The 1950s were one of the most turbulent decades in Egyptian history. These bruises, coupled with his repressed sexual frustration distort his grasp on reality, and gradually a ‘perfect’ plan forms in his beleaguered mind1. Gordon, Joel (2013). He remained active in his later years, directing 'Destiny' in 1997 and 'This Is Chaos' in 2007. Youssef Chahine's masterpiece. Qinawi is- without a doubt -a pervert and a disturbed individual who frequently anticipates catching a glimpse of the cleavage or other curvy parts of women’s body. Chahine moves his camera as fluidly as a sleepwalker through a nightmarish world where, as luggage porters strive to unionize and all sections of society swarm along the tracks, the crippled street vendor Qinawi (played by Chahine himself) feverishly desires a brash, beautiful and utterly uninterested lemonade seller, with dangerous results. Shockingly, this film is a melodrama, complete with a dramatic, Fifties' style musical score... not at all what you'd expect coming out of Egypt in the late 1950's. Chahine imbues the look of a wounded animal in Qinawi’s eyes, except for the time he devours female bodies through his stares. The fact that there are a lot of people emphasizes the location being the “heart of the city”. It was surely a great time to chance upon Cairo Station while I am currently addicted to Netflix’s Peaky Blinders (the former is also available on the streaming platform). The only scene from such nauseating scenes of Cairo Station is when Qinawi attempts to win Hanouma’s love with his hopeless proposal of marriage and with the gift of a gold necklace that belonged to his mother. There's a problem loading this menu right now. In 1992 Jacques Lassalle approached him to stage a piece of his choice for Comédie-Française. Sexual motifs pop up regularly, including the playful jest of soda bottles and steaming train whistles. Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2013. It also provides a micro perspective of three individuals who are, in a way, the collective embodiment of a country, which needs a union of workers and should transcend its rigid sexual boundaries. The same year he started writing The Emigrant (1994), a story inspired by the Biblical characte… It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Drama and fun delivered by marvellous actors, one of them including the director. The film opens with an excellent montage and voice-over proclaiming “Cairo Station as the heart of the capital”. Lastly, the sequence ends with the opening credits against the city of Cairo as an orchestrated score is played in the background. In this beautiful classic film, Cairo's main railroad station is used to represent all of Egyptian society. While the late 1950s Egyptian movie-goers were appalled over the distressing resolution and the frank exploration of psychosexual behavior, the foreign critics of the time celebrated it for the hybridized film-form (confirming neither to neo-realist standards nor melodrama). It was the decade when the monarchy was overthrown by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who officially became the country’s President in 1956 and served until his death in September 1970. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. and now? This sense of rapidity becomes clearer because the movie as a whole takes place in only one day in which a multitude of events unfold. The film was of course re-discovered and acclaimed twenty years after its first premiere. Qinawi is obsessed with plucky Hanouma and at a few occasions, he obscenely leers at her. Moreover, Chahine’s impeccable acting bestows Qinawi with a depth which makes him alternately sympathetic and repulsive. In 1954 Chahine's'The Blazing Sun' featured the film debut of Omar Sharif, and in 1958 Chahine himself starred in his noir-like thriller, 'Cairo Station.' The pitiful mid-twentieth-century urban fellow remains as insignificant as any of his ancestors in pharaonic Egypt three millennia before him. “Review. A brave picture considering the many frames with women with uncovered hair. ( Log Out / There's a problem loading this menu right now. One particular neatly aligned shot happens when Qinawi is burdened by the day-time dallies between Abu Siri (played by Farid Shawqi) and Hanouma. In one such jubilant, stylized scene, Hanouma raucously dances to the tune of a rock-and-roll group and even winks at the camera (or maybe at the conservative audience group). The accelerating pace of mid-twentieth-century culture is evident everywhere in Cairo Station, and its impact on women is dramatic. Peaky Blinders does not glorify such machismo either; it has a story set after the First World War, and portraying characters with not a drop of chauvinism within them would do no justice to the time period in which the brilliant script is set in, which successfully transports us to the 1920s. Director Youssef Chahine studied film in Pasadena, and in "Cairo Station" (1958), it is obvious that he brought a chunk of Hollywood back to Egypt with him. The narrative takes place within a day (perhaps only eleven hours or so). Youssef Chahine's Cairo: Central Station is a refreshing blend of hidden sexual tension, film-noir and neo-realism from the 1950's. “Chahine, Chaos and Cinema: A Revolutionary Coda”. