Thursday, August 05, 2010

The Atmospheric 'Cairo Time'


Wow, what a still. AO Scott on 'Cairo Time':

The sheer crush of people and vehicles on the streets — the noise, the smoke, the semipredatory attention paid to a Western woman by local men — is vividly captured in “Cairo Time,” but so is a disarming gentleness, a graceful elegance that survives amid the chaos.

The quiet of old cafes and mosques; the sailboats on the Nile; the swooning, resilient voice of Umm Kulthum, the diva who embodied both the cosmopolitanism and the national pride of mid-20th-century Egypt — these are the details that resonate with Ms. Nadda, a Canadian filmmaker of Syrian background, much as they beguile Juliette. She wanders around in a bit of a haze, her slightly sorrowful mood converging with the wistful ambience she finds in quieter parts of the city.

I want to see it just for the atmosphere. You could probably watch 'Cairo Time' with the sound off and still be mesmerized.





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