THIS IS AN ADMIRABLE ISRAELI MOVIE…AS COMPLICATED AND GIVEN TO AS MANY INTERPRETATIONS AS THE TALMUD ITSELF….READ THIS EXCELLENT REVIEW AND SEE THIS “MUST SEE” MOVIE…..RSK
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If you haven’t seen Footnote yet, you should; it’s a movie that lends itself to the type of discussion and explication that’s usually reserved for significant literary works. If you haven’t seen it and intend to, please don’t read this article – you should come to your own conclusions before reading mine. Half the fun of this movie is trying to solve a puzzle for which there are many clues and allusions; your conclusion depends upon how you interpret those and it’s fitting in a movie that has the Talmud at its core, that there will always be another point of view.
The movie begins with our introduction to Professor Eliezer Shkolnick, a philologist and professor of Talmud who has devoted 30 years to piecing together and authenticating a volume which a colleague, Professor Grossman, subsequently finds intact, thereby stealing the thunder from Eliezer’s life work. Though the antiquarian volume corroborates all of Eliezer’s theories and findings, it renders them superfluous and we see him become increasingly marginalized at the university. His son, Uriel, on the other hand is an academic star, a charismatic professor whose broader interests in the Talmud encompass the social life and mores of Jews in Babylon, making the subject interesting to many young female students. The movie begins with Uriel being inducted into the privileged realm of the Academy, yet another plume in his well-feathered yarmulke. Although he praises his father in his acceptance speech, giving him the credit for being his role model, Eliezer’s jealousy and discomfort are apparent in his body language and his grudging unwillingness to celebrate his son. He steps outside the auditorium building during a break in the program and we see the stubborn, brittle side of his character as he refuses to answer the security guard’s questions, triggered by Eliezer’s having removed the bracelet that everyone else is wearing to indicate that they have passed inspection and been cleared. He wears his bitterness as a cloak of arrogance, seeing the world as his adversary. When the rest of the family rides by car, he insists on walking alone; when he is at home, he insulates himself from connections by donning earphones that shut out the noise and removing himself to sleep in the den, instead of with his wife. Despite his difficult, laconic demeanor, he is described by various characters in the movie as being “true to himself,” as “the only man of integrity in the department,” and not one to “validate a mistake because it was convenient.” At least in his professional life, he is a man of honor.
By contrast, Uriel has a warm relationship with his wife but we also see a streak of aggression in him both with his own son and in a squash game with a colleague whom he’s clearly bent on demolishing, not just defeating in a sportsmanlike manner. Nevertheless, he’s at ease in crowds and is clearly a charmer both academically and socially. After the game, Uriel steps out of a shower to discover that his clothes, wallet and phone have been stolen from the locker room. We see the back of an older nude man who may be a hint of what to think. Eventually, Uriel dons a fencer’s uniform and mask and as he exits the building, he notices his father talking to a woman in the garden. For the first time, we hear what seems like jocular conversation from this tightly wound man. Uriel is puzzled and begins to wonder whether there’s another side to his father that he knows nothing about. As with Purim, masks and secrets play a big part in this film.
Later, we see Eliezer walking with a briefcase and a shopping bag. As he walks along, a phone rings and when he answers, it becomes clear that he has been awarded the Israel Prize, the coveted award for which he has been turned down every year. We never hear the conversation ourselves but the announcement of the award is confirmed in the press and within short order, Uriel is called in to meet with the Award Committee where he discovers that the award was intended for him and only announced to his father through clerical error. But is it also possible that Eliezer stole his son’s clothes, wallet and phone and then answered the son’s cell phone? There is another scene where we see Eliezer carrying his shoes in a shopping bag, showing that this mode of transport is characteristic of him. On a symbolic level, the father, envious of his son’s acclaim, tries to appropriate his very identity. Uriel pleads with the committee to leave things as they stand and not humiliate the father who has waited a lifetime for some acknowledgement. Professor Grossman, head of the committee, is adamantly opposed and dismisses Eliezer’s work, claiming that its only significance is a brief footnote in his mentor’s book. In this scene, there are several close-ups of Grossman’s deeply furrowed forehead; as we see it magnified and detached from the rest of his face, we are looking at what looks like a brain. Grossman represents a cerebral man who, like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz, is missing a heart. His only response to Uriel’s plea for compassion for his father’s pride, is to fall back on the rules. Eventually, he relents by binding Uriel to a stringent pact that will deny him the right to ever receive the Israel Prize in his own lifetime. He also insists that Uriel write the letter of acknowledgement to his father which Grossman will then sign. Uriel acquiesces and tells no one what has happened. As he writes the letter, he polishes it, falling back on words that are prevalent throughout his other articles.
Eliezer has now suddenly become a person of interest and a pretty young journalist comes to his home to interview him. When she asks for some photographs for the article, Eliezer’s wife finds an old one of Eliezer holding his young son, showing us a side of him that once existed but has been walled in by the carapace he has worn as a fortress against his disappointments. In the interview, Eliezer disparages the type of scholarship that his son practices, comparing it to finding empty vessels and filling them with cookie recipes. This appears in the press and is a source of profound hurt to Uriel who acts out by becoming more like his father, demeaning one of his students and lashing out at his son, saying that’s he close to giving up on him, and instead of wishing for his success may be wishing for his failure and the opportunity to gloat. Just as Eliezer appropriated Uriel’s identity by taking his possessions and his son’s award, Uriel now assumes the persona of his angry father, dismissing his loving wife at the same time. The characters have traded their respective masks.
The family goes to see a production of Fiddler on the Roof, a play that concerns both the ominous plight of European Jewry and the attitudes of a father towards his children. During the performance, Uriel cannot restrain himself from telling his mother the truth about the Israel Prize and what he has done for his father. When they leave, we see Eliezer get into the car and even hum to himself, a radical departure from his earlier refusal to join the group. He has been seduced and softened by the glimmer of public acclaim and acceptance. At home, the mother knocks on Eliezer’s closed door and we see him make room for her in his bed, a further sign that there are dents in his armor and he is coming to a place where he may finally face the truth of his deportment as husband and father.