Last laugh: Even out of the pain and paralysis, Yigal Shilon continues to make everyone smile

Despite the embarrassing trailers, "Where Has Yigal Shilon Gone" (Keshet 12) is a likable, empathetic and even a little amusing film about the journey of the man with the cigar, and also a nice tribute, even if not critical, to a television world that was and is no more.

And also: why the promo for "Ninja Israel" in the main edition is especially annoying

Nadav Menuhin

24/01/2022

Monday, 24 January 2022, 06:58 Updated: 07:12

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Farewell to a forgotten television world.

From "Where did Yigal Shilon go" (Photo: screenshot, Keshet 12)

Not every promo makes you want to watch what he's promoting, and that was the case with "What Happened to Legal Shilon" that aired last night on Keshet. The intense trailers were so blatantly disgusting, and vulgarly invited the audience to find out what the "life-changing event" was and why it was "breaking the silence after two years," when it was pretty clear to anyone making an exploitative sensation of medical interest here.

Let alone that a two-year silence is not really silence, and that as it turns out from the film - it is also not really a disappearance, since Shilon has been involved in various TV projects remotely in the last two years ("Get Out of It"). This of course is not really the problem, but rather the transformation of a disability into a rough clickbite, and the flattening of everything into shouts of "Who is this?" and what is this?" Just before exposure. It's a shame, too, because behind the disgusting commercials was actually a likable film most of the time, empathetic and entertaining, even without being really sensational (and it's good that way).

Manages the show himself.

From "Where did Yigal Shilon go" (Photo: screenshot, Keshet 12)

Shilon - the man, the laughter and the cigar - was, as I recall, one of the most prominent symbols of Israeli television, and the one who is most identified with the suspense program "Misses", which itself went off the screen more than a decade ago.

About two years ago, it turns out, he stumbled into his home and was left paralyzed.

After an intensive rehabilitation, he turns to Erez Tal, another TV icon from the nineties, and offers to make a film about it.

But Thal is on the pawn standard in this chessboard - it's Shilon who runs the show, and even interviews himself, in parallel with a variety of videos he shot throughout the period.

"Where did Yigal Shilon go" is divided into two intertwined wings.

The first part, about the fall and rehabilitation, did not deviate from the norm: a description of the event, a conversation with family members (including an amusing meeting with brother Dan Shilon), and the characterization of the new life that Shilon was forced to lead in his situation.

Even out of difficulty, the veteran talent still manages to evoke smiles - in a variety of jokes, word games and in general in the spirit of things.

It alone is inspiring and touching.

Put the cynicism aside for a moment, it is a moment of the victory of the mind over the body.

More on Walla!

Yigal Shilon revealed his medical condition: "I fell at home, I am confined to a wheelchair"

To the full article

And yet, the second part is much more interesting, in which the film focuses on a tribute to Shilon's career, and in fact to a television era that was and is no more, and many of its stars are no longer with us.

At the climax of this part, Shilon arrives at the empty Herzliya studios, meets a neglected set, plays with an old sound machine and tours between locations of cultural milestones.

Much more than one limitation or another, these are much more powerful images of passing time and world fame that also passes.

An entertaining meeting between the two brothers.

From "Where did Yigal Shilon go" (Photo: screenshot, Keshet 12)

Not every scene in this film is necessary (the bizarre encounter with Hanan Ben-Ari, for example, is a moment that would have been better left in the editing room), and there are many rehearsals, but most of the time he avoids kitsch but focuses on the difficulty itself.

However, anyone who is old enough to remember this TV age knows what is missing here: a critical look at what may then have seemed legitimate and today has long since not (like a prank in which "Dumb Blonde," as Shilon says, takes all the box office in "Who Wants to Be" Millionaire ”) or at all about the television product provided by the prime time of those times.

Tal may not be interesting enough, but it's a miss, for example.

In small

And if there are already annoying trailers: in parallel with the disturbing promotion of "Ninja Israel" in the commercial break (Mila), in News 12, the main edition aired an article about the last time Yuval Shmela advanced to the qualifiers (not even the last track! There is another semi-final!) - as if That this incident, ridiculously neglected, has a newsworthy value, even the poorest.

It would have been funny if not for all the times cultural giants have passed away and received barely concise and trivial coverage in editions - but it's actually shameful: there is no more blatant proof of the emptiness of commercial television, and its deep confusion between entertainment, news and commercials.

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Tags

• Yigal Shilon

• Erez Tel

• Ninja Israel

• Yuval who is full