EPOS at 10 celebrates movies about art

Alan Yentob’s Mel Brooks: Unwrapped is a portrait of the beloved comic filmmaker (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) at 92.

MARCH 17, 2019 22:43

‘TEA WITH the Dames.’ (photo credit: MARK JOHNSON) — ‘TEA WITH the Dames.’

(photo credit: MARK JOHNSON)

EPOS, the International Art Film Festival, which will run from March 27 to 30 at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. This year, EPOS will join the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival to create a unique experience of music and film events, screenings, master classes, concerts, children’s events and more, all devoted to exploring the arts.

The festival will feature 50 films from Israel and around the world. It will open with the Israeli premiere of the latest film by Roger Michel (Notting Hill, My Cousin Rachel), Tea with the Dames, interviews with four dames who happen to be among Britain’s greatest actresses: Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith.

A number of movies are about filmmakers. These include Searching for Ingmar Bergman, an in-depth documentary by Margarethe von Trotta about the master Swedish director, which features rare archival footage of interviews with Bergman, along with interviews with some of his closest collaborators, including Liv Ullmann, and also members of his family.

Alan Yentob’s Mel Brooks: Unwrapped is a portrait of the beloved comic filmmaker (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein) at 92.

Music lovers will enjoy Jacques Brel, fou de vivre, a recently made look at the life of the famed singer/songwriter. François Girard’s Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is a collection of vignettes about, and inspired by, the work of the acclaimed pianist.

Walter Arlen’s First Century, by Stephanus Domanig, examines the life of this musician, who is now nearly 100 years old. Eric(h) Zeisl – An Unfinished Life, directed by Herbert Krill, tells the story of another composer, who was born in Vienna but lived most of his life in exile.

Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable, by Sasha Waters Freyer, is a look at the life and work of the famed photographer, whose arresting images moved street photography away from journalism and into the realm of fine art.

Ondi Timoner’s Mapplethorpe is a biopic about the controversial photographer, starring Matt Smith (The Crown, Doctor Who) in the lead role, with Tony Award-winning John Benjamin Hickey (The Good Wife) as Sam Wagstaff, his longtime patron and friend. Hickey, who is in Israel to star in Eytan Fox’s new film, Sublet, will make opening remarks at the screening.

Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate is an examination of the last days of Vincent van Gogh, starring Willem Dafoe, as he became increasingly isolated while living in the south of France.

Sarah Aspinall’s documentary, Philip Roth Unleashed, will be screened. Made in 2014, it is a look at the life and work of a writer whose books garnered publicity, but who usually preferred to let his writing speak for itself. Yentob will moderate a discussion at the event.

A section of the festival will be devoted to movies on architecture. Among these will be Bauhaus Spirit, by Niels Bolbrinker and Thomas Tielsch, a celebration of the history and legacy of this great school of architecture, in a celebration of the centennial of Bauhaus.

Tracking Edith, by Peter Stephan Jungk, looks at the life of photographer and spy Edith Tudor-Hart (born Suschitzky). In a plot that could have come out of a John le Carré novel, she was born in Vienna and moved to London, where she worked as a Soviet agent and recruited double agent Kim Philby.

The festival will include an Israeli Competition. Among the films in this section is Shlomo Vazana’s Nino’s Lesson, a tribute to Andalusian music master Nino Bitton, who has passed on his legacy to younger generations. The Hidden Spring is a tribute to poet Miriam Halfi, by her daughter, Rachel Halfi. There will also be programs of Israeli short films.

There will be a number of special events, on topics such as the representation of gender in Disney films and how poets are portrayed on film.

For more information and to order tickets: https://www.filmart.co.il