حاسب يا علاء ... والنبى يا علاء

اولمبياد لندن كانت ممتعه الى اقصى الحدود, استمتعت بمعظم الرياضات (توجد بعض الرياضات السمجه التى لا افهم سبب وجودها فى الاولمبياد مثل الهوكى و كره الريشه و البينج بونج) الا انها - الاولمبياد - تبقى حدث رياضى لا مثيل له,

 للاسف كملايين غيرى لم اتمكن من التواجد فى لندن و اكتفيت بالتليفزيون, القنوات العربيه على فمر نايلسات كانت اكثر من 16 قناه توفر تغطيه اكثر من جيده باستثناء التعليق

 تفنن الخلايجه فى التذاكى و الفتى و تاكيدهم للمشاهد انهم توقعوا النتيجه و شوف شوف شوف كيفما جلت الفريج الامريكى استحج الفوز على الفريج النيجيرى فى منافسات السله (و حيات امك؟ طب عرفتها لوحدك؟) و كانت الاستوديهات التحليليه متوازنه الصراحه فى حسن اختيارها للضيف فكان فى الغالب بطل سابق للعبه و فاهم بيقول ايه الا اننا عجزنا عن المتابعه عندما كان هذا الضيف من دول الشمال الافريقى بسبب عائق اللغه و غياب الترجمه (اصرار البعض الغريب على اعتبار ما يتحدث به معظم المغاربه على انه لغه عربيه اصبح مهزله و استهتار بالمشاهد و تضييع لوقته!) اما قناه النيل للرياضه المصريه فكانت عنوان للفشل الاعلامى و يستحق المسئولين بها الحساب العسير, الواضح انها عزبه تدار من بعض الصيع محترفى التعليق على مباريات الدورى المحلى و عمل لقائات حصريه مع الحكم الرابع لماتش الاهلى و الاتحاد علشان يسألوه عن صحه هدف الاهلى و هو اوفسايد ولا لا و هل سيقبل الفيفا ( فى تلك البرامج ) سيقبل تظلم الاتحاد و لا لا؟Viva  

تجسدت الملهاه عندما وصل البطل المصرى علاء ابو القاسم الى نهائى سيف المبارزه و فوجىء المعدون بوجود تلك الرياضه فى العالم و تقدم الكابتن خالد لطيف لاستلام المايك و التعليق (و هو شخص يبدو من انتفاخ كرشه و تورم وجهه ان علاقته بالرياضه كانت انه حفيد الكابتن لطيف لا اكثر 

الكابتن لطيف شاف ان شغل حلوه يا شيكا يا لعيب مش حينفع يطبقه على تلك الرياضه (الصراحه هو حاول فى الاول لكنه ادرك ان اللعبه مفيهاش كعوب و كبارى) فاستعاض عن جهله بالدعاء لعلاء و يارب انصر مصر!! طوال المباره شاهدنا علاء ينتزع النقاط و يخسرها امام بطل الصين و الكابتن لطيف عمال يصرخ اهدا يا علاء بلاش والنبى يا علاء حاسب يا علاء ياااارب ياااااارب 

فشل ما بعده فشل , تذكرت الكابتن الراحل رياض شراره, المعلق الموسوعى ... كان بطل رياضى مارس كره السله على المستوى الدولى و اتجه للتدريب بعدها ثم مارس العمل الادارى, الراجل ده مكانش فيه لعبه ميعرفهاش , مفيش حركه بدنيه مش فاهمها و مش فاهم صعوبتها, حتى نفسيه اللاعب كان شراره بيفهمها و يعلق عليها, اتذكر ان اسماعيل احمد لاعب الاتحاد فى السله اراد وضع الكره ساحقه (ابتكر شراره هذا التعبير كتعريب لكلمه سلام دانك) و كان اسماعيل لوحده و تهادى و بص يمين و بص شمال و الكره فلتت من ايده و زعق شراره : دلع و مرقعه!! انا لو من المدرب اسحبه! كان غاضبا و صادقا  (رغم ان الاتحاد كان بيلاعب الزمالك على نهائى الكاس - النادى الذى ينتمى اليه شراره)

