Portman to Direct an Israeli Film

Friday, February 09, 2007

Rumors that Natalie Portman is to play in the fourth Indiana Jones movie persist as the start date for the film’s shooting has been revealed to be June of this year.  Nonetheless, this year, Portman is following the precedent she set in 2005 when she worked with Israeli director Amos Gital in “Free Zone,” only this time around, she’s directing as well as acting.

That, at least, is the plan with the movie “Goya’s Ghosts,” a film adaptation of the internationally acclaimed “A Tale of Love And Darkness,” the autobiography of Amos Oz.  Oz grew up in Jerusalem, in the midst of the infighting that later caused Israel to be independently founded.  The role of Oz’s mother who suicides appeals to Ms. Portman.  Born in Jerusalem, she speaks Hebrew fluently.

Her recent visit to Prague to promote “Goya’s Ghosts” produced a snapshot of her stroll through a graveyard as she played happy tourist despite the rain and a press conference that was more eventful than usual.  Upon entering the Karel IV suite, Portman and the others present were hit with the flashes from 50+ cameras at a time nonstop.  Someone had evidently done a schlock job of screening which photographers entered, causing the elaborate three-tiered tagging system for the photographers to collapse.  The press conference was delayed while the photographers and hotel security had their tussle.  At least some of the writers present were amused, though what Portman thought of it isn’t known.