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Directed by Dover Koshashvili
Dover Kashosvhilli's excellent "Late Marriage" cast a brief, almost anecdotal glance at an Israeli's parent's struggles to get their free spirited son to walk the traditional straight and narrow. The end result is a blistering, gut wrenching, yet strongly intelligent indictment of tradition run amok.
Zaza, a 31 year old bachelor finishing up his doctorate in philosophy, has yet to marry, something that fills his parents with equal parts horror and shame. In an effort to wed their son as soon as possible, Zaza's parents take him to see a number of brides to be. Zaza, however, is uninterested by his parent's efforts since he is at the same time living a sereptitious by passionate romance with Judith, a divorcée with a six year old child who is three years older than Zaza. When Zaza's parents get wind of his illicit romance they vow to take whatever measures are necessary to insure that their son does not marry Judith.
Although "Late Marriage" is classified as a comedy, the extent Zaza's parents go to break up his relationship with Judith are far from humorous. Rather, they are cringe inducing, maddening, insulting and degrading and ultimately heartbreaking. In one scene, Zaza's parents and their extended family trudge into Judith's apartment and loudly forbid her from seeing Zaza while at the same time criticizing her looks, her apartment, her financial means and even her child. At the end they all walk out haughtily, not even appearing to realize the cruelty of their actions. Zaza's parents obsession with respecting tradtion is indeed shown by Koshasvhili as so blinding and all consuming that it prevents them from realizing the damage of their actions.
Zaza's parents' effecort to steer him away from Judith leads up to "Late Marriage's" final scene, a riveting, tense, awkward and yet faultlessly believable moments in which Zaza's frustrations, having finally come to head, now explode in the most public of settings. Watching Zaza's act of subtle rebellion in the final act is gutwrenching and yet, in many ways, gratifying for the viewer who until that point probably felt like jumping into the TV screen and setting his self righteous parents straight.
The strength of "Late Marriage" is Koshashvili's ability to skewer traditions not simply because they exist--the way some of Shohei Immamura's lesser works do, for instance--but attack them because they are outdated, inhumane, and ultimately destructive. Koshasvili does not simply reject tradition without debate and his sympathy towards Zaza's parent's predicament is, to some extent at least, apparent. On the other hand, Koshasvilli is most sympathetic towards Zaza and Judith, and Judith's daughter since ultimately they are the ones that suffer, regardless of the intentions of Zaza's parents and extended family. Koshashvili also questions the motives of imposing tradition on younger generations. Are Zaza's parents truly looking out for their sons best interests or are they rather afraid of losing face in front of their family, friends, and community? Although Zaza's parents have no doutb convinced themselves that they are doing a great service to Zaza, Koshasvhili appears to discredit the notion that their actions were ever done purely out of love for their son.
3 comments:
Your analysis makes me wonder how one goes about figuring out if a tradition is good, or just tradition. I assume that some (but not all) traditions are in place because past generations learned lessons that they did not want their ancestors to make.
In other words, when do we cast tradition aside as useless tradition, and when do we accept it as wisdom passed on? I'm not sure I have an answer.
I think it's a question that is raised by this film more so than by my analysis. I personally think it's a fascinating question and one that is rarely (if ever) treated with any amount of nuance in film.
The director certainly makes it clear that some traditions are worthwhile but also scorns those traditions that end up hurting the main character.
For instance, Zaza has a profound and ingrained respect for his parents regardless of their insensitivity towards him and their cruelty towards Judith and Koshashvili seems to admire this, in many ways. On the flipside, Zaza's father at one point lets Judith know that she is too old for Zaza (she is 34 while he is 31) by pointing out how he and every other man he knows is married to a younger women and that marrying a younger woman is simply how things are supposed to be done. This, Kashosvhili clearly and enmphatically derides as being risible, archaic, and useless.
What I really liked about this movie, as I pointed out in the review, is that Koshasvili does not skewer tradition just because he can. He clearly applauds children who respect their parents as well as communities who stick together. At the same time, however, he doesn't shy away from taking shots at 'tradition' taken too far.
Interesting. I'll have to check it out.
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