Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
YouTube Posts Archive of Classic Egyptian Films
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
As the Ramadan TV Series Season Approaches, Anticipation and Controversy
Ramadan starts Friday, and with it comes the much anticipated Ramadan TV season for this year. Historically the Muslim month of fasting is a time for families reading the Qur'an, one-thirtieth per night for a month, and holding family gatherings after iftar, the moment of breaking the fast after sunset. Fotr the past thirty years or so, it has also been a time for watching soap operas that run nightly for a month, or musical extravaganzas known as fawazir Ramadan or Ramadan puzzles, because they include riddles for the audience to solve.
Each year, the Ramadan offerings are a matter of anticipation. Egyptian and Lebanese production companies produce most of them, but Syrian soap operas hit it big a few years ago, and Turkish soap operas in translation are also popular.
Since many of the soap operas focus on sexual or other taboo themes to ensure ratings (though others have pious religious themes), and many of the musicals involve singing, dancing, and scanty clothing, many Islamists do not consider them appropriate Ramadan fare. Some social scientists have dubbed the fawazir and soap operas the "Christmas-ization" of Ramadan.
Well, it's almost time again, so we're seeing lots of talk about the new "season" of Ramadan TV. Here, for example, is a preview of Lebanon's TV offerings this Ramadan; while this report from Al-Arabiya speculates on whether the rise in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will deter that country's usual enthusiasm about Ramadan offerings. Meanwhile, there's a Gulf effort on Twitter to promote a boycotting of the Ramadan shows,
And of course, it wouldn't be Ramadan without controversy over at least one show, and celebrity gossip about the stars.
In the first category, a series called ‘Umar al-Faruq, dealing with the second Muslim Caliph, and therefore involving portrayals of many of the most prominent companions of the Prophet, has aroused the ire of Islamists and religious conservatives who oppose the portrayal of any religious figures. The program, produced by Middle East Broadcasting and expected to be aired in most Arab countries and Turkey, has come under fire in Saudi Arabia, where Prince Abdel Aziz bin Fahd, son of the late King Fahd and with an interest in MBC, has warned:
And then there is the celebrity news, since Lebanese singer and Superstar Celebrity Diva Haifa Wehbe announced she was pulling out of her anticipated series because there was insufficient time to complete production before Ramadan due to production delays. The plot sounds fairly typical:
Haifa Wehbe (left), who tends to be known, in addition to her singing, for her frequent display of her generous cleavage, certainly seems ideally suited to the role of a poor Cinderella type. But she ably provides the celebrity gossip quotient for this year's Ramadan series run-up.
Each year, the Ramadan offerings are a matter of anticipation. Egyptian and Lebanese production companies produce most of them, but Syrian soap operas hit it big a few years ago, and Turkish soap operas in translation are also popular.
Since many of the soap operas focus on sexual or other taboo themes to ensure ratings (though others have pious religious themes), and many of the musicals involve singing, dancing, and scanty clothing, many Islamists do not consider them appropriate Ramadan fare. Some social scientists have dubbed the fawazir and soap operas the "Christmas-ization" of Ramadan.
Well, it's almost time again, so we're seeing lots of talk about the new "season" of Ramadan TV. Here, for example, is a preview of Lebanon's TV offerings this Ramadan; while this report from Al-Arabiya speculates on whether the rise in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will deter that country's usual enthusiasm about Ramadan offerings. Meanwhile, there's a Gulf effort on Twitter to promote a boycotting of the Ramadan shows,
And of course, it wouldn't be Ramadan without controversy over at least one show, and celebrity gossip about the stars.
In the first category, a series called ‘Umar al-Faruq, dealing with the second Muslim Caliph, and therefore involving portrayals of many of the most prominent companions of the Prophet, has aroused the ire of Islamists and religious conservatives who oppose the portrayal of any religious figures. The program, produced by Middle East Broadcasting and expected to be aired in most Arab countries and Turkey, has come under fire in Saudi Arabia, where Prince Abdel Aziz bin Fahd, son of the late King Fahd and with an interest in MBC, has warned:
"I swear to God that I disown and distance myself from MBC's work, especially Umar Al Farooq.I will do my best to stop this series.Qatar must accept God's will otherwise, we will go to court," he told Saudi newspapers.God's will or the lawyers.
