Customer Reviews

Late Marriage [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The thrill of watching international movies is to find a superb current release at your local first-run 'art house' cinema, lock on to a great star, then work backwards through that person's previous work. "Late Marriage" is the perfect example of how that movie-watching technique can unearth a hidden gem.

In this case, you can start with the oustanding Israeli film (in theaters now), "Walk on Water." You'll never see a better film. Its star, Lior Ashkenazi, is the hottest thing in Israel at the moment. His breakout, it turns out, was 2001's "Late Marriage." Shockingly, my local rental location (with its 150 - 200 international titles) had it in stock.

There's an unexpected treat in here: 'Marriage' also features (albeit too briefly) the charms of Aya Koren (billed here as Aya Steinovitz). This is the most beautiful woman in film today. See 'Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi' if you doubt that.

The film itself is very enlightening and, ultimately, heartbreaking. It centers on the struggles of a 31-year-old man looking for independence in life and love, yet hampered by the expectations and, subsequently, outright threats of his family when it comes to the matters of marriage. The ending of the film is a jawdropper. You'd never get this type of dispiriting - but hyper-realistic - conclusion in the "come lift us up where we belong" world of Hollywood.

Speaking of which, there are some annoying things to comment on about the marketing of this movie. A prominent blurb on the DVD cover box compares "Marriage" to "Big, Fat Greek Wedding."

Not on your life. Writer/Director Dover Koshashvili must have spit out his breakfast when he read that. These two films couldn't be more dissimilar in the way their respective culture conflicts get resolved.

Next, we had back of the DVD, which features solely a picture of Ashkenazi and Ms. Koren. You can't fault a marketer for featuring her front and center, but, alas, she's not center to the film in any fashion.

Last, and most egregiously, when have the cover shot of Ashkenazi flashing his newly be-ringed finger into the mirror. He appears to be showing it to co-star Ronit Elkabetz (his beloved Judith). This photo is faked. It's a montage. It egregiously misrepresents the resolution of the movie. At this point, Ashkenazi's Lior is alone, lost in deep introspection (we see why in the dramatic, concluding 10 minutes that follow).

Who is responsible for this trickery? Why resort to it? Will it sell a single extra copy of the movie? I'll bet this approach greatly upset Mr. Koshashvili. No way a director would condone this misrepresentation of his baby.

Zaza is a 31 year old Ph.D. student in Philosophy. His parents want him to get married soon. To this end, they've arrange meetings for their son to get acquainted with girls of Georgian descent. A successful match to them would be a substantially younger virgin Georgian girl. However, Zaza has his sights set on someone else. He is in love with a 34 year old divorcee named Judith (she also has a daughter). To Zaza's parents, Judith is damaged goods and a relationship between their son and her is a disgrace. They then take extreme measures to make sure this relationship ends. One night, the entire extended family pays a visit to her. Zaza's uncle threatens to kill her if she doesn't get out of Zaza's life. His father revokes Zaza's credit card and threatens to stop providing financial support for him to complete his education. Judith understands that it will be impossible for her and Zaza to be together (although she repeatedly prays for his love to burn only for her). So she takes the more mature approach (which later brings Zaza's mother to tears) and calls it off with Zaza. In a very poignant scene the day after the accostal, Zaza's mother comes back to talk to Judith (and also brings a large stuffed animal for the daughter as a conciliatory gesture). They talk and Judith accepts her judgment putting Zaza's mother to shame. "She's a good girl" according to the mother. Now Zaza has no choice but to choose a wife (he picked a pretty one I might add) and marry her. During the reception, he tries to cause a scene. In a very clever stroke of scripting, the tables are turned on him and we are left to assume that life goes on and another generation of fixed-marriage remains intact.

To me this film is very powerful and raw in what it's trying to achieve. The director wants us to see, in all its gory/gratuitous details, what Israeli life is like. There are no smoke and mirrors, no time lapses. What you see is what you get, and it really makes a statement to the audience. When I was watching the film, particularly during the sex scene, I was thinking "What an honest, realistic, raw way to portray real life!" And that's what this film is all made with - honesty.

