The presence and representation of women throughout Cairo Station is striking, and for a relatively uninformed Western audience, conditioned by mistaken assumptions about the historical ‘place of women in Islamic society’, often frankly startling. Shortly after this, the narrator describes how he meets Qinawi, a miserable young man whom he finds curdled up into a ball by the train tracks. He becomes obsessed with Hanouma, a beautiful, vivacious woman who sells soft drinks to commuters, working without official permission. He tells her of his feelings to which she reacts to with laughter and ridicule. A newspaper salesman at the train station in Cairo develops an unhealthy obsession with a woman who sells refreshments. Teda Fun Valley. In this medium, Madbouli as the narrator, questions how one could’ve foreseen his end (referring to Qinawi). The quick sounds of trains as they come and go give the initial impression that events are happening quickly. ( Log Out /  The explicit connections between male voyeurism, the performance of the “feminine”, and sadistic-erotic compulsion is wonderfully brought out. The sequence being analyzed is the opening sequence from minute 0:00 – 4:00. This medium-shot shows where Qinawi lives, being a shed. This conveys the previously mentioned sense of impoverishment. The line can carry 60,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Avengers and Game of Thrones rule 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards. Cairo Station is a gorgeously cut black and white affair that leans into themes of loneliness, workforce control and freedom. The train station in its entirety and the mise-en-scene immediately enables viewers to distinguish the setting from being a film set but rather an actual train station and this pertains to the characteristics of a neo-realist film. Cairo Station is the first mission in Halo 2 (split into 3 parts on the mission selection screen; The Heretic, The Armory and Cairo Station). This clearly sets the viewer up with a sense of where and when the story takes place, while implicitly outlining some of the personality traits of the main character, Qinawi. He died in Cairo, 27 July 2008. Vast numbers of everyday people are seen walking on the platforms, rapidly trying to catch their next train. There are two Skulls and one Terminal to find. Solely from the look on his face and the clothes he wears, you can immediately tell he is a hard worker with limited benefits. The effect of this close-up emphasizes the sympathetic expression on his face as he discovers Qinawi. A brilliant work, probably the best we’ve seen so far (though those with a penchant for romance might prefer The Blazing Sun or Dark Waters). Lastly, the sequence ends with the opening credits against the city of Cairo as an orchestrated score is played in the background. The Cow At the Western Coast of Egypt, more specifically at Ain-Sokhna sits Cairo’s first and … All that is new leads straight to Hell!’. In this close-up, Madbouli denotes the young man as being “lame”. In preparation for the inevitable Battle for Earth, Fleet Admiral Joseph Harper had UNSC Chevalier deploy a security team to the station to facilitate the arrival of Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood. Go down the stairs and grab a Battle Rifle (BR) from the weapons locker on the wall. This is the second aspect and indicator that the film is neo-realist. One of them is Abu Siri – a hard-working porter, the main goal of whom is to form a union to deal with … In the podcast, Richard discusses how C’es toi mon amour is the film that immediately precedes Cairo Station and Jamila the Algerian, and how it is worth comparing the two musical numbers set on a train in Cairo Station and in C’es toi mon amour in the light of themes of modernity, tradition, progress and personal freedom. The sounds that are heard are those inevitably linked with train stations of which include a steam horn and the sound of trains coming and going. After the voice of the narrator is heard, the viewer is finally presented with his face. The movie grabs Felliniesque characters (especially that sexy femme) and combines them in a joyous and iconic central location: the tran station of Cairo. This leaves the audience assuming the end of Qinawi is an unfortunate one, and henceforth an unfortunate film. It is also the 19th largest city in the world, and among the world's most densely populated cities. Hanuma has a fiancé, however this does not stop Qinawi from being overly enticed by essentially everything she does. During the development of his long, often embattled career, Chahine produced 36 feature and short films and six documentaries (Murphy and Williams 2007: 30). This time the emphasis on time is even more significant because the clock is the only thing in the shot. Cairo Station, with its abject masculinity, objectification of women, and self-reflexive approach to the theme of ‘visual pleasure and narrative cinema’ (to appropriate Laura Mulvey’s famous 1975 essay on the structural misogyny embedded in the act of film viewing), is more usefully associated with a very different stream of modern cinema, and films such as Psycho (1960, Hitchcock), Peeping Tom (1960, Michael … To see such a pathetic character and base the entire film off of him would be another factor in making this film quite different than those preceding it in Egyptian cinema. When Chahine directed this film however, he went against all cultural boundaries pertaining to Egyptian cinema