Late Marriage
(Hatuna Meuheret) Israel
2001
Zaza: Lior Loui Ashkenazi
Judith: Ronit Elkabetz
Yasha (father): Moni Moshonov
Lily (mother): Lili Kosashvili
Ilana: Aya Steinovits Laor
Madona: Sapir Kugman
Set in Tel Aviv, the story
centres on the family of Zaza, a 31 year old student, and their efforts to find
him a suitable virgin to marry, but without knowing of his secret passionate
affair with Judith, an older divorcee who also has a child.
The story is based on Kosashvili himself - a Georgian immigrant like Zaza -
and the attitudes and values of relationships in the Georgian immigrant community.
The film was well received at Cannes in 2001, where, in 1991, he won an award
with his graduation piece, a short called With Rules.
A comedy of manners, a drama of diaspora psychology, a socially charged rites-of-passage
picture, Late Marriage is an emotionally complex exploration of passion and
commitment, delivering along the way an extended explicit and insightful sex
scene, in which the characters are bared in more ways than the obvious. The
film's almost real-time set-ups, awkward pauses and noisy outbursts all ring
true, and it reveals a society where folk rituals - eight day old foreskins
secreted under the targeted woman's bed, or sperm gathered and burnt to ensure
ongoing attraction - coincide with the more formal courtship process.
Pitching the resonant humour of gender and generational sparring against an
underlying seriousness that stems from the clash of traditional Georgian values
with modern Israeli mores, Kosashvili is nonetheless keen that the picture be
read more broadly, exploring the universal tension between individual desire
and the duties of the bloodline: the difficulty, as he puts it of 'love against
lore'. How one views the outcome of these collisions depends very much on the
culture from which you observe. Seen from a contemporary British perspective
and with a perhaps instinctual individualist reaction against outside interference
in personal affairs, Zaza's apparent wavering and the bullish attitudes of his
older relatives might seem unacceptable. But Kosashvili is clear on the values
informing such acts.
Appreciation of these diverse perspectives makes for depth of characterisation:
there's no easy targeting here, the men's responses being informed as much by
plain old sexual jealousy and memory of their own youthful liaisons as by hierarchical
conditioning, while the women display a solidarity across the divides.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian [Read
Full Review Here]
A deserved hit in Cannes last year, this story of life and love in Tel Aviv's
Georgian Jewish community looks even better the second time around. In fact
it's a little gem: funny, humane, sexy and moving. Writer-director Dover Koshashvili
elicits lovely performances from Lior Ashkenazi as Zaza, the ageing momma's
boy bullied into an arranged marriage with a suitable girl, and Ronit Elkabetz
as Judith, the beautiful single-mother divorcee whom Zaza secretly loves.
A gorgeously sensual comedy turns dark, as Zaza lacks the courage to stand up
to his family - and Judith ends up devastated and humiliated. The final scene,
in which Zaza has what amounts to a public and spectacular breakdown is brilliantly
managed. Koshashvili shows that this unhappiness and repression of true feelings
is passed down inexorably from father to son, and yet Zaza's parents and Zaza
himself are shown compassionately, without condemnation. This is a pitch-perfect
family tragicomedy.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times. [Read Full Review Here]
When children are grown they must be set free to lead their own lives. Otherwise
it's no longer a parent guiding a child, but one adult insisting on authority
over another. Wise parents step back before they cross this line. Wise children
rebel against parents who do not. Late Marriage is about parents who insist
on running the life of their 31-year-old son, and a son who lets them. The characters
deserve their misery... The contest between arranged marriages and romantic
love is being waged in novels and movies all over those parts of the world where
parents select the spouses of their children. Art is on the side of romance,
tradition on the side of the parents. Sometimes, as in Mira Nair's wonderful
"Monsoon Wedding," set in Delhi, there is a happy medium when the
arranged couple falls in love. But look at Rohinton Mistry's new novel, Family
Matters, about a man who spends a lifetime of misery after having a widow foisted
on him by a family that disapproves of the Christian woman from Goa he truly
loves.
The most important sequence in Late Marriage is a refreshingly frank sex scene
involving Zaza and Judith. We don't often see sex like this on the screen. The
scene is not about passion, performance or technique, but about (listen carefully)
familiarity and affection. They know each other's bodies. They have a long history
of lovemaking, and you can see how little movements and gestures are part of
a shared physical history. Watching this scene, we realize that most sex scenes
in the movies play like auditions.
Late Marriage is not a one-level film, and one of its most revealing moments
shows the strong-minded mother expressing respect for the equally iron-willed
Judith. These women understand one another, and the mother even realistically
discusses the chances that her Zaza will defy her and choose the divorcee. The
mother would, if forced to, actually accept that--but Zaza is too frightened
of her to intuit that there is a crack in his mother's heart of stone.
Thanks to Alan Edward for compiling these notes.