Footnote is the story of a great rivalry between a father and son. Both eccentric professors, they have dedicated their lives to their work. The father seems a stubborn purist who fears the establishment. His son, Uriel, appears to strive on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition.
But one day, the tables turn. The two men switch places when the father learns he is to be awarded the most valuable honour one can receive. His desperate need for recognition is betrayed, his vanity exposed. Uriel is torn between pride and envy. Will he sabotage his father’s glory?
Footnote is the story of insane competition, the admiration and envy for a role model, bringing father and son to a final, bitter confrontation. –Cannes Film Festival
Solid script & great production qualities...beautiful cinematography, which is saying something for a film that was largely shot indoors and in drab settings, like libraries, gyms, university halls, recital theatres. An understated examination of family and the often troubled, competitive relationship between father and son, not to mention a pretty brilliant meditation on academia.
A clever and lively tale of familial rivalry within the sciences told with bristly energy and dry wit. Footnote becomes a sort of essay on the unveiling of truth; that great aim of science itself and all of the prestige that comes as part of the package. Perfectly designed and structured with bold graphic sequences the film really has few flaws. 4 stars
A “brilliant academic comedy” or a “sour, rather unpleasant affair”?
A look at the posters for the films in the main slate of this year’s New York Film Festival.
Updated through 5/23. The Jury of the 64th Cannes Film Festival, presided over by Robert De Niro, and further comprised of Martina Gusman
The end of the world will be beautiful, or so says the Polish poster for Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, quite fittingly on the eve of
Updated through 5/20. "An intriguing tale of an ethical dilemma complicated by academic rivalries and family tensions is told in erratic fashion
There are two Professor Shkolniks, a father and a son. They are both scholars of the Talmud. The father worked hard his whole life on research that, for brutally ironic reasons, never paid off. The… read review
Beautiful, clever cinematography – much involving exquisite close-ups – reveals the human drama behind the polarization of meticulous academics vs acclaimed popularizers – within a field of study… read review