The Jerusalem tramway (more commonly called the "light rail") is the setting for a series of vignettes, songs, and even literary readings. One passenger reads at length from Flaubert to his son, another from Trotsky to his friends. The end credits name several other authors as "inspiration"-- Sayed Kashua, Hanoch Levin... I didn't catch them all, but I suppose they're the sources of some of the scenes and monologues. Maybe none of the material is completely original? I don't know. Regarding the tramway itself, you will learn very little from the movie, which doesn't even begin with the expected establishing shot. Toward the end, any logical relation between the tramway and the content is discarded as a woman simply recites a poem in German to the camera. The people are all photographed very nicely; Jerusalem itself is sometimes clear and picturesque and sometimes goes by in a blur. The international audience may or may not understand that the tramway passes both through Jewish neighborhoods and through Arab neighborhoods, but the movie makes a point of presenting Arab grievances dramatically while the Jewish side of the conflict is presented only satirically. The presentation of the Jewish religious sector is perhaps the weakest element in the movie; the moviemakers go for the low-hanging fruit, presenting a religious song that is extremely well known anyway and a Talmudic passage that is also extremely well known anyway. The movie invites comparison with Gitai's 2013 film Ana Arabia, in which a reporter circulates through a Jaffa neighborhood interviewing people one after another-- except that in this case there is no connecting character. It would be tempting to say aha, the connecting character is the tramway. But other than a possible gnomic significance in the announcement of the stations along the way, there's no reason that this anthology of mini-performances-- some more engrossing, some less engrossing, but certainly none overlong-- takes place in a tram rather than in a café or in a bowling alley.
5 Reviews
... ZZZ ... ZZZZ ... ZZZZ ...
FrenchEddieFelson24 April 2019
A tramway is certainly a great way to connect people, and even to make new acquaintances within Jerusalem, Paris, ... wherever. Nevertheless, beyond these disconcerting banalities, ... well, well, well, ... this film is desperately boring. Indeed, it can objectively be reduced to a succession of skits as naive as insignificant. If you need a sleeping pill, this movie might be the solution.
Next stop please
MichaelSchiffnyc7 April 2023
Twenty years ago, Amos Gitai was one of the flagships of an Israeli cinema that had not yet crossed borders.
His first films opened the door to worldwide fame.
But in the last ten years, while Israeli cinema has become known through other directors, Amos Gitai's artistic vein has dried up.
Always working with the same scriptwriter and always in the same catch-all drawer. What a bore this "Tramway in Jerusalem" is, with a succession of sketches according to the schedule.
Most of the time, the conversations lead to nothingness, without any depth. The city of Jerusalem is never highlighted because we suffocate in this transport where situations go from one to the other. In short, it's messy, confused. Unfortunately, we find here the usual background of Gitai, namely, the bashing of Israel and the denunciation of the living conditions of the poor Palestinians occupied by the Israelis, making fun of the nationalists so proud of their army. One really wonders how the great Yaël Abecassis could have fallen into the absurd discourse of Amos Gitaï. As for Mathieu Amalric, a very good actor, there are about thirty years but he does not renew himself, he is as empty as his exorbitantly blissful eyes. The other actors are interchangeable, no interest. A French actress, Anne Parillaud, said of Amos Gitai that he was a dictator on the set. I would add spoiled child! These are certainly a few leads to follow in order to understand the emptiness of Amos Gitai's films in recent years.
His first films opened the door to worldwide fame.
But in the last ten years, while Israeli cinema has become known through other directors, Amos Gitai's artistic vein has dried up.
Always working with the same scriptwriter and always in the same catch-all drawer. What a bore this "Tramway in Jerusalem" is, with a succession of sketches according to the schedule.
