Saint Clara (1996) User Reviews

Traditional folk tale of magic and morality

[bobc-5 · 7/10 · 12 December 1999]

On the surface, Saint Clara presents itself as a clever and amusing dystopian look at modern society. The central characters inhabit a town of featureless block buildings and deserted streets. Golda Meir High seems to be completely empty except for the principal, one teacher, and one class. And the TV in all the houses are tuned to the same show, in which a wild haired woman makes cryptic prophecies of doom and destruction.

Underneath all of this, however, is a traditional folk tale of an alienated young boy who falls in love and makes his peace with society. The boy, the town, and you the viewer learn just how unimportant are things like fame, fortune, and power. And all along the way you are entertained with tales of magic and humorous anecdotes. Long ago, this is the type of tale with which a traveling minstrel would have held your fascination. Remove the post-apocalyptic stylizations and this becomes very reminiscent of the early stories of Isaac B. Singer, which I assume are themselves done in the style of traditional Yiddish folk tales.

Don't be put off by the idea of having to sit through a moral lesson; the movie is never didactic or preachy. When you finally see the lesson at the end, it just makes the characters seem that much real and the stories that much more entertaining. This is a short and not particularly ambitious movie, but it succeeds completely in those things which it does set out to accomplish.

Bleak Near Future Landscape Populated with some very Eccentric Characters

[gpeevers · 7/10 · 24 April 2019]

The film is set at Golda Meir Junior High and deals with the interactions between some of the students, their parents and school officials. What makes this interesting is that one of the students Clara a Russian immigrant has the ability to see into the future.

The film is a little bit rough around the edges but its definitely entertaining and offers a rare glimpse at least for me into Israeli culture.

Saint Clara aka Clara Hakedosha

[hnbbs · 6/10 · 24 April 2001]

I enjoyed this movie very much. I did not understand much of the movie. I am not sure if this is the way kids act in Israel and if that is the way the education system works or not. I saw the movie on TV with the name of "Saint Clara".

I enjoyed the movie and the love story and the interesting weird people in the movie. It made me wonder about some of the things that were said during the movie. I guess the same way people outside of the U. S. must wonder about things said and done in American movies.

Watching this I was thinking about the movie "Tin Drum" (Die Blechtrommel) and wishing there was someone watching it with me that after the movie was over could tell me what in the hell it was all about.

Maybe it is better sometimes to NOT know what the author or director was trying to say...Because I did enjoy the movie and hope to see it again on TV.

Colorful Israel

[selfhelpradio · 12 October 1999]

I can't figure out if people are deliberately ignoring this movie or if they just don't get it. Frankly, I don't know if *I* get this crazy little fable about love, belonging, & identity.

Young Clara is unbelievably brilliant, and extraordinarily magical - literally - which is not necessarily a bonus at Golda MeirJunior High, which looks like post-apocalyptic public schooling even if I don't know much about Israel's educational system. Taunted by the "cool boys," who also use her to cheat on tests, Clara quickly becomes the object of the affection of one of them. What follows is stylized, visually exciting, and pretty damn cool, as Clara learns that it's love that will eventually deprive her of her super-powers. Oh, the end of the world is hinted at as well.

There's nothing specifically Israel or Jewish-oriented about this film, except the setting (unless I am missing something - a subtext?), and to me that's why it works. The directors make style a priority and the young actors (as well as the fabulous nutjob that plays Uncle Elvis) fare far better in the sincerity and believability department than any American actors. There's a human-centered element that makes this very easy to grab onto and hold.

A wonderful movie.

An offbeat gem

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 24 February 2008]

Pals Eddie Tikal (Halil Elohev), skinhead wannabe Rosy (Johnny Peterson) and the boyish-looking Libby (Maya Maron) swallow some pills before entering school. Instead of going to class, however, they are summoned to the principal's office to be questioned about a strange event. It seems that the students at Haifa's Golda Meir Junior High School have turned in perfect scores on a Math test and the perplexed teacher and principal of the school are determined to hunt down and punish the cheater. The teacher asks, "Aren't you guys smart enough to make a few mistakes so we won't catch on that you're cheating?" When they find out, however, that the class did not cheat but were provided answers by a clairvoyant Russian immigrant, their authority is shaken.

Based on a novel by Pavel Kohout, a Czech writer who adapted its story from a screenplay by his wife Jelena, Ari Foman and Ori Sivan's Saint Clara is a film of surreal charm that bears comparison to Bunuel and Truffaut. While it is quirky, it is not self consciously so, and contains characters that we can recognize as real people. Contrary to typical Hollywood fare, the film shows psychic abilities such as clairvoyance to be natural attributes of the human mind, although in this case, according to a family tradition, they will last only until the young girl falls in love. The psychic is 13-year old Clara (Lucy Dubnichek), a very quiet girl with deeply expressive eyes. While she is regarded as odd by her punk classmates, they are more than happy to receive her help on their examinations and equally eager to enlist her help in planning a revolution that never quite gets off the ground.

