Movie Trailer Review

Movie Trailer Review
Hailey Hurowitz            
September 29, 2012

Title of Film: The Flat
Release Date: October 19th, 2012
Producer: Arnon Goldfinger, Thomas Kufus
Director: Arnon Goldfinger
Genre: Documentary

Plot: In Tel Aviv, Israel, Arnon Goldfinger goes to a flat on the third floor of a Bauhaus building where his grandparents lived since they immigrated to Palestine.  If it wasn't for the view from the windows, someone might think the flat was in Berlin.  The flat was furnished with European pieces, with lots of German books, and covered with lots of dust and history.  When Arnon's grandmother died at the age of 98, he was called to the flat to empty the place out.  There was a bunch of objects, pictures, letters, and documents, that revealed the hard lives of his grandparents, Gerda and Kurt Tuchler.  The flat also left races of the troubled and painful past they had.  Goldfinger, suddenly started going through every single drawer, trying to figure everything out.  Arnon's family never really discussed anything about the past, and now that he found all this interesting information about his family, it brings up adventures, unexpected national interests, friendships, enemies, and deep family emotions.  All that "junk" even reveals some secrets that should have remained untold.  The movie is basically about how different generations of people deal with the memory of the Holocaust.

Time and Place: The time is in 2012, but they talk a lot about the times of the Holocaust(1933-1945).  The place of the movie is in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Main Characters: Arnon Goldfinger plays himself in his documentary movie, The Flat, where he discovers very cool, and not so cool things about is families past in the Holocaust.  Talya Galon, who plays herself lives not too far from Goldfinger's grandparents flat, and he tells her about the flat.  She then decides to help him with his discoveries, and the cinematography.  There are also a few other not so major characters that contribute to the documentary movie.

Introduction and Ending: The introduction of the trailer was about how Arnon Goldfinger was talking about his grandparents, and that his grandmother just died.  He said now he has to go into her flat and go through everything.  He talked of the times that he use to spend there as a boy, and that the meaningful things were left unspoken.  He started to find nazi/german things from the holocaust that he didn't know about before. 
              The ending of the trailer was about how Arnon is trying to figure the things out about his grandparents, and uncover all the secrets.  The grandparents were apparently friends with a nazi, so Arnon goes to find the daughter of the nazi.  It is a little confusing, but you can tell he is trying to find out about his grandparents, and that the flat really means something to him then when he was a little boy.
          I wouldn't say the introduction and the ending was creative, but it was really busy like.  It made you want to go see the movie because it made you want to know what the grandparents were all about.  It was real documentary like sounding, and the music went well with the trailer.

Camera Work: The camera work wasn't that good, but it was good for a documentary movie.  To me when you see a trailer for a documentary movie, and a trailer for a regular movie they are different in many ways.  They are different with the talking and the camera shots.  They didn't really put any special effects, but the camera work fit the trailer well.

Identifying Shots and Angles: The trailer had wide shots, medium shots, over the shoulder shots, close ups, high angle shots, and low angle shots.  They could of put more pan, tilt, dolly, and tracking shots though.  The shots were sort of plan and simple, but they did add a few cool shots.

Key Moment: A key moment in the trailer was when they tracked a nazi's daughter thats father was friends with Arnon's grandparents.  You could tell she was sort of upset about something, but you couldn't tell what she was upset about because she only said a few words of something.


Who Would Like the Film: I think people that like to learn and know about the Holocaust will be fascinated by this movie.  The Jewish people will also love this movie since it is about a jew that lives in Israel, and is about the Holocaust.  The majority of this movie is in English, but still be prepared to read subtitles, and understand israeli accents, if you don't like doing that when you watch a movie, this movie won't be a good one for you to watch.  I think you should be 13 and up to watch this movie because it talks about the Holocaust which is a very hard subject to deal with.  Also, if you don't like documentary movies, this won't be the movie for you to watch. 


Rate This Film: I rate this movie 4 stars because it seems like a really good movie, but the reason I don't give it the perfect 5 stars is because it isn't a movie that I would put out in theaters.  It is more of a movie that they should already put out to buy, and skip the theater part, or it should be on TV to watch.  I personally, love documentaries, but I don't like seeing documentaries in theaters.  The movie seems really interesting though, and I can't wait to see this movie when it comes out.  After watching the trailer, I really want to know what are the family secrets. 

Recommendations: I would absolutely recommend this movie to ages 13 and up.  It seems like a very great documentary that you can learn a lot from, like the Holocaust.  Since I am Jewish, I love learning about the Holocaust, and Jewish people.  If you like watching someone go through a journey, and being ready for the ride, then you should totally watch this movie.