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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 June 1999 Issue No. 433 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 June 1999 Issue No. 433
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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 Living Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Celebration of a sardonic eye
CLAUDE CHABROL launched the New Wave in French cinema, which ushered in a new sensibility that marked the late '50s and influenced film-making worldwide. In 1997, cineasts all over the world celebrated the production of Chabrol's 50th film. This month the French Cultural Centre in Cairo arranged a mini-retrospective: seven Chabrol films, representative of various stages of his oeuvre, were shown between 2 and 17 June. Among last week's films were: Les Cousins (1959); Les Bonnes Femmes (1960); La Femme Infidèle (1969); and Le Boucher (1970).If you missed out, you can still catch two films, tonight and next Thursday at 7.00pm, Les Noces Rouges (1973) and Poulet au Vinaigre (1985). In tonight's film, starring Stéphane Audran and Michel Piccoli, Pierre, whose wife is perpetually ill, is madly in love with his mistress, Lucienne, the wife of the deputy mayor. Pierre kills his wife and, when Lucienne's husband discovers the truth and attempts to blackmail him, he kills him too. Next week, a doctor, a notary and a butcher enter the real estate business, but the Widow Cuno and her son refuse to sell their house. When the butcher dies in mysterious circumstances, Inspector Lavardin launches an investigation, and turns the village upside down.
The medium is the message
ESPACE Karim Francis Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of tin-plate sculptures by Sobhi Guirguis, Sherif Abdel-Badie and Hazem El-Mestikawi -- each belonging to a different generation, each with a different artistic orientation. None of the three have worked with this medium before. The sculptors on tin-plate: "At first glance," Abdel-Badie offers, "a poor material because we use it in our daily lives, yet it has enormous potential in terms of plasticity, color, welding and relief ". For El-Mestikawi, tin-plate offers a chance to deal with "the head as a mass, the features of the face, the state of the mask... the relation of opposition between roundness and sharp angles". For Guirguis, whose brainchild this exhibition was, tin-plate makes "play" possible, "serious play through which I can try to escape any framework and discover new horizons in sculpture".
Sherif Abdel-Badie; Sobhi Guirguis
Ever After (Andy Tennant, 1998)
Opening with Lady Cinderella's granddaughter telling the Grimm brothers the story of her fortunate grandmother, this mind-bogglingly raging yarn dresses the age-old fairy tale in realistic, if unlikely, medieval garb. The film is set in France, where Leonardo da Vinci, a successful artist, befriends Prince Charming (Dougray Scott), who saves his Mona Lisa from art-dealing gypsy bandits. To return the favour, da Vinci lets Cinderella (Drew Barrymore) out of the room where her vicious stepmother (hilariously played by Anjelica Houston) had locked her, thus allowing her to attend Prince Charming's ball and live happily ever after. Instead of the missing shoe, the film appropriates the celebrated love-at-first-sight scene of The Mask of Zorro -- Cinderella and the prince, a romantic rebel who takes to stealing horses out of existential ennui, first lay eyes on each other with him astride his latest booty. The formula of romance-comedy-action works in this picture, thanks to its witty dialogue and excellent cast.
Da Vinci and Cinderella
Now showing at Ramsis Hilton and Tiba cinemas.