Most of the time, the conversations lead to nothingness, without any depth. The city of Jerusalem is never highlighted because we suffocate in this transport where situations go from one to the other. In short, it's messy, confused. Unfortunately, we find here the usual background of Gitai, namely, the bashing of Israel and the denunciation of the living conditions of the poor Palestinians occupied by the Israelis, making fun of the nationalists so proud of their army. One really wonders how the great Yaël Abecassis could have fallen into the absurd discourse of Amos Gitaï. As for Mathieu Amalric, a very good actor, there are about thirty years but he does not renew himself, he is as empty as his exorbitantly blissful eyes. The other actors are interchangeable, no interest. A French actress, Anne Parillaud, said of Amos Gitai that he was a dictator on the set. I would add spoiled child! These are certainly a few leads to follow in order to understand the emptiness of Amos Gitai's films in recent years.
Slice of life details personal and political conflicts in The Holy City
maurice_yacowar14 July 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Amos Gitai presents the title's two phrases in reverse: To Jerusalem A Tramway. It first establishes the place, then the means of entrance. This slice-of-life miscellany takes us East-West through the Jewish and Arab districts of the Holy City. In both the political and personal stories, people are on the same tram but going "in different directions," as the brittle couple Moshe and Didi remark.
Despite an apparent incoherence, the film has a firm structure. It's framed by scenes of two beautiful women profiled on the left side of the screen singing. The opening song (declared at 5 a.m.) is the joyous Hebrew hymn Hasheeveinu: "Turn us back, O Lord to You, and we will turn. Renew our days as before" (Lamentations 5:21). At the end a beautiful Palestinian woman sings an Arabic song (pssst: I'd welcome a translation), accompanying herself atonally with hand-clackers.
In the pivotal Episode 6 (at 19:12) a Palestinian man declares the Oslo Accord delusional in its treatment of Judea and Samaria. He sullenly predicts there will never be a Palestinian state. The pretty woman with him rejects his despair. She won't be considered "a demographic problem. A thorn in the ass," but retreats to a long silent meditation. That's like the woman at the end of the first episode, but far more melancholy. The film's finale will finally give the Palestinian woman a voice.
Between the women's perspective in #1 and #6 fall scenes of male authority - and folly. In #2 (set at 12:31) the camera zooms past an orthodox Jew's wordless banjo number to a French father and his young son, lying together in pensive warmth. Other passengers sing along happily. The communal singalong resumes in #3 at 18:45, with a religious/political point: "The world is a very narrow bridge. What's really important is not to be afraid at all."
The singing is replaced by a dubious yeshiva lecture in #4 (19:34). The earnest young scholar explains that the Torah advises that shooing the mother bird away from her nest is humane. It saves her from seeing she is losing her children. That's a guy thing. Her loss is hardly eased by her not seeing it happen. For this tight exclusive knot of men, religious logic betrays human responsibility and values secrecy over responsibility. The political pertinence is obvious.
In #5 the religious tension is replaced by the purely secular enthusiasm of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club fans, screaming wildly behind the new coach and his team's loquacious PR man. The woman interviewer ("a journalist and poet") earnestly asks the English speaking coach team questions but he is continually drowned out by the PR man's bulldozing enthusiasm. And lies: "I hate humus!" "It's so typically Israeli," the coach observes, "I can't say a word." When the scene closes on his long, silent left-screen pensiveness, he shows the same rueful marginalization and impotence the women in #1, #6 and the finale show.
At 21:18 episode #7 introduces the personal, emotional form of the city's divisions. The blonde Gaby is saved from the security guard's sexual harassment ("I want to get to know you") when she spots her older woman friend Mali. She shows off her new, impossibly high-heeled shoes - bought to wear to bed. Gaby is locked into an illicit affair with a man she doesn't love, hardly knows but can't bring herself to escape. Like those other women and like the alien football coach, she ends the scene in a long, sad meditation over her troubled relationship. Romance and politics converge in her analogy: "It's as if we were both secret agents in enemy territory."
And so it goes-- separate vignettes of literature and life that reveal the seismic undercurrents in this troubled historic site.
BOOOOOOOOOOO
faizaah17 March 2019
Honestly a waste of an hour and a half of my life.
Pointless film, crap directing and too many people talking about mundane issues. Also, the film is entirely set in a single tram. The WHOLE HOUR AND A HALF.
Spare yourself the misery.
Spare yourself the misery.
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