Film, fame, and public memory: Egyptian biopics from Mustafa Kamil to Nasser 56

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 61-79

  Gordon, Joel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0042279877     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800052971     Document Type: Article

References (110)

1. Joel Gordon, "Nasser 56/Cairo 96: Reimaging Egypt's Lost Community," in Mass Mediations: Approaching Popular Culture in the Middle East, ed. Walter Armbrust (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
2. Pierre Sorlin, The Film in History: Restaging the Past (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980), vii.
3. Ibid., viii.
4. George Custen, Bio/pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 260. In a similar vein, Daryl Zanuck instructed scriptwriters shaping a biopic of a popular but by no means legendary performer: "Now Eva Tanguay is not so famous or so great that the public is going to sit around and await the story of her life, even if this happened to be the story of her life, which it isn't": Custen, Bio/pics, 171.
5. George Custen, Bio/pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992), 260. In a similar vein, Daryl Zanuck instructed scriptwriters shaping a biopic of a popular but by no means legendary performer: "Now Eva Tanguay is not so famous or so great that the public is going to sit around and await the story of her life, even if this happened to be the story of her life, which it isn't": Custen, Bio/pics, 171.
6. Alan Parker, director of the film Mississippi Burning, cited in Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 42.
7. Alan Parker, director of the film Mississippi Burning, cited in Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 42.
8. Sorlin, Film in History, ix.
9. Or, as Sorlin puts it (ibid.), "history as it is written by the specialist and history as it is written by the non-specialist."
10. Sumita Chakravarty, National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1947-1987 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993), 158.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Sorlin, Film in History, 44.
14. Custen, Bio/pics, 12. Public history, according to Custen, refers both to the "product and to the process in which members of the mass public - the 'public-at-large' - obtain their definitions of the symbolic universe from watching and talking about the communications media." He roots this in a recognition that "mass media texts, and not other forms of historical narrative, are significant sources of history for large numbers of Americans" (ibid.), a supposition that also holds for Egypt. Custen is the first academic to treat the biopic as a specific genre. His definition of the biopic is perhaps a bit loose, encompassing biblicals such as The Ten Commandments as well as many films in which historical characters figure, such as Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals and so on. This caveat aside, his book is a welcome introduction to the study of biopics as constructions of historical and civic identity.
15. Ibid., 6-7.
16. Ibid., 178.
17. Ibid., 10-11.
18. Ibid., 27.
19. Thomas J. Knock, "History with Lightning: The Forgotten Film Wilson (1944)," in Hollywood as Historian: American Film in a Cultural Context, ed. Peter C. Rollins (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1983), 88-108.
20. Chakravarty, National Identity, 15.
21. Custen, Bio/pics, 29.
22. Ibid., 84-85.
23. Ibid., 29-30.
24. ⊂rifa, 1994).
25. ⊂rifa, 1994).
26. ⊂rifa, 1994).
27. ⊂rifa, 1994).
28. ⊂rifa, 1994).
29. According to Custen (Bio/pics, 83), less than 3 percent of Hollywood films made by major studios prior to the 1960s were biopics. Nevertheless, these films were extremely influential, produced many memorable performances, and won significant awards.
30. ⊃ (The Black Market, 1945) from Kamal al-Tilmissani.
31. ⊃ (The Black Market, 1945) from Kamal al-Tilmissani.
32. ⊂Atif Salim. Aside from being a controversial thinker, Husayn was ultimately a Wafdist cabinet minister, however non-partisan he proved to be.
33. Examples are Ibn al-Nīl (Nile Boy, 1951)
34. from Yusuf Chahine and Al-Ustā Hasan (Driver Hasan, 1952) from Salah Abu Sayf. The latter, in particular, employs several songs sung by the co-stars Huda Sultan and Farid Shawqi.
