Sarah Adler Movies
Israeli co-directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen's ensemble comedy drama Meduzot (aka Jellyfish, 2007) weaves together multiple seriocomic tales of intersecting lives, set against the deep azure backdrop of Middle Eastern seascapes. Affording equal emphasis to each tale, Keret and Geffen first hone in on Batya (Sarah Adler), a young woman employed as a caterer, whose firm places strongest emphasis on weddings. As the film opens, Batya breaks up with her boyfriend, and struggles with her supremely dysfunctional, argumentative parents, who correspond with her only by leaving periodic messages on her answering machine. Her life takes a most unpredictable turn when she happens upon a tearstained little girl (Nikol Leidman) who wanders out of the ocean, wearing only a pair of panties and toting an inner tube -- origin unknown. The foundling gravitates magnetically to Batya and refuses to separate from her.
Meanwhile, at Batya's latest assignment -- the Hebrew wedding of Michael (Gera Sandler) and Keren (Noa Knoller) -- the gorgeous bride breaks a leg while attempting to escape from a locked toilet, thus inevitably delaying her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Also present at the wedding reception is a Filipino caregiver, Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), saddled with an array of grouchy, snotty elderly clients who make verbal barbs in Hebrew that she cannot understand. In her private life, Joy struggles with geographical estrangement from her young son -- who still resides in the Philippines -- and remains completely aware of the irony that she's caring for nonfamilial dependents but virtually abandoning her own flesh and blood. And in yet another substory, Malka (Zaharira Harifai), one of Joy's octogenarian clients, gripes and moans about her own actress daughter's participation in an "experimental" version of Hamlet but demonstrates her own ability to reassure and encourage Joy. The ocean -- recurrent throughout the picture -- adds an allegorical layer to the proceedings; in the hands of Keret and Geffen, it symbolizes the narrative juggle of multiple lives, and the lack of self-determinism inherent in any -- the idea that all are wholly subject to the caprices of fate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Meanwhile, at Batya's latest assignment -- the Hebrew wedding of Michael (Gera Sandler) and Keren (Noa Knoller) -- the gorgeous bride breaks a leg while attempting to escape from a locked toilet, thus inevitably delaying her honeymoon in the Caribbean. Also present at the wedding reception is a Filipino caregiver, Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), saddled with an array of grouchy, snotty elderly clients who make verbal barbs in Hebrew that she cannot understand. In her private life, Joy struggles with geographical estrangement from her young son -- who still resides in the Philippines -- and remains completely aware of the irony that she's caring for nonfamilial dependents but virtually abandoning her own flesh and blood. And in yet another substory, Malka (Zaharira Harifai), one of Joy's octogenarian clients, gripes and moans about her own actress daughter's participation in an "experimental" version of Hamlet but demonstrates her own ability to reassure and encourage Joy. The ocean -- recurrent throughout the picture -- adds an allegorical layer to the proceedings; in the hands of Keret and Geffen, it symbolizes the narrative juggle of multiple lives, and the lack of self-determinism inherent in any -- the idea that all are wholly subject to the caprices of fate. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, (more)
Writer and director Sofia Coppola puts a new spin on the life and times of one of Europe's most infamous monarchs in this lavish historical drama which fuses a contemporary sensibility with painstaking recreations of the look of the 18th century. Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is only 14 years old when she's pledged to marry Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the 15-year-old king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling or unable to consummate the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that's been thrust upon her, Marie gives herself over to the pleasures of life in Versailles, knowing and caring little of the political intrigue that surrounds her. In time, Marie's trusted older brother, Joseph (Danny Huston), is brought in to coach Louis on the finer points of marital relations, and before long the couple is finally blessed with a child. However, as Marie tends to her children in the gilded cage of her palace and enjoys an affair with a Swedish nobleman, political power plays are throwing France into chaos, and the growing ranks of the poor rebel against the royals and their life of privilege. Also starring Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, and Asia Argento, Marie Antoinette was given a controversial reception when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, (more)
- 2005
Richard Dembo's third directorial effort, La Maison De Nina, concerns a group of Jewish children living in an orphanage in Paris at the end of WWII. Soon there is an influx of children at the orphanage whose parents did not survive the concentration camps. Eventually those newcomers and the orphans who already lived there are feuding over the importance of their Jewish heritage. The children must deal with their grief in a variety of ways including religion, music, and one poor child by deciding to not talk. Dembo, an Oscar winner in 1984, passed away while the film was in post-production. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agnès Jaoui, Sarah Adler, (more)
Legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once again poses a number of provocative questions about art, politics, and the nexus point between them in this drama in three acts, "Hell," "Purgatory," and "Paradise." After a collage of film clips illustrate a meditation on the nature of war and conflict in society, Godard introduces his central set piece, in which a group of authors, artists, and noted thinkers gather for a symposium taking place in the battle-scarred city of Sarajevo. Olga Brodsky (Nade Dieu) is a young journalist who is French and Jewish by birth and Israeli by choice; she has come to discuss the conflict between her adopted nation and Palestine with some of the many notables in attendance, in particular a celebrated Palestinian author. As Olga wrestles with issues of conflict, identity, and culture along with others at the conference, one of the participants, Jean-Luc Godard, points out the frustrating similarities between the grammar of cinema and human nature, and posits the notion that it's the essential differences of the peoples of the world, rather than their similarities, which are at the root of our culture. Notre Musique was a prizewinner at the 2004 San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it was named Film of the Year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, (more)
Aviva My Love star Assi Levi takes the lead in writer/director Raphael Nadjari's drama concerning a young Israeli wife and mother attempting to navigate a clandestine romance while simultaneously contending with the fact that her father has become financially involved with a variety of orthodox religious institutions. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Assi Levy, Uri Gabriel, (more)
- 1999
Noted French actress Nathalie Richard makes her English-language debut in this downbeat drama. Anne (Richard) is a woman who, after the loss of her leg in an accident, has withdrawn into her apartment, where her only contact with the outside world is her significant other, Donny (Daniel Aukin). One day Anne's sister Iris (Sarah Adler) appears; she hasn't spoken with Anne in ten years, but after a decade of free-spirited traveling, she's decided this is where she wants to stay. Anne takes Iris in and comes to enjoy her boisterous personality, but Donny dislikes her intensely, and the two begin to spar, with a serious conflict inevitable. This first effort from writer/director David Barker was shown at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Richard, Sarah Adler, (more)
