Correspondents' Correspondence Egypt at the Movies
LIPPMAN, SYDNEY COFFIN
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. Egypt at the Movies Cairo—Uncensored foreign movies...
...Reality is too sad for me...
...I adore love stories...
...Nagua Fouad, Egypt's most famous belly dancer (who sat on Henry Kissinger's lap during one of his visits to Cairo) entertained...
...Howard announced the Nefertiti prize winners, each time pronouncing Nefertiti with great gusto to rhyme with pity...
...Still, the event took on the aura of what it was supposed to be...
...Thus the prospect of seeing uncut foreign films brought out enormous crowds...
...Although I didn't get to see it, a synopsis read: "Everything reflected happiness in this luxurious villa owned by Abdel Gabbar, the famous contractor, who was celebrating his anniversary with the members of his family...
...Her friends cradled her head and dabbed at her temples and wrists...
...Press credentials were stolen...
...On the other hand, the shocking closing scene, in which a bloody arm suddenly juts from Carrie's grave, had the audience wailing...
...It was withdrawn and the restless audience was shown an Italian feature instead...
...What countries are contributing...
...Sydney Coffin Lipp-man...
...The Syrians objected to the Palestinian Liberation Organization's entry about the seige of the Tel Zaatar refugee camp in Beirut...
...The prizes were presented at a lavish $40-a-head poolside buffet, with a brilliant moon and the great pyramid of Cheops for a backdrop...
...About two dozen countries submitted entries, though for reasons of politics and logistics not all were in the running for the gold and silver Nefer-titi Awards...
...she was still sobbing and moaning as we made our way out of the theater...
...Then they shoved him out an exit door...
...And where is it all happening and when...
...The ceremonies completed, the gowned and formally suited crowd rushed the buffet table with the same enthusiasm that had been shown at the screenings...
...Even the Gazette unbent a bit toward the end of 10 days...
...The grand prize went to the Hungarian film Epidemic by Pal Gabor...
...The obligatory prize to an Egyptian went to Faten Hamama as best actress in Des Bouches et Des Lapins, the story of an intelligent and ambitious village girl whose parents try to force her into marriage with a rich man...
...But all this happiness was nothing but fake, hiding tragedies lived by the members of his family...
...Nevertheless, everyone had a good time and all agreed that this festival was better than last year's...
...Another Egyptian entry was Cat on Fire, taken from Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof...
...The tone was set on opening night as a huge, raucous throng waited outside the Cairo Palace Cinema to see Brian DePalma's horror flick, Carrie...
...Finally, one young man pushed his way through the police cordon and bounded up the steps of the theater, where he was promptly collared by an angry officer and dragged into the lobby...
...Local movie lovers, an ardent yet often disappointed lot, proved determined enough to find out screening times and places...
...It added up to a rousing good evening for the Egyptians, who love venting their emotions by howling at one another...
...The previous film ended predictably late and people were becoming restive...
...Screen stars Ursula Andress and Michael York came, and Trevor Howard was the chairman of the jury...
...Answering softball questions lobbed to her by Egyptian journalists at a press conference, Andress revealed that "for me, the most important thing in life is love...
...But like everything in this tumultuous city from making a telephone call to getting a taxi, the event did not go smoothly...
...There was little advance publicity, and only slightly more information was given out once the festival started...
...Believe it or not, the second Cairo Film Festival opens today," sniffed the English-language Egyptian Gazette...
...But the film opens with Cissy Spacek in the shower and to a society as sexually repressed as Egypt's, the scene was enough to hush the theater, except for an occasional wisecrack that set off pockets of laughter...
...The silver Nefertiti was won by The Debut, a Dutch movie by Nouchka Van Brakel, and Marina De Graap received a special award for her acting in it...
...What films are on...
...A second special award was given to a fascinating Austrian semi-documentary, The Memorable Pilgrimage of the Emperor Kanga Mussa from Mali to Mecca, "for the beauty of its images and the real interest presented by this poetical exploration of Africa...
...As the din grew louder during a Czech short, Tom and 1 wondered what we would hear of Carrie...
...A woman two rows behind us became hysterical, screaming and crying simultaneously...
...The large, booming Egyptian film industry generally leans toward potboilers and soap operas, and movies from abroad are normally heavily censored, for violence as much as for sex...
...and Britain...
...A few carried two plates, and Tom and I were nudged, pushed aside, buffeted, and reached over and around by ravenous people...
...By the third day, a mere four of the 12 judges had shown up, and not all the films had arrived either...
...The censor rejected a French film, Bilitis, an hour before screening time...
...When the ticketholders were at last permitted to enter, they roared in shouting to one another across the seats...
...Exhibiting relatively little interest in several Arab entries, they mobbed the foreign offerings, particularly those from the U.S...
...Egypt at the Movies Cairo—Uncensored foreign movies created a sensation here recently when the Film, Press and Critics Association put on its second international film festival...
...Made in Morocco and Egypt, the film retraces the pilgrimage of the 14th century Mali emperor and thousands of his countrymen, meticulously capturing details of life and scenery along their route...
...That it is in its second year, showing films normally not shown for one reason or another, is in itself a milestone...
...The paper allowed that more significant than all the foulups was "the fact that it [the festival] is on at all...
...While my husband, Tom, and I watched, shouting policemen gathered round the man, kicked him, cuffed him on the head, and threw him against the wall...
...From this bumpy start, the festival tottered toward its conclusion 10 days later...
...Many movies lacked Arabic subtitles and some had no subtitles at all...
Vol. 61 • January 1978 • No. 3
