First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film

This podcast has been very lucky with its listeners. Hussein, not only provided us with a possibility of viewing the wonderful Dawn of a New Day, but produced the sub-titles necessary to understand it. I took the opportunity of talking to Hussein to ask him about things we as English-speaking viewers simply did not understand. i.e an Egyptian perspective on the politics, the history, the significance of streets and buildings, the customs, the reputation of the actors in the film. All proved illuminating and enlightening and has certainly helped me understand Dawn of a New Day better. The conversation then continues onto Chahine as a figure in Egyptian cinema and culture and we will continue with that strand of conversation onto the next podcast.

A discussion of Atef Salem's 1959 Encounter with the Unknown, part of a cycle of films we will be covering as a way of setting a context for better understanding the work of Youssef Chahine. We discuss the very glamorous pairing of Omar Shariff and Samia Gamal, the superb mise-en-scène and visuals, what such skill brings to a rickety script and what it cannot, the relative lack of conceptual and thematic richness in comparison to Chahine and much else. You can follow the blogpost at: https://notesonfilm1.com/2021/03/03/the-youssef-chahine-podcast-no-30-encounter-with-the-unknown-%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b9%d8%af-%d9%85%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%ac%d9%87%d9%88%d9%84-1959/

Richard Layne and I return with a discussion of Dawn of a New Day, one of Chahine's best. It echoes Sirk once more and has traces of An Affair to Remember and European Art Cinema like Antonioni's La notte or Fellini's La dolce vita whilst remaining very much a popular melodrama about love which is also a commentary on the state of the nation and its future. A very beautiful film and so accessible it's a real pity it's not part of the current Netflix package.

A discussion between friends, informed but eager for exchange and hoping to contribute to a discussion. We probably missed many reference points but as soon as we stopped talking I realised the most obvious one is 120 BPM.

An extended discussion of Youssef Chahine's Alexandria New York. 'I love American cinema but America doesn't love me'. Anyone who loves Chahine's cinema will find this irresistible. A film made by someone who thinks and knows how to visualise and dramatise. We will see it again

A discussion of Silence...on tourne focussing on the many characteristic flourishes we like so much in Chahine's oeuvre but exploring also why they are less satisfying in this particular work.

A discussion of one of Youssef Chahine's most enjoyable films, The Ring Seller/ Biya el-Khawatim. We discuss the film in relation to Chahine's oeuvre, to national and transnational cultures, to the musical genre in relation to theatrical operetta and zarzuela but also in relation to films like Powell/Pressburger's Oh.... Rosalinda! and Arthur Freed musicals.

The Youssef Chahine Podcast returns for a discussion of Destiny, with its images of book burnings, its themes of love and religious tolerance, its genre-bending mix of historical epic and musical extravaganza, and Chahine's characteristic artfulness with the techne of filmmaking.

After a brief gap, José Arroyo and Richard Layne return for the 24th episode of the Youssef Chahine Pocast, an extended discussion of L'autre/ The Other. a film about Orientalism, Imperialism, Terrorism; an examination of class structures with a gender analysis; a film about a land and its people...yet one that also recalls popular melodramatic and glitzy works like Dynasty. Not quite top Chahine but a film that's nonetheless made us think and that we've grown to love.

Richard returns to discuss Youssef Chahine's fascinating musical in the light of Tara Shehata's great podcast on the film last week.