And then there is the celebrity news, since Lebanese singer and Superstar Celebrity Diva Haifa Wehbe announced she was pulling out of her anticipated series because there was insufficient time to complete production before Ramadan due to production delays. The plot sounds fairly typical:
A Cinderella-like tale, Haifa initially plays a poor woman who earns a living on the streets by dancing for passersby. Her character’s fortune changes, however, after an encounter with a wealthy man who falls deeply in love and seeks her hand in marriage.
At some stage during the show, Daher told The Daily Star, Haifa’s character is thrown in jail on false charges fabricated by members of her lover’s family.
 |
| Wehbe, not in Cinderella character |
Monday, November 21, 2011
Two Words You Didn't Expect to See Together: Angelina Jolie and Gertrude Bell
I came across this over the weekend and originally planned to use it as something light to start the week with on Monday morning, until the bloodshed in Egypt made that singularly inappropriate. To lighten all the gloom, however:
When I first saw the headline, "Angelina Jolie Attached to Middle East Biopic GERTRUDE BELL; Ridley Scott May Direct", I thought, oh, surely not. On careful reading I read it as maybe Jolie just wanted to direct a movie about Gertrude Bell; but on more careful reading, I find that no, indeed, my first reading was accurate, she wants to play Gertrude Bell herself. (Also here.) All the articles seem to refer to Bell as "the female Lawrence of Arabia," which may be how they sold the script. I'm not sure if that's more unfair to Lawrence or to Bell, who were both rather amazing figures of the British imperial era. Bell, of course, was the figure in the British Arab Bureau during World War I who helped midwife the birth of Iraq as a British mandate and then managed to, um, arrange the "election" of Feisal ibn al-Hussein of Mecca as King of Iraq, since the French had kicked him out as King of Syria and his brother ‘Abdullah had already become Emir (and later King) of Transjordan. Bell deserves a great movie of her own; I hope it is as widely seen and as brilliantly done as the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, but sticks closer to the actual facts. Will it?
Well, Peter O'Toole was nearly a foot taller than the real T.E. Lawrence, but otherwise there was some physical resemblance. Perhaps this is what led to the idea of casting Angelina as Gertrude: the fact that they look so much alike? Yeah, that must have been it:
My first thought was that if she is in fact planning to play Gertrude Bell, this would rank right up there with John Wayne being cast as Genghiz Khan, in 1956' The Conqueror, a movie so famously bad it isn't available on DVD even today, and is famous only for so many of its actors dying from cancer (including the Duke), since it was filmed at a Utah site downwind from the Nevada nuclear tests, then still frequent and above ground. Even Howard Hughes, who made it, supposedly hated it.
My biggest fear: Wait, says Hollywood. She was "The Female Lawrence of Arabia?" as our own publicity says? "She knew Lawrence of Arabia? She worked with him? If we've got Angelina on board,why not go for the whole "Brangelina" enchilada and sign Brad Pitt to play T. E. Lawrence? But then there should be some romantic interaction and maybe a sex scene ..." (No. NO ONE would buy into that.)
Gertrude Bell deserves a major movie. She's a bit too much of an Empire-builder and manipulator for modern times perhaps, but she did things no other woman did in her era, or could have done. She invented Iraq. Created its Government, and chose its King. Imperialism at its height, but she accomplished at least as much as Lawrence, but lacked his skills at writing and networking.
I can tell you that I will be closely following the production of any movie about Gertrude Bell, and look forward to reviewing it here. Angelina Jolie can act, and might do a great job,but there will have to be a lot of deglamorizing by the makeup department.
