I like books and I like movies, so it makes sense that I would like a short movie about books in movies, and I thought maybe you would too. I herewith preset Bibliophilia – Books in the Films of Wes Anderson: A video-essay by Luís Azevedo, a five-minute video accompanied by a brief essay explaining what Azevedo was going for. There are books, narrators, images, the map and the territory, and some nice music; my only disappointment was that though the essay talks about Godard, there is no Godard in the film itself. (Yes, I was Waiting for Godard.) And now I want to see more Wes Anderson movies. (Via Arthur Wyatt‘s MetaFilter post.)
Hat, speaking of bibliophile movies, have you seen the 2011 Israeli film Footnote?
You should write a book about it. And get somebody to film you writing it.
Yes, “Footnote” (הערת שוליים), by Joseph Cedar, a Hebrew film about philology, won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, nine prizes at the 2011 Ophir Awards, and became Israel’s entry for the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The prizes are for the drama (though it was supposedly a comedy).
I have not, though I remember reading the reviews and thinking “I really need to see this movie.” I should add the DVD to my wishlist, assuming there’s a DVD.
I am surprised that Zweig is not mentioned at all.”The Grand Budapest Hotel” is all about Zweig.
Y, thank you for the movie recommendation. It looks like there is a region 1 DVD with English subtitles. I hope this isn’t too much of a derail, but do you remember in which episode of “Avoda Aravit” they speak Yiddish?
There’s no such thing as a derail around these parts; all swerves are welcome. (See this post for a fondly remembered example.)
heroe, it’s season 2, episode 8, about 20 minutes in. That episode, ‘Remembrance’, is one of the best in the show’s history.
I finally got the DVD of Footnote, and my wife and I watched it last night and loved it — I heartily thank everyone who recommended it. A brilliant movie.
I’m glad you did. It’s very evocative to people of my mother’s upbringing and to me. There are many familiar locales in the movie, including one scene in front of the building next to my grandparents’. And it’s a lovely movie.
It sure is. And the acting! It starts with Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi) getting an award, and during his acceptance speech the camera unexpectedly stays on his father Eliezer (Shlomo Bar Aba) in the audience watching, and the play of repressed emotions on his face is stunning to see. The mix of humor and pathos — and scholarship! — is so well done. Thanks again!