35. ⊂m al-Sīnimā 1983). These are repeated in video catalogs published by the Laythi company and others. To be political, for example, a film must contain an overt political plot, characters, etc. An otherwise valuable study such as Dūriyā Sharaf al-Din's Al-Siyāsa wa al-Sīnīma fī Misr, 1961-1981 (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq 1992) is thus far too limited in scope. Social films treat obvious social issues, must be serious, and cannot include more than a musical number or two. Ali Abu Shadi ("Genres in Egyptian Cinema," in Screens of Life: Critical Film Writing from the Arab World, ed. Alia Arasoughly [Quebec: World Heritage Press, 1995], 84-129) notes the problems in such rigid constructions, but his layout is fairly conventional. Biopics are not a category.
36. ⊂m al-Sīnimā 1983). These are repeated in video catalogs published by the Laythi company and others. To be political, for example, a film must contain an overt political plot, characters, etc. An otherwise valuable study such as Dūriyā Sharaf al-Din's Al-Siyāsa wa al-Sīnīma fī Misr, 1961-1981 (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq 1992) is thus far too limited in scope. Social films treat obvious social issues, must be serious, and cannot include more than a musical number or two. Ali Abu Shadi ("Genres in Egyptian Cinema," in Screens of Life: Critical Film Writing from the Arab World, ed. Alia Arasoughly [Quebec: World Heritage Press, 1995], 84-129) notes the problems in such rigid constructions, but his layout is fairly conventional. Biopics are not a category.
37. ⊂m al-Sīnimā 1983). These are repeated in video catalogs published by the Laythi company and others. To be political, for example, a film must contain an overt political plot, characters, etc. An otherwise valuable study such as Dūriyā Sharaf al-Din's Al-Siyāsa wa al-Sīnīma fī Misr, 1961-1981 (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq 1992) is thus far too limited in scope. Social films treat obvious social issues, must be serious, and cannot include more than a musical number or two. Ali Abu Shadi ("Genres in Egyptian Cinema," in Screens of Life: Critical Film Writing from the Arab World, ed. Alia Arasoughly [Quebec: World Heritage Press, 1995], 84-129) notes the problems in such rigid constructions, but his layout is fairly conventional. Biopics are not a category.
38. ⊂m al-Sīnimā 1983). These are repeated in video catalogs published by the Laythi company and others. To be political, for example, a film must contain an overt political plot, characters, etc. An otherwise valuable study such as Dūriyā Sharaf al-Din's Al-Siyāsa wa al-Sīnīma fī Misr, 1961-1981 (Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq 1992) is thus far too limited in scope. Social films treat obvious social issues, must be serious, and cannot include more than a musical number or two. Ali Abu Shadi ("Genres in Egyptian Cinema," in Screens of Life: Critical Film Writing from the Arab World, ed. Alia Arasoughly [Quebec: World Heritage Press, 1995], 84-129) notes the problems in such rigid constructions, but his layout is fairly conventional. Biopics are not a category.
39. For the Nasser-era cinema, see Raymond William Baker, "Egypt in Shadows: Films and the Political Order," American Behavioral Scientist 17, 3 (1974): 393-423; Samīr Farīd, "Thawrat Yulyū wa al-Sīnimā fī Misr," Al-Funūn (May/June 1984), 8-13; and Jane Gaffney, "The Egyptian Cinema: Industry and Art in a Changing Society," Arab Studies Quarterly, 9, 1 (1987): 53-75.
40. For the Nasser-era cinema, see Raymond William Baker, "Egypt in Shadows: Films and the Political Order," American Behavioral Scientist 17, 3 (1974): 393-423; Samīr Farīd, "Thawrat Yulyū wa al-Sīnimā fī Misr," Al-Funūn (May/June 1984), 8-13; and Jane Gaffney, "The Egyptian Cinema: Industry and Art in a Changing Society," Arab Studies Quarterly, 9, 1 (1987): 53-75.
41. For the Nasser-era cinema, see Raymond William Baker, "Egypt in Shadows: Films and the Political Order," American Behavioral Scientist 17, 3 (1974): 393-423; Samīr Farīd, "Thawrat Yulyū wa al-Sīnimā fī Misr," Al-Funūn (May/June 1984), 8-13; and Jane Gaffney, "The Egyptian Cinema: Industry and Art in a Changing Society," Arab Studies Quarterly, 9, 1 (1987): 53-75.