And she certainly deserves better than this, which if released today would probably start a war with Mongolia:
When I first saw the headline, "Angelina Jolie Attached to Middle East Biopic GERTRUDE BELL; Ridley Scott May Direct", I thought, oh, surely not. On careful reading I read it as maybe Jolie just wanted to direct a movie about Gertrude Bell; but on more careful reading, I find that no, indeed, my first reading was accurate, she wants to play Gertrude Bell herself. (Also here.) All the articles seem to refer to Bell as "the female Lawrence of Arabia," which may be how they sold the script. I'm not sure if that's more unfair to Lawrence or to Bell, who were both rather amazing figures of the British imperial era. Bell, of course, was the figure in the British Arab Bureau during World War I who helped midwife the birth of Iraq as a British mandate and then managed to, um, arrange the "election" of Feisal ibn al-Hussein of Mecca as King of Iraq, since the French had kicked him out as King of Syria and his brother ‘Abdullah had already become Emir (and later King) of Transjordan. Bell deserves a great movie of her own; I hope it is as widely seen and as brilliantly done as the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, but sticks closer to the actual facts. Will it?
Well, Peter O'Toole was nearly a foot taller than the real T.E. Lawrence, but otherwise there was some physical resemblance. Perhaps this is what led to the idea of casting Angelina as Gertrude: the fact that they look so much alike? Yeah, that must have been it:
 |
| Angelina Jolie |
 |
| Gertrude Bell |
 |
| Genghiz Khan (No Doubt Exactly What He Looked Like) |
 |
| John Wayne as Genghiz Khan |
My biggest fear: Wait, says Hollywood. She was "The Female Lawrence of Arabia?" as our own publicity says? "She knew Lawrence of Arabia? She worked with him? If we've got Angelina on board,why not go for the whole "Brangelina" enchilada and sign Brad Pitt to play T. E. Lawrence? But then there should be some romantic interaction and maybe a sex scene ..." (No. NO ONE would buy into that.)
Gertrude Bell deserves a major movie. She's a bit too much of an Empire-builder and manipulator for modern times perhaps, but she did things no other woman did in her era, or could have done. She invented Iraq. Created its Government, and chose its King. Imperialism at its height, but she accomplished at least as much as Lawrence, but lacked his skills at writing and networking.
I can tell you that I will be closely following the production of any movie about Gertrude Bell, and look forward to reviewing it here. Angelina Jolie can act, and might do a great job,but there will have to be a lot of deglamorizing by the makeup department.
And she certainly deserves better than this, which if released today would probably start a war with Mongolia:
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Economist on Arabic Dialect Dubbing
This blog has discussed Arabic dialects and the problems of diglossia several times, so I thought I'd note this column from The Economist on dubbing in dialect. Apparently Turkish dramas tend to be dubbed in Syrian Arabic, but Bollywood Indian films are dubbed in Gulf Arabic. (If that surprises you, you've probably never been to the Gulf.)
Added note: as I was adding the topic tags to this post I noted that both the previous post on Jack Shaheen and this one carry the tag "film," In two and a half years of blogging, these are only the fourth and fifth posts tagged film. What are the odds of their appearing in successive posts? (Though the "film" tag also includes my scholarly discussion of the Sex and the City 2 "in CGI Abu Dhabi" trailer last year.)
Added note: as I was adding the topic tags to this post I noted that both the previous post on Jack Shaheen and this one carry the tag "film," In two and a half years of blogging, these are only the fourth and fifth posts tagged film. What are the odds of their appearing in successive posts? (Though the "film" tag also includes my scholarly discussion of the Sex and the City 2 "in CGI Abu Dhabi" trailer last year.)
Two Items About Jack Shaheen and Arab Stereotypes in Film
Jack Shaheen, an academic and media critic who has made a career out of analyzing stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in books, movies, and television, is making news in couple of different ways.