كان هذا الرجل يملك صوت رجل عجوز محبب و قفشاته فعلا مضحكه (محمود بكر لما يتجلا و فى احسن حالاته الفكاهيه جنبه كانه اشرف شاكر) شاهدته فى اتلانتا 96 و سيدنى 2000 و كان يقوم بالتعليق على كل الرياضات, ملاحم ماريون جونز , ايان ثورب , مايكل جونسن , اسينبايفا, كوبكا و سباق بوبوف الاخير سيظلوا الى الابد مقترنين بصوته عندى.

رحم الله شراره و اخذ لطيف, بطيشه, شلبوكه, جعفر, شوبير و بندق اخذ عزيز مقتدر, اللهم امين.

هاشم فؤاد

القاهره, اغسطس 2012

Down with IMAX! (My Top 10 Movies)

When is "The Dark knight rises" coming to a nearby cinema i asked my friend who is also the ultimate movie buff that i believe ever existed.
"Soon enough, but be careful it's going to show in IMAX" he replied, "I-who??"
From what i understood it's the new "ultimate movie experience" since, well... the 3D ultimate movie experience a couple of years ago.
And it's gonna cost you, yep, for 150 EGP a ticket you are going to enjoy the IMAX experience.
What is happening? how did going to the theater to enjoy a movie turned from one of the most enjoyable entertaining things you can easily do into a financial burden?
I reflected on my ever unquenchable love to movies, and began to recall my favorite flicks when to my surprise, i discovered that i can safely say, that my favorite movies were not seen in the theaters, in fact, in theaters i can only recall watching enjoyable entertaining blockbusters that were being watched with a mouth full of pop corn.
So why do i love movies? here is me trying to list my favorite movies in a top ten preview with no specific order.

• Seven Samurai

  Akira Kurosawa

The story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire samurai warriors to protect them from invading bandits. As you would expect from Akira Kurosawa, nothing is less than great in this movie; photography,acting and directing.

What really stands out in this movie though is the character development, in a running time of almost 200 minutes the characters learn to balance humor, drama, and grow deep affection for their each other. A wonderful classic. 

• The Seventh Seal

  Ingmar Bergman

This film has the pulse of a children’s fable told by an impossibly wise narrator (Bergman). Death meets a knight returning from the crusades and informs him that he is here to take his life, the knight bargains with Death and challenges death to a game of chess, though certain that he cannot win (nor cheat) he is buying time to do "one more thing, the thing that will make sense of his life", and oh god - won't you tear up when you find about this deed!

One of my favorite scenes is when the knight confesses to Death thinking he is a priest and death tricks him into revealing his strategy in the chess game.

• Drive

  Nicolas Winding Refn

A mysterious man meets a dame in distress and reveals his ugly side in possibly the coolest movie ever made with a stunning soundtrack that will keep you hooked, brilliant!

just listen to this track and you'll get the picture.

• A Clockwork Orange

  Stanley Kubrick 

Kubrick's masterpiece.One of the most disturbing movies ever made, i remember the first time i watched this one (and I've always came back for a second time) i was thinking what the hell? the story of Alex the "ultra violent" youth in futuristic Britain and his gang of hooligans, they rape women, kill beggars and piss on art work and have no respect for

anything but for Beethoven, Kubrick takes Burgess's classic and turns it to a visionary masterpiece that was a huge leap against conformity and fake values.

• Fellini's Satyricon

  Federico Fellini

Bizzare, beautiful and probably the sexiest movie I've ever seen, Fellini's artistic imagination is incomparable, the story of two lovers, friends,enemies and poets Ascyltos and Encolpius in ancient Rome is a feast for the mind and for the eyes.  

• Unforgiven

  Client Eastwood

Eastwood gets into you in Unforgiven, you keep thinking what a fool old man this William Munny is. If it was only for Richard Harris's scene this movie would've still made this list.  

