CIC starts Egypt s first film marathon
The basic concept behind the term Suburbia dates back to ancient Rome and Athens where governors and other members of the wealthy elite had lavish homes built for them in areas separated from the general public.
The real boom of the Suburbia concept as we know it burst shortly after the end of the Second World War in North America.
Returning veterans wished to lead peaceful and idealistic lives they envisioned for themselves and their families. In a few years, large groups of families started to move en masse to create areas that are self-autonomous, follow distinct design and rules and, in some districts, specific moral codes.
Slowly, however, the idealism – which constituted one of the fundamental building bricks of the Suburban conception – began to crumble to reveal a world that appears perfect and idyllic outwardly but is, in truth, the archetypal modern capitalistic nightmare of disintegrated families and emotional hollowness.
Contemporary Image Collective, located on Safeya Zaghloul Street, took the suburban vision and selected 14 films that embody the concept to create Egypt s first contemporary film marathon screening all 14 films in a span of 24 hours.
All chosen films take place in different suburban areas in different nations but apart from Blue Velvet and, to some extent, Week End, all films contain other ideas and subject matters that aren t strongly related with the theme of the marathon.
The virtuosity behind these films lies in the filmmaker s skill in creating vivid, unusual characters and the way they react to specific, familiar actions that aren t different from our experiences.
All 14 films possess a certain degrees of greatness and all of them are directed by filmmakers with singular vision that forces you to admire them if, not always, to accept or enjoy.
So, in case you re not willing to stay for 24 consecutive hours watching these films, here are the five movies you cannot afford to miss:
Accattone (1961). Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Accattone was the film debut of one of Italy s greatest filmmakers. The film is an unflinching, piercing and poetic account of Vittorio Accattone, a goalless man prostituting his girlfriend for a living, who finds himself begging for food from friends, churches and complete strangers after his companion is arrested.
The filmmaker/novelist/poet is one of the most controversial and polarizing figures in film history. The self-described Marxist atheist homosexual was, beyond anything, a visionary who saw the world and life in a different light from his contemporaries and successors alike. Accattone belongs to the Italian neo-realism movement that portrayed life as it was without attempting to judge its characters.
Pasolini objectively presents a seemingly amoral, easy-to-hate character and makes us sympathize by simply examining the condition of his surroundings while giving us insight into his soul responsible for making those awful choices.
Accattone is a hard film to watch and Pasolini doesn t entirely succeed in weaving a comprehensible connection between the characters. However, he paints detailed poetic canvas that, for some viewers, will reduce the brutality of the film.
Sunset Blvd. (1950). Directed by: Billy Wilder. A failed screenwriter stumbles upon the mansion of a fallen silent star. The star hires him to rewrite her comeback Salome script before she falls in love with him.
Wilder s definitive masterwork is, arguably, the greatest film made about movies and movie stars. The most stunning aspect of the film is that most of the washed-out silent stars who appear in the movie are playing themselves including Buster Keaton, director Erich von Stroheim and the lead of the film Gloria Swanson in one of the greatest performances in motion picture.
These legends failed to cross over to the sound era and their stature in Hollywood was reduced to secondary performances of stereotyped characters. Watching them contemplate about past glories and lost lives, we realize that, in most of the film s scenes, they re not really acting.
Sunset Blvd. is, in its core though, a love story between a devoted man debasing himself for a woman refusing to accept her reality.
Wilder is mostly famous for his light-hearted works like Some Like It Hot, The Apartment and Sabrina. Sunset represents a sample of his dark oeuvre that also includes The Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity. If you re intending to watch one film of the selection, make sure it s this movie.
Mystery Train. (1989). Directed by: Jim Jarmusch. The film tells three separate stories set in one Memphis hotel of a Japanese couple visiting the city s rock n roll shrine, a woman spending the night before she flies back to Rome to bury her husband, and a group of friends hiding after they committed a liquor store robbery. All stories are linked by the ghost of Elvis Presley and a gun-fight that come to pass.
Jarmusch is one of the foremost independent American filmmakers whose style of direction is very low-key and European-influenced. His films aren t built on classical-narrated stories; his ideas, quirky characters and atmosphere are formed in a unique cinematic style that resembles no other filmmaker.
His films are about tourists, foreigners discovering America and they re all usually set at midnight. Mystery Train is no exception; it s not about the myth of America but what this myth represents to these people. It s an exploration of this myth, a look at his America from his very own fond, loving perspective and a celebration of those myth believers.
Happiness. (1998). Directed by: Todd Solondz. One of the most contentious films of the last decade; Happiness is composed of multiple storylines of a woman overlooked by her family and society, her older sister who s married to a pedophile psychiatric and her younger, sexy poet sister who receives phone sex calls from an overweight boring patient of her brother in law’s; while her dad decides to divorce her mom after 40 years of marriage.
There s hardly any character in the film you can call normal and Solondz s unrated picture boasts numerous shocking events including a man molesting an 11-year-old boy.
Happiness is a story about group of people looking for happiness, trying to reach it and failing to accomplish that. It s a black comedy as Solondz handles the heavy subject with a light-hearted manner that makes us realize how ironic, and perhaps meaningless, the characters pursuit of happiness is.
Week End (1967). Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. I was very sceptic about recommending a film that I utterly hated at first and admired later on, but never loved. Nevertheless, I am recommending what many considers one of the best French films because you will simply never watch anything like Week End again and Godard s misanthropy is so intense that, whether you like the film or not, it will keep your head spinning for days.
The film contains no story; it starts with a bourgeois couple driving away for a weekend trip and gets stuck in one large traffic jam. On their way, they meet literary figures like Jane Eyre and other film personalities. They encounter political activists reciting long, senseless speeches along with intellectual cannibals. They watch people gunning each other down without any justifications or remorse and act in barbaric that defies the conception of civilization they all claim to belong to.
Week End is Godard s ultimate horrific vision of modern consumer society. It pinpoints the violence, failed ideologies, contempt and hatred, that our mechanized world – and the futility of it all – has become.
If you re looking for an easy watch, avoid this film. If you re looking to be challenged and undergo an exceptional experience that can t be even classified as cinematic, Week End will not disappoint you.
The Suburbs of Cinema will kick off today at 7 pm and will end tomorrow at 7 pm.List of films in sequence
Blood for Dracula aka Andy Warhol s Dracula, dir. Paul Morrissey, 103
min My Beautiful Laundrette, dir. Stephen Frears, 97 minAccattone, dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 120min Safe, dir. Todd Haynes,119 minRushmore, dir. Wes Anderson, 93 minHappiness, dir. Todd Solondz, 134 minCrooklyn, dir. Spike Lee, 115 minBlue velvet, dir. David Lynch,120 min Mystery Train , dir. Jim Jarmusch, 113 minSecrets and Lies, dir. Mike Leigh, 142 minJulien Donkey Boy, dir. Harmony Corine, 101 minSunset Blvd., dir. Billy Wilder, 110 min Week End, dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 105 min Leningrad Cowboys Go America, dir. Aki Kaurismäki, 78 min
For more information, please call CIC at 794 1686
