Kadosh

Starring:YaÃ«l Abecassis, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Meital Barda, Samuel Calderon, Yoram Hattab, Sami Huri, Shireen Kadivar, Uri Klauzner, Leah Koenig, Rivka Michaeli
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Cuba Libre
The Lost City
Saga and Drama
Boring and scattered
An amazingly heartfelt and educational film

The Lost City
Starring: Steven Bauer , Richard Bradford , Benjamin Bratt , William Marquez , and Julio Oscar Mechoso
Director: Andy Garcia
Manufacturer: Magnolia
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000C3L2PC
Release Date: 2006-08-08

Product Description

Andy Garcia stars and makes his directorial debut in a passionate and historical tribute to his native Cuba. Havana in 1958 is a place of pleasure for many, but others are not happy under the rule of dictator Fulgenico Batista. As the revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara prepare to move on the city, Fico Fellove (Garcia)-owner of the city's classiest music nightclub, El Tropico-struggles to hold together his family and the love of a woman (In s Sastre). Observing all is The Writer (Bill Murray) an ex-patriot American who sees Fico being drawn into events as the revolution changes everything. Though Fico watches a culture vanish and a people transformed, it is his love of Cuban music that keeps his memories alive. Co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve Bauer.

System Requirements:
Running Time: 143 Minutes

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

For his first feature film as a director, Andy Garcia has crafted an ambitious and vivid love story set amid the Cuban revolution. El Tropico, an elegant nightclub, overflows with exuberant music and sinuous dance; the owner, Fico (Garcia, Ocean's Eleven, The Untouchables), and his family live a life of privilege in Havana, but Fico and his father hope to steer the brutal reign of Batista towards democratic reforms. Fico's two brothers are not so patient and get caught up in the guerilla forces that seek to overthrow Batista by force; one dies after a failed coup attempt, the other joins Fidel Castro's revolutionary army. Meanwhile, Fico and his widowed sister-in-law Aurora (Ines Sastre) fall in love, their romance unfolding in the still-thriving Havana nightlife, while during the day Castro's new regime turns as repressive as Batista's. Gorgeous cinematography captures the spectacle of the musical numbers in El Tropico, which are never less than stunning, and the depiction of the political chaos is effective and dynamic. Unfortunately, at the heart of the movie is stasis; Fico, though morally indignant, never takes any action, and his courtship with Aurora is beautifully filmed but lacks palpable heat. Clumsy dialogue and odd digressions with mobster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man) and a seemingly metaphorical character known only as the Writer (Bill Murray, Lost in Translation) make a long movie feel even longer. But the music is undeniable; if your feet don't itch to dance after watching The Lost City, you have no soul. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Cuba Libre.......2007-05-21

In his feature-film directorial debut, Andy Garcia uses the screen as his canvas to paint a vibrant and wistful picture of a Havana he never really knew firsthand. In 1961, Garcia's parents fled the prison that Cuba had become under Fidel Castro. Alarmed at the sight of their five-year-old boy Andrés marching in their front yard and singing the communist hymn The Internationale, they decided to leave Cuba to raise their family in Miami Beach.
The Lost City represents Garcia's quest of sixteen years to tell this epic story of a Cuban family's struggle to grapple with the turbulent events of the communist overthrow of strong-arm dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1958--events that inevitably tear the family asunder. The film's dramatic, moving script is the final screenplay penned by the late, legendary Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante. An early supporter of the Castro revolution, Infante's gradual disillusionment with the communist dictator forced him to flee in 1966.

The Lost City revolves around nightclub owner Fico Fellove (Garcia), who runs the El Tropico, the ritziest cabaret in downtown Havana, and his two brothers, Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) and Luis (Nestor Carbonell). The movie opens with an elaborate dance scene onstage at the club, where Fico's extended family celebrates his parents' anniversary. But as soon as the camera lurks backstage, the audience discovers that all is not well in the family, nor in Havana.

