Oy! Again with the no ending. Okay, Israeli filmmaking hasn't been spared this malaise. Ya'know, it really isn't fair: these people know how to make films, they understand acting, editing, movement, color, the whole thing...except the ethics of storytelling. This is about the fourth time I have run into this menace on Netflix. The world of a movie is a closed world, an imaginary world and filmmakers have a responsibility to their viewers to tell a complete story. Either that or let us know we are watching the first reel of a serial to be completed in our minds. If a guy walks out of a film, as the dad does in this film, we, as those who have invested time in the offering - valuable time - have a right to a complete story. If the artists can't come up with a plausible ending they shouldn't make the film. If they can but insist on keeping us out in the cold so as to mimic our ignorance in real life or some such teaching position, then they deserve to have the plug pulled on them. I am figuring that the reason behind this particular filmmaker's sado-masochist (willfully withholding gratification) chop cut ending is some kind of political point he is trying to make regarding the futility of religious faith. Only problem is, they also have no faith in art and no real sense of literature. In the end nothing is inexplicable. Something always happens. There are reasons and stories behind everything. Everything. Maybe this is post-modernism, as in "Deal with it viewers, you have to manifest the ending in your own minds". Feh.
Tehilim
(2007)
Another Aesthetically Deplorable Film with No Ending
30 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers