Pharaoh (Jerzy Kawalerowicz)
Second Run – Blu Ray
In the 1966 advertising campaign for Pharaoh Film Polski promoted Pharaoh as being an “anti-Cleopatra epic” and one commentator even declared it to be “Communism’s answer to Cleopatra.” Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra opened in 1963. Cleopatra’s an epic Hollywood production with opening scenes that dazzle and glitter from the gold of its costumes and sets. Visually you will find no such colourful over-decoration in Pharaoh. As for a communism versus capitalism depiction of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra is the famous love story of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. Whilst ironically Pharaoh (without ever making direct comparisons with communist rule) is a severe critique of absolute power in the ancient world.
According to Michael Brooke’s excellently researched booklet, for this blu ray, the colour photography of Pharaoh caused some controversy amongst Egyptologists who maintained that ancient Egypt was more colourful than Pharaoh’s use of colour. I feel it’s a question of extrovert Hollywood versus introvert East European expression here: that the beauty of the subdued patina of Pharaoh is brilliantly apt for the interioty of a more intimate and darker story (Even the greyer desert sand of Uzbekistan was chosen over the familiar yellow.) The paler look of Pharaoh is important in reflecting the stark machinations of the film’s power struggle.
“Pharaoh was a realisation of reduction, moderation and austerity. It was, as it were, a refined understanding of Egyptian culture, opening up a field that enabled the viewer’s imagination to work, constructing its own world with the help of the elements shown.”
Jerzy Wojcik, cinematographer on Pharaoh
Young Prince Ramses (Jerzy Zelnick) angers the high priest Herhor (Piotr Pawlowski) when he takes a Jewish woman Sarah (Krystyna Mikolajewska) as his mistress. Increased conflict occurs with the priests when Ramses attempts to solve Egypt’s severe economic and military problems. His struggle with Herhor worsens when Ramses’s pharaoh father dies and he succeeds him.
Ramses III desperately needs finance. But the priests are the guardians of the gold reserves and they forbid the new Pharaoh from touching them.
Pharaoh has many remarkable scenes: the opening image of the beetles in the sand (being watched by the priests) as to the army’s course of action; then followed by a tremendous tracking shot of a soldier running along the ranks to report the news; priest Herhor’s cunning intervention, during an eclipse of the sun, to frighten the masses who are in rebellion and the underground ritualistic assemblies of singing slaves – these are gripping and impressively staged moments. Overall there’s a sombre realism throughout Pharaoh that gives you the illusion that a film crew have been transported back in time to film the everyday Egyptian life of a pharaoh and his elites (Only Howard Hawks’s 1955 very different The Land of the Pharaohs, with it’s astonishing building of a pyramid sequence has such comparable documentary realism.)
It’s rare to find a powerful ancient Egypt story of religious authority, clashing with pharaonic power, made with great rigour and analysis. Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Tadeusz’s screenplay is driven by personalities, hierarchy and ritual. You can find such ideas in Michael Curtiz’s The Egyptian (1954) yet without such depth of exploration.
If there are flaws in Pharaoh then they don’t seriously diminish its powerful presence as intelligent and austere mise en scene. All the male characters are unsympathetic – their ambitions appearing so empty and ruthlessly selfish that not enough light and shade is drawn for character exploration. We have some fine, and never wooden, performances yet they give off a determinism which feels limiting. I’d have liked a touch of humour in Pharaoh to lighten a tone that occasionally felt a little too dour for its own good. But the film’s solemnity never falls into ponderous declamations of intent – which is the curse of much American epic filmmaking. The women in Pharaoh appear more rounded characters whose passion and concern, for the fate of Egypt and its royal heirs, is of a different intensity to the power burdened men.
Pharaoh is stark, uncompromising and suitably forbidding in this fantastically good 2k restoration. I can understand why Pharaoh is a Polish film classic, though it’s still strange to have a Polish speaking production to represent the vicissitudes of power in the ancient world. I’m trying to think of an Egyptian film industry feature film (past or present) that’s done this but nothing comes to mind. Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s film is a remarkable alternative super-production epic like no other epic. Anglophone film culture please take note.