So before you go on expecting this film to be a Hollywood love story, I suggest you ask yourself whether you are ready to handle a two-hour cultural immersion into the Israeli life. If so, watch it. If not, go watch something more lighthearted like My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3.5 (bare-bones dialogue but appropriate for the tone being set)
E (Erotica) - 5 (includes a very realistic/raw sex scene)
A (Action) - 0 (n/a)
P (Plot) - 4 (31 yr. old Israeli male in love with an older divorcee, but parents force him to look for a younger, unmarried wife)

LATE MARRIAGE is a fascinating and refreshing look at love and courtship in contemporary Tel Aviv, Israel. Free of politics and the current tragedy being played out in the streets, the movie is a raucous, honest and sexually explicit portrayal of the love of a 31-year-old Georgian immigrant for a Moroccan-Isreali single mother three years his senior. Her "advanced" age and previous marriage make her unacceptable to his family. According to cultural tradition, he must marry a younger woman. After arranging several unsuccessful blind dates, his parents become suspicious, and discover the hero's relationship with his "undesireable" lover. What follows is both funny and tragic, leading to a conclusion that is, at best, bittersweet. The dialogue and the depiction of the lovers' relationship leaves nothing to the imagination, yet this is less about sex and more about love, passion and ancient traditon. Some of the actors are amateurs (the parents of the hero are portrayed by the director's real-life parents), but the main performances are well acted. I would definitely recommend this film as an alternative to the usual summer fare, but be warned: given the frankness of the subject, it's not a "first date" movie for the unworldy.

One aspect of this excellent movie that hasn't really been mentioned here is the fact that Zaza's mother and father did in fact indicate to each other that they would accept Judith if they had to, without carrying out their threats to cut off their son. Zaza may love Judith, but he turns out to be the weak, dependent boy his parents think him to be, and he won't make a stand for the woman he loves. For all their name-calling and superior attitude toward Judith, she turns out to be too good for Zaza and his family. The movie doesn't have a sad ending if you see it in terms of Zaza getting what he really deserved and was capable of handling, and Judith remaining free to find a stronger and better man. She dodged a bullet!

By far the best Israeli movie I've seen, Late Marriage explores the difficulties one 30-something intellectual has in individuating from his tradition-bound Georgian (as in former Soviet Union) family, who are recent immigrants to Israel. The movie, which is in Hebrew and Georgian, presents a much subtler and more convincing portrayal of the conflict between tradition and westernization, and of the more specific issue of arranged marriages, than the very popular "Monsoon Wedding." Unlike "Monsoon Wedding," this is primarily a dark film with a powerful evocation of the grip of a reactionary family on an attractive and ostensibly mature man.

The performances are uniformly terrific and there is a prolonged and explicit sex scene in the middle of the movie that is astonishing in its beauty and realism. The direction is unobtrusive and superb, with minimal camera movement and extremely long takes. Overall, "Late Marriage" doesn't really resemble most Israeli movies that I've seen - there's no reference whatsoever to the political situation, for example - and most closely resembles a quiet European art film from the 60s or 70s.

A must-have for collectors of serious cinema for grown-ups.

Zaza's family is not an average Israeli family. They're Georgian immigrants, and their customs are accordingly (including arranged marriage, Parents involvment, attitude toward divorced women etc.).

Late Marriage is at once shocking, funny, and incredibly cruel. Welcome to the world of middle-class Israel, where arranged marriages are de-rigor and where divorced women with children are looked down upon as outcasts. This movie shocked me but also made me laugh uncomfortably, as I watched Zaza (a simply terrific Lior Ashkenazi), and his extremely predatory family, navigate the strict and messy waters of marital life and inappropriate affairs.

Zaza, the son of Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Georgia, is good-looking, young, and sexy. He's also a 31-year-old doctorate student who just can't seem to settle down with the right woman, despite the help of his many relatives. His bachelor status has gradually gone from mild discomfiture to mini-scandal. His frustrated and obsessive parents frantically try to hook him up with a 17-year-old girl, but Zaza only has eyes for Judith (Ronit Elkabetz), an attractive, slightly older single mother, whom he helps support by underhandedly using his mother's credit card.

Zaza is appropriately diffident, hesitant, and nonplused at his parents' frustration. He totally ignores their threats that he should grow up and find a woman his own age or younger. Zaza desperately loves Judith and although he knows that his family won't approve, he continues to see Zaza late at night and have long, hot, sweaty sex with her. The movie's focus revolves around Zaza's conflict: Should he obey social convention, honor his family's wishes, or follow his romantic instincts?

Late marriage is a brutal, truthful, and totally abrasive film. Both Zaza and Judith know how messy and complicated their love is, and the ramifications of their liaisons could have disastrous results for them both. He loves her far more than he realizes and she, knowing how much she loves and relies on him, is frightened of its implications. Much has been made of the revelatory sex scene between them both, which is far more explicit than anything seen in an American film. Imbued with a naked honesty and realism (including full frontal nudity) the scene shows how cemented and comfortable their relationship actually is.

But perhaps the film's most haunting scene is when Zaza's family descends on Judith's apartment, and like vultures, belittles and threatens them both in front of her daughter. They ransack the refrigerator, tell her she's dirty, toss her groceries on the table, and even threaten her with a knife. All this is designed to humiliate and frighten Zaza and Judith into submission and make them understand that happiness is the last part of the marriage equation. To Zaza's parents, marriage is all about image and meeting family standards, not love and romance. Does Zaza have enough inner strength to follow his heart and disobey parents' wishes? Most viewers will probably be quite surprised at the outcome.

