A Rear Window thanks to my mother

Taken at a friend's kitchen...

People ask me – how come you saw a film like “The Angel was a Devil” when you were only ten years old?

I’m not sure, and it seems strange.  I have two sons, one of them is ten soon. I can’t even imagine him watching a film like this. I know I was ten because when I was eleven I started developing a different look on films.

Alfred Hitchcock died in 1980, and as a tribute to him a program of 5 films – Rear Window, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope and The Trouble With Harry – where shown on five consecutive weeks in towns around Israel. I come from Ashkelon, which is a remote town in the south. It was amazing, but these five movies where shown there too: you could go to a commercial cinema and see an old Hitchcock film…

I loved suspense. The Hound of the Baskervilles was my favorite book, and I adored Hercules Poirot. I read about Hitchcock’s thrillers, but I was sure my parents won’t let me see them. Why? Because of “The Warriors” incident.

There were four movie theatres in Ashkelon: my favorite Rachel was within a walking distance from my house, Esther which was the only one with upholstered seats, Chen which was the palace of Indian musicals and Turkish melodramas and Maor, a horrible shack that screened westerns (and all Death Wish movies). My parents love movies, and they didn’t mind me going to the cinema almost every week. But when I asked for a ride to Maor cinema to see Walter Hill’s “The Warriors” – a movie that inflamed the town youth – my mother said: “no way. This has violence for no reason and you can’t see it”. Defeated I went to see a stupid Israeli comedy.

 And when a few weeks later the Hitchcock tour came to town, I was surprised when my mother asked me if I want to see Rear Window.

“But you didn’t allow me to see The Warriors”, I said, and she replied: “in The Warriors they kill many people and there’s no point to it. In Hitchcock’s movies there is one murder and then the whole world turns around it”.

So I went to see Rear Window. And cinema was never the same to me. The memory of “The Angel was a Devil” is located before it, so I’m quite sure I was ten years old when I saw it.

The Angel Was a Devil – Take 1

This is a blog about a film. And the film? it’s a film about a film. Or shall I refrase it: it’s a film about a film considered to be the “worst Israeli movie ever made”. In a way it’s a movie about me. And it’s definitely a movie about obsessions. It took me 30 years to complete it. It started in the hungry eyes of a 10 years old boy and ends in the tired eyes of an almost 41 years old, which thought he’ll find something and ended up with frustration and more questions than answers…

Ok, enough with this. Look at this picture. The man’s name is Moshe Guez. He shares his occupation with people like Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman: they all made fiction feature films. He has something in common with Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin: he stars in the film he directed. His film is called “The Angel Was a Devil”. It’s considered to be the first Israeli horror film. I think it’s not really a horror film. More like a “psychological thriller”.

I believe I should know that. I am one of the only people to see this movie, almost in real time. Although I was only 10 years old.