Latest in Culture Highlight
Latest in Culture
Action! World’s oldest big-time film studio fetes 100 years
The world’s oldest major film studio celebrates its 100th birthday this month with Hollywood stars and European players ready to toast the mythic Studio Babelsberg outside Berlin. It survived the Nazis and the communists and is now capitalizing on its legendary status among cinema history buffs like Quentin Tarantino to beat back tough competition from …
Islamists halt filming of Egyptian TV series
CAIRO: Islamist students halted the filming of an Egyptian television series at Cairo’s Ain Shams University protesting against the "indecent" clothing of the actresses, the production company said Thursday. Misr International films had obtained permission from the university’s management to film on site, the head of the company, Gaby Khoury, told AFP. But "when the …
THE REEL ESTATE: Arab cinema: State of the union (Part 1)
For many years, Arab cinema has been scampering for world attention, attempting to overcome the long-held stigma that the budding films of the region don’t travel well abroad. The presence of Arab films in major festivals has increased over the past few years. Nadine Labaki has become a household name in international fest …
Art world mourns Spanish great Antoni Tapies
Spanish leaders and the entire art world mourned Tuesday the death of the great avant-garde painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sent a message of condolences to the family of Tapies, who died in Barcelona on Monday aged 88, describing him as "one of the great reformers of 20th century art." "His …
George Clooney: Coming of age on the road to ‘The Descendants’
George Clooney plays the kind of man he isn’t in "The Descendants" — ambivalent about life, uncertain about his role as father and husband, a passive link in a long Hawaiian chain. As lawyer and cuckold Matt King, he manages to convey both pathos and humor, often in a single scene. In an exclusive interview …
Britain marks Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday
He wrote about life in the modern city, with its lawyers and criminals, bankers and urchins, dreamers and clerks. He created characters still known to millions — Ebeneezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim, Pip and Miss Havisham, Fagin and Oliver Twist. And it made him a star, mobbed by fans on both sides of the Atlantic. …
Book shows Chinese laureate’s struggles with West
Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has been hailed as a bold champion of democracy, but a new compilation of his writings shows him also to be deeply introspective and doubtful of the West’s model. Liu has been in forced silence despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Chinese authorities sentenced him the previous year …
For Tony Kaldas, ‘art is not an option, it’s a right’
At Al Masar Gallery, an exhibition simply titled “Bahgory on Revolution” is currently on display. George Bahgory is one of a handful of artists who have become household names in Egypt. In a place that is often incompatible with contemporary arts, Bahgory has managed to penetrate the Egyptian psyche with a trademark style and a …
Bahgory tackles the revolution in poignant exhibit
At Al Masar Gallery, an exhibition simply titled “Bahgory on Revolution” is currently on display. George Bahgory is one of a handful of artists who have become household names in Egypt. In a place that is often incompatible with contemporary arts, Bahgory has managed to penetrate the Egyptian psyche with a trademark style and a …
Racy ads for French movie about infidelity pulled
What does it take to shock in the land of the Gallic shrug? Ads that suggest adulterous oral sex, according to complaints about new movie "Les Infideles." Posters for the film — which show the contented male stars with faceless women in submissive positions — went up Tuesday but were being taken down Friday following …
Youssef Ziedan strikes again with new triple-face novel
Youssef Ziedan, author of award-winning multi-million bestselling novel “Azazel,” strikes again with his latest novel, “Mohal.” Ziedan leaves the title of the novel without the Arabic short vowel marks, or tashkil, making it viable to three different interpretations and, consequently, three different translations. The first and more obvious is “Mohal," which means impossible; the second …
‘How I Met Your Mother’ enjoying best year ever
The mysteries that surround the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" extend to co-creator Craig Thomas’ office on the Fox studio lot. A white board on the wall that outlines the seventh season’s episodes ends with Barney’s wedding in the May finale. "___ is the bride," the board says. You never know who’s going …
Village politics at its best in new Labaki film
In “Hala La Wayn?” (Where Do We Go Now?), Nadine Labaki has once again produced a movie that is as funny, sassy and insightful as the female characters she portrays in her work. The Lebanese filmmaker rose to fame in the early ‘00s, with a string of highly popular music videos, distinguished for their retro …
Actor Adel Imam sentenced for ‘defaming Islam’
CAIRO: A Cairo court has sentenced Egyptian comedy giant Adel Imam to three months in jail for "defaming Islam" in several roles he played on stage and screen, the actor told AFP on Thursday. Imam, arguably the Arab world’s most famous actor, was sentenced with hard labor in absentia, he said, after he was sued …
Nobel-winning Polish poet Szymborska dies aged 88
Nobel-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska known for her philosophical and often humorously biting turn of phrase, died Wednesday at the age of 88 following a long battle with illness. A heavy smoker, Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, passed away "peacefully, in her sleep" at her home in Krakow in southern …
All-girl Russian punk band rages against Putin