Fico's father, university professor Don Federico--played with great intelligenceby Tomas Milian (one of many Cuban expatriates among the cast and crew)--holds court in Fico's office, arguing for reasoned, democratic opposition to the brutal Batista regime. But overzealous son Ricardo predicts that a coming revolution will free the oppressed people of Cuba. Heated discussion escalates into a violent confrontation between patriarch and prodigal son, and Fico and Luis have to forcibly restrain their brother. The rift within the family ominously symbolizes the divisions that have broken out in the Fellove's island paradise, once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles."

In the tragic saga that chronicles the Fellove family's dissolution, Fico loses both brothers: Luis is executed by secret police when caught as the ringleader of an [...] attempt on Batista, and Ricardo commits suicide after betraying his family to win favor with the communists. The meaning of the movie's title emerges as we see what has been lost; the film becomes an elegiac love letter to the graceful and glamorous world in which Fico moves, but which is now slipping through his fingers as the communists impose control over every aspect of Cuban society.

Elaborate musical and dance sequences, featuring the impulsive Afro-Cuban rhythms that define Cuban music, set off the onscreen action. Rumba and mambo show-stoppers make The Lost City the kind of fusion of light entertainment and serious drama that American movie studios have forgotten how to make. But what most grabbed me were the ballet scenes, featuring the lithe agility of dancer Lorena Feijóo, who in real life is principal ballerina for the San Francisco Ballet.

This kind of filmmaking threw many critics for a loop. But for me, The Lost City comes off more like a Bollywood extravaganza than does the mostly anemic "serious" fare Hollywood serves up these days. The most convincing scenes are in the love story between Fico and brother Luis's aggrieved widow, Aurora, played by the exquisite Inés Sastre. Emmanuel Kadosh's camera simply loves her serene, alluring beauty: as Fico falls for her, so do all the men in the audience.

Most crucially, Infante and Garcia don't whitewash or gloss over the true history of Fidel Castro's tyrannical rise to power: he is shown for exactly the brutal dictator he was and is. One wouldn't think that actor Jsu Garcia's portrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a murderous goon--rather than as the Martyred Saint of the People--would be controversial almost forty years after his death, but it has caused The Lost City to be banned in many Latin American countries.
Although uneven in a couple of scenes, the film overall is gripping and beautifully made, full of forceful, evocative performances that would make any new director proud. In a memorable cameo, Dustin Hoffman nails gangster Meyer Lansky's quietly menacing demeanor. Fans of The Incredibles's sultry "Mirage" character will get a glimpse of actress Elizabeth Peña playing a communist bureaucrat who threatens to shut down Fico's nightclub, unless he removes the orchestra's saxophone ("an instrument of imperialist oppression"). Bill Murray provides comic relief as "the Writer," an obvious stand-in for novelist Infante. Some of his jokes fall flat, but altogether he injects a sense of uneasiness that foreshadows the beginning of the end for Fico's fortunes.

Emmanuel Kadosh's vibrant cinematography bathes the screen in rich hues reminiscent of Gordon Willis' Technicolor prints of The Godfather, Part II (also filmed in the Dominican Republic). Production designer Waldemar Kalinowski and art director Carlos Menéndez re-create a rich, elegant Havana, adding first-rate production values to this low-budgeted movie.

Oddly, The Lost City was panned by most critics in the U.S., presumably for its length and uneven execution. However, after reading many of the reviews, I suspect more than just a little opposition to be rooted in politics rather than aesthetics. Typical of the reviews was Stephen Holden's in the New YorkTimes:

The impoverished masses of Cubans who embraced Castro as a liberator appear only in grainy, black-and-white news clips, awkwardly shoehorned into the movie to fill in historical blanks, and in some buffoonish parodies of sour Communist apparatchiks barking orders once Mr. Castro takes over.
Almost fifty years after Castro seized power and turned Cuba into a death camp and a sewer, its suffering captives still risk shark-infested waters and treacherous currents to reach the freedom of America's shores. Yet to many American Baby Boomers, nostalgic over the red "Che" t-shirts of their pampered college years, the nightmare reality just ninety miles from American shores might as well be invisible.

