Egypt partners with Google to promote 'unmatched diversity' tourism campaign    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Taiwan GDP surges on tech demand    World Bank: Global commodity prices to fall 17% by '26    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    UNFPA Egypt, Bayer sign agreement to promote reproductive health    Egypt to boost marine protection with new tech partnership    France's harmonised inflation eases slightly in April    Eygpt's El-Sherbiny directs new cities to brace for adverse weather    CBE governor meets Beijing delegation to discuss economic, financial cooperation    Egypt's investment authority GAFI hosts forum with China to link business, innovation leaders    Cabinet approves establishment of national medical tourism council to boost healthcare sector    Egypt's Gypto Pharma, US Dawa Pharmaceuticals sign strategic alliance    Egypt's Foreign Minister calls new Somali counterpart, reaffirms support    "5,000 Years of Civilizational Dialogue" theme for Korea-Egypt 30th anniversary event    Egypt's Al-Sisi, Angola's Lourenço discuss ties, African security in Cairo talks    Egypt's Al-Mashat urges lower borrowing costs, more debt swaps at UN forum    Two new recycling projects launched in Egypt with EGP 1.7bn investment    Egypt's ambassador to Palestine congratulates Al-Sheikh on new senior state role    Egypt pleads before ICJ over Israel's obligations in occupied Palestine    Sudan conflict, bilateral ties dominate talks between Al-Sisi, Al-Burhan in Cairo    Cairo's Madinaty and Katameya Dunes Golf Courses set to host 2025 Pan Arab Golf Championship from May 7-10    Egypt's Ministry of Health launches trachoma elimination campaign in 7 governorates    EHA explores strategic partnership with Türkiye's Modest Group    Between Women Filmmakers' Caravan opens 5th round of Film Consultancy Programme for Arab filmmakers    Fourth Cairo Photo Week set for May, expanding across 14 Downtown locations    Egypt's PM follows up on Julius Nyerere dam project in Tanzania    Ancient military commander's tomb unearthed in Ismailia    Egypt's FM inspects Julius Nyerere Dam project in Tanzania    Egypt's FM praises ties with Tanzania    Egypt to host global celebration for Grand Egyptian Museum opening on July 3    Ancient Egyptian royal tomb unearthed in Sohag    Egypt hosts World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup in Somabay for 3rd consecutive year    Egyptian Minister praises Nile Basin consultations, voices GERD concerns    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Battling Hollywood
Published in Al-Ahram Weekly on 30 - 09 - 2004

Focussing on music, Hani Mustafa reflects on Misr International's European Film Panorama, which closed at the Galaxy multiplex this week
No one can deny the status of American film in the international market, or claim that it does not enjoy large-scale popularity among movie goers. But as recently as 20 years ago movie goers in Egypt enjoyed European as well as American and Egyptian films. Downtown movie theaters, for example, would show films from the Soviet Union, Italy and France. No such diversity has been in evidence in the last decade or so -- a fact that suggests that there is some degree of American monopoly over the Egyptian film market, which has led to the disappearance of European film screenings. Throughout the 1990s, indeed, only two European films found their way to movie theatres. The first, in 1995, was the Italian Il Postino, directed by Michael Radford, the second, in 1997, was the French film The Eighth Day, by Jaco Van Dormael. Nothing else was screened outside of film festivals.
The importance of screening European films in Egypt derives from the fact that they often demonstrate to the average cinema goer what can be achieved without the benefit of huge budgets and digital technology -- that cinema depends, in essence, on the originality of the idea behind the film and the humanity it manages to intimate. This is particularly evident in European films, many of which deal with subjects that Hollywood tends to eschew. And it is a significant part of the phenomenally popular Misr International's two-week initiative championed by Marianne Khoury. Many of the films shown had either won international awards or received critical praise.
Among them was the Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, which received the coveted Palm D'Or in the 2000 round of the Cannes Film Festival. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the film is a landmark, for it combines both European and American stylistic strains. One of the earliest practitioners of the Dogma 95 movement, Von Trier uses hand-held, unsteady cameras that flit from one character to the next, following the flow of the dialogue, while at the same time presenting melodramatic subject matter. Von Trier's main achievement in this film is to combine melodramatic subject matter with the musical genre popular in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s -- a combination he develops simultaneously on two levels: the realistic, melodramatic line that ends tragically with the death of the protagonist; and the music playing in that character's mind while she confronts a wide variety of hardships.
Music is also a major constituent in Exils, which earned its French filmmaker Tony Gatlif the best director's award at this year's Cannes. In the film a young Frenchman's trip in search of his family roots in Algeria is accompanied by a strong soundtrack. Accompanying this man is his girlfriend, who is of Algerian origin but neither knows nor wants to find out about her roots. She is a passive personality who just trails along from Spain to North Africa. From the first moment of the film and all the way to the end, which involves 10 whole minutes of Zar music, the viewer is regaled by a consistent outpouring of carefully selected music showing remarkable range. A different approach to Von Trier's, but one that is equally effective in evidencing difference from Hollywood.
Music is a main feature of many feature and documentary films in the panorama, such as Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club, which chronicles the regrouping of a Cuban band many years after they stopped performing. Wenders relies not on complicated techniques but on the fluid, engaging and humorous conversations of band members. Mixed in are scenes of Havana street life. Here music is the subject rather than an aesthetic instrument or stylistic feature. The most expressive thing said about this film was the statement of the director's. He wanted to create a film like the waves of the sea, he did, comparable to the flowing of the band's music. Another beautiful aspect of the film is that Wenders eschews political topics completely, offering no take on the Cuban regime but simply an unpretentious presentation of his subjects, their music and the human conditions that inform their lives.
The Dutch filmmaker Jack Janssen's We Loved Each Other So Much, another film about music, sets out to present the opinions of various Lebanese people of their legendary singer, Fairuz. Janssen offers a coherent documentary that skillfully weaves the open, spontaneous statements of the interviewees about their relationship with Fairuz, which sometimes reach an almost religious degree of fervour and reverence. Unlike Wenders, however, Janssen does allude to political issues in passing, giving the viewer the feeling that his film contains the seeds of several political documentaries -- a taxi driver recalling having been imprisoned for supporting the annulled right-wing Quwat Party, a doctor who, while studying in Syria, ended up spending eight years in prison for opposing Syrian presence in Lebanon. Some of these episodes are less humane than others, with a left- wing veteran of the Civil War and a Palestinian resident of the Shatila refugee camp, appearing less as individuals than types -- and not accompanied by the dreamier tunes of Fairuz. Despite demonstrating the extent to which the score affects the viewer's perception of any one scene, the film does not add up to a political statement.
No doubt the experience has allayed Khoury's inevitable, initial fears, for no guarantee existed of a positive response on the part of the Egyptian viewer, with the films proving so popular that many screenings were completely booked in advance and latecomers could not be accommodated, their places having been taken. It was as if the European Film Panorama was a drop of water on dry land. More pertinently, perhaps, it proved to distributors and producers alike that non-commercial, non-Hollywood cinema -- documentaries as well as features -- could be very popular in Egypt.


Clic here to read the story from its source.