The oddness in the film is not limited to the students. Mathematics teacher (Joseph El Dror) had a tour of duty in Vietnam where he claims that he once beat international chess champion Bobby Fischer. The principal (Yigal Naor), nattily dressed in a red suit, claims to have made love to French singing star Edith Piaf. On television, we see a weirdly dressed newswoman who constantly speaks about the impending environmental catastrophe and we learn from Rosy that the Richter scale was inspired by Marilyn Monroe. While it has its uneven moments, Saint Clara is an offbeat gem that offers with deadpan humor some intriguing insights into adolescent behavior. As Tikel becomes infatuated with Clara, the film hints at a more conventional outcome but maintains its irresistible charm and originality until the end.

Saint Clara....a movie like no other, a movie about powers.....the power of youth, the power of magic, the power of love, and the power to change a person

[superstar21 · 10/10 · 20 July 2000]

After stumbling upon this movie, it has turned into one of my favorites. Despite the subscripts it was still able to capture me. Almost as if I knew the language. Grant it, it's about children, but thats the beauty of it. The fact that she's magical or whatever is just a surface texture, the deeper meaning and feeling this movie brings out, is what really struck me. I urge anyone who hasnt seen it, to see it, and anyone who has, I would like to know if you agree with me. This movie happened to have a very powerful effect on me, and I think its brilliant.

Oh, Clara of the violet eyes!

[awalter1 · 10/10 · 19 May 2001]

A class of Israeli junior high kids has discovered a miracle in its midst. One of the students, Clara, a 13 year old Russian immigrant, has begun to see the future. This singular talent arrives suddenly like an unexpected blessing from the gods of puberty, and for a few exciting days, Clara's predictions about math tests and lottery numbers turn her world upside down.

And what a world it is. The film, released in 1996, is set three years in the future in an absurdist, industrial cityscape. The school kids talk tough about revolution as they tromp through polluted swamps and through streets lined with huge squares of beehive apartment buildings. The city seems on the very cusp of apocalypse, though it's not clear whether the final crisis will arise from a man-made ecological disaster or from the hand of God in the form of an earthquake. Meanwhile, the revolution threatens to develop into a new religion, with Saint Clara at the center. The entire city listens for her predictions, adult men get crushes on her, and of course the boys in her class end up fighting over her.

To complicate things for Clara, her powers may disappear if she falls in love. One of her admirers, Tikel, has a good chance with her though. He's obsessed with her violet eyes, and chicks always fall for that--at least in junior high. "I think your visions come from your eyes," he tells her.

"Saint Clara" really is about as good as films get. It is a beautiful thing to be able to imagine the near-future, accelerate the world's problems slightly, and then just continue to smile at life. In this way, "Saint Clara" is reminiscent of the irresistibly optimistic films Wim Wenders made during the 1990s. Perhaps the film's best surprise, however, is the voracious, adolescent energy which tints its vision. All the kids in the film are bursting with potential, thirsty for life; and the adults are sad but charming caricatures, thinly-veiled trolls and witches, forever dreaming of their lost youth. A naive misconception, certainly, but here it is also fantastically endearing.

Kudos to Kino Video for making this gem available on video. And don't miss the sweet little film at the end of the tape: "Personal Goals."

See this film!

[cacn327 · 19 February 2001]

I'd say this was a sweet and romantic film, almost in a John Waters style. It's refreshing, honest, and certainly endearing. Each character was a symbol of a virtue or vice, the set direction was campy, and the overall mood was hopeful in the midst of impending doom. I'd like to see more from this director.

cool premise, but not exactly lives up to it

[dinopup · 24 April 2002]

The premise of a girl receiving magic powers and disrupting her town is cool, but the movie doesn't exactly live up to it. You want there to be more to her magic powers than predicting the answers on tests. The movie does have a nice ending though and the principal, math teacher, lawyer father, and Uncle Elvis are a blast.

Depressing, unusual

[Aizyk · 11 June 2000]

As I watched this movie, I was unsure whether it was trying to present a realistic image of common Israeli lives, or if it was complete fantasy. It had the wacky characters and a cinematographic/color style reminiscent of Pedro Almodovar films, although with absolutely none of the exuberance. The featureless architectures colored in dreary pastels, located in grassy nowheres, then juxtaposed in other scenes with environments covered in concrete, lent a very odd and bleak feeling to the film. Buildings seemed devoid of humanizing artistic style--although the style of the film itself was very distinct. Every place seemed deserted, even when there were pedestrians around (walking in all directions without apparent regard to the paths of roads and sidewalks, somewhat like zombies). Often, there was what looked like cement plants nearby, as well as glass objects handy for shattering. The sky seemed to be perpetually overcast, or in twilight, except in the night scenes. Fortunately, there were no references, visual or otherwise, to religion or Israel's governmental politics. If there had been, it would have created a familiarity, corrupting the weird vibe of the film's environment. It was like watching the inhabitants of a semi-abandoned wasteland, a place which could exist anywhere.

This was an interesting film, and I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like it. Was it entertaining? I'm still not sure, although as a comedy, it wasn't really about laughs, but more about quirks.

Enjoyed this film

[Bernie157 · 5 October 2001]

I saw Saint Clara in Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. It was at a theatre not part of the festival at the time but it felt like it could have been (perhaps it was the year before). As others have said, it had an odd, bleak, futuristic look and feel about it but was enjoyable none the less. I would love to find the DVD or tape so I could see it again. Bernie