Maine Jewish Festival

Here you can find an article made by Marty Melts after the screening of "Local Call" at the opening of Maine Jewish Film Festival. Check out a complete film schedule at www.mjff.org.


By Marty Meltz for Mainetoday.com. Thursday, March 16 2006


A domestic fantasy comedy-drama with profound, richly conveyed meanings, this very French and very Jewish film is one of the cleverest, waggishly conceived movies I've seen in awhile. Sparklingly entertaining, its playful premises eventually take a turn into darker themes but it maintains an amazing grip on its message throughout.

After 40-year-old astronomy professor Felix Mandel (Sergio Castellitto), in his Paris home, is scorned and scolded by his wife Lucie (Isabelle Gelinas) because he'd paid a visit to a childhood girlfriend in London, she packs up his cluttered office as a protest against his persistent nostalgia. All he has left is a cashmere overcoat.

So haunting are its memories ­ it had belonged to his late father Lucien ­ that he decides to give it to a homeless man. No sooner has Felix returned home than he gets a collect call from the Beyond ­ his late father, berating him for giving away his overcoat.

Felix is soon into regular phone conversations with his celestial dad, necessitating dialing a 24-digit number. But now Felix's banker (Tcheky Karyo) advises him of big deficits in his account caused by the enormous telephone rates to Heaven, $30,000 euros per minute (about $35,000). He refers him to a Freudian psychoanalyst, one of the film's most hilarious moments, even as he, the banker, runs off with his wife.

Meantime, Felix's rabbi suggests e-mail to Heaven instead, much cheaper, but counsels him to pray instead; it's free ­ "either pray or pay." And addressing Felix's irritation with his dad's calls, "Your father has talked to you since you were born; why should he stop now?" It will turn out that his father wants an alteration done on that cashmere coat, one of sobering, impactful meaning.

With richly filled out characters, every interaction delightful or gripping, this is a must-see for everybody. You don't have to be Jewish to love it, but those who are will feel a skipped heartbeat over the ending

Interview for Portland Press Herald

Arthur Joffé was interviewed for the opening of the Main Jewish filmfestival of Portland Main, screening of "Ne quittez pas! (Local Call) onMarch 18th, 2006:

ATTN: STEPHANIE
Portland Press Herald/ME Sunday Telegram
390 Congress St.
Portland, ME 04101
207-791-6455

Where do you live?

I live in Paris, France, near Montparnasse Avenue du Maine, in the exact area where I shot “Ne quittez pas!”. Avenue du Maine leads me finally to the Maine Jewish film festival. It's funny...

How old are you?

I'm 49

Are you working on a new project and if so, what are you working on
(if you can/want to talk about it)?

Yes, I'm working on my new screenplays. One of them is a comedy
situated in Paris and New York City. Since my youth I have had a special and strong feeling about New York. As if there are certain things that I can express more easily there than in my native country. Maybe because it is a remote place from home and maybe also because as a Jew, this type of ambient humor and spirit in NY is closer to my soul. I already shot some scenes of my previous films in New York and
I have a very good "souvenir" of these moments.

Your film, "Local Call," will be shown at the Maine Jewish Film
Festival. You will be in Portland for its premier here on the opening night of the festival. How did it come about that you are to go to the film festival here?

When Bess Welden, the executive & artistic director of the MJFF,
invited me to come and present my film to the audience in Portland,
I accepted immediately this invitation with pleasure because I think it is important that writers/ directors meet with their audience. It is always an interesting experience. With "Local call", I had a very interesting Q-and-A session in NYC at the Lincoln Center and at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan. In 2005 and the beginning of 2006 the film was shown with a very warm reception in various festivals in the US, including Boston, Washington, Miami, Atlanta and San Diego.

After the screening of your film on opening night, you'll be
participating in a discussion of the film. What do you plan to talk about? Will the audience be able to ask questions?

I trust and respect the audience because it's for them that I write
and direct the films that I believe in. The purpose of my work is to both entertain people with original stories and at the same time to try and tell them sincere things that make sense to me emotionally.
For "Local Call" I will be ready and open to answer any questions that
may arise about the film after the screening. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to make long speeches before screenings. I think the film speaks for itself. But I will certainly make a presentation.


What was the inspiration for "Local Call"?

The inspiration for “Local Call” was my own true story about my father, a Russian, Jewish man living in Paris. He was a man who suffered in World War II as a European Jew. His brother, my uncle, was deported to Auschwitz in 1941 atthe age of 21. I had a strong and passionate father-and-son relationship which led me, after he passed away, to write this screenplay. The film I made before this one, "Let There Be light", was dedicated to his memory.

Also, beyond my own family trauma, and even if I'm not a religious jew,(I make only kippour) but very much interested in my culture, I considered as a "Mitsva" to make "Local call". Meaning I felt I had to make this film against all odds because of the cultural trouble the French Jewish population had to face in France due to, among other things, the 2nd intifada in Israel.