Alan Price©2024
Pharaoh (Jerzy Kawalerowicz)
Second Run – Blu Ray
In the 1966 advertising campaign for Pharaoh Film Polski promoted Pharaoh as being an “anti-Cleopatra epic” and one commentator even declared it to be “Communism’s answer to Cleopatra.” Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra opened in 1963. Cleopatra’s an epic Hollywood production with opening scenes that dazzle and glitter from the gold of its costumes and sets. Visually you will find no such colourful over-decoration in Pharaoh. As for a communism versus capitalism depiction of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra is the famous love story of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. Whilst ironically Pharaoh (without ever making direct comparisons with communist rule) is a severe critique of absolute power in the ancient world.
According to Michael Brooke’s excellently researched booklet, for this blu ray, the colour photography of Pharaoh caused some controversy amongst Egyptologists who maintained that ancient Egypt was more colourful than Pharaoh’s use of colour. I feel it’s a question of extrovert Hollywood versus introvert East European expression here: that the beauty of the subdued patina of Pharaoh is brilliantly apt for the interioty of a more intimate and darker story (Even the greyer desert sand of Uzbekistan was chosen over the familiar yellow.) The paler look of Pharaoh is important in reflecting the stark machinations of the film’s power struggle.
“Pharaoh was a realisation of reduction, moderation and austerity. It was, as it were, a refined understanding of Egyptian culture, opening up a field that enabled the viewer’s imagination to work, constructing its own world with the help of the elements shown.”
Jerzy Wojcik, cinematographer on Pharaoh
Young Prince Ramses (Jerzy Zelnick) angers the high priest Herhor (Piotr Pawlowski) when he takes a Jewish woman Sarah (Krystyna Mikolajewska) as his mistress. Increased conflict occurs with the priests when Ramses attempts to solve Egypt’s severe economic and military problems. His struggle with Herhor worsens when Ramses’s pharaoh father dies and he succeeds him.
Ramses III desperately needs finance. But the priests are the guardians of the gold reserves and they forbid the new Pharaoh from touching them.
Pharaoh has many remarkable scenes: the opening image of the beetles in the sand (being watched by the priests) as to the army’s course of action; then followed by a tremendous tracking shot of a soldier running along the ranks to report the news; priest Herhor’s cunning intervention, during an eclipse of the sun, to frighten the masses who are in rebellion and the underground ritualistic assemblies of singing slaves – these are gripping and impressively staged moments. Overall there’s a sombre realism throughout Pharaoh that gives you the illusion that a film crew have been transported back in time to film the everyday Egyptian life of a pharaoh and his elites (Only Howard Hawks’s 1955 very different The Land of the Pharaohs, with it’s astonishing building of a pyramid sequence has such comparable documentary realism.)
It’s rare to find a powerful ancient Egypt story of religious authority, clashing with pharaonic power, made with great rigour and analysis. Jerzy Kawalerowicz and Tadeusz’s screenplay is driven by personalities, hierarchy and ritual. You can find such ideas in Michael Curtiz’s The Egyptian (1954) yet without such depth of exploration.
If there are flaws in Pharaoh then they don’t seriously diminish its powerful presence as intelligent and austere mise en scene. All the male characters are unsympathetic – their ambitions appearing so empty and ruthlessly selfish that not enough light and shade is drawn for character exploration. We have some fine, and never wooden, performances yet they give off a determinism which feels limiting. I’d have liked a touch of humour in Pharaoh to lighten a tone that occasionally felt a little too dour for its own good. But the film’s solemnity never falls into ponderous declamations of intent – which is the curse of much American epic filmmaking. The women in Pharaoh appear more rounded characters whose passion and concern, for the fate of Egypt and its royal heirs, is of a different intensity to the power burdened men.
Pharaoh is stark, uncompromising and suitably forbidding in this fantastically good 2k restoration. I can understand why Pharaoh is a Polish film classic, though it’s still strange to have a Polish speaking production to represent the vicissitudes of power in the ancient world. I’m trying to think of an Egyptian film industry feature film (past or present) that’s done this but nothing comes to mind. Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s film is a remarkable alternative super-production epic like no other epic. Anglophone film culture please take note.
Alan Price©2024
By Alan Price • film, year 2024 • Tags: Alan Price, film