First, Turner Classic Movies is running a series on Race and Hollywood: Arab Images on Film, in which Jack will join with TCM's Robert Osborne to analyze the films. The good news is, it runs all month on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The bad news is, it started last night. The schedule and films are here.
For those of you who've never seen Jack do his thing, he's invariably witty and entertaining, and unless he's mellowing with age I'll be surprised if he doesn't steal the show from the somewhat stuffy Osborne. I've done several programs with Jack, and he always was the star of the show.
In other Shaheen news, he has donated his archive to the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Middle East Studies at NYU and the A/P/A Institute, also at NYU. They have a video in which he discusses his collection and his work:
First, Turner Classic Movies is running a series on Race and Hollywood: Arab Images on Film, in which Jack will join with TCM's Robert Osborne to analyze the films. The good news is, it runs all month on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The bad news is, it started last night. The schedule and films are here.
For those of you who've never seen Jack do his thing, he's invariably witty and entertaining, and unless he's mellowing with age I'll be surprised if he doesn't steal the show from the somewhat stuffy Osborne. I've done several programs with Jack, and he always was the star of the show.
In other Shaheen news, he has donated his archive to the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Middle East Studies at NYU and the A/P/A Institute, also at NYU. They have a video in which he discusses his collection and his work:
Friday, October 29, 2010
If You Build the Burj Khalifa, Hollywood will Come
Don't tell me you didn't see this one coming: now that Dubai has the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, somebody was going to use it as a movie set. Sure enough, Tom Cruise and company have arrived in Dubai for filming of the fourth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Side note: four of my last five posts have dealt with the UAE. That may be a first.
Filming will start next week and is likely to last more than three weeks. It will take place in locations across Dubai, including the Burj Khalifa and the Meydan racetrack, said an industry insider, who asked not to be named. Car chases will be filmed on the Sheikh Zayed Road and in Bur Dubai and Deira, the source said.I guess it's a step up from the last Sex and the City, in which Abu Dhabi was played by Morocco, with lots of CGI. Dubai is presumably playing itself.
Side note: four of my last five posts have dealt with the UAE. That may be a first.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
"Garbage Dreams": Film About Cairo's Zabbalin
We've talked a few times about the Zabbalin, Cairo's Coptic trash collectors who suffered badly from last year's swine flu related pig cull/mass hamicide, since they raised pigs in the garbage dumps and saw most or all of them destroyed. They're an intriguing subculture, and have attracted attention from time to time from students of the city, including this MEI publication from 2008. A new documentary film on them and their story is getting a great deal of attention so I thought I'd provide some links.
Ursula Lindsey at The Arabist has reviewed the film Garbage Dreams for The National, which includes some information I didn't know about their history and origins, and in a post at The Arabist has also included an interview with the Director, Mai Iskander. The Arabist's Issandr El Amrani already reviewed the film here. And of course, there's a Facebook page. The film's website is here. you can order a DVD here, and here's the trailer, with subtitles:
Ursula Lindsey at The Arabist has reviewed the film Garbage Dreams for The National, which includes some information I didn't know about their history and origins, and in a post at The Arabist has also included an interview with the Director, Mai Iskander. The Arabist's Issandr El Amrani already reviewed the film here. And of course, there's a Facebook page. The film's website is here. you can order a DVD here, and here's the trailer, with subtitles:
Friday, May 7, 2010
Sex and Some Other City
Some of these links are from back in April, but heck, I'm an old married man with a kid who doesn't keep up with the whole Sex and the City thing (though at least I no longer have to watch Dora the Explorer cartoons), and it took a younger colleague to flag this issue for me. As apparently everyone on earth and several of the inner planets knows, the forthcoming movie Sex and the City 2, opening soon, is at least partly set in Abu Dhabi.