Late Marriage is a scathing assessment on what happens when the old and the new inevitably collide, and the final enigmatic scene shows how the two have perhaps formed an uneasy partnership. Zaza is asked who his perfect woman is, and his drunken response will probably surprise and shock most viewers. While his rejoinder raises more questions than answers, there's no doubt that it certainly flies in the face of traditional family values. This remarkable film will resonate with viewers long after it has ended, with most coming away with the attitude that if only people could be just allowed to marry whom they love. Mike Leonard March 05.

First of all, Bret Fetzer's review ...pretty well sums up my feelings about the movie. There's little I can add, except to ask, why don't American audiences appreciate sensitive films like "Late Marriage?" Are we so addicted to mindless fluff, senseless and gratuitous violence, and endless chase scenes that we can't appreciate stories that are true-to-life with characters involved in ordinary conflicts whose growth is revealed through literate dialogue? The answer, I believe, is obvious, based upon the popularity of TV "reality" shows. Reality??? I think not. "Late Marriage," however, IS reality. And, like real life, it doesn't offer us a tidy plot or satisfactory ending. Rather, the ending is open-ended, leaving us to wonder what will this marriage be like? Did Zaza really come to his senses, as his family believes, or will his marriage mirror those of his parents and other relatives? Is there happiness in his future, or will he go numbly through life making choices that meet with his family's approval? Frankly, I wanted a happy, "and they lived happily ever after" ending, but I'm grateful "Late Marriage" didn't go there. I would have felt short-changed, like I do after so many American films. PS. Yes, the sex scene is prolonged and erotic and very beautiful in its own way. If only American film makers would handle sex and sexuality with such grace. Wonderful film!

This Israeli comedy gave me a taste of the culture brought to Israel by Jews from Soviet Georgia. We would find it appalling but it is genuine. A handsome young man, eldest son, raised in Israel by Georgian immigrants, has completed his Army service and continued with his advanced studies. Now, at age 31, he is working towards his Ph.D. in Philosophy. By modern secular Israeli standards, this is not unusual. But to his Georgian parents, it is a disgrace and they try repeatedly to fix him up with girls from Georgian families - even one as young as 17. When the parents uncover his secret, that he is intimately involved with a pretty divorcee who has a young daughter, they go into shock. She is Israeli, Jewish, but not Georgian, and divorce is unheard of in their culture. They converge upon her en masse (the extended family, which resembles the Mafia) and threaten to kill her if she doesn't get out of their son's life. To their son, they threaten to cut him off and not pay for the completion of his education. It is shocking that such barbaric behavior continues, but taking it in the spirit it was intended, to expose a dying sub-culture, let us enjoy it for what it is. Caution: One very steamy sex scene. For Mature audiences.

I too have no idea as to why others would compare this film to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Monsoon Wedding." It doesn't even come close to this film. "Late Marriage" may appear as an ethnic comedy at first but the film gradually grows to a melancholic drama, focusing on the main problem of the new generation of Georgian individuals - the dualism between their traditions and between their desires to join the modern society. Zaza (Lior Ashkenzai), who reflects this problem well, is an educated PhD. and yet, he finds it hard to fulfill his desires to marry a girl which is not from his Georgian tribe, for he knows the complications to come, and knows that he will fail in coping with them.

This movie doesn't seem like it should be that fantastic, as the tradition-versus-modernity relationship topic is well-trodden in foreign films to say the least, but I absolutely couldn't take my eyes off of this story. Zaza's parents steals most of the scenes in this film, both comically and tragically as a couple unable to fully confront the re-opening of their own relationship scars caused by witnessing their son's own struggle. The little girl playing Madonna is an excellent actress playing a child caught in an adult vortex she can neither fully understand nor escape. Meanwhile Lior Askenazi fills out his role rather nicely as the entangled groom-to-be, whose only escape from his unsolvable dilemma is to sink as deeply as possible into his aloof, impulsive persona. You can also see that he refuse to give up his long-term passionate affair with Judith (Ronit Elkabetz). In the middle of this there is a long scene of graphic sexual involvement between them, giving the impression of really making love and being in love complete with multiple orgasms and concern about contraception.

Some viewers simply didn't identify with Zaza or found him too "simple" in this story. What could be more complex than someone who lets what he loves be taken away from him? He unlocks the door to his lover's building so that his parents can come up and destroy his relationship. This is all too real, all too human.

I find the ending ingenious. Instead of a normal, fantastic movie ending, we are hit with realism. Other than that it's an enjoyable film to watch.