The 12 Pianists Show - Cairo Opera House. That was a strange, unusual and weird piece of art! But it's enjoyable to see that at least for once in your lifetime!
Friday, April 04, 2008
The 12 Pianists Show - Cairo Opera House
The Chaos: confronting corruption or confirming it?!
It has been a while since the last time I went to see an Egyptian movie… as most of the Egyptian works don't match my interests nor even my ethical code at most times!
But this spring is a bit different!
I felt a notable change with the Egyptian Film Industry, upon seeing the trailers of the season's movies… I found that the boring love story that always has a happy ending no longer exists, and
it's not even a naïve action movie, in which the paunchy hero kills an army of strong men and then sacrifices his life to increase the box office revenues! But I saw a different tone, revolutionary one... and even a political depth surrounds the scenes…!
So it was time to reserve a seat. ..
Out of four screened films, I picked "Le Chaos", directed by both left-wingers; Yusuf Shahin and Khaled Yusuf… The fact that Khaled Yusuf is directing two competing movies at the same season (the other is Heena Maysara) made me wonder about the purpose, the funds and even the message he's trying to communicate through the cinematic 'flood' he's leading!
Watching the trailers wasn't really enough to determine the 'lefty' ideas promoted by the two films he directed… in which miserable examples are presented in the middle of a class-autocratic society, where poor and simple people are smashed by the authority's figures, while rich people are sharing them their 'common' struggle to eliminate injustice and bring 'equality' to the suffering society.
Isn't this calling back the teachings of Carl Marx, Friedrich Engels and their folks… regarding their views on equalizing people by displacing Capitalism and supporting Socialism?!
In "Le Chaos", the talented actor Khaled Saleh represents a venal Egyptian officer who is abusing everyone he can reach in his neighborhood, to get bribes for the services he offers… many people has been referring to Saleh's role, as a symbol of the governmental corruption that is taking place all over the country, and I don't think they were so far from truth with this.
Saleh had a saying that he kept repeating throughout the whole movie, which was turned to be the season's proverb later, in which he used to say what means: "If you're not faithful to me, so you're not faithful to Egypt!" The quote has been interpreted by Egyptians as if he means, if you don't like the government; so you are not, by any means, a faithful citizen.
On the other hand, the politically-oriented scenes show us a poor Mum and her daughter, who was in love with the son of her rich 'patriotic' boss, all are struggling against the spread corruption; each in his own way … The poor daughter is always embarrassed by the single-lusty officer… while the rich son, who is working as a prosecutor, is dealing firmly with his colleague's deviated behavior and even respecting the Human Rights of the prisoners! (Isn't this too ideal?).
The movie also comes with a cocktail of sexual scenes, bloody incidents and brutal torturing practices that were passed by the censorship authorities without any regret as it seems... And that really made me wonder, especially that most of those scenes were bloody and impudent enough to violate what has been seen for ages in the Middle Eastern culture as shameful and unacceptable acts that shouldn't be done nor shown in publicity… but hey! Now we have them displayed freely on our 'screens'!
Before anyone thinks mistakenly that allowing such scenes to hurt the audience feelings is a matter of freedom of speech or whatever! We have always to remember that uncontrolled freedom inevitably leads to ruin freedom itself, as it turns into mess.
On the other hand, I tend more to think that those scenes were meant to come up this sharp way just to shock both the nerves and feelings, in order to open up our brains to take the ideas that the movie promotes for granted... a quick pick of those ideas could be concluded as follows:
1. Representing some of the brutal and illegal behaviors committed by the men of the state, unlocks the brains to welcome what is going to be said later no matter what it really aims to... many would think like "Isn't it enough that the movie was brave to uncover the policemen and the mischief they cause?"
2. Showing a close-by scenes of the suffering that the poor girl had, starting from harassing her, and ending up by raping her... add to that her delicate love story with the rich guy who never 'noticed' her poorness neither his Mum did; to complete the image of that ideal world that we are all dreaming about… you can see this as one more appetizer to help you digesting what will be given to you later, without any resistance.
3. Presenting a negative exploitative example of an Islamist political candidate, and showing him and his group as if they are some profiteers who use religion to fool simple people in order to gain political leverage… this part of the movie is getting along so far with the governmental official stream concerning Islamists and their political activities… and this would make anyone wonder; so who is right here?... who is going to save us then?
4. The happy ending by the death of the evil idol, Hatem, after a heart-breaking mini-revolution which was, honestly, matching the audience dreams so far well… but who led that?! Oops… she's the lefty patriotic Mum and her little newborn ideal-communist family!
Actually there was no clear answer delivered to us in the movie, but the scenario was smart enough to conquer the hearts, criticizes the government's most noted rivals and then capturing people's attention and dreams exclusively for a lefty model which was commonly adopted by the publics in Nasser's 60s, when the westerner ethical codes were getting along with big national dreams; while religion was feebly heard in the background.
That's why we shouldn't blame anyone here for producing some artwork through which he expresses his own views and opinions, no matter his intentions, but at least he made it and said his word! So what about everybody else? What about your voice?!
These days, you're not assumed to be rich in order to make your own successful and famous movie… or to start your own 'popular' newspaper… are you still thinking bout it, while having all of those amazing citizen-tools on the internet?
