Just a few quick thoughts (little pressed for time right now) about a film that I saw today that will surely find a place in my list of the best films of 2002, the Israeli film
Late Marriage (d. Dover Koshashvili), a black comedy about arranged marriage in modern day Israel. Zaza is a 31 year old doctoral candidate, who, in the eyes of his parents, as well as his extended clan of Georgian immigrants, is well past the respectable age for bachelorhood, prompting an increasingly frantic search for an appropriate wife (by the beginning of the film, Zaza tells one prospective wife, a 17 year old, wannabe fashion designer that he has visited at least 100 potential brides). While Zaza goes along with his parents plans, but he has other ideas, Zaza is in love with Judith, who horror of horrors, is a 34 year old, single mother and divorcee, and thus, in the eyes of his parents, a totally unacceptable bride. What commences is both a bleakly funny and harrowing, naturalistic portrait of oppresive tradition; Koshashvili, despite what I perceived to be some problems with coverage, creates a well-paced series of intimate conversations, awkward silences, and harrowing confrontations (the film is divided into several "acts," seperate sequences such as the awkward visit to a local family with a matchmaker, the realistic and intimate lovemaking between Judith and Zaza, the invasion of Judith's apartment by Zaza's extended family, Zaza's mother visiting Judith afterwards, and a broken Zaza's wedding to another, more acceptable bride), all captured in a series of static, long takes.
What I found really interesting about the film was it's treatment of what is a rather patriarchal tradition. The women of the film, represented by Zaza's rather domineering mother, are both the key enforcers of tradition, along with expressing sympathy for the plight of Judith (when the family confronts Judith and Zaza, as they leave, Zaza's younger sister and grandmother express sympathy with Judith; later, Zaza's mother, out of guilt, visits Judith afterwards, and you can clearly see her sympathy for Judith, and her questioning of what she has done to this poor women and her son). The men of Zaza's family, like his father and uncle, are the ostensible benefactors of this tradition, but they only seem to be going with the motion, they admire Zaza's pick for Judith, and allude to similar situations which they experienced in their own pasts (when Zaza's mother returns from visiting Judith, she asks her waiting husband if the only reason he returned from his lover, is because her brothers forced him to). Nobody seems to benefit from what is being forced onto a new generation, except resentment and ultimately, unhappy marriages.
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