Truffaut and Hamed

Truffaut's Day for Night has an uncanny knack for delivering witty, insightful, piquant one-liners. Several scenes end with these well-positioned phrases and they make the myriad transitions all the more compelling. Marwan Hamed's The Yacoubian Buildingparallels Day for Night in form insofar as both film's boast huge casts, quick, active editing, and layered, intricate story-lines which sprightly demand the viewer's attention. In The Yacoubian Building, the scenes are often brief yet comprehensive, covering a lot of narrative ground without using much dialogue or imagery. Consequently, the quality of the dialogue suffers beneath the weight of the amount of information expressed. Hence, a lot of ground is covered throughout Yacoubian's story, but the terse time limits allotted for each scene offer shortened, occasionally juvenile observations regarding complicated plot lines. If Hamed were able to maintain the tight grip he has on his melodrama while incorporating the insightful dialogue so aptly utilized in Truffaut's Day for Night, using it to motivate the plot rather than simply expressing observations, he would be an even more exceptionally gifted filmmaker, distinguishing his work while maintaining its pronounced mass appeal.

The Yacoubian Building

Eygptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed's The Yacoubian Building insightfully examines the vibrant culture of Cairo. Yacoubian smoothly intertwines several narrative threads, creating a realist mosaic which seductively highlights the hardships confronting the haves and have-nots within Cairo. Everyone has their price, and Yacoubian's chilling conclusions soberly elucidate the complicated consequences of either living or contradicting some version of a pious life. A coming of age tale that challenges the nature of coming of age itself, The Yacoubian Building houses poignant characters and sinister resolutions, its stories packed with controversial ideas which challenge the foundations of modern Cairo.