Farewell My Love

Youssef Chahine was a big fan of MGM musicals and particularly Gene Kelly. In his second musical, Chahine yet again directs another hybrid production in a story of a terminally ill marine sergeant who falls in love with his nurse. Fronted by two of Egypt’s most beloved singers, Farid El Atrach and Shadia, this largely forgotten musical melodrama is another demonstration of Chahine’s versatility and his disregard for genre rules. It also contains what would transpire to be one of the cornerstones of Chahine’s filmmaking: the inventive and unusual use of music in his genre-bending pictures. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)