Did you have to cut a great trailer to get into this year’s Venice Film Festival?  Neither the mesmerizing trailer for “A Single Man” nor this intense trailer for the Israeli film “Lebanon”, winner of the Venice Film Festival’s prestigious Golden Lion (a.k.a. the best film of the festival), have a word of English.  You may not understand what “A Single Man” is about but you’ll want to find out.  Judging only from the trailer, “Lebanon” is about three Israeli soldiers in a tank watching the war in Lebanon through the scope on their vehicle.  Looking at the official logline, I was close.  The film is about not three but four Israeli trapped in a tank deep in enemy territory during the Lebanon War.  It’s also autobiographical but I never would have figured that one out.  But I came close and I don’t understand a word of Hebrew which is a great credit to the trailer but it does make my ancestors very, very sad.

“Lebanon” currently has no U.S. release date although it will play during this year’s New York Film Festival.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel made the film their submission to the Academy in the Best Foreign Film category.  Hit the jump to see the trailer and require no subtitles.

Well you can put this in the running for Best Trailers of 2009.  This is how you take a film you’ve never even heard of and get everyone who sees it to put that film on their radar.  Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, and to a lesser extent Matthew Goode, are all names folks recognize but they’re not going to make people watch out for the independent movie they’re starring in.  But combine those names in this trailer and you’ve got something and when you discover that this was the closing picture of this year’s Venice Film Festival, received a strongly positive reaction, and won a Best Actor award for Colin Firth, you’ve really got something.  I hope that you’re now as interested in “A Single Man” as I am and you’ll want to watch this trailer and then read a single-line synopsis once you hit the jump.