I wrote this script in 1999, long before the 6Oth commemoration of the Holocaust in late 2004. It was a very long process to find a producer because the French cultural mood was not very much inclined to give the greenlight to a project dealing with this memory, especially when the action takes place in modern-day Paris. "Local call" is not a period-piece comedy about a jew and his father. It is a contemporary comedy /drama,and according to the cultural context in France at that time, it's was a problem in terms of finding finance for it. Hopefully this changes this year. People and the media are much more reactive now against antisemitism. A jewish man was insulted and tortured to death by a gang last month in Paris. The reaction of the media, the population and the government officials were strong, immediate and massive whatever their political belonging.
It's a good sign.

How do you think "Local Call" reflects Jewish life?

Well, the mix of comedy and tragedy is indeed a Jewish tradition.
Because of Jewish-European history, if one succeeds to laugh about
serious and tragic things, it serves as a relief. It's the best medicine a person or a community can provide for its own sake.
It's a universal way to enhance hope.
Let me tell you a funny Jewish story I recently heard:
A Jewish man is riding on the subway. He is reading an Arabic newspaper. A friend of his, who happened to be riding in the same subway car, noticed this strange phenomenon. Very upset, he approached the newspaper reader. "Moshe, have you lost your mind? Why are you reading an Arabic newspaper?" Moshe replied, "I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted; Israel being attacked; Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage; Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper. Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks; Jews control the media; Jews are all rich and powerful; Jews rule the world. The news is so much better!"

Do you have a favorite moment in the film? What is it?

It is not for me to answer this. I feel it's the audience’s choice. However my pick in the film, in terms of what finally happened with the main character Félix (an astronomer brillantly performed by my friend Sergio Castellitto) would be the scene in the telephone booth. It's a solo scene where the character meets burlesque, pure comedy, with the most deepest emotions in his heart and soul. Castellitto in this very moment reminds me of Charlie Chaplin.

What has audience response been like to the movie?

Well, I have a fresh incredible scoop about this: I just learned that
the Chinese government censorship office strictly forbid "Local Call" to be released in Chinese territory, whatever the media be-- theatrical, DVD or TV. The Chinese distributor, who bought the film in Cannes film festival last year, has to keep the reels on his shelves! Don't ask me why. There is not one single sex, nor violent scene in the film. It's a supernatural comedy, that’s all. Well, I now experience that still in the 21st century the power of certain comedies scare dictatorial institutions of this world!!! I thought it was over, in the past, but nope, not yet! There is still a long way to go. I would have loved to have attended a Q-and-A session of my film near Tienanmen Square in Beijing ! Too bad...

Apart from that terrible news, I did experience a lot of very warm reactions from various audiences, in France and abroad. Of course, a few people who were not at ease with the Jewish theme were puzzled, but most of the non-Jewish audience was deeply touched by the universal theme: being able to speak again with a relative who had passed away. To create within yourself an intimate dialogue with a dead person you loved is a major victory against silence and death. That's what the film is all about, beyond all culture or religion. I deeply believe it's a universal theme that touches all of us.

I was reading about your film "Alberto Express" and noticed that it
and"Local Call" both have quirky subjects. Do you use quirkiness to
bring attention to particular ideas or subjects?

“Local Call” is the third part of a trilogy after "Let there be light" and "Alberto express"-- Three fantasy/ comedies about faith and fatherhood. I do not try to be "special". I do not force myself to be "original". Those screenplay concepts came to me naturally. I simply love to tell stories, tales, with a lot of freedom and humor. Again, making fun of my turmoil and conflicts was, and still is, always my guide. I'm not very much attracted to make "genre" movies because I feel it can be very quickly "déjà vu" and I get bored. I have to find pleasure and surprises in writing a screenplay. If I experience fun and emotion when I write it's the surest way to fully communicate with an audience. In my opinion, it's the number one rule of story-telling. The rest is pure theory. It's as simple as that.

Let there be light!

"Let there be light!" ("Que la lumière soit!") will be available on D.V.D from the 25 January.

"Ne quittez pas!" in U.S festivals

Here is a list of festivals where "Ne quittez pas!" is shown:

-Portland ( opening night mach 2006)-
-Miami (january 2006)
-Atlanta (end of january2006)
-San diego (february2006)
-New York (december2005)
-Washington( end of december 2005)
-Boston (november 2005)-Sydney (novembre 2005)
-Melbourne (november 2006)

The movie will also appears in American university circuit.

