Joseph the Dreamer (film)

Joseph the Dreamer (Hebrew: בעל החלומות, translit. Ba'al Hahalomot) is a 1962 stop-motion animated drama film by Yoram Gross in his directorial debut. The first animated film produced in Israel, it tells the story of Joseph from the Bible.[1]

Joseph the Dreamer
Directed byYoram Gross
Alina Gross
Written byNatan Gross
Produced byYoram Gross
Music byEddie Halperin
Production
company
Release date
1962
Running time
80 minutes
CountryIsrael
LanguageHebrew

Production

The film was produced with home-made puppets from a script by Gross' brother. Part of the budget came from the Israel Film Commission. Gross later recalled:

We had a crew of five people. We receive permission from the municipality to use a storage room as a studio, but in those days the studio lights were so hot that we couldn't film during the day. It was so hot we could only shoot at night, with open windows and doors.[2]

Reception

The film screened at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival under the title Baal Ha Khalomot and competed for the Palme d'Or.[3][4][5]

The film was widely seen but was a box office bomb because the majority of the audience were schoolchildren, who only paid a quarter of the normal children's ticket price.[2]

Eleanor Mannikka from The New York Times wrote in her review, "Even with the advanced techniques of a major Hollywood studio -- absent here -- the concept of combining this mode of expression with religious heroes might have been too great a challenge to bring off well. Emphasis lies in the action here, which is still not enough to replace the value of human facial expressions, gestures, and subtle nuances in conveying a needed depth."[6]

It was re-released in Australia in 2002 with English narration[7] by Keith Scott, as well as additional voices by Scott, Jamie Oxenbould and Rachel King.[8]

References
  1. "Joseph the Dreamer". Yoram Gross Films. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  2. Gonzalez, Miguel (2011-05-09). "Yoram Gross: A pioneer of three countries". Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  3. "15ème Festival International du Film - Cannes". Le Cinema Francais (in French). Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  4. "Official Selection 1962: All the Selection". Festival de Cannes. Archived from the original on 26 December 2013.
  5. "BAAL HA KHALOMOT". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  6. Mannikka, Eleanor (2016). "Joseph the Dreamer (1962)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
  7. "Ba'al Hahalomot (Yoram Gross Films)". The Big Cartoon DataBase. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  8. "Joseph the Dreamer (English version)". YouTube. Retrieved 24 September 2021.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.