MONACO AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES - ADIEU BONAPARTE BY YOUSSEF CHAHINE

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MONACO AUDIOVISUAL ARCHIVES - ADIEU BONAPARTE BY YOUSSEF CHAHINE

Wed. 2nd November 2016 6:00pm

Movie screening

In 1985 Egypt's most famous filmmaker, Youssef Chahine, made his 28th feature film, a French-Egyptian coproduction. Paralleling the historical drama, Adieu Bonaparte draws an intimate portrait of General Caffarelli, an extravagant one-legged character passionate about science and the Egyptian people, who opposes the austere, ambitious Bonaparte. Chahine directed two of France's greatest actors, Michel Piccoli and Patrice Chéreau, in these highly contrasted character roles, as well as revealing gifted Egyptian actors such as Mohsen Mohieddine to the general public. As in all his films, Chahine uses the eyes, music and words to communicate his emotions, and his alternation between French and Arabic also contributes considerably to the film's aesthetics. This sensual but serious vision of people and things is that of a generous, socially-aware filmmaker who opposes received ideas and recounts his own personal take on history past – the Napoleonic campaigns – but also contemporary: an Egypt seeking to affirm its visceral identity.

A 2016 Misr International Films and TF1 Droits Audiovisuels restoration by La Cinémathèque Française with the support of the CNC, the Fonds Culturel Franco-Américain (DGA-MPA-SACEM-WGAW), the Archives Audiovisuelles de Monaco and the Association Youssef Chahine.