Saint Clara

I saw Saint Clara in Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. It was at a theatre not part of the festival at the time but it felt like it could have been (perhaps it was the year before). As others have said, it had an odd, bleak, futuristic look and feel about it but was enjoyable none the less. I would love to find the DVD or tape so I could see it again. Bernie

The premise of a girl receiving magic powers and disrupting her town is cool, but the movie doesn't exactly live up to it. You want there to be more to her magic powers than predicting the answers on tests. The movie does have a nice ending though and the principal, math teacher, lawyer father, and Uncle Elvis are a blast.

As I watched this movie, I was unsure whether it was trying to present a realistic image of common Israeli lives, or if it was complete fantasy. It had the wacky characters and a cinematographic/color style reminiscent of Pedro Almodovar films, although with absolutely none of the exuberance. The featureless architectures colored in dreary pastels, located in grassy nowheres, then juxtaposed in other scenes with environments covered in concrete, lent a very odd and bleak feeling to the film. Buildings seemed devoid of humanizing artistic style--although the style of the film itself was very distinct. Every place seemed deserted, even when there were pedestrians around (walking in all directions without apparent regard to the paths of roads and sidewalks, somewhat like zombies). Often, there was what looked like cement plants nearby, as well as glass objects handy for shattering. The sky seemed to be perpetually overcast, or in twilight, except in the night scenes. Fortunately, there were no references, visual or otherwise, to religion or Israel's governmental politics. If there had been, it would have created a familiarity, corrupting the weird vibe of the film's environment. It was like watching the inhabitants of a semi-abandoned wasteland, a place which could exist anywhere.

This was an interesting film, and I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like it. Was it entertaining? I'm still not sure, although as a comedy, it wasn't really about laughs, but more about quirks.

On the surface, Saint Clara presents itself as a clever and amusing dystopian look at modern society. The central characters inhabit a town of featureless block buildings and deserted streets. Golda Meir High seems to be completely empty except for the principal, one teacher, and one class. And the TV in all the houses are tuned to the same show, in which a wild haired woman makes cryptic prophecies of doom and destruction.

Underneath all of this, however, is a traditional folk tale of an alienated young boy who falls in love and makes his peace with society. The boy, the town, and you the viewer learn just how unimportant are things like fame, fortune, and power. And all along the way you are entertained with tales of magic and humorous anecdotes. Long ago, this is the type of tale with which a traveling minstrel would have held your fascination. Remove the post-apocalyptic stylizations and this becomes very reminiscent of the early stories of Isaac B. Singer, which I assume are themselves done in the style of traditional Yiddish folk tales.

Don't be put off by the idea of having to sit through a moral lesson; the movie is never didactic or preachy. When you finally see the lesson at the end, it just makes the characters seem that much real and the stories that much more entertaining. This is a short and not particularly ambitious movie, but it succeeds completely in those things which it does set out to accomplish.

I enjoyed this movie very much. I did not understand much of the movie. I am not sure if this is the way kids act in Israel and if that is the way the education system works or not. I saw the movie on TV with the name of "Saint Clara".

I enjoyed the movie and the love story and the interesting weird people in the movie. It made me wonder about some of the things that were said during the movie. I guess the same way people outside of the U. S. must wonder about things said and done in American movies.

Watching this I was thinking about the movie "Tin Drum" (Die Blechtrommel) and wishing there was someone watching it with me that after the movie was over could tell me what in the hell it was all about.

Maybe it is better sometimes to NOT know what the author or director was trying to say...Because I did enjoy the movie and hope to see it again on TV.