42. Samīr Farīd, "La censure, mode d'emploi," in Wassef, Egypte, 102-17. See also Mustafa Darwish, "La Censure, le Cinéma et d'Autres Choses," Bulletin du CEDEJ 21, 1 (1987): 97-107.
43. Samīr Farīd, "La censure, mode d'emploi," in Wassef, Egypte, 102-17. See also Mustafa Darwish, "La Censure, le Cinéma et d'Autres Choses," Bulletin du CEDEJ 21, 1 (1987): 97-107.
44. When the character played by Omar Sharif failed to save his wrongly accused father from the gallows audiences were stunned - and a new cinema was born.
45. One example is Al-Futuwwa (The Tough, 1957) from Salah Abu Sayf. This story of power corrupting a market vendor is timeless, but in one key scene a portrait of Farouk assures us that the setting is pre-1952.
46. Until the post-1967 thaw that produced films such as Miramar (1968) from Kamal al-Shaykh and Qadiyya 68 (Case 68, 1968) from Salah Abu Sayf, cinematic criticism of the state remained veiled by pashadom. A good example is Al-Qāhira 30 (Cairo '30, 1966) from Salah Abu Sayf, the adaptation of Nagib Mahfouz's Al-Qāhira al-Jadīda, deliberately dated in the film's title. Even after the thaw, certain taboos remained. A case in point is Al-Mutamarridūn (The Rebels, 1968) from Tawfiq Salih. This film ostensibly takes place during the old regime, but as Baker notes, "unmistakable references to the Nasser era abound. In fact, the basic plot line may be read - and was read, if not intended to be read - as allegory of the Nasserist revolution itself" (Baker, "Egypt in Shadows," 415).
47. Until the post-1967 thaw that produced films such as Miramar (1968) from Kamal al-Shaykh and Qadiyya 68 (Case 68, 1968) from Salah Abu Sayf, cinematic criticism of the state remained veiled by pashadom. A good example is Al-Qāhira 30 (Cairo '30, 1966) from Salah Abu Sayf, the adaptation of Nagib Mahfouz's Al-Qāhira al-Jadīda, deliberately dated in the film's title. Even after the thaw, certain taboos remained. A case in point is Al-Mutamarridūn (The Rebels, 1968) from Tawfiq Salih. This film ostensibly takes place during the old regime, but as Baker notes, "unmistakable references to the Nasser era abound. In fact, the basic plot line may be read - and was read, if not intended to be read - as allegory of the Nasserist revolution itself" (Baker, "Egypt in Shadows," 415).
48. Until the post-1967 thaw that produced films such as Miramar (1968) from Kamal al-Shaykh and Qadiyya 68 (Case 68, 1968) from Salah Abu Sayf, cinematic criticism of the state remained veiled by pashadom. A good example is Al-Qāhira 30 (Cairo '30, 1966) from Salah Abu Sayf, the adaptation of Nagib Mahfouz's Al-Qāhira al-Jadīda, deliberately dated in the film's title. Even after the thaw, certain taboos remained. A case in point is Al-Mutamarridūn (The Rebels, 1968) from Tawfiq Salih. This film ostensibly takes place during the old regime, but as Baker notes, "unmistakable references to the Nasser era abound. In fact, the basic plot line may be read - and was read, if not intended to be read - as allegory of the Nasserist revolution itself" (Baker, "Egypt in Shadows," 415).
49. Until the post-1967 thaw that produced films such as Miramar (1968) from Kamal al-Shaykh and Qadiyya 68 (Case 68, 1968) from Salah Abu Sayf, cinematic criticism of the state remained veiled by pashadom. A good example is Al-Qāhira 30 (Cairo '30, 1966) from Salah Abu Sayf, the adaptation of Nagib Mahfouz's Al-Qāhira al-Jadīda, deliberately dated in the film's title. Even after the thaw, certain taboos remained. A case in point is Al-Mutamarridūn (The Rebels, 1968) from Tawfiq Salih. This film ostensibly takes place during the old regime, but as Baker notes, "unmistakable references to the Nasser era abound. In fact, the basic plot line may be read - and was read, if not intended to be read - as allegory of the Nasserist revolution itself" (Baker, "Egypt in Shadows," 415).
