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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 13 - 19 May 1999 Issue No. 429
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Books Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Pulitzer? No thank you
"William Saroyan: The Man, The Writer" -- written, directed and produced by Paul Kalinian and winner of six international film festival awards, including a gold award for best documentary -- will be screened on 19 May in the Oriental Hall, American University in Cairo, at 7pm. The son of an Armenian immigrant to the US, Saroyan (1908-1981) left school at 15 and educated himself, eventually to become a world renowned writer and playwright. Most of his stories, which have been described as "brash, original and irreverant..., celebrating the joy of life in spite of poverty, hunger and insecurity", are based on his childhood experiences in a first generation Armenian American family. Although in 1940 he turned down the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time of Your Life on the grounds that it was "no more great or good" than anything else he had written, by the time Saroyan died in 1981 he had received countless awards for the over 60 published works to his name including an Academy Award for Best Original Screen Story.
Director Paul Kalinian wil be present to answer questions following the screening of his film.
14th century Qur'anic manuscript from Mameluke Egypt or Syria Cultural Palaces sing Happy Birthday
To celebrate the 1400th anniversary of the Arab-Islamic conquest of Egypt, the Cultural Palaces Organisation has sponsored various cultural events -- symposiums, exhibitions, book fairs, film screenings, musical soirées -- which will take place throughout Egypt's governorates. This week, on 17 May, the North Sinai Cultural Palace will be holding a symposium led by Dr. Emad Abu Ghazi on "The Role of Egyptian Libraries in Islamic History". In the Damanhour Cultural Palace, two book fairs will be held: from 3 to 12 May, of Dar El-Shaab publications, and from 19 to 29 September of Dar El-Shorouq's. The theatre attached to the El-Arish Cultural Palace will present performances of Mawkib El-Nour (Procession of Light), a play which tells the story of the coming of Islam to Egypt, written by Mohamed El-Sayed, directed by Abdel-Rahman El-Shafei, with songs by Ezzat Abdel-Wahab. In Zagazig's cultural palace there will be an exhibition of Coptic art from 15 to 29 May while El-Arish's will host an exhibiton titled Islamiyat Muassara (Contemporary Islamics). Books that will be published by the Cultural Palaces Organisation during this period include the four volumes of Al-Maqrizi's chronicles and Ahmed Ibn Tulun's sira (autobiography), as well as the proceedings of various conferences on Islamic culture and history that have been held in recent years.
Psycho (Gus van Sant 1998)
Hitchcock fans hailed Psycho in 1960 as his finest film, and recently it was selected by the American Film Institute as the 18th best film in history, proving to be among his most abiding. In the meantime innumerable books and research papers have dealt with the horror, suspense, voyeurism and schizophrenia which were essential to Joseph Stefano's script. With hundreds of horror movies following in its footsteps, Psycho may even be said to have initiated the genre. Psycho (1998) is a tributary replica where Vince Vaughn is at a disadvantage playing Norman Bates, since Anthony Perkins fit the role so perfectly. Saul Bass's credit sequence is duplicated in color, Bernard Hermann's original score is re-orchestrated, even a Hitchcock double crosses the street in front of the real estate office to mimic Hitchcock's signature in the original. Director Van Sant took the opening shot from a helicopter -- one of Hitchcock's initial ideas, not realised in the original -- and added subjective inserts in the two murder scenes. Psycho (1998) has little else to offer, though. A carbon copy of the original, in Egypt the censors' scissors cut it in the exact same places as its 38-year-old predecessor.
