First Impressions: Thinking Aloud About Film

A discussion of Alexandria Again and Forever, focussing on the uses of Shakespeare, the influence of the American musical on Chahine, John Gielgud's visit to perform Hamlet in Cairo, queer desire, the peplum film, Alexander, Anthony and Cleopatra, Art and Activism, the 1978 cinema artists' strike in Egypt.

A discussion of Youssef Chahine's An Egyptian Story, the second part of his Alexandria Trilogy, and one which is self-reflexive on his career thus far, highlighting Cairo Station, Saladin, Jamila The Algerian, Un jour le nil, The Sparrow and other of his films. We trace recurring patterns: the type of mise-en-scène, the use of Shakespeare, the references to American musicals, the deployment of a repertory company of actors, a homosexual element, a social critique matched by an auto-critique -- it's a film in which Chahine puts himself on trial -- and a more inventive, imaginative and personal dramatisation that interestingly deploys expressionist and surrealist elements.

A discussion of Youssef Chahine's ALEXANDRIA, WHY? with José Arroyo, Richard Layne and special guest star Andrew Moor. Richard Dyer named this as one of his favourite queer films of all time.

A great discussion of a fascinating film, part Teen musical, part Tennessee Williams, and an exploration of the social and political issue that arose after the death of Nasser and Egypt's defeat in the Six Day War with Israel, filmed with great verve and style.

After our podcast of Un jour, Le Nile, Richard discovered the 1972 recut and partly remade version of the film on You Tube and we decided to see it, explore its differences from the 1968 version and the director's cut and see how that might have affected its narrative, its politics and the way that ire represents sexuality. What is a filmmaker against the combined diplomatic and internal exigencies of the USSR and Egypt?

A dense and rich political film with extraordinary mise-en-scène that begins with an open letter to the Egyptian people and ends with Nasser informing Egypt of the loss of the Six Day War with Israel and announcing his resignation as the people take to the streets. The Sparrow is perhaps the least pleasurable of his films we've seen so far but very rewarding indeed. The more we talked about it and the more we read, the richer the film becomes.

A real find, the director´s cut of a celebrated film maudit, currently made available on the Henri platform through the great generosity of the Cinémathèque Française. A celebration of the Soviet-Egyptian collaboration that resulted in the building of the Aswan Dam, this film is also a critique of the dispossession and displacement it led to, a feminist critique of the loss of identity that accompanies following a husband to a new country, it can also very much be read as an inter-racial gay romance in the midst of the wrenching transformations brought on by Modernity. An extraordinary film that works on many levels, has an epic narrative sweep to accompany its 70mm Cinemascope specs, but that always brings the personal to the political and does so poetically through word, image and sound. A masterpiece of the cinema.

The Youssef Chahine Podcast No. 6: The Land aka The Earth by Jose Arroyo & Richard Layne

An extraordinary political melodrama about liberation struggles in colonial settings, produced by its female star and released at the same time as Mehboob Kahn's Mother India, with which it would ideally be programmed. When we began this podcast I was a bit anxious that we weren't knowledgeable enough on Chahine's oeuvre to say anything worth listening to. But as I've began reading the literature on Chahine, I realise that what we know and can bring to the table is a knowledge of film history and film aesthetics. None of the books on Chahine I've read mention the influence of Gone With the Wind on this film -- extraordinarily interesting in the light of current discussions of the film -- and we are beginning to dig out patterning: the melodramatic mode, the politics that underpin, the extraordinary long takes often shot in and for depth, the filming from the inside out, the mobile camera, the ease with which affect is generated, the cinephilia through which one sees and where one detects the influence of Dreyer's Joan of Arc, Sirk's mise-en-scène, American post-war musicals; the homoeroticism more evident in some film than others but always a running thread; the filming of individuals with crowds, which are often depicted as community but also shown to turn against the individual. This is a film based on a true story and filmed in the heat of the moment where the fate of the heroine was not yet settled. It's an extraordinary film that once more raises questions regarding the relations between political cinema and film form. We highly recommend it.

A discussion of Youssef Chahine's Saladin which offers some context on the cinematic representation of Saladin in relation to Richard the Lion Heart, some historical information in its relation to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's efforts to maintain a United Arab Republic, and Chahine's attempts to narrate those aspirations through the story of Saladin. We admire the film's use of the CinemaScope frame, its staging in depth, its use of colour, and editing; and bemoan the way some of the action is directed. A huge popular success in its day. An Arab answer to the epics then so popular in Hollywood, not least in offering an Arab point-of-view on the Crusades; and a cultural mainstay through its regular rotation on television: this was also reputedly Nasser's favourite film.