Saint Clara
Directed by Ari Folman and Ori Sivan Israel, 1995, 85 min. In Russian, French and Hebrew with English subtitles Reviewed by Daniel Saunders
There hasn't been a wakeup call this powerful since Trainspotting. Saint Clara is a stunning, supercharged Israeli film about the apocalypse and the world of young people. Let me write about my reactions from the beginning.
I went to see this at Cinecenta, my city's sole remaining alternative movie theatre, and it was a real adventure. I didn't know hardly anything about it. The theatre was darkened, and these backwards hebrew characters come up on the screen. If you were watching my face you would have seen a look somewhere between bemusement and apprehension ("What have I got myself in for?"). The title comes up, wiping from the right to the left. Then the movie begins. You would have seen my expression change to puzzlement, then amusement, then slack-jawed admiration.
It starts with a long backwards tracking shot down a highschool corridor. Two boys, one with a shaven head and the other with long dirty blond hair are running to class in slow motion, banging their bags on the lockers they pass. There's some amazing music on the soundtrack - rock and roll with what sounds like seagull cries overlaying it. In class, the teacher, a bespectacled inneffectual looking man, and the principal, who looks more like a mobster named Vito, are berating the class for a "conspiracy": every single student got 100% on the recent math test. These two frustrated staff members are determined to find an answer. Through a series of hilarious interrogations, one of the movies themes is revealed: the school as battleground, a la "If...". The real answer is that one student, a shy Russian girl named Clara, can foretell the future, and discover which questions out of the 1000 question book will be asked.
From that starting point, the movie moves off in many unexpected and wonderful directions. Much of it is about the two boys at the beginning, the skinhead and Tikken, two *extremely* troubled youths. They take pills, smash lots of things, and burn the school's mascot, a wooden statue of Israeli's woman President. Yet they turn out to be the main characters. Meanwhile things are getting complicated for Clara, with Tikken's father asking her for lottery numbers and the principal trying to recruit her to be on their side.
Anyways, as someone once said, writing about film is like dancing about architecture. This is one movie you just have to see. There are countless unforgetable images, amazing juvenile performances, and too many effortlessly stylish and surrealistic touches to even begin to mention here. There isn't a single character who isn't fascinating, not a single moment where the creator's imagination flags. And the soundtrack just has to be heard to be believed. Do what you have to to see this movie.
-- Daniel Saunders, roving movie critic of no fixed address "If god had meant us to look inward, maybe she or he would have given us completely swivelling eyeballs. I think it's pretty easy to spend far too much time thinking about yourself." Robyn Hitchcock
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