event
Cinematheque: Cairo Station
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Sat Jan 23
7:30 pm
Cinematheque: Cairo Station at Vilas Hall
Egyptian director Youssef Chahine became the Arab world's most internally and internationally respected filmmaker with 1958's Cairo Station. That said, the film was banned in Egypt for 12 years because of its dark confrontation of sexuality and cultural crisis, channeled through Chahine's performance as newspaper vendor who becomes pathologically obsessed with a sexually liberated woman (Hind Rostom). Chahine's camera leers at her through the character's eyes in shockingly revealing shots (for the time and place), and deftly carves a multi-faceted story through the volatile microcosm of the busy Cairo train station. Not only does the woman's coldness drive the vendor to violence, Chahine coats the entire thing in unforgiving urban grit, forcing a society to take a blunt look at itself.
Vilas Hall 821 University Ave., Madison, WI
Egyptian director Youssef Chahine became the Arab world's most internally and internationally respected filmmaker with 1958's Cairo Station. That said, the film was banned in Egypt for 12 years because of its dark confrontation of sexuality and cultural crisis, channeled through Chahine's performance as newspaper vendor who becomes pathologically obsessed with a sexually liberated woman (Hind Rostom). Chahine's camera leers at her through the character's eyes in shockingly revealing shots (for the time and place), and deftly carves a multi-faceted story through the volatile microcosm of the busy Cairo train station. Not only does the woman's coldness drive the vendor to violence, Chahine coats the entire thing in unforgiving urban grit, forcing a society to take a blunt look at itself.
Updated 01/22/2010