50. Until the post-1967 thaw that produced films such as Miramar (1968) from Kamal al-Shaykh and Qadiyya 68 (Case 68, 1968) from Salah Abu Sayf, cinematic criticism of the state remained veiled by pashadom. A good example is Al-Qāhira 30 (Cairo '30, 1966) from Salah Abu Sayf, the adaptation of Nagib Mahfouz's Al-Qāhira al-Jadīda, deliberately dated in the film's title. Even after the thaw, certain taboos remained. A case in point is Al-Mutamarridūn (The Rebels, 1968) from Tawfiq Salih. This film ostensibly takes place during the old regime, but as Baker notes, "unmistakable references to the Nasser era abound. In fact, the basic plot line may be read - and was read, if not intended to be read - as allegory of the Nasserist revolution itself" (Baker, "Egypt in Shadows," 415).
51. Badrakhan (1909-69) is one of the giants of pre-revolutionary Egyptian cinema. He directed thirty-nine films between 1940 and 1969, melodramas (starring Umm Kulthum and Farid al-Atrash), comedy, and the three patriotic films, two of them biopics, that will be noted later.
52. ⊂ith al-Haraka al-Wataniyya, 4th ed. (Cairo: Maktabat al-Nahda al-Misriyya, 1962).
53. See also Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid, Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations (London: John Murray, 1968),
54. and Arthur Goldschmidt, "The Egyptian Nationalist Party," in Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt, ed. P. M. Holt (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 308-33, for Kamil and his Hizb al-Watanī.
55. ⊂ī's book, like Badrakhan's film, saw light only after July 1952, under Free Officer auspices.
56. For Misr al-Fatāt, see James P. Jankowski, Egypt's Young Rebels: "Young Egypt," 1932-1952 (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1975). For Radwan and the Watanī Party after the Free Officers coup, see Joel Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 58-78.
57. For Misr al-Fatāt, see James P. Jankowski, Egypt's Young Rebels: "Young Egypt," 1932-1952 (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1975). For Radwan and the Watanī Party after the Free Officers coup, see Joel Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement: Egypt's Free Officers and the July Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 58-78.
58. Gawhar would become a major figure in the industry, adapting for the screen, among other projects, many of the classic works of Nagib Mahfuz.
59. ⊂Abd al-Wahhab because of their prior relationships with old regime figures, or because certain songs utilized references that were construed as paeans to royalty, however poetically apolitical.
60. Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement.
61. ⊂Awdat al-Rūh (Return of the Spirit) and presages Nasser's diagnosis in his 1954 manifesto Falsafat al-Thawra (Philosophy of the Revolution).
62. ⊂Awdat al-Rūh (Return of the Spirit) and presages Nasser's diagnosis in his 1954 manifesto Falsafat al-Thawra (Philosophy of the Revolution).
63. Custen, Bio/pics, 152-64.
64. The incident, which galvanized popular outrage against the occupation, remains an important moment in Egyptian nationalist historiography.
65. ⊂Āmma), 36-37.
66. Custen, Bio/pics, 34.
67. ⊃idāt al-Sīnimā al-Misriyya (Cairo: Rūz al-Yūsuf, 1978), 141.
68. ⊂Āmma, 1975), 80.
69. ⊂: Arthur Goldschmidt, personal communication, October 1997.
70. The video case is, I think, telling. It highlights Magda and Husayn Riyad. Most of the scenes depicted, particularly of Riyad and Amina Rizq, are from other films. The credit for direction is also incorrect.
71. ⊂d, Al-Mukhrij Ahmad Badrakhān, 78.
72. Joel Gordon, "With God on Our Side: Scripting Nasser's Mutiny," a paper presented at the conference "Mutiny: Narrative, Event, and Context in Cross-Cultural Perspective," Ohio State University, 1998. The film was shown on television on Revolution Day in 1996; this was for many a first viewing.
73. ⊂ārif, 1992).
74. ⊂d, Al-Mukhrij Ahmad Badrakhān, 95-100.
75. ⊂ transformed this star turn into a long acting career, especially in television drama. He died in 1997.
76. ⊂Adil Imam, in one of his first film roles, as her servant.
