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the view
from cairo
Sunday, October 12,
2003
An update
from the
27th Cairo International Film Festival
Cairo's screen
Photos and text by Tarek
Atia
Two
of the biggest names at this year's fest are Emmanuelle Beart and Mario
Kassar. The French actress and the Lebanese-American producer each
appeared before a Cairo audience that had just seen one of their
films.
Emmanuelle
Beart
In
Beart's case, it was one of her latest efforts -- Les Egares. A highly
sensuous film, the audience was more than thrilled to suddenly find the
film's sultry star up on stage, ready and willing to answer questions
about the film, or anything else.
 
 
Beart
described Cairo as a "tree of peace in a very disturbed world. I
understand the troubles your region is in," she said. Despite these
woes, however, Beart professed to having "never seen so many
beautiful things in so small an area."
The
French actress had mentioned -- as she accepted an award at the
festival's opening ceremony, that her grandfather was buried in Cairo.
She elaborated on her Egypt ties with a somewhat confusing description
of the virtual UN of ethnic origins from which she emerged. A
grandmother of Greek, Maltese and Yugoslav blood born in Turkey. A
father who was part Spanish, part Russian, born in Cairo, moved to
Lebanon, studied guitar in France, etc.
 No
wonder then that she herself had always wanted, when young, to work as a
"traveler" when she grew up.
She
talked about her work with UNICEF, where she prepares reports on things
like children's prostitution. She speaks extensively of her work with
UNICEF, she said, because it is very important to her. She had visited
Mauritania, Thailand, Mali and Bangladesh studying ways to improve the
poor conditions of children.
The
drop dead gorgeous actress admits to being 40 but says she feels very
active, and much more purpose driven than when she was young. "I have
matured," she said. "When I was young, I was very difficult."
Mario
Kassar
Kassar's
film Lolita -- a remake of the Stanley Kubrick version of the Nabakov
classic -- was not exactly typical of the kind of the films this
Hollywood producer with Arab roots usually makes. Rambo, Basic Instinct,
Terminator -- that's more his type.
 But
Lolita was the film that had just shown, and Kassar was ready to answer
the audience's questions about it, or anything else.
The
trouble was, the sound system wasn't ready for him.
The
press conference quickly became a comedy of errors. Technicians would
get the microphones going, then an abrupt boom would sound, and they
would be dead again. Kassar and the announcer, seemingly oblivious of
all this, continued their Q & A, in what sounded like hushed
whispers -- or a silent film perhaps -- to most of those present.
They
couldn't afford to wait for the mikes to be fixed because there was only
a limited amount of time to conduct the press conference before another
film was scheduled to be shown in this very same hall.
As
everyone began getting used to the poor sound, another snag suddenly
soiled the atmosphere. The incessant ringing of mobile phones began to
really annoy Kassar. He said, "Cell phones must be really new here
because they ring everywhere. Everywhere I go they ring."
At
one point the sound system came back on; by then Kassar was already
facing some interesting questions, and had also gotten to see a mini
squabble between an audience member and the announcer, who was being
accused of not translating from Arabic to English properly, and
censoring what the questioners were trying to tell Kassar.
Kassar
began to seem a bit more amused then annoyed by all the goings on. He
called it a "crazy" press conference, and delved into a heartfelt
tale of how he got into the movie business. He used to sell independent
US films to foreign distributors. To do this he'd often have to lie
about the films, which were mostly trash. Sick of the lying he decided
to make his own film
-- First Blood, the first of the Sylvester Stallone Rambo films. And the
rest is history.
Kassar
was asked whether he had felt any discrimination because of his
Arab origins. "Hollywood doesn't look at nationality," he
said. "They only look at  money."
Kassar
is half-Italian, half-Lebanese. He was asked whether he would entertain
the financing of a project that promoted Arab culture. He said he had
yet to see a script like that that could also be marketed globally
as a blockbuster.
He
blamed much of the world's woes on the media, which he called
"a monster that can take whatever happens or is said and cut in in
half, twist it around," and generally make it very difficult to know
where the truth lies.
FOR
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 2003 CAIRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL VISIT WWW.CAIROFILMFEST.COM.
The site provides schedules of film showings, biographies of jury
members, and everything else you need to know about this premier
cultural event...
PREVIOUSLY
ON CAIROLIVE.COM
The 27th
round of the Cairo International Film Festival was inaugurated by
Culture Minister Farouk Hosny on Tuesday night, in a star-studded
ceremony that paid tribute to the legends of both Arab and international
movie-making.
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