Amos Kollek achieved a degree of success as the director of such films as “Goodbye, New York” (1985), with Julie Hagerty, and “Forever, Lulu” (1987), with the great Fassbinder actress Hanna Schygulla. But he’s been mostly silent since the failure of “Happy End,” with Audrey Tautou, in 2003. In his stagnant new documentary, “Chronicling a Crisis,” Kollek contemplates his life since then.
He divides his time between New York and Jerusalem. In Israel, he visits his ailing father, Teddy Kollek, who was mayor of Jerusalem for a staggering 28 years. (He died in 2007 at age 95.) In New York, Amos — who has a wife and two young daughters — roams the East Village, looking for inspiration for a new project. It is there that he meets and befriends Robin, a scrawny hooker/addict he likens to Geena Davis, “with a touch of Greta Garbo.”
There’s little reason to see the claustrophobic “Chronicling a Crisis” unless you have a fascination with the Kolleks. Watching the vanity project is like being forced to sit through a friend’s boring home movies. You’re better off hunting down a DVD of one of Amos Kollek’s old features.