Cinema El-Fourn is a very unlikely name for an open-air film theater, but this is exactly what the new initiative from the Darb 1718 Contemporary Art and Cultural Center is called. Located in Fustat, or the pottery area of Cairo, Darb has established itself as one of the city’s hottest new spaces for contemporary art …
LUXOR: Luxor is set to become one of the world s largest open-air museums when a multimillion dollar project to restore the Sphinx Alley is complete in March, the governor of Luxor, Samir Farag, said Sunday. The project to restore the three-kilometer alley that links the grand temples of Luxor and Karnak on the east …
CAIRO: Egypt’s Prosecutor General has ordered the release of the Mohamed Ali Dynasty’s jewelry and antiques that have been kept in a special room in the Central Bank of Egypt for the past 57 years, according to Egynews.net. Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud has decreed that 45 chests filled with jewelry and rare antiques be …
While Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock s chances for Academy Award gold were advanced with their trophies at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the blockbuster Avatar may have felt a touch blue. The computer-assisted performances in James Cameron s Avatar didn t make the cut for SAG nominations. But the groundbreaking sci-fi film remains a …
Jean Simmons, whose ethereal screen presence and starring roles with Hollywood s top actors made her a mid-century film icon, has died at age 80. The actress, who sang with Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls; costarred with Gregory Peck, Paul Newman and Kirk Douglas; and played Ophelia to Laurence Olivier s Hamlet, died Friday …
In an unprecedented venture into the world of TV drama, Youssef Chahine’s Misr International Films (MIF) and BBC World Service Trust are bringing a new media platform to the Arab World; one they hope will evolve as “an agent of change. During a press conference held Saturday evening, Marianne and Gabriel Khoury, chief executives of …
LONDON: The debt owed by European scholars to their Muslim counterparts on everything from water pumps and blood circulation to engineering and map-making was unveiled in a London exhibition on Thursday. The organizers of 1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World hope to illuminate 1,000 years of neglected science from north Africa to …
Robert Redford kicked off the 26th Sundance Film Festival on Thursday with an appeal for participants at the 10-day event to remember the victims of the devastating Haiti earthquake. The 73-year-old movie icon, one of the founding fathers of Sundance, the world s biggest independent film festival, made his appeal while speaking at the event …
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. For the past 15 years, Egyptian filmmaker Oussama Fawzi has been a critics’ darling, directing two of the most acclaimed films of the 1990s (“Ghosts of the Asphalt in 1996 and “Fallen Angels Paradise in 1999) and one of the defining films of 2000s (“I Love Cinema in …
Amazon offered a higher royalty payment this week to authors and publishers who use a self-publishing platform on its Kindle electronic book reader. The online retail giant said the new royalty option will allow authors to keep 70 percent of the list price of a digital book minus delivery costs, which work out to around …
As the credits of Fantastic Mr. Fox began to roll and the Bobby Fuller Four s Let Her Dance blared through the theater at a recent showing of the movie, a young girl leapt to her feet and joined the on-screen characters, dancing in the aisle. Much has already been said about Wes Anderson s …
Sci-fi extravaganza Avatar, Iraq drama The Hurt Locker and coming-of-age story An Education earned eight nominations apiece Thursday in the race for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain s equivalent of the Oscars. The three films are up for best picture alongside Up in the Air and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. …
A biopic of Serge Gainsbourg, the French singer best known abroad for his raunchy 1969 classic Je t aime, moi non plus, hits cinemas across Europe this week but its release is overshadowed by the suicide of the British actress who played his muse. Serge Gainsbourg: Vie Heroique (A Heroic Life) takes a poignant look …
Another sparkle will be added to the dazzle at the new Fairmont Nile City hotel to open this month. The duo called “Diamond Life, consisting of vocalist Carrie Gibson and accompanist Joe Bashorun, and who will soon perform at the hotel’s O Bar, refuse to be pigeonholed into one category of music. “We don’t like …
If you give your child the choice between going to a playground and visiting a museum, they will most definitely choose the playground, and it’s hard to argue against that. That s why the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities set up its first children’s section, a miniature version built on the same premises in the heart …
