The Night of Counting the Years

THE most artistically pleasing film ever created ever

THE most artistically pleasing film ever created ever

I wish I could have a fairer assessment of this film, as it is one of the more important Egyptian films in history, and I was hooked for the most part. This is a slow-burning, quite hypnotic character drama with some incredible cinematography and a great, atmospheric score, and I couldn’t help but be swept away by the film’s sheer atmosphere.  It’s truly beautiful filmmaking, and a very good movie to match it.  Unfortunately, the print we found was in awful quality with turn-on captions, ripped from a copy of a copy of a VHS, so the film went from a little challenging for my English-speaking film club to somewhat incomprehensible due to the poor quality.  Not having a lot of historical and cultural context beforehand also might not have helped.  There is a proper remaster from Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, but it’s not easy to come by, since it’s not streaming anywhere and lacks a physical release (please, Criterion…) and I hope to rewatch this with a better transfer.  This goes to show how much we need film perseveration and greater accessibility for international cinema.

I wish I could have a fairer assessment of this film, as it is one of the more important Egyptian films in history, and I was hooked for the most part. This is a slow-burning, quite hypnotic character drama with some incredible cinematography and a great, atmospheric score, and I couldn’t help but be swept away by the film’s sheer atmosphere.  It’s truly beautiful filmmaking, and a very good movie to match it.  Unfortunately, the print we found was in awful quality with turn-on captions, ripped from a copy of a copy of a VHS, so the film went from a little challenging for my English-speaking film club to somewhat incomprehensible due to the poor quality.  Not having a lot of historical and cultural context beforehand also might not have helped.  There is a proper remaster from Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, but it’s not easy to come by, since it’s not streaming anywhere and lacks a physical release (please, Criterion…) and I hope to rewatch this with a better transfer.  This goes to show how much we need film perseveration and greater accessibility for international cinema.

I am maybe prejudiced rating this film due to the low quality of the subs, but while it managed to capture and atmosphere and melancholy the plot was unsatisfying.

I am maybe prejudiced rating this film due to the low quality of the subs, but while it managed to capture and atmosphere and melancholy the plot was unsatisfying.

this movie had a great environment and costume designs, and the style of directing is very simple and beautiful. the vision of the film and simplicity of expression, shadi abdel salam did not resort to time skips, or scene changing without a systematic approach, he did the costumes himself, which all look good and distinctive.

pacing wise it felt very slow, found myself bored in the middle, wished the story could have been delivered better.

this movie had a great environment and costume designs, and the style of directing is very simple and beautiful. the vision of the film and simplicity of expression, shadi abdel salam did not resort to time skips, or scene changing without a systematic approach, he did the costumes himself, which all look good and distinctive.

pacing wise it felt very slow, found myself bored in the middle, wished the story could have been delivered better.