First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film

The Youssef Chahine Podcast talks to filmmaker Tara Shehata about two Youssef Chahine musicals, C'es toi mon amour/ ENTA HABIBI (1957) and Silence, on tourne!/Skoot hansawwar (2001).

A discussion of the Youssef Chahine's Devil of the Sahara aka The Desert's Devil. We discuss the influence of Zorro and Robin Hood on the film, how Sharif is deployed as a combination of Errol Flynn AND Tyrone Power. We praise the film's production values; how it's a piece of entertainment filmed with a verve and flair that comes across even in the very bad copy we had access to. The film has exciting action sequences that make one re-think action in his later films and very successful large-scale musical numbers -- the influence of Minnelli evident throughout -- that likewise raises questions about the deliberateness of later choices. A glossy piece of entertainment we both loved even though we saw it in the worst circumstances possible.

A discussion of Nissae Bila Regal, Women Without Men, sometimes also known as Only Women, a Youssef Chahine film from 1953 with superb production values, musical numbers a la MGM and a plot that recalls Federico Garcîa Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. We discuss many of the themes that are to recur throughout Chahine's oeuvre: the influence of Hollywood cinema, melodrama, an exploration of modernisation, gender roles, a discussion of an idea of nation.....and much more.

Yaser Hammad is a young Saudi filmmaker as well as the screenwriter of Saudi Arabia's first ever feature film, Roll'em. Meeting Yaser here has been one of the great pleasures of doing the Chahine podcast. Not only is he, like us, a great admirer of Chahine but, unlike us, he's got access to all the Arab writing on Chahine and is much more knowledgeable about actors, songs, the whole pop and social culture around Chahine. His additions, corrections, interventions have been so invaluable that I asked him to join us for this podcast so that our listeners may also benefit. This is a wide-ranging conversation on Chahine's oeuvre that tries to bring an Arab perspective on the work and, more personally, an account of what Chahine's work has meant to at least one young Arab filmmaker.

A discussion of Youssef Chahine's very first feature, Baba Amin/ Papa Amin/ Daddy Amin. We discuss how the first half seems like the work of a different, less talented filmmaker, how the second half comes alive with charm, inventiveness, song; how Faten Hamama once more comes across as one of the great presences of world cinema; the connection to the Astaire/ Rogers Swing Time; its interesting mix of musical and melodrama, and how auteurism here results in an enhanced appreciation of the work.

An appreciation of Chahine's short but great Cairo as Seen By Chahine. We discuss the film's self-reflexiveness. How its aware of framing, composition, Foreign expectations, relations and obligations concerning style and subject matter. How to film and evoke a city? How to do it with respect and love for its inhabitants? How to politely warn about dangers around and dangers ahead and how to understand what drives desperate people there. We could have had a much longer discussion. But then, it would have been longer than the film.

A discussion of Le sixième jour, which Chahine dedicates to Gene Kelly as a thank you for having filled his youth with joy. A rare Chahine film that is centred on a female star, female desire and female self-actualisation in a patriarchal culture. A hybrid of a woman's film and musical. It's set during a cholera pandemic, which resonates with the present, and also features a story of the unrequited love of a 26 year old street performer for an unhappy and much older housewife that still feels transgressive. Richard loved it very much. I less so. But we agree that it remains essential viewing for fans of Dalida and Youssef Chahine.

José Arroyo and Richard Layne discuss Youssef Chahine's The Emigrant in the light of the previous conversation with Martin Stollery and in the light of Dr. Stollery's monograph on the film.

Richard Layne and José Arroyo discuss Adieu Bonaparte, the notorious Franco-Egyptian co-production, and the only Chahine film we've been able to find on Blu-ray (under France's 'Heritage' collection). Of interest to anyone concerned with questions of North African Cinema, Colonialism, Arab Cultures or the various ways sexuality has been queered in non-Western countries.

Martin Stollery is the author of a monograph on Youssef Chahine's The Emigrant, the most sustained analysis of any one Youssef Chahine film I've been able to find in English. Here we talk about the film itself, how it allegorises, the meaning and uses of water in Chahine's films, the famous court case that is part of the context of the film's release, and the film's relationship to Biblical epics as well as Youssef Chahine's more personal style of filmmaking. An illuminating discussion of texts, contexts and modes of analysis that ends with a renewed appreciation of Chahine's achievements as a director.