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YOUSSEF CHAHINE:
POET AND THINKER OF ARAB CINEMA
Notes by Ibrahim Fawal
AT its centenary, the Egyptian film industry can
boast of having produced hundreds of film directors. A number of them have
had successful careers, and a few have distinguished themselves critically.
But for all their technical skills and creativity, these directors have
operated within the confines of local tradition. Youssef Chahine, however,
while maintaining certain aspects of that tradition, finds other aspects of
it constricting or less fulfulling. From his first film, PAPA AMIN (1950),
the 24-year old director set to create his personal cinema. And he has never
abandoned the course or shunned controversy. He stands out among his
predecessors and contemporaries, not only because he has gained more
international recognition, nor because his films are consistently of a high
standard, but because he has used his films not simply as a medium for
entertainment but as an art for self-expression. One can discern in his
thirty-three features and four documentaries a consistency of vision, a
pattern of themes, and a virtuosity in giving them a cinematic shape. He
must also be credited for having been an inspiration to a generation of
younger filmmakers throughout the Arab world, who look upon cinema as a
serious art and a tool for change. For these reasons, coupled with his
honesty and courage, Arab intellectuals as well as foreign cineastes regard
Chahine as the poet and thinker of Arab cinema.
YOUSSEF CHAHINE was born in Alexandria in 1926 to a
middle class family. He was educated at the prestigious Victoria College in
Alexandria and then studied theater at Pasadena Playhouse. He admired the
American musical, and was particularly attracted to the films of Gene Kelly.
Though Chahine's musical films are few, they all show his flair to that
genre. Even his historical or social dramas are not without a burst of song
and dance, not to please the crowd but to provide another dimension to his
dramas. Some critics fault him for blending several genres in one film;
others point to the influence of Italian neo-realism on his classic CAIRO STATION (1958), and to similarities
between his and Fellini's autobiographical films. In truth, Chahine's style,
synthetic that it may be, is a style all his own. If any director can claim
"authorship" of his films, Chahine is certainly an auteur. This partially
accounts for his popularity in Europe, particularly in France. In 1996 the
Locarno Film Festival held a 13-day retrospective of all of his films, and in
the same year Cahiers du Cinema devoted an entire issue to his cinema. The
following year, he was awarded Cannes Film Festival's 50th Anniversary
Lifetime Achievement Award. And this past June two of his films were showing
simultaneously through France.
About the Presenter
Presenting the Youssef Chahine retrospective is Ibrahim Fawal. He was born
in Ramallah, Palestine. He received a Master's degree in film from UCLA,
served as "Jordanian" first assistance on LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, established a
documentary film company, founded an educational film festival, and for
twenty-five years taught film and literature at the University of Alabama in
Birmingham. In 1998, his novel depicting the tragedy of Palestine, ON THE
HILLS OF GOD, won the highly acclaimed PEN-Oakland Award "for excellence in
literature." Recently, he submitted to the University of Oxford a doctoral
thesis on the cinema of Youssef Chahine.
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