Wrapped up against Russia’s midwinter in vivid balaclavas, brightly colored mini-dresses and not much else, eight members of an all-girl punk group stood on a platform in Red Square and started an impromptu show. "Riot in Russia!" they screamed, before taunting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and urging Russians to hit the streets in protest. The …
Berlin festival combines Streep with global sweep
A new movie from Billy Bob Thornton and a turn as Marie Antoinette by Diane Kruger will rub shoulders with offerings from Asia to Africa at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday presented the program for the event, the first of the year’s major European film festivals, which runs Feb. 9-19. Outside …
UMF: Sounds of Egypt’s underground
By Maha ElNabawi Egypt’s repressed musical community is about to see the value of its creative ambitions grow significantly, enabled by groundbreaking networking and music-discover tools for musicians, fans, venues and the entertainment industry, all available on the country’s first website dedicated solely to underground music. The site, called Underground Music Federation (UMF-LIVE.COM), is the brainchild …
British Museum exhibit offers visitors chance to experience Muslim pilgrimage
LONDON: Qaisra Khan and I are standing in the Round Reading Room of the world-renowned British Museum in London. Around us people are busy installing historic artefacts from the Muslim world relating to the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca — a principal religious obligation of adult Muslims. Khan is one of the curators of the …
Voyage to heart of Islam opens at British Museum
It is a rite that all followers of Islam are supposed to perform at least once in a lifetime, yet for the rest of the globe the hajj is veiled in mystery. Now the British Museum in London has opened the first ever major exhibition on the pilgrimage, to give non-Muslims a glimpse of the …
Arab Spring, Fukushima star at hard-hitting Berlinale
Social upheaval and political awakening will form the focal themes of the 62nd Berlin film festival, director Dieter Kosslick said, as films depicting the Arab Spring and Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear facility take centre stage. The festival will screen documentaries and fictional works from Arab film makers which trace the turbulent progress of the 2011 …
Egyptians moving past fear through film
In the year following the Egyptian revolution, a newfound freedom of expression is breaking the silence about crucial issues in Egypt that were previously considered taboo. A recently released feature film is a practical example of how art in Egypt can be an effective tool in shaping community awareness and overcoming silence. Asmaa is the …
Funding art with food
By Maurice Chammah Wednesday Wagbas, a new initiative at the Townhouse Gallery, is aiming to give funding to artists for new projects at a time of increasing uncertainty in the Egyptian visual art scene. The idea is to raise funds through public dinners by allowing diners to learn about the art projects they are aiding as …
Egyptians move to reclaim streets through graffiti
CAIRO: The conflict between Egypt’s ruling military and pro-democracy protesters isn’t just on the streets of Cairo, it’s on the walls as well, as graffiti artists from each side duel it out with spray paint and stencils. Earlier this month, supporters of the ruling generals painted over part of the largest and most famous antimilitary …
‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ wins at Sundance
A mythical film starring an 8-year-old girl and a documentary about the war on drugs took top honors at the Sundance Film Festival. "Beasts of the Southern Wild" won the grand jury prize in the US dramatic competition, and "The House I Live In" won the same honor in the US documentary category Saturday at …
When Sherlock Holmes meets his match
By Myriam Ghattas The second installment of the Sherlock Holmes franchise sees Guy Ritchie treat us to the much anticipated face-off between Scotland Yard’s notoriously astute detective and his brilliantly immoral arch-nemesis, Professor James Moriarty. “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011) follows Holmes’ deductive reasoning as he connects the dots between a series of small-scale …
Samir Fouad: A sincere art narrative of Jan. 25
With his new solo show “From Homeland to Heaven,” artist Samir Fouad proves to be one of Egypt’s few master painters. His new exhibit demonstrates an immeasurable talent for great technical depth and solid subject matter. His last show, “Lahma” — the Arabic word for meat — exhibited last year was comprised of large canvases …
Greek director Angelopoulos dies
Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos whose long, meditative films won him a clutch of top international awards including the Palme d’Or at Cannes, has died aged 76 after a road accident on location. Angelopoulos succumbed to a brain hemorrhage at a hospital near the port city of Piraeus outside Athens late Tuesday after he was …
Arthropologie: Dissolving the boundaries of art
According to Arthropologie, art has neither prerequisites nor boundaries. An exquisite art gallery located on Marashly Street in Zamalek, Arthropologie reaches out to artists on a different, unusual level. Its founders are all about giving artists (which can be anyone) a platform; they want to go out of buildings, beyond the homogenous artistic community and …
‘Hugo,’ ‘Artist’ inject cinema nostalgia to Oscars
American master Martin Scorsese journeyed to France, putting Hollywood’s newest technology to work for his dazzling 3-D re-creation of 1930s Paris in "Hugo." French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius came to America, reviving old-time Hollywood with his charming resurrection of early cinema in the silent film "The Artist." The two films now head a 21st century Academy …