• Kagemusha

  Akira Kurosawa

Another Kurosawa makes it to the list, and for a very good reason. In Kagemusha Kurosawa creates a historical epic that is also a meditation on the nature of power. With possibly the best cinematography and epic battle scenes along with a brilliant soundtrack, Kagemusha is a classic.

• باب الشمس

  يسرى نصرالله

In Bab el Shams, Nassrallah transforms Ellias Khory's Book into a 4 hour movie that he eventually turned into 2 separate movies, i always enjoyed the first one "Exodus" and regarded it the best moment in the history of Arabic cinema, there is a scene when Israeli officers are interrogating a Palestinian woman on the whereabouts of her husband, she tells them she doesn't know where he is, they tell her that she is pregnant so she must be meeting him, distressed ,weak and angry after fierce interrogation she yells to the world "i'm a pregnant because i am a WHORE!" ... of all the kitschy, tasteless and vulgar Palestinian propaganda i have been subjected to all my life, nothing moved me to sympathies with the palastinian cause like this movie. 

One more thing: the movie's main song is awesome.

• Il Gattopardo

  Luchino Visconti

As if Visconti invented the time machine and took us back to Italy in Garibaldi's time! Every still can be a painting , Claudia Cardinali is stunning playing a vulgar beauty who takes the old decaying world by storm in the final scene dancing the waltz to Nino Rota's beatiful music.

 

  

• As Good As it Gets

  James L.Brooks

I just love the dog!! and it's hilarious :)

• Amadeus

  Milos Forman

My worst fear is to become Salieri ! No body wants to be average, but knowing that you are nothing but a mediocrity with nothing special, to know that you are a fool and live every day knowing this, now that's cruel! Salieri was reminded of his mediocrity every day of his long life since he met and became obsessed with Mozart's divine talent in music, F.Murray Abraham probably performed the best villain in cinema history in my opinion.

Hashem Fouad

Cairo, August 2012

Hemingway and the Olympics (The Old man and the Sea)

For the past week I've been watching the London Olympics where exceptional athletes push their bodies and will to do remarkable things.

I discovered that I can divide the athletes that i root for into two types, the type that belongs to that "Superhuman" category of people, the demigods I call them, the likes of Fedrer, Kobe Bryant and Phelps, those who probably had never known the feeling of being in second place. It’s thrilling to watch someone who is so unlike the rest of us performing.

The second type is different. "My type", the all-too-human athletes whose every achievement is a battle. Nothing is easy. Watching them is a nerve wrecking tour. Something is always going wrong. Their struggles remind us of our struggles. And their wins are the wins that inspire us to imagine what we could be at our best.

Recently I received a blow to a personal project that I've been working on for almost two years. I succumbed myself into thinking about the futile effort and the long hours that went in vain and all the money I spent pursuing the nothingness.

I picked myself up and headed to the ever-growing pile of unread books that I have accumulated in the past 2 years and picked Hemingway's "The old man and the Sea".

The Story is of Santiago  the old fisherman whose been failing to catch a single fish for 84 consecutive days but still optimistically declares to his young apprentice that he did not break his record of 87 days yet.

The old man catches a massive marlin that  for 3 days he battles successfully to catch but only to later have his prize devoured by a school of sharks leaving him with little more than a skeleton.

Like our second type of athletes Santiago's tale is not a tale of failure, it is a tale of success in the midst of failure, of pure courage, and Santiago's refusal to give in to the challenges the world throws at him. Just note that when Santiago's grip is weakening and he can't feel his pain anymore he reminds himself that "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not try to kill the stars".

Santiago and the Olympics made quite an impression on me, that if you persist on pursuing something, even if others think you are unlucky as well as incapable to achieving it, at the end of the day you will achieve that very goal. It was not in vain what you did even if you end up with a skeleton of a fish.

Hemingway's favorite theme of "the highest virtue and courage lies in doing something purely for something's sake instead of for its other rewards." brought me back some sense. Even if one fails to achieve something at the end, the very process that one has ever tried and 

persisted till the last minute alone is enough to justify one's effort.

Happy 113'Th birthday Ernst Hemingway

Hashem Fouad

Cairo, 04 Aug, 2012