Cinema of Egypt
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Egyptian cinema is Egypt's flourishing Egyptian Arabic-language film industry based in Cairo. Cairo is famous for its annual International Film Festival which has been rated as one of 11 festivals with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film Producers' Associations.[1] Of the more than 4,000 short- and feature-length films made in Arabic-speaking countries since 1908, more than three-quarters were Egyptian.[2]
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[edit] Beginnings
While a limited number of silent films were made in Egypt (with 1927's Layla notable as the first full-length feature), Cairo's film industry became a regional force with the coming of sound. Between 1930 and 1936, various small studios produced at least 44 feature films. In 1936, Studio Misr, financed by industrialist Talaat Harb, emerged as the leading Egyptian equivalent to Hollywood's major studios, a role the company retained for three decades.[3]
[edit] "The golden age" and after
The 1940s and 1950s are generally considered the "golden age" of Egyptian cinema.[4] As in the West, films responded to the popular imagination, with most falling into predictable genres, happy endings the norm, and many actors making careers out of playing strongly typed parts. In the words of one critic, "If an Egyptian film intended for popular audiences lacked any of these prerequisites, it constituted a betrayal of the unwritten contract with the spectator, the results of which would manifest themselves in the box office."[2]
Political changes in Egypt after the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952 initially had little effect on Egyptian film. The Nasser regime sought control over the industry only after turning to socialism in 1961.[5] By 1966, the Egyptian film industry had been nationalized; in the words of Ahmed Ramzi, a leading man of the era, "it went to the dogs".[6] The "heavy government hand" that accompanied nationalization of Egyptian film "stifled innovative trends and sapped its dynamism".[5]
By the 1970s, films struck a balance between politics and entertainment. Films such as 1972's Khalli Balak min Zouzou (Watch out for Zouzou), starring "the Cinderella of Arab cinema", Suad Husni, sought to balance politics and audience appeal. Zouzou integrated music, dance, and contemporary fashions into a story that balanced campus ferment with family melodrama.[7]
The late 1970s and 1980s saw the Egyptian film industry in decline, with the rise of what came to be called "contractor movies". Actor Khaled El Sawy has described these as films "where there is no story, no acting and no production quality of any kind...basic formula movies that aimed at making a quick buck.” The number of films produced also declined, from nearly 90 a year in the industry's prime to about a dozen in 1995.[8]
[edit] Today
Since the 1990s, Egypt's cinema has gone in separate directions. Smaller art films attract some international attention but sparse attendance at home. Popular films, often broad comedies such as the extremely profitable vehicles for comedian Mohamed Saad, battle to hold audiences either drawn to Western films or, increasingly, wary of the perceived immorality of film.[5] A few productions, such as 2003's Sahar el Layali (Sleepless Nights, the intertwined stories of four bourgeois couples) and 2006's Imarat Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building) bridge this divide, combining high artistic quality and popular appeal. In 2006, the film 'Awkat Faragh' was released. A social commentary on the decline of the youth in Egypt, the film was produced on a low-budget and with low production values. However the film became a success. Its controversial subject matter (the film depicted the sexual undertones in today's society) was seen as a boost that the industry was finally taking risks.
A major challenge facing both Egyptian and international scholars, students, and fans of Egyptian film is the lack of resources in terms of published works, preserved and available copies of the films themselves, and development in Egypt of state and private institutions dedicated to the study and preservation of film. The Egyptian National Film Centre (ENFC), which theoretically holds copies of all films made after 1961, according to one Egyptian film researcher, "far from being a library, houses piles of rusty cans containing positive copies."[9]
[edit] Notable films
- Abdulla the Great
- Ayam El-Sadat
- Doaa al-Karawan
- Halim
- Al Haram
- Malak al-Rahma
- Mr Karate
- Rossassa Fel Qalb
- Tharthara Fawq Al Neel
- Tito
- Al-Yateematain
- Yawm Said
[edit] Notable directors
[edit] Notable directors of photography
[edit] Notable actors
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- Naguib Al Rihani
- Aly El Kassar
- Mohamed Abd El Wahab
- Anwar Wagdi, and Layla Murad.
- Taheya Kareoka
- Ezz El Dine Zulfikkar
- Omar Sharif, and Faten Hamama.
- Youssef Wahbi, and Amina Rizk.
- Hussein Riyad
- Zaki Rostom
- Mahmoud El Meleeguy
- Farid Shawky
- Mohamed Fawzy, and Madiha Youssry.
- Ismail Yassin
- Zeinat Sidqui
- Yazan Kassisieh
- Abd El Salam El Naboulsi
- Abd El Fatah El Quossary
- Farid El Attrash
- Abd El Halim Hafez (El Andaleeb)
- Sabah
- Rushdy Abaza
- Samia Gamal
- Shadia
- Kamal El Shinnawy
- Ahmed Mazhar
- Emad Hamdy
- Salah Zulfikkar
- Bola Badmash
- Hend Rostom
- Abd El Moneim Madbouly
- Fouad Al Mohandes (El Ostaz), and Sheweekar
- Souad Hosni (El Cindrella)
- Nabila Ebeid
- Nadia El Guendy
- Adel Emam (El Zaeem)
- Mahmoud Yassin
- Nour El-Sherif
- Mervat Amin
- Youssra
- Ahmed Helmy
- Khaled Abol Naga
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Cairo Film Festival information.
- ^ a b Farid, Samir, "Lights, camera...retrospection", Al-Ahram Weekly, December 30, 1999
- ^ Darwish, Mustafa, Dream Makers on the Nile: A Portrait of Egyptian Cinema, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 1998, Pp. 12-13.
- ^
- ^ a b c Farid, Samir, "An Egyptian Story", Al-Ahram Weekly, November 23-29, 2006
- ^ Khairy, Khaireya, "Ahmed Ramzi: rendevous at the snooker club", Al-Ahram Weekly, June 22, 2000
- ^ Anis, Mouna, "Before the public gaze", Al-Ahram Weekly, June 28, 2001
- ^ El Bakry, Rehab, "Reeling them in", Business Monthly, July 2006
- ^ El-Assyouti, Mohamed, "Forgotten memories",Al-Ahram Weekly, September 2, 1999
[edit] External link
 Cinema of Egypt |
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Actors • Directors • Films A-Z • Chronology of films • Cinematographers • Composers • Editors • Producers • Screenwriters • |
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