(1925) and its ending to the Nazi's Final Solution; Smith wrote that the film involves a homophobic protagonist, Alphie, trying to save his "normal" relationship with Bibi from what the film considers satanic, which includes electronic music, glitter, homosexuals, and drag queens. Release and reception Stewart described how Golan predicted the success of The Apple: The Apple made its premiere as the opener of the 1980 Montreal World Film Festival, where its attendees received vinyl records of music from the film; the festival's president Serge Losique was recommended by his son to screen the movie. According to Jakubowicz, there were "bad reviews almost everywhere." The movie garnered a largely negative audience at the festival, some watchers throwing the vinyl records at the screen. According to Stewart, Golan was so distraught from this that after the festival, he considered killing himself by jumping off a hotel balcony. As Golan once said, "It's impossible that I'm so wrong about it. I cannot be that wrong about the movie. They just don't understand what I was trying to do." Common criticism from both reviews that appeared in trade publications and major news outlets and the audience were a lack of originality, a weak script, uninspired music, poor execution, and Golan's inexperienced take on the 1960s hippie movement. Variety gave a negative review of the film, stating that "the characters and story are flimsy and seem intended as mere pegs on which to hang the musical numbers" and that "the choreography generates a lot of energy, but its frantic tempo doesn't always compensate for lack of imagination." However, the review also complimented the film's technical aspects, particularly that "David Gurfinkel's camera work profusely [uses] every trick in the business, every filter and lighting device, to hold attention up at all times." The Monthly Film Bulletin described The Apple as a "cut-price extravaganza [that] plummets to a new low in opportunistic inanity," and said that the "sole saving grace is an enthusiastically camp performance by Vladek Skeybal." The Ottawa Citizen described The Apple (along with Golan's earlier film The Magician of Lublin) as containing "remarkable feats of ineptitude". On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 27% score based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". At the 1980