Currently, the young audience “The American Pie” considers the informal leader of the genre of piquant youth comedies and the progenitor of a series of sequels and similar paintings, but few of them know about the miraculous creation of the era of video salons of the past century, in which little-known actors starred. "Hot chewing gum" directed by Boaz Davidson and still does not lose its relevance.
Successful experiment
The comedy of Israeli production in 1978 can be safely called the frivolous, but successful experiment of Boaz Davidson, more famous for moviegoers in the guise of producer and screenwriter. With an IMDb rating of 6.40, the tape was a huge financial success, which served as an excellent motivation for a series of sequels.
The premiere of the film took place in 1978 at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received encouraging reviews from film critics. Moreover, not only the director and screenwriter were honored, but also the actors involved in the filming process. "Hot chewing gum" has been successfully demonstrated in the United States, Germany and the UK. Soviet viewers had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with its content in the early 1980s during the first video shows in DVD format.
Plot
The 1978 film tells about the past era of the 50s. In the center of the story is the story of three young guys Momo (D. Sagall), Benzi (I. Katsur) and Yudale (Ts. Noah). In the English version, the names of the main characters were transformed into Bobby, Benji and Huey (respectively).
Young men grow up, naturally, begin to be interested in the opposite sex, to seek experience with women through shameless peeping, hot dances and sexual conversations. They want to understand the peculiarities of female psychology in order to “powder the brains” of girls, seeking their favor, sometimes guys get into ridiculous situations because of this . Such an idea of the authors was conveyed to the viewer by the actors listed above. "Hot chewing gum" was positioned among foreign critics as an optimistic anthem of youth.
Most lucky
Of the entire casting of the first picture, only one performer made a significant film career - Jonathan Sagall (in the credits Jonathan Segal). The remaining actors, playing in all eight sequels, became hostages of the image and in the future were invited only to insignificant secondary roles.
Jonathan Segal was born in the family of the theater actress Ruth Segal, spent all his childhood in the creative atmosphere of the theater. The picture of Boaz Davidson in 1978 became his debut, his character Momo immediately fell in love with the viewer.
He took part in the production of all the sequels. According to the actor, it was extremely difficult for him to get rid of the image of the empty and sugary hero of the cult youth comedy.
Between filming parts of Gum in 1983, Jonathan plays the first serious role in the project "Plagued" by director Amos Gutman, other actors are trying to follow his example.
“Hot chewing gum”, unfortunately, does not become a springboard to a serious creative career for most performers. After the end of the epic, the actor starred in Stephen Spielberg in the canonical film "Schindler's List", where he plays the role of Leopold (Poldek) Pfefferberg. In 2011, Sagall tries himself in directing, presenting the author’s painting “Lipstick” to the 61st Berlin IFF.