A Tale of Three Cities: Amos Gitai's Urban Trilogy
2002; Wayne State University Press; Volume: 43; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1559-7989
Autores Tópico(s)German History and Society
ResumoTrilogy is an artistic form much loved by European art cinema. Among the well known cinematic trilogies in European art cinema are Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'trilogy of life'1 and Jean-Luc Godard's 'trilogy of the sublime.'2 It is not surprising that two of Europe's most radical filmmakers, who are also known for using art as an inspiration for their work, chose the trilogy as their favored genre. These directors, who are steeped in European high culture, continue the European tradition of the triptych by arranging their visual panels side by side. It is also not surprising that Amos Gitai, the most European-oriented Israeli filmmaker, who also enjoys more critical success and appreciation in Europe than in his own country Israel,3 chose the trilogy format for his three recent films, Zichron Devarim/Past Continuous (Israel, 1995), Yom Yom/Day After Day (Israel, 1998) and Kadosh (Israel, 1999), to provide a critical and reflective gaze on contemporary Israeli society. Each of the films in this trilogy takes place in a different Israeli city. Past Continuous takes place in Tel Aviv, Day After Day in Haifa and Kadosh in Jerusalem. Together these films create a postmodern trilogy of portraits of the three largest cities in Israel. Although few topics, as Klaus R. Scherpe notes, 'are as rich in associations as that of the big city' (Scherpe 1992, 71) it is important to point out that the choice of cities as the topic of a cinematic trilogy on Israel is not at all obvious.4 The city, as a socio-political entity, occupies a problematic space in the official Zionist socialist ideology of the founders of the state though not necessarily in Theodor Hertzl's own liberal Zionist Utopia of fin-de-siecle Vienna in the Middle East. Indeed, modern Israeli cities took shape in the process of materializing the Zionist dream. Despite their geographic proximity, each of these cities represents a completely different Israeli way of life. The three films together thus sketch a broad picture of the present Israeli reality. The uniqueness of Tel Aviv within the Israeli Zionist context and what distinguishes it from Israel's other cities is the fact that it is 'Ha'ir Ha'ivrit Ha'rishona' (the first modern Hebrew city). Tel Aviv (the name literally means 'hill of spring' and derives from Hertzl's book Altneuland, which envisions the Zionist Utopia) represents in the trilogy the archetype of the Zionist city, influenced by the ideology of Western modernity and yet uniquely Israeli. By contrast, Jerusalem is a signifier of the ancient international city, a crossroads of religious and mystic tensions that transcends the boundaries of Zionism and its cult of the state. Haifa, where Gitai was born and lives, is in his words 'the most modern city in the country, despite the detachment and the Mediterranean tranquility in which it exists, because it is made up of minorities, and creates a dialogue between the different peoples that manage to live here with a certain degree of coexistence' (Gitai, quoted in Kleine 1998, 19). Haifa has a cosmopolitan tradition whose roots are in the British Mandate, and the relationship between Jewish residents and the Arab population is better than in other cities, particularly Jerusalem.5 According to Gitai himself 'there seems to exist a sort of ideological conflict between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is a conflict in which Haifa does not participate and therefore Haifa offers an alternative, a third way' (Gitai quoted in Kleine 1999). It should be mentioned that contrasting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem is not a new topos in Israeli culture.1' The ideological tension between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is an old one and it has been portrayed in many literary, cinematic and artistic works. It has also become a much discussed topic in the media and in a variety of public debates, especially since the meteoric rise to power of the religious parties in Israel and the return of the religious Jew to the center of the new political, social and cultural map of Israeli life. …
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