Mati Caspi in Matti Caspi - Confession (2015)

Mati Caspi

Riki Gal

Avirama Golan

Dani Dotan

Dalia Mevorach

A confession-film in which Matti Caspi, a leading Israeli musician, reveals a lifetime of struggle.

Matti Caspi: Confession

Revealing, although not a confession

&quot;Confession&quot; in the English title represents the Hebrew word &quot;vidui,&quot; which the dictionary says means either an admission of what you&apos;ve done or a revelation of your private thoughts and feelings. Though in English we tend to assume the first meaning for &quot;confession,&quot; in this documentary Caspi reveals his private thoughts and feelings without admitting any guilt. I&apos;m reminded of Donovan-- like Caspi, a curly-headed eclectic singer-songwriter who suffered from polio in childhood and who burst onto the scene as a coruscating genius and then lost his hitmaking touch. Between the lines of Donovan&apos;s autobiography you sometimes get an impression of insensitivity to others. Caspi, for his part, can&apos;t forgive his father for being emotionally distant. He realizes he&apos;s inherited his father&apos;s outward impassivity to an extent, but while he says it&apos;s something he eventually overcame, he doesn&apos;t stop to think that maybe his father would rather have overcome it too. 

So here&apos;s a documentary with more than a little pain in it, and as one of the interviewees notes, it&apos;s in contrast to a lot of Mati Caspi&apos;s music and public persona-- which is often rich in fun and humor. What the film is missing is the fun side. I suppose it is intended primarily for an audience who knows Caspi&apos;s work and who takes the fun for granted. There is somber coverage of the death of Ehud Manor, a soulmate and a talented lyricist (although seldom profound) who worked with Caspi a great deal, and the implication is that Caspi without Manor has been at a loss, although Caspi in the past produced brilliant work with other lyricists as well. 

The points of view of Caspi&apos;s three wives are missing-- not only the vexatiously remembered first two, but even the last one, whom he warmly praises. But as the many tight close-ups of Caspi&apos;s face imply as he is interviewed, the movie is about his own point of view. It presents that point of view well. A broader documentary would be welcome, but in such a small country, with little funding available, we should be thankful that this film exists.

"Confession" in the English title represents the Hebrew word "vidui," which the dictionary says means either an admission of what you've done or a revelation of your private thoughts and feelings. Though in English we tend to assume the first meaning for "confession," in this documentary Caspi reveals his private thoughts and feelings without admitting any guilt. I'm reminded of Donovan-- like Caspi, a curly-headed eclectic singer-songwriter who suffered from polio in childhood and who burst onto the scene as a coruscating genius and then lost his hitmaking touch. Between the lines of Donovan's autobiography you sometimes get an impression of insensitivity to others. Caspi, for his part, can't forgive his father for being emotionally distant. He realizes he's inherited his father's outward impassivity to an extent, but while he says it's something he eventually overcame, he doesn't stop to think that maybe his father would rather have overcome it too. 

So here's a documentary with more than a little pain in it, and as one of the interviewees notes, it's in contrast to a lot of Mati Caspi's music and public persona-- which is often rich in fun and humor. What the film is missing is the fun side. I suppose it is intended primarily for an audience who knows Caspi's work and who takes the fun for granted. There is somber coverage of the death of Ehud Manor, a soulmate and a talented lyricist (although seldom profound) who worked with Caspi a great deal, and the implication is that Caspi without Manor has been at a loss, although Caspi in the past produced brilliant work with other lyricists as well. 

The points of view of Caspi's three wives are missing-- not only the vexatiously remembered first two, but even the last one, whom he warmly praises. But as the many tight close-ups of Caspi's face imply as he is interviewed, the movie is about his own point of view. It presents that point of view well. A broader documentary would be welcome, but in such a small country, with little funding available, we should be thankful that this film exists.

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Matti Caspi: Confession

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