Producer Quinn Monahan wants to show you the history of on-screen comedy in about two minutes. He and his team watched more than a thousand movies and TV shows, clipped out the funniest moments and whittled them into a meticulously sculpted 2 1/2-minute comedy montage set to air Saturday during the Screen Actors Guild Awards. …
Films about the war in Afghanistan and the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto are among the offerings as the 26th Sundance Film Festival gets underway in Utah on Thursday. The 10-day carnival – the world s premier festival of independent film – will see more than 100 movies showcased as Hollywood descends …
We Portuguese are very melancholic people, said Mariza onstage at the Cairo Opera House on Tuesday, “But our melancholy is a sweet melancholy. That’s why we have the fado. Born Marisa dos Reis Nunes in Mozambique, the artist Mariza is an icon of the Portuguese musical genre fado, meaning “destiny or “fate. Originating in the …
CAIRO: Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an ancient Greek temple dedicated to Egyptian cat goddess Bastet in Alexandria, the antiquities department said Tuesday. The mission led by Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, head of Antiquities of Lower Egypt, discovered the remains of a temple of Queen Berenike, the wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled …
Emir Kusturica is trying to stop Hollywood tainting his Kuestendorf arts festival, but the renowned director did not reckon with Johnny Depp. Kusturica, winner of two awards at the Cannes film festival, said he wants the festival, now in its third year, to be devoted only to movies, music and life, far from the blockbusters …
The repertoire system found in many international theaters is virtually unknown in contemporary Egyptian theater. It’s rare when a play is given a second run after its initial opening season. One recent exception was Sadalla Wannus’ “Al-Malek Howa Al-Malek (The King is the King), a massive success when first opened on Al-Salam Theater in downtown …
US President Barack Obama – stage version – thrilled a Frankfurt audience Sunday with song in a musical that opened far from the trenches of Washington politics in a land still charmed by his message of hope and change. I m fascinated by Obama, spectator Cornelia Hirschfeld, 55, told AFP half-way through Hope – The …
The Golden Globes gave top honors to James Cameron s Avatar and took its cue from the film s celebration of humanity, with winners ranging from the gritty child-abuse drama Precious to freewheeling comedy The Hangover. Sunday s awards ceremony also opened wide to embrace the long-admired Jeff Bridges, who took best dramatic-acting honors for …
Last January, Hanfaninha debuted as Cairo’s youngest studio gallery, opening an outlet for young talents who have long struggled for exhibiting their work in any of the city’s established showrooms. With a superb location in Zamalek and a passion for their craft, three friends fresh out of college quickly carved their place in Cairo’s young …
Beloved Belgian cartoon reporter Tintin is getting a makeover in China thanks to a new, more faithful Mandarin translation of his adventures. Wang Bingdong, who first discovered Herge s comic strip hero in 2001 at the age of 66, spent three years penning the new version of 22 Tintin books – a painstaking task he …
Istanbul on Saturday launched a year of art events as it became one of three Cultural Capitals of Europe for 2010, feting the occasion with concerts, street shows and firework displays. The accolade, bestowed by the European Union, is seen by Turkey as an opportunity to reaffirm its bid to join the bloc and showcase …
Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker and its director took top honors at the Critics Choice Awards, while Quentin Tarantino s Inglourious Basterds and James Cameron s Avatar won the most awards. Director-producer Kathryn Bigelow was named best director at Friday s ceremony for Locker, winner of the best picture prize. Accepting the best picture …
A loose and cheeky tone is typical for the Golden Globes. Yet Hollywood s first major prize show on the road to the Academy Awards has plenty of heavy drama for the hard times we live in. Three films with war-on-terror angles scored nominations, led by critical darling The Hurt Locker, which is among best …
In my freshman year in college, a particular mass media theory always fascinated me. The theory suggested that there four types of truths: Absolute, reported, inferred and judgmental. The three latter types involve diverse degrees of subjectivity. Absolute truth is the only ‘real’ truth, but it’s unreachable. Everything I studied that year onwards was framed …
Du Lala is a brash, 30-something Chinese woman who successfully breaks the glass ceiling in the macho corporate world. She is also the title character in a novel that has been a breakout literary hit in China and an unofficial handbook for ambitious career women in the Asian nation, now the world’s third largest economy. …
