Etgar Keret
Yair Raveh's Cinemascope:
"... a brand new stop-motion animated feature called “$9.99” that will have its world premiere in Toronto. It’s the feature film debut for Israeli born director/animator Tatiana Rosenthal, who turned Etgar Keret’s macabre short stories into an animated movie. The film is an Israeli-Australian co-production (a first!), that was co-financed by the Israeli Film fund. Australians Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia are the voice actors ..."
"Wristcutters" was released as DVD in the UK.
IndieLondon reviews the movie
Based on the short story Kneller’s Happy Campers by Etgar Keret and co-written by Dukic, the film effortlessly rises above its potentially depressing premise to provide film fans with a genuinely inventive ride. Characters are richly drawn and more than a little quirky (no one is able to smile) but it’s easy to warm to their heartache and turmoil.
Visually, Jellyfish, which won the 2007 Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is subtly surreal, full of grace and a gentle loopiness. A photograph of a seaside ice cream vendor suddenly takes on a life of its own; an airplane arcing across the sky reappears, like a toy's shadow, on the wall of a hospital room.Around Philly
The film’s simple, poetic script ... as well as gorgeous imagery ... surreal production of Hamlet that amuses ... offbeat wedding photography, and other lovely touches that shows off the filmmakers’ creativity. Beautifully conceived, written and performed, this is one of the year’s best films
San Francisco Bay Times interviews Keret
I really think that when you write or make films, you try to show how you experience reality. I don’t experience it as realism, which is objective, and something people agree on. The moment you accept subjectiveness, it transcends realism - falling in love is like flying in the air. These experiences happen, and you check them against reality, and they are actually much more relevant than reality. It is a way to describe the world I live in.
Some "Jellyfish" reviews from LA and SF
LA Weekly
An Israeli movie with neither politics nor religion — and only one casual, if fraught, mention of the Holocaust — bespeaks an underlying desire for normality that’s as poignant and fantastic as Keret and Geffen’s modest, shabby Tel Aviv settings.LA Times
Like Keret's short stories, the film has a sense of the genial absurdity of life, a whimsical appreciation of the inescapable randomness of our anything-can-happen existence, of how fragile yet resilient are the bonds that draw people together.SF Gate
The kind of magical realism we see in the Israeli indie effort "Jellyfish" is a tricky business; if poorly handled, it's contrived and saccharine. This comedy-drama has whimsical moments, but through adroit direction it avoids these pitfalls. By the end it's clear that serious issues are in play.
Monsters and Critics Movie Review: Jellyfish (Meduzot)
A fresh look at the power of cinema to plump the depths of the sub conscious. This is not an easy film to watch. The audience has to work, but the result is worth it.
Entertaiment Weekly: Jellyfish (2008)
Marvelously inventive, often-ironic Israeli storyteller Etgar Keret and his life- and workmate, Shira Geffen, spin in Jellyfish a dreamy, arty, alluringly cockeyed tale involving three unrelated women in Tel Aviv, a mysterious little girl, and the power of the sea — an element central to Tel Aviv life and psyche. The seemingly random movement of the title's slippery, stinging creatures applies to the direction of the characters' lives, as well as to the delicate, carefully crafted shape of the movie, which won the Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. B+
NY Times (Critics' Pick):
This is a movie about the gulf between parents and children, between lovers, between friends and even between adults and the children they wish they could still be.
But it is also about the irreducible oddness of being alive, and the tiny pleasures and kindnesses that can compensate for the usual tedium and indifference of the world.
New York Magazine(Critics' pick)
This award-winning drama traces the paths of intersecting lives in Tel Aviv: a groom and his bride, an aimless young woman and a mysterious child, a Filipino caregiver and her cranky charge. The film is shot through with keen observations and dry wit, and has a refreshing, easygoing sense of flow. — Logan Hill
Bleakly wistful, regarding its essentially lonely characters with a gaze both tender and lethal, Jellyfish was co-directed by the bestselling Israeli writer Etgar Keret and his wife, dramatist-director Shira Geffen (who is credited with the screenplay)
A double award winner at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, "Jellyfish" starts next Friday at Upstate Films, 6415 Montgomery St., Rhinebeck. However, Upstate will host a special advanced screening at 8 p.m. Wednesday with co-director Etgar Keret in attendance. The film weaves the different stories of three women in Tel Aviv. Tickets are $10. Call 876-2515
4th of April "Jellyfish" starts screening commercially in the USA. Find a theater near you
The life aquatic — in Israel By KAORI SHOJI, Japan Times
War and its implications are the first things one tends to associate with Israeli cinema, perhaps because those kind of films are the ones that make it to the film festivals and get international releases (most notable are the works of director Amos Gitai). "Jellyfish" is a welcome respite from this
March 26-April 6 Co-hosted at MOMA and Walter Reade, “New Directors New Films” offers a selection of work from around the world, including “Jellyfish,” the Caméra d’Or winner at Cannes last year, by the Israeli writers Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, and Serge Bozon’s First World War drama “La France.” (212-721-6500.)
