The Youssef Chahine Retrospective:

Typecast Releasing is pleased to announce a North American retrospective tour of works by world-renowned Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine, who passed away on July 27th at the age of 82.

The jewel of this commemorative series is a restored 35mm film print of Chahine’s award-winning classic, Cairo Station, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. A steamy noir masterpiece of repressed sexuality, madness and violence set in the city’s central train depot, Cairo Station earned the director international recognition and acclaim when it was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1958.

Other Chahine titles available for the touring series include The Land, a sprawling epic from 1969 which was hailed by critics as the “best Egyptian film of all time” and The Sparrow, which was considered one of Chahine’s most complex and controversial films when it was released in 1972. A pristine new 35mm print of the insightful and lovingly-crafted 1991 short documentary, Cairo As Seen By Chahine, is also available for the series. Film prints are available for the rarely-screened Alexandria, Why? (1978) and Alexandria, Again and Forever (1989)—both from Chahine’s celebrated Alexandria Trilogy, which also includes the 1982 film An Egyptian Story, available for screening in Digibeta format. Several of the director’s other titles are also available in non-film formats, including the mesmerizing musical-tragedy The Return of the Prodigal Son (1976), the 1963 historical epic Saladin and The Sixth Day (1986), which stars famed Egyptian singer Dalida.

A prolific, creative and hard-working director, Youssef Chahine will be remembered not only for his imaginative, music-filled works that entertain audiences even as they examine the social and political issues of Egypt, but also for his role in bringing Egyptian cinema to the attention of appreciative movie-goers all around the world.

Chahine Retrospective Screening Dates:

* Cleveland, OH . Cairo Station screens at the Cleveland Cinematheque . October 4, 2008
* New York, NY . Cairo Station screens at the Museum of Modern Art . November 12 & 15, 2008
* Dearborn, MI . Cairo Station screens at the Arab American National Museum . November 16, 2008
* Chicago, IL . Chahine Retrospective [6 films] at the Gene Siskel Film Center . Jan. 2-Feb. 3, 2009
* Boston, MA . Chahine Retrospective [8 films] screens at the Harvard Film Archive . January 16-19, 2009
* Durham, NC . Cairo Station & The Sparrow at the Duke University Screen Society . Feb. 2 & 9, 2009
* Berkeley, CA . Cairo Station & Cairo As Seen By Chahine at the Pacific Film Archive . Feb. 8, 2009
* Fort Worth, TX . Cairo Station & Cairo As Seen By Chahine at the Modern Art Museum . March 20-22, 2009
* Rochester, NY . Chahine Retrospective [6 films] screens at the George Eastman House . April 1-29, 2009
* New York, NY . Chahine Retrospective [9 films] screens at the Brooklyn Academy of Music . May 29-June 9, 2009
* Tucson, AZ . Cairo Station & Cairo As Seen By Chahine at The Loft Cinema . July 12 & 14, 2009
* Columbus, OH . Cairo Station & Cairo As Seen By Chahine at Wexner Center for the Arts . October 15, 2009
* New York, NY . Chahine Retrospective [3 films] at Film Society of Lincoln Center . November 15, 2009
* New Orleans, LA . Cairo Station at Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center . November 21, 2009
* Austin, TX . Chahine Retrospective [3 films] at Austin Film Society . Jan. 12 & 19, 2010
* Madison, WI . Chahine Retrospective [5 films] at UW Cinematheque . Jan. 23-Feb. 27, 2010

Reviews:

“A blend of sensuality and film noir, set against a backdrop of lower-depths neorealism, Cairo Station is essentially an underclass psycho-thriller. The director himself portrays a crippled newspaper vendor whose passion for a slinky soft-drink peddler decays into homicidal mania. (He’s Tod Browning to his own Lon Chaney.) The Chahine of Cairo Station is a world-class engineer of expressionistic gothic shadow effects whose restless camera seems to peer into the souls of his fevered characters.”
–David Chute, L.A. Weekly

“Reportedly (and understandably) Youssef Chahine’s most popular film among Egyptians, this gritty and relatively early (1958) black-and-white masterpiece also features his most impressive acting turn, as a crippled news vendor working at the title railroad station. The adroit interweaving of various miniplots around the station is matched by a heady mix of moods and genres: At various junctures this movie becomes a musical, a slasher film, a neorealist drama, a comedy, and a horror film – come to think of it, it’s pretty noir as well.”
–Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

*   *   *   *   *

Youssef Chahine, Selected Filmography as Director:

2007 . This Is Chaos (Heya Fawda)
2004 . Alexandria… New York (Iskanderija… New York)
2002 . 11′09″01 – September 11 (segment: Egypt)
2001 . Silence… We’re Rolling (Skeet Hansawwar)
1999 . The Other (El Akhar)
1997 . Destiny (Al-Massir)
1994 . The Emigrant (Al-Mohager)
1991 . Cairo As Seen By Chahine (Al-Qahira Menauwwara Bi Ahlaha)
1989 . Alexandria, Again and Forever (Iskanderija, Kaman Oue Kaman)
1986 . The Sixth Day (Al-Yawm Al-Sadis)
1985 . Adieu Bonaparte (Weda’an Bonapart)
1982 . An Egyptian Story (Hadduta Misrija)
1978 . Alexandria, Why? (Iskanderija… Lih?)
1976 . The Return of the Prodigal Son (Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal)
1972 . The Sparrow (Al-Asfour)
1971 . Golden Sands (Rimal Min Dhahab)
1970 . The Choice (Al-Ikhtiyar)
1969 . The Land (Al-Ard)
1968 . The People of the Nile (Al-Nass Wal Nil)
1967 . The Feast of Mairun (Id Al-Mairun)
1965 . The Ring Seller (Biya El-Khawatim)
1964 . Dawn of a New Day (Fagr Yom Gedid)
1963 . Saladin (El Naser Salah El Dine)
1961 . A Lover’s Call (Nida Al’Ushshaq)
1961 . A Man In My Life (Rajul Fi Hayati)
1960 . In Your Hands (Bein Edeik)
1959 . Forever Yours (Hubb Lel-Abad)
1958 . Cairo Station (Bab El Hadid)
1958 . Jamila, the Algerian (Djamilah)
1957 . My One and Only Love (Inta Habibi)
1957 . Farewell, My Love (Wadda’tu Hubbak)
1956 . Struggle On the Pier (aka. Dark Waters) (Siraa Fil-Mina)
1954 . Devil of the Sahara (aka. Desert Devil) (Shaytan Al-Sahra)
1954 . The Blazing Sky (Siraa Fil-Wadi)
1953 . Women Without Men (Nissae Bila Regal)
1953 . Lady On the Train (Sayedat Al-Qitar)
1952 . The Great Clown (Al-Muharrij Al-Kabir)
1951 . Son of the Nile (Ibn El Nil)
1950 . Father Amine (aka. Daddy Honest) (Baba Amin)