Ne quittez pas! 2

During the Q&A for Local Call, filmmaker Arthur Joffé expressed his great fondness and respect for the works of Nobel laureate author and playwright, Isaac Bashevis Singer, whom he credits as his primary screenwriting influence, and from the complex tragicomic, impassioned, affecting, and deeply humanist tone of the film, the affinity is easy to see. As the film begins, the neurotic, well-to-do, and (perhaps all-too) comfortably settled astrophysicist Félix Mandel (Sergio Castellitto), arranges to meet with his first love Wendy (Emily Morgan) during a working trip to London and returns home with her gift for his son, an overfamiliar gesture for which his wife Lucie (Isabelle Gélinas) responds with an order to clean out his wretchedly overfilled, disorganized home office. Leaving only a box filled with his late father's belongings for storage, including a cashmere overcoat that Félix had retrieved unaltered from the tailor for him on the day of his death, Félix decides to offer the overcoat to a homeless man who then promptly sells the article to a near-mythical, joy-riding, motorcycle daredevil known in the streets as Le Prince Noir for spare change. However, Félix soon discovers that dispossessing himself of his father's effects will not allow his father, Lucien (Michel Serrault) to rest in peace, as he begins to receive mysterious - and exorbitantly expensive - collect calls from Heaven reproaching him for dispensing of his overcoat so readily. Driven into near bankruptcy (and brink of insanity) by his father's rationally unsettling, yet intrinsically emotionally reassuring conversations, Félix resolves to recover his father's overcoat and complete the alteration that the tailor (László Szabó) had earlier refused to perform. It is important to note that the French title, Ne quittez pas! ("Do not quit!" or "Do not abandon!"), is more thematically in keeping with spirit of the film. During the Q&A, Joffé also offers two additional anecdotes that greatly contribute to the appreciation of the film: the first is that the alteration that was asked to be performed - and adamantly rejected - by his personal tailor is based on a true incident in Joffé's father's life (both his father and the tailor were children of the Holocaust); the second is that Joffé had intended for a French actor to play the part of Félix, but soon found that cultural and spiritual issues - and social implications in French society - that underpin the story made the role uncomfortable, and none of the French actors whom Joffé had approached with the script accepted the part. Unable to cast locally, Joffé then turned to Sergio Castellitto, with whom he had previously collaborated on Alberto Express, in what turned out to be a stroke of pitch-perfect casting that delicately balances fragility, affection, humor, charm, sophistication, intelligence, turmoil, and spirituality into an intelligent and affirming, yet whimsical examination of cultural rootlessness, despiritualization, filial devotion, and the legacy of the diasporic experience.

Ne quittez pas!

Ne quittez pas : un film à entendre.

Impossible de quitter ce film, qui reste en soi tel un souvenir personnel. Arthur Joffé (réalisateur de Harem, de Alberto Express et Que la lumière soit!) a réussi à faire un film unique, atypique, une comédie très drôle qui ne ressemble à rien de ce que l’on a vu ou entendu, une œuvre subversive sur le sujet de la mémoire et de la filiation. C’est l’histoire d’un homme qui a perdu son père et qui voudrait garder le fil, à travers le téléphone portable. Cet objet symbole de notre époque devient un moyen de communication mystique d’un père et de son fils, d’un père qui lègue à son fils en héritage un bien étrange cadeau : un manteau, un vieux manteau de juif ashkénaze qui recèle un terrible secret. Le héros va se lancer dans une quête initiatique aussi drôle que spirituelle, qui va l’amener à remettre en cause toute sa vie, et surtout son mal de vivre, sa dépression. S’il rappelle les personnages de Woody Allen, ce héros a pourtant ses caractéristiques bien à lui. Incarné par l’excellent Sergio Castellito qui fait un numéro d’acteur époustouflant, digne d’un one-man-show, Félix Mandel est irrésistible et attachant, totalement perdu dans cette vie qui lui échappe, la religion à laquelle il ne comprend rien mais qui l’attire tout de même, et toutes les fausses réponses que la société lui présente. Incapable de faire face à la mort de son père, il va vivre une histoire drolatique qui va le mener à la rencontre avec Dieu le père qui lui rappelle son passé pour qu’il puisse enfin bâtir son avenir.
A travers cette fable, c’est toute la problématique de la France par rapport à son passé qui est traitée. Un passé longtemps occulté, qui n’a pas permis de refonder une identité positive. Un constat amer se dresse : un pays déprimé, des gens perdus, des SDF symboles de la faillite de l’individualisme, des banquiers déroutés, des professeurs tristes, qui ont perdu le fil du passé et le fil de la communication et du dialogue avec leurs pairs (ou pères ?). Le burlesque qui rappelle certaines comédies italiennes s’arrête brutalement à la découverte du secret de ce fameux manteau, et laisse place à l’effroi –sans transition.
Il y a dans ce film des scènes qui resteront : celle du rabbin qui conseille à Félix Mandel d’utiliser les phylactères en guise de téléphone avec l’au-delà, celle où il se précipite dans une cabine téléphonique en pleine nuit, et retrouve comme par atavisme le geste ancestral de balancement pour la prière, et bien sûr la scène finale du manteau enfin retrouvé, scène au tragique inspiré, où le grotesque se mue en lyrisme.
Il y a des comédiens sublimes, un Sergio Castellito inspiré, drôle et émouvant, et une Rachida Brakni terrifiante de vérité dans le rôle de la juive ashkénaze qui ne se remet pas de son passé.
Il y a des messages importants intrinsèques au film, et il y a une œuvre belle, forte et sensible qui nous est offerte comme un cadeau, un fil, une transmission réussie, pour ce film totalement à part, entre mysticisme et humour, qui invente un nouveau genre cinématographique.

Eliette Abécassis

Article publié dans libération le 10 septembre 2004