AWARDS AT 9th IFF BRATISLAVA 2007:
Special Mention of the Jury - Jellyfish / Meduzot
(d. Etgar Keret, Shira Geffen, Israel, France, 2007)
There is great humanity in these short stories which are woven into a poetic image with questions and no answers.
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Jellyfish / Meduzot
(d. Etgar Keret, Shira Geffen, Israel, France, 2007)
For the poetic and symbolic reconciliation with others and themselves of individuals facing existential torments.
'Mezudot' tops San Luis Cine fest:
BUENOS AIRES - The winners of the inaugural Festival Internacional San Luis Cine were announced Saturday in the provincial Argentine capital in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.
Israeli film "Meduzot" (Jellyfish) won top prize in the features category, taking home the Golden Puntano and US$50,000.
Not exactly news, but we've just found a Variety review from the Sundance days
Variety (Jan. 25, 2006):
Dukic elicits beautifully underplayed performances from his three leads, though Whigham's alternately infuriating and endearing Eugene does get some large laughs. Sossamon makes Mikal feisty and alluring in a resigned goth-girl kind of way, while 23-year-old Fugit, who's matured a lot since his road-movie debut "Almost Famous," effortlessly engages as the film's emotional glue.
November 22nd, "Wristcutters" premiered in UK theaters
The Scotsman:
Wristcutters wears its quirkiness a little too proudly, but its performances - particularly of Fugit and Sossamon - and the relentless black humour make it a trip worth taking.Monsters and Critics:
Every once in a while you come across a film that completely floors you. It’s usually a title into which you go with not-too-low expectation, something you barely heard of, maybe just one actor whom you’re fond of and he’s the reason you go to see it. However once the actual film starts, and you realise boy oh boy, is this going to be one special ride…IndieLondon:
Based on the short story Kneller’s Happy Campers by Etgar Keret and co-written by Dukic, the film effortlessly rises above its potentially depressing premise to provide film fans with a genuinely inventive ride. Characters are richly drawn and more than a little quirky (no one is able to smile) but it’s easy to warm to their heartache and turmoil.
Village Voice - SOCIAL SUICIDE
a well-wrought indie written and directed by Goran Dukic, has to be the kewpie doll of current zombie flicks: Its walking dead are a bunch of attractive slackers whose wounds are largely internal. They’ve got attitude
Wristcutters: A Love Story - Movie - Review - New York Times:
this movie, written and directed by Goran Dukic, a graduate of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, and based on a novella by the Israeli writer Etgar Keret, has an offbeat, absurdist charm that turns a potentially creepy conceit into an odd, touching adventure. The Sundance Film Festival (where “Wristcutters” first popped up in 2006, before vanishing into indie limbo) can be a breeding ground for studiously whimsical, willfully quirky films. “Wristcutters” belongs to a rarer species: it is genuinely eccentric.The full article
Wristcutters goes Nationwide 2nd of November, with limited release NY October 19th and LA October 26th
But wait. There's more:
lovesurvives.com is a web animation series promoting the movie. It's a roadrunnerish take on issues wristcutters deals with like suicide and loving the wrong blonde.
Warsaw International FilmFest starts today - Thenews.pl:
In the ten festival days to come over 200 film makers will visit Warsaw, among them Etgar Keret, Israeli author and film maker.
In the Palladium cinema, he will meet viewers after the screening of his newest film “Jellyfish” awarded the Golden Camera in Cannes this year.
"Jellyfish" participates in the Chicago International Film Festival.
You can catch it Sunday the 14th, 5:30pm, Landmark’s Century Centre.
Chicago Reader:
The celebrated Israeli author Etgar Keret and his wife, screenwriter Shira Geffen, directed this luminous foray into magic realism, Tel Aviv styleTime Out Chicago:
This quirky Israeli dramedy shuttles among several stories with a heavy emphasis on visual symbols and metaphors. Both funny and sad (often at the same time), the film’s rich screenplay explores the relationships between parent and child, husband and wife
Crunchy Squirrel Goes to Toronto: TIFF 2007: Day 6:
Jellyfish (Shira Geffen, Etgar Keret) - 8/10
Beautifully staged series of surreal episodes, all centering around a core set of modern Israelis. Quirky, but not (too) cloying, it's also really, really difficult to describe without making it sound like any other festival entry. Sweet and funny, with an absurdist edge, it's well worth one's time.
LA Times (The Envelope): AFI announces lineup
The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival unveiled its official film selections on Thursday.
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The movies will be screened at AFI Fest 2007, which runs Nov. 1-11 at the ArcLight in Hollywood.
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Jellyfish (Israel/France) / (Directors: Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen) -- The winner of the Camera d'Or for Best First Feature, the film revolves around a series of overlapping encounters and intertwining relationships surrounding a couple's wedding preparations, the effort of an actress to find a caregiver for her aging mother and the arrival of a mysterious child.