Lemon Popsicle (Israeli: Eskimo Limon, Hebrew: אסקימו לימון) is a 1978 West German-Israeli comedy drama film co-written and directed by Boaz Davidson. The success of the film led to a series of sequels.[1] The cult film follows a group of three teenage boys in the late 1950s Tel Aviv.

Lemon Popsicle
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Boaz Davidson
Written by	Boaz Davidson Eli Tavor
Produced by	Yoram Globus Menahem Golan
Starring	Yftach Katzur Zachi Noy Jonathan Sagall
Cinematography	Adam Greenberg
Edited by	Alain Jakubowicz
Production companies	Noah Films The Cannon Group, Inc. K.F Kinofilm Production (Israel) SCO (West Germany)
Release date	11 February 1978 (1978-02-11)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Israel
Language	Hebrew
Budget	IL3,000,000
Box office	IL12,500,000 (Israel; 1978)

Synopsis

Set in Israel in the 1950s, Nili (Niki in the English language release, played by Anat Atzmon), is the new girl at school. She meets a trio of friends: Benzi (Benji in the English release), Momo (Bobby in the English release) and Yudale (Huey in the English release). Benzi (played by Yftach Katzur), the typical "nice guy" of the group immediately falls in love with Nili. However, Nili prefers the more aggressive and experienced Momo (played by Jonathan Sagall). Learning that Nili is a virgin, Momo brags to his friends that he will seduce, then dump her, much to Benzi's dismay. However, Benzi is too dependent on his friends and too reluctant to ruin their friendship to warn Nili of Momo's intentions, and must watch as Momo and Nili begin dating. Momo finally takes Nili's virginity, leaving her pregnant. Benzi rushes in to emotionally console Nili and helps her to get an abortion, hoping that she will grow to love him for his support, only to be crushed when Nili and Momo reconcile and resume dating.

The film contains a scene with an older olah named Stella (Ophelia Shtruhl), enticing the three boys into having sex with her, earning the nickname "Stella HaMegameret" ("A-cumming Stella") after she screams "I'm a-cumming! I'm a-cumming!" (instead of "cumming") during sex because of her poor Hebrew.

Cast

• Yftach Katzur as Bentzi
• Jonathan Sagall as Momo
• Zachi Noy as Yudale
• Anat Atzmon as Nili
• Ophelia Shtruhl as Stella
• Rachel Steiner as Martha
• Dvora Kedar as Sonja
• Menashe Warshavsky as Romek

Release and reception

Budget

The picture was produced at a budget of IL3 million, of which a million was paid in royalties to the musicians (mostly American) whose songs were used in the soundtrack (such as Bill Haley, Paul Anka, Little Richard, Frankie Laine, The Chordettes, Bobby Vinton etc.). Producer Menahem Golan claimed that the music rights cost more than the production of the film itself.[2]

Box office

It became an immediate commercial success; by December 1978, Lemon Popsicle sold 1,268,000 tickets in its native country and grossed IL12.5 million. It was circulated in 700 prints in Europe, where it earned $650,000 during the same period.[3] In total, it sold 1,350,000 tickets in the state, becoming the highest-grossing Israeli picture in history.[4] In West Germany, it reached the 11th place at the 1978 box office, with 2.7 million tickets sold.[5] Lemon Popsicle also gained considerable popularity in the rest of Europe and in Japan.[6] It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in the 36th Golden Globe Awards, losing to Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata.[7] The film was also selected as the Israeli entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[8]

Sequels

The series became a success in Germany under the name Eis am Stiel. Most of the films were also dubbed into English and were released in both the United States and United Kingdom. Since the release of Lemon Popsicle, seven official sequels have been made. These were Going Steady (Yotzim Kavua) (1979), Hot Bubblegum (Shifshuf Naim) (1981), Private Popsicle (Sapiches) (1982), Baby Love (Roman Za'ir) (1984), Up Your Anchor (Harimu Ogen) (1985), Young Love (Ahava Tzeira) (1987) and Summertime Blues (Blues La-Kayitz) (1988). A spin-off film, Private Manoeuvres (Sababa), starring Zachi Noy as Yudale, appeared in 1983, and a reboot film, The Party Goes On (Hahagiga Nimshehet), which featured Noy as a restaurant owner, was released in 2001.

Hot Bubblegum

Hot Bubblegum (Hebrew: Shifshuf Naim) is the third film in the Lemon Popsicle series, set in Tel Aviv and released in 1981.[9]

Synopsis

Three high school seniors preparing for final exams in the early 1960s have the normal teenage concerns about girls, sex and relationships. They try to find out if going steady with one girlfriend is better or if changing girlfriends all the time makes for too many complications. By the end of summer, all things get better.[9]

Cast

• Yftach Katzur as Benzi
• Zachi Noy as Yudale
• Jonathan Sagall as Momo
• Dvora Kedar as Sonja
• Orna Dagan as Nikki
• Rachel Steiner as Martha
• Ariella Rabinovich as Doris
• Sibylle Rauch as Frieda
• Christiane Schmidtmer as Fritzi

Remake

In 1982, Davidson wrote and directed an American remake, The Last American Virgin, starring Lawrence Monoson and Diane Franklin.[10]

See also

• Israeli cinema
• List of submissions to the 51st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Israeli submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lemon Popsicle.

• Lemon Popsicle Forever
• Lemon Popsicle Fanzine
• Eskimo Limon (1) (1978) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 2: Yotzim Kavua (1979) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 3: Shifshuf Naim (1981) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 4: Sapiches (1982) at IMDb
• Spin-off Sababa (1983) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 5: Roman Za'ir (1984) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 6: Harimu Ogen (1985) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 7: Ahava Tzeira (1987) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 8: Summertime Blues (1988) at IMDb
• Eskimo Limon 9: The Party Goes On (2001) at IMDb

На других языках

[ru] Горячая жевательная резинка