Alex Is Lovesick (1986)
This feature is one of the Israeli cinematography milestones. It displays the atmosphere of the late Israeli 50s from the view of young boy Alex, just becoming 13. His mom is the classic "Polish Mother", his school friends are young hustlers dreaming of nude girls, his schoolmaster is a nervous Russian immigrant. The street speech is full of Polish, Russian, and Farsi slang, full of the small talk that had later entered the everyday speech. The soundtrack, which is quite remarkable, is built solely on the American music of the period. Everyone in the feature finds one's love and happiness.
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I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
This movie represents the naive era that my country went through. Back in the 50's and 60's, everyone in Israel was certain that the future will be great. Not that it isn't, but you can see in "Alex is lovesick" that people just cared about love and having fun. Alex (Eitan Anshel) is an innocent 13 years old boy that gets very excited when he gets kissed by an older woman. You can also see in that movie the collection of cultures that arrived Israel after the 2nd world war: Orientals like "Faruk" (Yosef Shiloakh), and Eastern Europeans like Alex's family. I recommend everyone to see this movie if you have a translated version in your language.
This feature is one of the Israeli cinematography milestones. It displays the atmosphere of the late Israeli 50s from the view of young boy Alex, just becoming 13. His mom is the classic "Polish Mother", his school friends are young hustlers dreaming of nude girls, his schoolmaster is a nervous Russian immigrant. The street speech is full of Polish, Russian, and Farsi slang, full of the small talk that had later entered the everyday speech. The soundtrack, which is quite remarkable, is built solely on the American music of the period. Everyone in the feature finds one's love and happiness. We witness the mood in which Israeli youth grew up to meet the wars of 1967 and 1973 at the age when they become soldiers. Remarkably, there is not a single hint on politics. I like this feature for its mood. In my opinion, it is a must for those studying Israeli cinema, and a nice one for a night with the younger kids.