1 review
Kobi Farag and Morris Ben-Mayor collaborated previously on "Photo Farag," the story of the family business that Kobi spun away from. To appreciate "Photo Farag," which is a fine movie, you don't need to know a thing about the family or about the photography business. I'm not sure how well you can appreciate "LeHaeer et Yossi" from the same uninitiated perspective. At the Herzliya Cinematheque, Farag was asked about the point and replied calmly that this documentary will find its audience. Yossi Banai was a great entertainer, but this certainly isn't a "Greatest Hits" movie. Farag explains that they wanted to concentrate on Banai as a person. Although Farag says that time is another theme for the audience to pay attention to, the movie takes audio from Banai's interviews and performances, and video from various points in his career, and often puts them together to make a statement as if the passage of time were immaterial. The audio brings various philosophical statements from Banai and it traces his career (although purposely not in strict chronological fashion) from wannabee to superstar, but as a "memoir" (which is what Ben-Mayor calls it) does it hold enough intrinsic interest if it doesn't bring back your own memories of Banai's performances? If you don't recognize his famous brothers as they appear briefly on the screen, or the beloved Rivka Michaeli who was his stage partner, or the wildly popular Gashashim comedy act that he wrote for? I admire the effort and skill that the moviemakers put in, and the film does create a graceful arc despite being made of umpteen archival bits and pieces, so I'd like to think it does hold interest.