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In his own way: Yehuda Barkan was a unique phenomenon in the annals of Israeli cinema
He sold an astronomical amount of tickets, persevering in making popular cinema even when everyone was going in other directions, developing and cultivating an exclusive genre for the local industry, and both when he succeeded and when it crashed it was always in his own right - without favors from critics, screenings or festivals.
Farewell to Judah Barkan
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Yehuda Barkan
Charlie and a half
Snooker celebration
Nitza Shaul
Menachem Golan
Avner Shavit
Sunday, October 25, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
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During the 75 years of his life, Yehuda Barkan played dozens of different roles in Israeli cinema, and went through all stages of life through them.
He started as a reckless young man;
Continued as a father whose son is in the blink of an eye;
And just before he died, he managed to complete the circle and play Grandpa.
Barkan is an integral part of the history of Israeli cinema, and every stop in his career indicates a much broader phenomenon.
He made his cinematic baptism of fire in a small role in 1968 'He Walked in the Fields' starring Asi Dayan, considered a film that symbolizes the local ethos of heroism.
Two years later, a leading role arrived, in Menachem Golan's 'Lupo', which sold an astronomical amount of tickets - more than 800,000 of these, given that today no Israeli film would dream of approaching it, and most Hollywood hits will not succeed.
When it comes to the relationship between the industry and the audience, it was the golden age of local cinema, and apart from perhaps a profit wolf, no actor has symbolized it like Barkan.
No less than ten of the films in which he starred appear in the list of the 100 Israeli box office films of all time.
Two, "Lupo" and "Katz and Kerso" from 1971, are even in the top ten.
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An integral part of the history of Israeli cinema.
Yehuda Barkan with Ze'ev Revach in "Snooker Celebration" (Photo: PR)
In contrast to Profit, who "Buba" tried to create more personal and artistic cinema, Barkan continued to excel in creating popular cinema, one that may not be screened at any festival, but will try and often also succeed in communicating with the audience - a type of doing that many today miss, her.
Even when his regular partners, Menachem Golan and Boaz Davidson, traveled to America, the star remained here, at one point becoming a director himself, and went on to prove that viewers could be brought en masse to Hebrew-speaking products.
Apart from the high numbers, Barkan also had other hallmarks.
He was, as reflected on screen and in television interviews to promote his films, a real charmer with a Mediterranean scent, the kind we know mostly from Italian and French cinema.
He also had the ability to combine comedy and drama, sometimes in different films and sometimes in the same film itself.
"Snooker Celebration" and "Charlie and a Half" came out at the time and had a similar team behind them, but the first was much more comical, and the second was already playing on the capillaries of emotion.
"Stolen Daddy" had quite a few pieces of slapstick, mostly starring lawyer Kluger, but mostly a lot of sentimental records, which left a childhood memory squeezing tears for many of us.
Barkan is identified with the popular works that have been nicknamed "borax films", and can be found in other countries, but as a producer and director responsible for the development and cultivation of an almost exclusive sub-genre for Israeli industry: suspense films, which were ostensibly documentary, but today we know Because it is likely that many of the "tensions" in them were actually staged.
Among these films, which can be seen as the original incarnation of "Borat", one can find "Your Life You Eat It", "We'll Meet in a Round" and "Shameless Camera", and of course their success spawned a host of imitations for them.
Aside from the horror movies, this is one of the most extreme genres there is.
They exposed the Israeli psyche, and perhaps the human psyche in general, at the height of its ugliness.
A real charm with a Mediterranean style.
Yehuda Barkan in "Charlie and a Half" (Photo: PR)
As befits the split personality of Israeli identity, there was a lot of charm in Barkan's cinematic heritage, but also a lot of rudeness, to say the least.
In contrast to his "borax films" which are a national consensus and will continue to be broadcast throughout Independence Day, these suspense films were characterized by the humiliation of everyone who appeared in them, especially if they were women.
These are films that of course can no longer be made today, and it is good that they are, and it is doubtful whether we will see them broadcast in the future.
When the 1990s came, Israeli cinema went in a different direction from that which Arkan had initially recognized - an artistic, international, perhaps even pretentious, direction.
At the same time, the audience also went through a process: naivety was replaced by awareness, even cynicism.
Barkan, as usual, kept going his way, but what worked in the 1970s and 1980s no longer suited.
A bit like Menachem Golan, he too has turned from a production line of hits into something completely different.
"Stolen Daddy 3" and "Looking for a Husband on Four" failed so much at the box office that the creator behind them was forced to declare bankruptcy.
The reviews were also lethal, but that was nothing new.
Even at the height of its success, the work of the star and director symbolized the rift between the critique and the local work.
In his case, things even escalated into a defamation lawsuit against Meir Schnitzer, who wrote that "shoe compote" is not "fit for human consumption."
Yehuda Barkan has never received favors from anyone - not from the funds, not from the festivals or from the media.
When it took off and when it crashed, it was always in its own right.
Had time to say goodbye to the big screen before saying goodbye to us.
Yehuda Barkan with Nitza Shaul in "Love in Shlikes" (Photo: PR)
From the mid-1990s onwards, Barkan's appearances on screens were few. In keeping with the flourishing of the local TV industry, his two most memorable roles were in the series "Yellow Peppers" and "Iron Dome". In keeping with the spiritual direction of Israeli culture, he repented in the early 2000s and focused on making films for the ultra-Orthodox audience.
Only one more time did Barkan star in a film made outside this framework - this is "Love in Shikes" which came out about a year and a half ago, in which he reunited with Nitza Shaul, the object of his love in "Snooker Celebration", this time the young lovers are already retired with grandchildren. I will not lie and pretend in the face of the situation that this is a particularly good film, but it had a human love and it was charming to see how even after such a long pause, the star returns to the big screen with such magic and naturalness.
Apparently it was only requested, because Yehuda Barkan was born to the big screen, and did not part with us before he had time to say goodbye to him as well. His lively performance in "Love in Likes" created hope that he might make more films, but today it has faded. The chick who became a grandfather moved on to the next stage in the cycle of life, and the children who grew up on him and his legacy had only to take the stage in his place.
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