If the first three films of the series “Movies From the Maghreb”–a retrospective of North African cinema at the Film Center of the School of the Art Institute–have tended to concentrate on social, religious and political themes, the last two have earthier concerns. Both the 1990 “Halfaouine–Boy of the Terraces” and 1992’s “Bezness” focus very frankly on eroticism.
Though these films, both Tunisian, share the surprisingly intense visual beauty of all five “Maghreb” movies, the tone of the last two is quite different. “Halfaouine” is a gently sensuous coming-of-age comedy and “Bezness” a moody tale of hedonism and self-destruction in the beaches and back alleys of the Tunisian coastal city of Sousse. Their inspirations seem diverse as well. If “Halfaouine” recalls breezily unbuttoned ’70s French youth comedies like “Murmur of the Heart” or “Peppermint Soda,” “Bezness” is even more reminiscent of the ’60s Italian cinema of urban alienation and dangerous glamour, of “La Dolce Vita,” “The Easy Life” and “Accatone.”
“Halfaouine,” written and directed by the eminent Arab film critic Ferid Boughedir, was a multiple award winner at festivals from Montreal to Cannes in the early ’90s–including a Best First Feature prize at Chicago. It’s been scheduled for an extended run (6 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Tuesday). Perhaps that’s because the movie’s mix of sunshine, sensuality and humor make it seem the series’ obvious crowd-pleaser. But in some respects, “Halfaouine” is one of the “Maghreb” series’ most daring films–precisely because of the non-judgmental lightness and geniality with which it portrays its milieu’s juxtaposition of sometimes loosely fettered private sexuality and a strict fundamentalist social backlash.
The central character is a middle-class 12-year-old boy named Noura (played by Selim Boughedir, nephew of the director), who lives in Halfaouine, a working-class district of Tunis, and whose sexual precocity is belied by his diminutive size. Fittingly, if this is a fictional portrayal of film critic Boughedir’s own youth, it’s a memoir of voyeurism.
Noura prowls the winding, close-packed city streets, spies from his father’s airy rooftops, peeks at a lovely teenage maid (Carolyn Chelby), and, in his most disastrous episode, repeatedly accompanies his mother to the hammam, or communal baths, to spy on the other ladies there–most of whom blithely ignore their pint-size intruder.
Like his urbane French models, Boughedir treats Noura’s escapades as pranks rather than sins–a liberality that may shock some. But “Halfaouine” is less shallow sensationalism than a richly textured ensemble piece. As in all the other North African films, there’s a very full depiction of Noura’s family and community. And, as in many European or Asian art films centering on young protagonists, it shows us a complex foreign culture with a marvelously unjaded and “innocent eye.”
The eye is considerably less innocent in “Bezness” (6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Sunday). Directed by Nouri Bouzid (1985’s “Man of Ashes”), this movie’s subject is the collision of values in modern culture. Its main characters are Roufa (Abdel Kechiche), a switch-hitting Tunisian gigolo who works the Sousse beaches and bars, and Fred (Jacques Penot), a French photographer who follows him.
Roufa is a charming but consummate hypocrite. Despite his libertine profession, he expects fidelity from his fiance, Khomsa. And he’s devastated by the intrusion of Fred, who, perhaps ironically, somewhat resembles the legendary character Walter Santesso played in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”: Paparazzo, whose name branded all succeeding generations of celebrity photographers. At its best, “Bezness” captures that blend of glamor and despair Italian cineastes caught so well in the ’60s. It also grants us intimate glimpses of a part of the world largely unexplored by Western audiences.
Continuing at the Film Center is the run of director Severo Perez’s notable but erratic film version of Tomas Rivera’s classic migrant-worker novel “. . . and the earth did not swallow him” (4 and 6 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday).
The Film Center is at Columbus Drive and Jackson Boulevard. Call 312-443-3737 for schedules.
– Chicago Filmmakers, 1543 W. Division St., continues its presentation of Robert Metrick’s mixed-media “liturgical psychodrama”: “The Enunciation (What the Oxen Said)” (8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday). Call 312-384-5533.
– In conjunction with Facets Multimedia’s Chicago theatrical premiere of Dusan Makavejev’s latest feature, the Berlin Wall-breaking tragicomedy “Gorilla Bathes at Noon,” Facets Video Theater, at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave., is premiering Makavejev’s 1994 documentary “Hole in the Soul” (7 and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday). “Hole” is an irreverent and disturbing account of the master Yugoslavian filmmaker’s recent return to his Belgrade birthplace.
Call 312-281-4114.
– You have another chance to catch vivacious ’30s cartoon charmer Betty Boop in “Betty Boop Confidential” (midnight Friday and Saturday; 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday) at The Music Box, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Call 312-871-6604.