Earlier this summer, when the aging Castro went under the knife and, for the first time, temporarily relinquished power to his brother Raul, you could witness more accurately what Cuba's muzzled masses probably felt: thousands of Cuban-Americans of all ages and incomes filled downtown Miami, celebrating Fidel's impending demise, waving Cuban and American flags, literally dancing in the streets.

In The Lost City, this same spirit moves Fico Fellove, who chooses to live and work alone in poverty and freedom, as a dishwasher in New York City, rather than as a slave in the socialist "paradise" of Havana:

I can't go back. It's too dangerous...for my soul. I have no money. But here, I feel as though I'm worth more than I ever was.

The Lost City.......2007-03-15

A very good historical account of the early days of Castro's revolution. It is narrated as a personal experience. It shows how families were separated by either murdering the oposition or having to flee the country.

Saga and Drama.......2007-03-12

Wow. What a movie. This is defintely to keep you on to the screen until the very end. Good actors such as Dustin Hoofman,Bill Murray. But my favorites such as Steven Bauer and Andres Garcia were spectacular. Makes me want to be living in that Era, just because the costumes and the backdrop was so very real. Beautifual job Mr. Garcia from un Boricua.

Boring and scattered.......2007-02-17

This movie is about a nightclub owner in Cuba shortly before Castro took power and thereafter. It is too long and tries to cover too many things. As a result, it never develops any drama or tension and the characters never develop into people you understand or care about.

An amazingly heartfelt and educational film.......2007-02-08

The word "patria" means homeland in Spanish...and sometimes, when we live in the land of freedom, we forget what it means and we forget how to love it. This is the first movie that I have seen that depicts the harshness of Castro's revolution in a way for people to understand. It provides concrete examples of why it's so horrible...everything from taking your property to having to leave your family. It also briefly shows the jails where so many political prisoners were held in the years to follow. It wasn't only those that worked for Batista...in the following years, thousands of men and women were imprisoned for their political views without due process.

If that time in the history of Cuba had to be summed up in 2 hours, Andy Garcia hit the nail on the head as best as it could be done.

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Lost City [Blu-ray]
Starring: Steven Bauer , Richard Bradford , Benjamin Bratt , William Marquez , and Julio Oscar Mechoso
Director: Andy Garcia
Manufacturer: Magnolia
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: Blu-ray

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ASIN: B000OPO61U
Release Date: 2007-05-01

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Lost City [HD DVD]
Starring: Steven Bauer , Richard Bradford , Benjamin Bratt , William Marquez , and Julio Oscar Mechoso
Director: Andy Garcia
Manufacturer: Magnolia
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

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ASIN: B000PKG8U6
Release Date: 2007-05-01

Average customer rating:

Ghosts
Disgusted
heart breaker
What Is Truly Sacred? Let the Viewer Decide ...
I'd rather watch paint dry!

Kadosh
Starring: Yaël Abecassis , Yussuf Abu-Warda , Meital Barda , Samuel Calderon , and Yoram Hattab
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Ushpizin
Time of Favor
A Life Apart - Hasidism in America
Kippur
Left Luggage

ASIN: B0000541TP
Release Date: 2000-11-28

Customer Reviews:

Ghosts.......2007-04-20

Rivka (Yaël Abecassis), Meir (Yoram Hattab) and Malka (Meital Barda) walk through the frames of Amos Gitai's "Kadosh" as if they were ghosts: human beings without a physical presence, without a solid place on which to land their phosphorescent bodies, souls and hearts. Their haunting unhappiness with their lot in life makes them transparent. You can see their hearts slowly break as they go about the business of life.
Set in the ultra-Orthodox quarter of Jerusalem called Mea Shearim, "Kadosh" (meaning "sacred") studies two sisters, Rivka and Malka, enduring the ironhanded restrictions of their tiny, airtight society. Director Gitai fastidiously features the endless rituals of the sisters lives: everything from how tea is taken to how love is made. Then one day someone sends a note to Rivka, happily and lovingly married to Meir for ten years...but childless, stating "A woman without a child is no better than dead." And thus begins the forced and tragic separation of Rivka and Meir.
Malka is younger than Rivka and questions everything about the Orthodox way. She is also in love with a Mea Shearim deserter, Yaakov (Sami Hori) but is forced into a loveless, arranged marriage with a blustering bully: the scene of their first night of marriage is brutal and frankly disgusting with Malka's beautiful spirit and life force seemingly extinguished in the process.
"Kadosh" is very still, very quiet, claustrophobic. The only sounds evident are the sounds of hearts and souls in anguish as they are being crushed and strangled from the inside.

