When the Stars Shone From Cairo: Remembering Egyptian Cinema’s Dream Factory

posted on: Jan 31, 2015

It has been called the “golden age of Arab cinema” – that period from the late 1940s to 1960s, when Arab actors from across the Middle East headed to the stardom capital of Cairo.

The women were unfailingly glamorous, elegant and poised, while the men, handsome and chivalrous, embodied what a real star should look and act like.

With the death of Faten Hamama this month, one of that era’s leading ladies, and of Mariam Fakhr Eddine last November, it’s time to remember Cairo’s cinematic legacy.

“Egypt is where the entire Arab world went to become a star and make a name for themselves,” says Osama Asal, an Egyptian film critic and writer. “For the actresses and actors, they all became Egyptian in the sense they learnt and adopted the dialect. Some even became citizens.

“When a film was a success in Egypt, it was a success across the Arab world and beyond.”

Big names were often compared to Hollywood stars: Hind Rostom became the Marilyn Monroe of Arabia; Roushdi Abaza, the Arab Clark Gable; Anwar Wagdi, the Arabian Robert Taylor. Then there were the stars with their own titles: Farid Shawqi, known as “Wahesh” (monster or ultimate villain) and also Malek El Terso (king of the poor); Soad Hosny, the Cinderella of Egyptian cinema; and, Shadia, so beloved by her public that she is known as “Maabouda al Jamaheer”, roughly translated as fan’s idol.

It was also a time of singing legends such as the crooner Abdel Halim Hafez, dubbed “Al Andaleeb al Asmar” (the tan nightingale) and “the Queen of Arabs”, Umm Kulthum, who worked with Mohammed Abdel Wahab, the singer and legendary “composer for the stars”.

Source: www.thenational.ae