny, though a few scenes brought audible whoops from my teenage son. And it's sad. Yes, very sad. The two principal characters -- the widowed Egytian bandmaster and the divorced Israeli 'woman of a certain age' -- are too real not to be sad. Two more disparate humans couldn't be found on the planet, and yet they emerge with a sincere appreciation of each other. The acting, by the way, in this film is so natural and and crafty that one has to pinch oneself to remember that 'they' were acting. Perhaps that's why so many reviewers have stopped at four stars in their ratings; the artfulness of this movie is so understated and sly that the viewers forget they're watching a film, an artifact of cameras and cutting rooms. This film deserved all the various industry awards that it received from people who appreciate their art.
Movie Review: ON THE ROAD TO SOMEWHERE I FOUND NOWHERE!
Summary: 5 Stars
An Egyptian police band from Alexandria travels to Israel to perform at the grand opening of an Arab Cultural Center in a small town. Somehow their connections get mixed up and they end up stranded in the middle of nowhere in Israel. The picture of the eight of them in their formal powder blue uniforms against the stark desert landscape says it all. They're lost. What happens next is not a summit meeting that will solve all the Israeli-Palestinian issues but it does show how, as human beings, we all share similar stories in this journey called life. The story centers on three main people, the very stern, rigid leader of the band, a young free-spirited ladies man in the band and a middle aged woman who runs a deli and agrees to put the band up for the night since there is no hotel and the last bus for the day has left. Both the woman and the band leader open up to each other in ways they would never have expected at the beginning of that day. This is a delightful little story that reminds us that some of the best moments in life can be the unplanned ones, the interruptions that are initially very frustrating but can be life changing or, at least, very influential. Like having a flat tire in the middle of nowhere and a stranger stops to help. Though this movie does not attempt to solve any of the world's big problems, it does remind one that, as humans, we forget that we have more in common than we realize. While world leaders may use angry rhetoric and accusations, the vast majority of the world wants to learn to get along even with those we may call 'enemies'. Enjoy this entertaining hour and half.Movie Review: Laughs & Chuckles for the Mature Sense of Humor
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like slapstick humor, or if you think TV sit-coms are funny, you probably won't like this movie. The humor in this movie is much more sophisticated. One scene was particularly funny when one of the band members, who viewed himself as quite a ladies man, was coaching one of the Jewish men, who was painfully shy with women. Like all the humor in this movie, it is dead-pan humor. The band leader never cracks a smile because he takes everything so seriously; but the situations he encounters are very funny. This movie uses humor to show the universality of the human experience, and that it can overcome political differences. The movie works because it is an Egyptian band, a country at peace with Israel; I don't think it would work if it was an Hamas or Palestinian band. One other aspect I found interesting was that when the Hebrew speaking Jews talked directly to the Arabic speaking Egyptians, they used English! - [So, it is not all subtitled, although you might want to use closed captioning because of their accents.]
It is a shame that several reviewers here have such an immature understanding of humor that they can't get past the TV humor that is so stupid or put-down that they have to put in a laugh track to let people know when to laugh. This movie is for those with a mature sense of humor.