Disgusted.......2007-01-23

First off, it was a bad movie-- scenes were too long, little character introduction, development, etc.

However, I am writing to express my disgust and devastation at a very different issue: Jewish Orthodoxy. Let's just start by saying that there were many, many unimportant details of Jewish Law that the Producer/Director royally messed up. If they weren't even familiar with laws such as the opening scene of waking-up rituals, then how much more so would they be prone to fallacy in their depiction of the real underlying issues that they were trying to explore?!

All I can say is that there were way too many mistakes-- small and large-- to make any point whatsoever. If you want to see a good film about Orthodoxy-- and issues of childlessness, see Ushpizin.

heart breaker.......2006-09-07

I just saw this movie tonight. All I can tell you is it was a heart breaker. Rivka and Meir had a loving marriage until the Rabbi ruined it. Malka was doomed from the start. Her husband was a disgusting, frightening, sick man. The wedding night scene was a nightmare for Malka. This man was an animal. Absolutely an uncaring lover. He never heard of the word foreplay? Guess not. He was extremely rough on their first time lovemaking. (she was a virgin) It turned my stomach. The ending will definitely call for tissues. This movie was not rated... but deserves an R. Not for teens, or children.

What Is Truly Sacred? Let the Viewer Decide ..........2006-07-12

Amos Gitai sheds light on how stifling and confining it may be for some women living within a Hasidic religious community. It looks nearly impossible for them to live fulfilling and joyous lives. The film has a universal message which can apply to any religion or community which influences and advises its members in personal life matters that are, in this viewer's opinion, best left to be determined for one's self. In this film, two sisters lose their self-determination and are sadly compelled to follow the norms of the community ... just because they are women ... whose roles are proscribed. They are to obey the man and be dependent rather than self-determining individuals. The community is run by men who define behavioral norms based on passages from the Torah. The rabbi interprets how these passages are to be understood in modern life. The community influences the lives of its members to a degree most viewers would find highly objectionable and down right intrusive. Whether or not this is a truthful depiction of the Hasidic way of life is unclear to this viewer but the point which is crystal clear by the director is that some areas of life are *indeed* *sacred* and are no one's business but one's own. This is a totally compelling and fascinating film in how it unravels, unbalances and destroys the lives of an apparently happily married couple who are childless after 10 years of marriage. Both Meir, the husband, and Rivka, the wife, are heart-broken after the rabbi at the Yeshiva compels Meir to consider divorcing Rivka in favor of an arranged marriage ... to produce offspring ... evidently his "sacred" duty to G-d. It is not at all clear why *only* Rivka is blamed for this flaw ...

The klezmer music at the beginning and throughout much of the film proclaims the joys of life and its meandering mournful paths as well ... the sadder tunes reveal the future anguish of Meir and Rivka as they sort out their problems within the expectations of their religion. Sadly, Malka who is Rivka's sister is not looking forward to an arranged marriage to Yosef because Malka has a boyfriend Yakov who had left the Yeshiva and religious community to pursue a secular life. He sang a haunting tune in a nightclub about how love can not be fulfilled in this world but instead he will meet his lover in the next one ... Malka obeys her parents and marries Yosef but her marriage life is a sham despite going to ritual baths to become spiritually more clean and praying as required. She follows her heart and breaks her sacred marriage bond by secretly meeting with Yakov for a tryst. The film shows Yosef to be an unthinking and insensitive man which is not entirely his fault but he is also brutish which again, he may not be able to change. He entered into a marriage for the wrong reasons - just as Malka became an obedient daughter rather than showing courage and breaking with tradition to do what is in her own best interests to follow her heart and mind ... even if it meant being banished from the Hasidic community. This film does indeed film less than joyful moments in the lives of its characters, the clothes and colors worn by the women, the older brick buildings and narrow passageways in the streets ... all are symbolic of a lifestyle which makes the insides of its members crumble and breakdown ... Who should decide in the final analysis of what is important in life? Erika Borsos (pepper flower)