Except that both Abu Dhabi and Dubai declined the honor of allowing filming in their fair cities, since, as certain British and Pakistani couples have learned recently, and despite a general sense of openness, and some locals who know how to get around the rules, there's no sex in those cities. At least not officially, and especially not on the beaches. So Morocco is playing Abu Dhabi for the movies. What part of Morocco is not specified in the material I've seen, and it's been a long time since I've been in Morocco, but I'm guessing there's a lot of computer graphics backgrounds in use, unless Casablanca has gone all Shanghai on us, or they just figure nobody knows what Abu Dhabi looks like. (Anybody want to bet there are camels in it? Gotta be camels or you'd think it was Palm Springs, right? Our heroines are going to ride camels, right? Isn't that how you get from the airport to your hotel in Abu Dhabi? It was the last time Wilfred Thesiger was there. Except there was no airport. I'm ranting. Sorry.)
It would be interesting to know why the brains (if that was the bodily organ involved) behind Sex and and the City 2 decided to set the story in Abu Dhabi in the first place. Was it a Maurice Chevalier "Come wees me to ze Casbah" thing? Except for the old fort and a mosque or two, the oldest building in Abu Dhabi dates from the 1980s (oh, sorry, that one was just torn down to build a new one: make it the 1990s: wait, here come the bulldozers) so it's not exactly Casbah country.
The National, Abu Dhabi's increasingly lively English daily, has been on the case, with an early take here; an article here on potential tourist boosts, and a piece on films made in locations other than their alleged setting here (familiar to Washingtonians who've seen plenty of films and TV shows where the chase passes the Lincoln Memorial and then the Sierra Nevadas show up in the background).
So Morocco, which has played a lot of other Arab countries in films before (as has Israel, for that matter), may drive a tourism boom to Abu Dhabi. But to paraphrase the title of a famous British play: no sex, please, we're Emirati.
Late Addition: A commenter has noted that my 1) CGI Abu Dhabi and 2) camel comments are not only dead on, but in the trailer (1:17, 1:23). So I have no alternative but embedding the trailer:
Forgive me. It's worse than I'd imagined.
Except that both Abu Dhabi and Dubai declined the honor of allowing filming in their fair cities, since, as certain British and Pakistani couples have learned recently, and despite a general sense of openness, and some locals who know how to get around the rules, there's no sex in those cities. At least not officially, and especially not on the beaches. So Morocco is playing Abu Dhabi for the movies. What part of Morocco is not specified in the material I've seen, and it's been a long time since I've been in Morocco, but I'm guessing there's a lot of computer graphics backgrounds in use, unless Casablanca has gone all Shanghai on us, or they just figure nobody knows what Abu Dhabi looks like. (Anybody want to bet there are camels in it? Gotta be camels or you'd think it was Palm Springs, right? Our heroines are going to ride camels, right? Isn't that how you get from the airport to your hotel in Abu Dhabi? It was the last time Wilfred Thesiger was there. Except there was no airport. I'm ranting. Sorry.)
It would be interesting to know why the brains (if that was the bodily organ involved) behind Sex and and the City 2 decided to set the story in Abu Dhabi in the first place. Was it a Maurice Chevalier "Come wees me to ze Casbah" thing? Except for the old fort and a mosque or two, the oldest building in Abu Dhabi dates from the 1980s (oh, sorry, that one was just torn down to build a new one: make it the 1990s: wait, here come the bulldozers) so it's not exactly Casbah country.
The National, Abu Dhabi's increasingly lively English daily, has been on the case, with an early take here; an article here on potential tourist boosts, and a piece on films made in locations other than their alleged setting here (familiar to Washingtonians who've seen plenty of films and TV shows where the chase passes the Lincoln Memorial and then the Sierra Nevadas show up in the background).
So Morocco, which has played a lot of other Arab countries in films before (as has Israel, for that matter), may drive a tourism boom to Abu Dhabi. But to paraphrase the title of a famous British play: no sex, please, we're Emirati.
Late Addition: A commenter has noted that my 1) CGI Abu Dhabi and 2) camel comments are not only dead on, but in the trailer (1:17, 1:23). So I have no alternative but embedding the trailer:
Forgive me. It's worse than I'd imagined.
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