Be'Tipul - In Therapy - Original Series

It's simply amazing. Unbelievable. I've got 5 episodes and a Making-Of (22min video) of the original Israeli series Be'Tipul.

What a difference to the US-American adaptation!
* I don't understand one word of Hebrew/Ivrit - and am able to follow every single scene.
* I've heard that the dialogues are almost the same, but the Israeli actors, a different light, camera etc. create a complete different world. The characters are emotionally much closer to my world and my culture. For example, I was pretty 'irritated' in 'In Treatment' by the characters Paul and Laura, I've found them almost unwatchable. And I was not the only one who felt this way.- And both are wonderful and lovable in the Israeli series.
* Adding one small scene and dialogue can change everything. The US-version did this in episode 25, the ending.
* But the biggest surprise is, how incredibly close the character Kate to the original character Ya'el is, while the other characters are not, or less. The gestures, the body language, the facial expressions. Either Michelle Forbes knew the Israeli series very well or she is simply a genius. Or the director is a magician.

Ya'el (Kate):





Slideshow with screencaps (episode 25 and Making-of-BeTipul):



And here is a picture of Kate. Someone from michelleforbes.net found it on the HBO site:



I hope we will see her one more time in Season 2 of In Treatment. One minute, two minutes? Oh, please.

"If the sign of a great actor is the ability to shift emotional gears abruptly, without losing a heartbeat --- from pain to indignation, from indignation to sarcasm, from confusion to surprising insight, or from self-anger to raging anger at others --- and to do it with such hard-slamming gestures, voice tone, and believability that the viewer is left full of breathless admiration, then Michelle Forbes did exactly what the previous poster claimed she did: steal every scene she was in ..."

Maenad - Maryann - Minotaur

A minotaur in a female body? With claws?? Oh. Hollywood and mythology is often a hit-and-miss ;-)





True Blood, preview season 2.

Kate is back :-)

Kate (Michelle Forbes) is back. Briefly. In Treatment, season 2, episode 10:













Comment by my British colleague: "Luvely".
Me: Not the blonde!
He: Ohh.--- Shiny!!!
Me: Nooo, it's not Aeryn.

Update :: Best recurring character so far in season 2: the turtle. Or is he/she a guest star? What's a TV show without a pet.

Poor Girl Keeps Getting Shot

From the popular Michelle Forbes-series "Poor Girl Keeps Getting Shot":

Slideshow: Michelle on The Inside - Thief Of Hearts (2005)



The complete series (13 episodes) is available on Toronto TV. It's worth every byte. Peter Coyote rocks.

Durham County - Season 2

Es gibt leider immer noch keine Sendetermine für die zweite Season von Durham County. Ursprünglich von der Produktionsgesellschaft angekündigt für April bzw. 'Spring' scheint das jetzt eher in den Sommer oder gar noch später zu rücken. Die Rechte der Miniserie wurden inzwischen auch für den US-Markt verkauft, und die Ausstrahlung der ersten Staffel ist dort auf den Herbst 2009 terminiert. Ausserdem gab es die Information, dass Durham County inzwischen in über 100 Regionen/Länder verkauft wurde.

Worum wird es in der zweiten Season gehen?
Es sieht so aus, als ob die Grundstory so ähnlich aufgebaut sein wird wie in Season eins. Zwei Protagonisten, ein Homicide Detective (Mike Sweeney, gespielt von Hugh Dillon) und ein/e Mörder/in, diesmal die Polizeipsychologin Penelope Verity (gespielt von Michelle Forbes). Durham County is kein 'Whodunnit', man weiss sehr schnell, wer es ist. Die Spannung ist eine ganz andere. Und in der ersten Staffel war das ästhetisch so gut umgesetzt, dass selbst ich als sehr abgebrühter Krimi-Fan höchst verstört war.
In der Tat war die Rolle des Mörders, des Monstrums (Ray Prager, gespielt von Justin Louis) der absolute Höhepunkt der Serie, neben den beiden Kindern/Jugendlichen, gespielt von Laurence Leboeuf und Greyston Holt.

Zur Rolle von Michelle Forbes:
"It's a female antagonist this time. I wanted to give everyone equal play, because women can be just as nasty as men... It's true, but we don't really admit to it. We tend to see ourselves more as angels or martyrs, and I wanted to interrogate that notion."
(Drehbuchautorin Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik)

"Penelope is quite troubled, to say the least, because of what's happening and because of some trauma that had not been dealt with or transformed when she was younger ... There's a certain fracturing of her soul and her mind ... I know where her distortions are coming from and I have an enormous amount of empathy for that. -- I think there's an enormous amount of love and hurt at the core of Penelope's distortions, whereas I think – and this is the difference between men and women – I think that at the core of Ray Prager's distortions, it was about ego and bravado. And of course hurt and what he went through as a child, but certainly what it turned into as a man was the need to conquer and be powerful. That is not the engine for Penelope."
(Michelle Forbes in einem Interview)

Es wird eine emotionale Achterbahnfahrt, so viel ist sicher. Und es wird sehr intensiv werden, schon weil Michelle Forbes diese Figur spielt. Und dann ist da noch etwas, was Durham County gegenüber anderen Krimiserien hervorhebt, nämlich die einzigartige Perspektive, aus welcher der Mörder betrachtet wird. Das ergibt eine beklemmende Authentizität und eine reichlich schockierende Wirkung auf den Zuschauer. Die besten Krimis wurden und werden von Autorinnen geschrieben, wen wundert es, dass hinter Durham County gleich ein ganzes Team von Frauen steht?

Im Dezember 2008 in London habe ich Michelle Forbes nach ihren Erfahrungen bei den Dreharbeiten zu Durham County befragt, die sie gerade abgeschlossen hatte in Montreal. Es gibt viele Rollen, die man als Schauspielerin spielt, aber manche verändern dich, verändern dein Leben. So in etwa war ihre Antwort.

First 'In Treatment' Impressions

1. I went back to the Kate-Paul-Gina dialogue (In Treatment, season 1):

"Kate: She's Tammy Kent.
Paul: WHAT?
Gina: Who's Tammy Kent?
Paul: How-how is she Tammy Kent?
Kate: You know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
Gina: May I ask who this is?
Kate: This was a girl that Paul was in love with when we first met....
Paul: A long, long time ago.
Kate: ...well, WHATEVER, they're EXACTLY the same type....
Paul: No they're not.
Kate: ....and he....yes they are, and he made Laura out to be this fragile little girl, and I'm telling you what I saw was this highly sexual woman who was wearing stilettos at ten in the morning....
Paul: I...
Kate: TAMMY KENT!"


2. I looked up pictures of Kate, Tammy and Paul on the original Israeli series:

You can watch a streaming version of season 2 of the Israeli series (in Ivrit) incl. some flash backs.

3. Though I don't understand Ivrit I've got the impression that the characters (not the story and the plot) are quite different than the adapted US version. They look more 'real'.

4. The most gripping for me about In Treatment remains the unique and innovative aesthetics, combining the intimacy of a chamber play with the techniques of a screen drama.