I'd rather watch paint dry!.......2006-06-28

I have no idea whether this movie reflects the life of orthodox jews in Mea Shearim or not. The key to my discontent is the badly told story. There are endless scenes of the camera focusing on a face, watching somebody during prayer or just drifting into space, and none of this adds to the story. I don't mind watching a long take of a face, if this face tells a story, expresses feelings, but here these takes seem to be to add time, so the movie can be declared a real movie and not just a short film. Large parts of this movie are even less interesting than watching paint dry. The characters stay completely flat and so does the story, which in itself is interesting, but not in the least explored in its depth. I endured to the ridiculous end, hoping this move would get better. It never did. If you want to be entertained buy another movie, and if you want to learn something about orthodox jews this is not helpful either. If you are into artsy, pretentious movies, or love to watch paint dry, this is a winner.

Amos Gitai 4-DVD Collection 1 (Zihron Devarim / Yom Yom / Kadosh / Milim) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Italy ]

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Amos Gitai 4-DVD Collection 1 (Zihron Devarim / Yom Yom / Kadosh / Milim) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Italy ]
Director: Amos Gitai
Manufacturer: Raro Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

"Italy released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Hebrew (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), Italian (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: Zihron Devarim (Things): This Israeli drama is based on Yaakov Shabtai's novel Past Continuous and tells the story of three men living in Tel Aviv. Caesar loves his wife and son; he is devastated that they have separated. Now he leads a miserable life in a run-down apartment shared with the sluggardly Israel, a dead-beat musician... Yom Yom (Day After Day): Amos Gitai directed this Israeli-French family comedy-drama, the second film in a trilogy about contemporary Israeli cities. A Jewish woman, Hanna (Hanna Maron), runs a bakery with her Arab husband Yussef, while their son Moshe has problems with his wife Didi... Kadosh (Sacred): A dark drama of women living in a society where they are second-class citizens, Kadosh/Sacred begins with Meir, an Orthodox Jew living in the Mea Shearim district of Jerusalem, greeting the day with his morning prayers, which includes the phrase, 'Thank you, oh Lord, for not having made me a woman.' Meir and Rivkahave been married for ten years and have a solid relationship based on affection and mutual respect. However, they have been unable to have children, and as Meir is reminded, the Talmud says a woman without children may as well be dead. Milim (Words): Haunting and deeply personal, this stylized film reflects director Amos Gitai's feelings and response to the 1995 assassination of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin. The film is narrated by several notable personalities reading passages from the writings of Josephus Flavius, a Jewish commander who lead the Israeli Jews in a desperate bid to keep the Romans out of their holy land in 73 A.D... SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Multi-DVD Set, Photo Gallery, Trailer(s), "

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Kadosh "Sagrado"
Director: AMOS GITAI
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Product Description

OFFICIAL SELECTION CANNES TORONTO TELLURIDE. REGIONS 1 & 4, IN HEBREW WITH SPANISH SUBTITLES. NO ENGLISH. MEIR Y RIVKA HAN ESTADO CASADOS POR DIEZ ANOS, SE AMAN APASIONADAMENTE EL UNO AL OTRO, PERO NO HAN TENIDO HIJOS, LO QUE REPRESENTA UN GRAVE PROBLEMA PARA SU COMUNIDAD, UNA DE LAS ORTODOXAS EN JERUSALEN. LA HERMANA DE RIVKA, MALKA Y SU ENAMORADO, DECIDEN IRSE DE LA COMUNIDAD CUANDO EL RABINO ANUNCIA QUE MANTENDRA SU LLINAJE ASI QUE MEIR Y MALKA SE VERAN OBLIGADOS A CASARSE CON QUIEN NO AMAN..... UNA HISTORIA SOBRE UNA DE LAS SOCIEDADES MAS CERRADAS Y LA INCANSABLE LUCHA DE LA MUJER POR SU LIBERTAD.