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Select the department you want to search in. In more developed countries such as the US, incel forums have evolved into a hotbed for some young men who go on to carry out racially or religiously motivated mass shootings and other acts of terror. In his obsessive mind, his dream girls meld into Hanouma. The movie provides a kaleidoscopic vision of Egypt, but is set entirely in and around the eponymous train station on a normal day that suddenly turns abnormal. He snaps, finally, when he overhears her cavorting in a warehouse with her fiancé, who is the gruff, yet honest leader of the porters union. Many African societies persistently neglect mental health in their social discourse, even more so for men who must adhere to rather dated standards for masculinity. Cairo Station has melodramatic touches here and there, but it doesn’t mar the realism of the then relevant social issues. I saw this film on Egyptian Television many years ago - when I lived in Egypt. It's a Hitchcockian mix of desperate sexual … While Qinawi’s transgressions in the film are his own, and cannot entirely be attributed to his mental health, it is startling to see how much of an effort Chahine put into giving context to the main character’s socially unacceptable behaviour, as well as his emotional deprivation. It conveys the broadened perspective of a society, striving to move forward while at the same time being deep-rooted in poverty and social ills. Cairo Station went on to achieve international recognition, and it was screened at Cannes when Chahine received the life achievement award at the same film festival in 1998. Once more, Chahine is presenting us with the rapidity of the setting, which in turn implies rapidity of the film as a whole. Apart from the fine marriage of styles, Chahine excels at weaving the palette for his neo-realist setting. The little relaxation of the censorial parameters during the revolutionary regime was said to have facilitated film-makers to take to the streets and explore societal ills through camera (although Cairo Station was banned after public demand). They carry re-filled Coke bottles in garishly painted buckets of water, and dice with death as they are chased through freight yards by the ineffectual police. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. The sounds that are heard are those inevitably linked with train stations of which include a steam horn and the sound of trains coming and going. It was acclaimed as his first artistic breakthrough, and stands tall as a crowning achievement for him due to his eclectic mixture of tones and styles. The sound of the song is particularly robust, yet, greatly sinister, and this adds to all aspects of the film and the nature of it being ominous. This time the emphasis on time is even more significant because the clock is the only thing in the shot. He corners her and offers his own marriage proposal. Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine’s 1958 drama film, Cairo Station, has often been credited as a movie with “a prophetic look at toxic masculinity”, which is something I am yet to comprehend, because there is nothing “prophetic” about a cinematic piece which foregrounds an amaranthine, disturbing concept existing since time immemorial, ever since most men discovered that … Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016, vary good ,ok, vary good ,ok,vary good ,ok, Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2016, Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2010. And that is also what is terrifying about him, so it is best to leave empathy behind when you watch this movie. World-famous Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine's career as director spanned nearly six decades. Surprisingly, it is free of censorship and … If you didn't see this when it came out - and you like b/W classic films, this is one. The movie is basically a hagiography of its warped and absurdly flawed protagonist who basically loses nothing and gains everything towards the climax (unlike the lead characters in the aforementioned oeuvres); Kabir is a product of age-old beliefs which endorse macho rodomontade, unnecessary violence and lalochezia as signs of the “perfect man”. But he is not a barbaric behemoth; he is human. He further shares his dream to live peacefully in a rural village (“We will be very kind to our children” he expresses to Hanouma; the sadness in his eyes when he says those words suggests a tough childhood which Qinawi may have experienced). Playing an uneasy, introverted figure, his twitchy, evasive idiosyncrasies signals an inherent self-loathing and lack of self-esteem. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. The rather puerile scopophiliac ends up having his lucky moments, for instance, while watching Hanouma change her wet clothes after she has been doused with a water hose by her friends. Vast numbers of everyday people are seen walking on the platforms, rapidly trying to catch their next train. However, creating a rather progressive piece of art for a time period like the 1950s, and that too in Egypt, cut both ways for the director. Was he standing his artistic ground, refusing to be pigeon-holed into one particular static genre? We not only equate the relation between these two controlled shots, but also understand the course of action he is about to take1. In a scene where Qinawi’s fingers are stained with blood- after he has been chased away from a disused carriage where he spied on Hanouma changing her clothes –he stares at ‘glamour’ pictures scattered at his feet as he rubs his bloody fingers.
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