Auditions

The graduate class of a theatrical academy perform, somewhat reluctantly, a Hebrew translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream to a rigid metronome beat, just one eccentric/egocentric notion by the troupe's enfant terrible director, Noam. As the loosely-knit thespians forge ahead in the real world, they learn that some things won't go according to the script. Noam's beautiful lover, Eva, learns their relationship doesn't guarantee he'll hire her for his productions. She strikes out alone, ultimately realizing she has nothing to offer. Activist Gaby, keen on social change through fine arts, convinces some classmates to start an acting workshop with the youth of a slum quarter, but their Utopian mini-collective soon falls apart (its irrelevance finally made clear out when one actress thoughtlessly reduces a local girl's confession of parental abuse and incest to her own practice monologue). Yoav, playwright-son of an established actor, wrestles with writer's block and living up to his father's legacy. He loiters with fellow performer and best pal Davod, an Arab. Jailed by intolerant Israeli cops, the pair serendipitously share a cell with a drunk-and-disorderly cuckold whose long rant is transcribed by Yoav, word-for-word, into a hit playlet that gains him and Davod jobs in the Tel Aviv film industry. Another unexpected winner is Rona, a single mother whose talent and perseverance bring her the spotlight in a major Ibsen revival. As for Noam, his moddish stage projects fail to pan out, and he returns to the academy chastened, as an instructor.

Its stylized pop-musical opening suggests a sabra-flavored FAME (1980), although AUDITIONS, despite its Middle Eastern venue, cleaves more closely than Alan Parker's film to ageless showbiz cliches of tempestuous prima donnas, lucky understudies and the one character who chooses marriage and family on a kibbutz over the gypsy life of an actor. Director Ron Ninio, in fact, studied film and television at New York University; hence a film that seems to take place at the intersection of 42nd Street and Jaffa Road. The ensemble of attractive unknowns acquit themselves nicely, though the narrative's dour curtain-closer--ambitious Eva's utter breakdown--seems arbitrarily downbeat. (Nudity, sexual situations, adult situations, substance abuse, profanity.) leave a comment