If you've made a movie… just upload it to YouTube, if you have some opinion to say… just record it on your Blog… and even if you want to start a Public Poll, just find your way to any free poll service on the web.
By this way, it's not only one or two or even three who will be able to speak out… and not even a part or a group will extort the right to change… but everyone will take his chance to react positively- not destructively-, and the winner would be our societies… people will decide who wins at the end, no one else… Isn't the internet about sharing information and experiences? So let us share the dream to develop our societies through it too!
But this spring is a bit different!
I felt a notable change with the Egyptian Film Industry, upon seeing the trailers of the season's movies… I found that the boring love story that always has a happy ending no longer exists, and
it's not even a naïve action movie, in which the paunchy hero kills an army of strong men and then sacrifices his life to increase the box office revenues! But I saw a different tone, revolutionary one... and even a political depth surrounds the scenes…!So it was time to reserve a seat. ..
Out of four screened films, I picked "Le Chaos"
Watching the trailers wasn't really enough to determine the 'lefty' ideas promoted by the two films he directed… in which miserable examples are presented in the middle of a class-autocratic society, where poor and simple people are smashed by the authority's figures, while rich people are sharing them their 'common' struggle to eliminate injustice and bring 'equality' to the suffering society.
Isn't this calling back the teachings of Carl Marx, Friedrich Engels and their folks… regarding their views on equalizing people by displacing Capitalism and supporting Socialism?!
Don't you like the government?
In "Le Chaos"
Saleh had a saying that he kept repeating throughout the whole movie, which was turned to be the season's proverb later, in which he used to say what means: "If you're not faithful to me, so you're not faithful to Egypt!" The quote has been interpreted by Egyptians as if he means, if you don't like the government; so you are not, by any means, a faithful citizen.
On the other hand, the politically-oriented scenes show us a poor Mum and her daughter, who was in love with the son of her rich 'patriotic' boss, all are struggling against the spread corruption; each in his own way … The poor daughter is always embarrassed by the single-lusty officer… while the rich son, who is working as a prosecutor, is dealing firmly with his colleague's deviated behavior and even respecting the Human Rights of the prisoners! (Isn't this too ideal?).
Sensational Breakdown!
The movie also comes with a cocktail of sexual scenes, bloody incidents and brutal torturing practices that were passed by the censorship authorities without any regret as it seems... And that really made me wonder, especially that most of those scenes were bloody and impudent enough to violate what has been seen for ages in the Middle Eastern culture as shameful and unacceptable acts that shouldn't be done nor shown in publicity… but hey! Now we have them displayed freely on our 'screens'!
Before anyone thinks mistakenly that allowing such scenes to hurt the audience feelings is a matter of freedom of speech or whatever! We have always to remember that uncontrolled freedom inevitably leads to ruin freedom itself, as it turns into mess.
On the other hand, I tend more to think that those scenes were meant to come up this sharp way just to shock both the nerves and feelings, in order to open up our brains to take the ideas that the movie promotes for granted... a quick pick of those ideas could be concluded as follows:
1. Representing some of the brutal and illegal behaviors committed by the men of the state, unlocks the brains to welcome what is going to be said later no matter what it really aims to... many would think like "Isn't it enough that the movie was brave to uncover the policemen and the mischief they cause?"
2. Showing a close-by scenes of the suffering that the poor girl had, starting from harassing her, and ending up by raping her... add to that her delicate love story with the rich guy who never 'noticed' her poorness neither his Mum did; to complete the image of that ideal world that we are all dreaming about… you can see this as one more appetizer to help you digesting what will be given to you later, without any resistance.
3. Presenting a negative exploitative example of an Islamist political candidate, and showing him and his group as if they are some profiteers who use religion to fool simple people in order to gain political leverage… this part of the movie is getting along so far with the governmental official stream concerning Islamists and their political activities… and this would make anyone wonder; so who is right here?... who is going to save us then?
4. The happy ending by the death of the evil idol, Hatem, after a heart-breaking mini-revolution which was, honestly, matching the audience dreams so far well… but who led that?! Oops… she's the lefty patriotic Mum and her little newborn ideal-communist family!
So is this the lifebuoy we should wait for?
That was totally new anyway… but!
It's not bad to see people with different backgrounds and ideologies expressing their own views about some topic or another… but what is worse, is to allow some to enjoy the right of speech while forbidding or at least troubling the rest.
That's why we shouldn't blame anyone here for producing some artwork through which he expresses his own views and opinions, no matter his intentions, but at least he made it and said his word! So what about everybody else? What about your voice?!
These days, you're not assumed to be rich in order to make your own successful and famous movie… or to start your own 'popular' newspaper… are you still thinking bout it, while having all of those amazing citizen-tools on the internet?
If you've made a movie… just upload it to YouTube, if you have some opinion to say… just record it on your Blog… and even if you want to start a Public Poll, just find your way to any free poll service on the web.
By this way, it's not only one or two or even three who will be able to speak out… and not even a part or a group will extort the right to change… but everyone will take his chance to react positively- not destructively-, and the winner would be our societies… people will decide who wins at the end, no one else… Isn't the internet about sharing information and experiences? So let us share the dream to develop our societies through it too!
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