77. Radwan, as noted earlier, served as first minister of national guidance. His contemporary, Nur al-Din Tarraf, joined the government in September 1952 as health minister. A more senior party member, Sulayman Hafiz, served as interior minister and helped draft much of the legislation that curtailed, then abolished outright, any political-party activity.
78. Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement, 75-78.
79. Farid's body lay in state at the Mustafa Kamil school. His funeral was held at the Kekhiya Mosque, at the time the leading funeral mosque in downtown Cairo. President Muhammad Nagib spoke at the ceremony, praising Farid as the embodiment of "work, order, and unity," the slogan adopted by the new regime: Egyptian Gazette, 9 and 16 November 1953.
80. During the climactic crisis of March 1954 the regime tarred all proponents of a restored democracy as reactionaries, a tactic that ultimately proved successful: Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement, 127-56.
81. Peter Gran, "Modern Trends in Egyptian Historiography: A Review Article," International Journal of Middle East Studies 9 (1978): 367-71.
82. For a fuller discussion of Imam's adaptation, see Walter Armbrust, "New Cinema, Commercial Cinema, and the Modernist Tradition in Egypt," Alif 15 (1995): 81-129.
83. ⊂a Masabnī (1975),
84. ⊂a Masabnī (1975),
85. ⊂a Masabnī (1975),
86. ⊂a Masabnī (1975),
87. and Sultānat al-Tarab (The Sultana of Song, 1979).
88. Exceptions are the aforementioned biography of Taha Husayn and Hasan al-Imam's musical biopics.
89. ⊂alā al-Shāsha," Rūz al-Yūsuf (8 May 1995), 35-42.
90. ⊂alā al-Shāsha," Rūz al-Yūsuf (8 May 1995), 35-42.
91. The same, according to Chakravarty, holds true for Indian cinema: Chakravarty, National Identity, 157. The exceptions in Egypt, other than Gindi's productions, are those by Yusuf Chahine, who has since the early 1960s secured foreign financing.
92. Ibid.; Custen, Bio/pics, 214-32.
93. Ibid.; Custen, Bio/pics, 214-32.
94. The serial Bawwābat al-Halawānī (Halawani's Gate) ran over three successive Ramadan seasons through 1996, and there are general plans to continue the story.
95. ⊂fat al-Haggan, scripted by the late Salah Mursi, about an Egyptian super-spy who infiltrated the highest levels of the Israeli government in the 1960s.
96. ⊂fat al-Haggan, scripted by the late Salah Mursi, about an Egyptian super-spy who infiltrated the highest levels of the Israeli government in the 1960s.
97. Custen, Bio/pics, 21.
98. ⊂Abd al-Rahman, personal communication, November 1995.
99. The film actually covers 106 days, from 18 June 1956, Evacuation Day, to 2 November, several days following the outbreak of the Suez war. For a fuller treatment of the film, see Gordon, "Cairo 96/ Nasser 56."
100. ⊂Abd al-Rahman, personal communication, June 1996.
101. Gordon, "Nasser 56/Cairo 96."
102. ⊂Abd al-Hamid), and his children. See ibid. for a fuller description.
103. To my knowledge, the film has been shown commercially in Beirut, Gaza, the West Bank, Paris, and at least eight American cities. Currently available on video, its exposure is surely by now transnational.
104. The film is now without its critics, but they appear to be a decided minority.
105. Gordon, "Nasser 56/Cairo 96."
106. Ibid.
107. ⊂d, Al-Mukhrij Ahmad Badrakhān, 89.
108. ⊂il's court. This response is typical and mirrors many conversations I have had with colleagues about the value of such drama. For a comparatively positive view by professional historians, see Mark C. Carnes, Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), sponsored by the Society of American Historians.
109. ⊂il's court. This response is typical and mirrors many conversations I have had with colleagues about the value of such drama. For a comparatively positive view by professional historians, see Mark C. Carnes, Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (New York: Henry Holt, 1995), sponsored by the Society of American Historians.
110. Joel Gordon, "Secular and Religious Memory in Egypt: Recalling Nasserist Civics," The Muslim World 87, 2 (1997): 94-110.