at the time. The previously mentioned underlying themes are mostly reflected through the acting, location, sound and mise-en-scene of the sequence. Our third podcast on Youssef Chahine films, this one on Cairo Station, a combination of Dickensian melodrama, Marxist analysis, neorealist aspirations, film noir techniques, and with a contemporary relevance in its Incel-on-a-rampage theme. www.arabfilm.com. Unlike typical Egyptian films of that era, where nearly all characters were wealthy and embellished in what they wore, this shot lends an image to the working class of Egypt. The frustration mentioned in addition to the mise-en-scene of this shed completely covered with cutouts points to specifically sexual frustration and obsession. The interior of the shed is completely covered with magazine cutouts of females. As Madbouli senses a troubled atmosphere he states that he thinks Qinawi is “frustrated” and the more frustrated he gets, the more obsessed he becomes. Within a matter of 30 seconds the audience goes from feeling sympathetic towards Qinawi to being uneasy towards him. “They're going to try to take our MAC guns offline, give their capital ships a straight shot at Earth. However, the film was much-maligned upon its release. Play. This film therefore could be considered rapidly paced. Chahine remained by choice and circumstance an outsider: a (non-believing) Christian in a predominantly Muslim society, child of an immigrant family, and a product of the complex cosmopolitan culture of pre-war Alexandria. Cairo Station. Oh, and a terrific wee love triangle between a newspaper salesman Qinawi, drink seller Hanuma and the guy establishing a new union to protect workers at the station from their greedy and uncaring boss, Abu Siri. After the film was released, it was met with major controversy and criticism whereby viewers were displeased with the way the film negatively reflected Egyptians. Unmute. The fact that there are a lot of people emphasizes the location being the “heart of the city”. Remaining Time - Fullscreen Up Next. Chahine had effectively created a unique fusion between neorealist convention, Egyptian melodrama and Hollywood narrative style, through which he began to portray contemporary Egypt. The mise-en-scene includes the interior of this destitute shed, whereby explicitly showing the harsh living conditions such street vendors live under. Cairo: A New Desktop Shell Replacement In Development Slick stuff Friday, February 29, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News. By 1950 Chahine was already directing his first feature, Baba Amin (Daddy Amin). After this there is a jump-shot to a close-up of a clock as it’s hands tick quickly and the caption reads, “every minute one train departs”. A few weeks ago, Egypt’s transport minister opened the new Cairo train station, also known as Ramses Station or Bab al-Hadid Station, following renovations that lasted for several years and which cost LE170 million. In addition to this, the discomforting interior of the shed reflects negatively on Qinawi and this further exemplifies the previously mentioned sense of rapidity. Egyptian cinema did not figure for Chahine at this point, but his films quickly began to reflect the radical developments in Egyptian society and politics of the 1950s, and to draw on European modernist film conventions as well as the Hollywood paradigm. From 1946 to 1948, and very much against his parents’ wishes, Chahine left to study ‘Method’ acting in theatre and television (but not film) at the Pasadena Playhouse, Los Angeles. This particular film takes place over the course of a day, and outlines the story of Qinawi (played by Chahine)- a poor, somewhat pathetic and sexually repressed newspaper vendor in the heart of Cairo, Cairo Station (train station). Qinawi, a physically challenged peddler who makes his living selling newspapers in the central Cairo train station, is obsessed by Hanuma, an attractive young woman who sells drinks. 1958 | | 1h 13m | Dramas. She recalled that working for Chahine was immensely challenging; he was ‘soft moving sands that hide a volcano’ (Fawal 2001: 19). The concourse and platforms of the city transport hub provide a locale that enables Chahine effectively to represent a wide range of Egyptian society. This shot acts as an embodiment of the city as a whole as the subtitle reads “heart of the city”. Chahine was one of three children in the nonobservant Melkite Catholic family, struggling to maintain their middle-class status. Loaded: 0%. The … Cairo Station observes the ‘unities’ of time, place and action, perhaps a legacy of Chahine’s first love of theatre: the action unfolds in the course of a single day, within the bounds of Bab al-Hadid (except for one significant excursion), and the narrative pursues a tragic nemesis. Go down the stairs to join three Marines, Sergeant Johnson, and a Navy Captain with a pistol. The sound of the song is particularly robust yet greatly sinister and this adds to all previously mentioned aspects of the film and the nature of it being ominous. Youssef Chahine's Cairo: Central Station is a refreshing blend of hidden sexual tension, film-noir and neo-realism from the 1950's. Once again, Chahine conveys a grim sense of what it is like as a moreover impoverished citizen. Master Chief, defend this station!”— Lord Terrence Hood to John-117 at the beginning of the battle of Earth. Watch trailers & learn more. Duration / Current Time . 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