Scenes from the Jerusalem Film Festival

I couldn't get any tickets to the opening of the International Jerusalem Film festival - to the premier in Israel of War of the Worlds, which was being held in the valley of Hinnom, in a place called Sultan's Pool, which was set up to accommodate several thousand people. Even though it was your typical Hollywood flick (and some of my friends wouldn't go because of that - Spielberg is not Pedro Almovodar), I got my friend who is visiting from the States to join me as well as Eldest Daughter. I got impatient with the Daughter as she was taking her sweet time to meet me and it was already 6:45. Typically me, I took a wrong turn and ended up in the beautiful Yemin Moshe area, a former slum before 1967, and now gentrified and worth over $1 million an apartment. But Daughter had on her delicate spike heels and was cursing 10 feet behind me as I was trying to maneuver over dirt paths and cobblestones.

"Fucking woman. I'm not going! I don't care about this fucking movie. I'm not going."

Heh heh. I know her only too well. She's going. She has an even worse sense of direction than me, and if she leaves on her own, she'll end up in Bethlehem or further south. Fortunately for her, she had an extra pair of platform shoes in one of the many bags she carries with her to work. Voila! Now it's not as painful to trail with your mother when she makes a detour.

We managed to find the place - I have my favorite entrance to the Sultan's Pool - not your main entrance where there are too many people looking for tickets. We were the first people there, besides the hot dog guy who was setting up his stand. the gates were to open in an hour, and I knew we were too early, but in the States if something is sold out, you go 12 hours early and wait on line. My daughter was obviously very miffed at having to wait for anything. Joining us soon after in the ticket hunt were a much younger couple. I told them why I came so early.

"I wait 12 hours on line to see the Stones."
"I waited 12 hours to see the Dead" said the braided-hair guy.

We were in good company. The Israeli security guys standing around thought we were absolutely mad. As did the hot dog vendor. The guy came out later with ice cream for all the security and staff standing around. He offered us some as well because he felt bad "we were waiting around for 2 hours."

As soon as it hit 7:00 pm, people started to come in droves. It was minutes before we were able to buy our tickets from people not able to go. No scalping here. I've never paid more than face value for these tickets.

We seated ourselves on the floor in the last row and the 1 hours of speeches started.

"For this we paid 50 NIS?" asked my daughter?

Lia Van Leer first opened up the ceremony by having the audience stand for 30 seconds in remembrance of the victims of the London terrorist attack earlier that morning.

I was the running commentary for my daughter and friend. I knew everything that would happen. When the mayor of Jerusalem's name was mentioned, I told them "Everyone's gonna boo him." Sure enough, the entire audience boo'd him. No one has manners. This is a very secular, mostly left-wing audience. They have no patience and love for the Ultra-Orthodox, right-wing mayor of Jerusalem. Lord David Puttnam, the producer of Chariots of Fire and other well known movies, stood up and gave a moving address, talking about how "London is now Jerusalem, New York is Jerusalem and Madrid is Jerusalem and now we are all united as one" - something to that effect. But I thought isn't it a fucking shame that we need terrorism to unite us? And he wanted "to show London that Jerusalem is behind them" and made us all stand up again and cheer.

The movie started and it was fun watching an action-packed flick with thousands of people on a giant screen with surround sound. In the middle of the movie my friend blurted out - What is Harold Robbins doing in this movie? But I decided that movies like these stress me out, as my neck began to ache. I'd better stick to comedies.