Friday, August 25, 2006
Homosexuality in Egyptian cinema - Maskhara..
Came accross this article by accident. It's hilarious - though it doesn't mean to:) It was primarily supposed to extract and comment on gay and lesbian representation in Egyptian cinema. A very serious article indeed.
But the author - a "Garay Menicucci" - ends up writing fabulously ill-placed comments about comedy classics which, surely, did not "employ cross-dressing as a plot device do so within a comic context in order to introduce sexual, gender or social issues that would be deeply shocking if dealt with in a serious manner".
For him, Ismail Yassine (right) has " institutionalized the role of drag queen" in Al-Anissa Hanafi (Miss Hanafi, 1953). And if that was not enough, he has Abdel Men3em Ibrahim, in Succar Hanem (Lady Sugar, 1960) be "a provocative and overtly sexual drag" whom, "with his feminized voice intonation and swishy mannerisms, is imitating and parodying stereotypical notions of feminine behavior as well as gay male behavior".
There are also references to serious films that have tackled homosexuality - including Zoqaq el Madaq and Iskendereya leih - but the article as a whole is more of a parody than any form of serious analysis.
Fun to read if you've seen the films he's talking about :o) But it might actually spoil 'Lel Regal Faqat' for the rest of your life (with the absolutely irresistible Nadia Lotfy and Soad Hosni, who are still hot even if they're dressed as guys :).
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4 comments:
And six years later you get a response to this post!
Menicucci's article is based on Vito Russo's work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Russo). It is a 1981 book titled "The Celluloid Closet", made into a documentary in 1996 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celluloid_Closet . You can watch the docu on YouTube).
The Celluloid Closet discusses the history of alluding to and portraying homosexuality in western cinema. Cross-dressing was frequently used to introduce gender and homosexuality to an unsuspecting audience, before overtly gay characters were later portrayed.
I have no doubt that cross-dressing and other vehicles were used to hint at homosexuality in Egyptian cinema. However, I am hesitant to believe that *all* cross-dressing characters in Egyptian cinema are intended to push sexual and gender issues.
@Nilesby
PS: re Lil Regal Faqat - come on - this film has one of the biggest gay icons of Egyptian cinema! You can almost smell the gayness of this film!
Ha! Well that definitely deserves a reply!
Thanks for that - will look up the celluloid closet.
I don't know, really,even when reconsidering the role-playing-as-a-sexual-innuendo -- I don't think that applies to any of the films mentioned above (a-anissa hanafi, succar hanem, or lel regal faqat).
Gay icon - who, Ihab Nafe3?
Soad Hosni!! She is considered by many to be a gay icon, and there are many hushed whispers about her own sexuality.
I don't think we will ever know if Al Anissa Hanafy or Sukkar Hanem were meant as such, as the only people who would know are probably long dead.
As for Lel Regal Faqqat, I am sure. Hassan Youssef is still around, but I don't know if homosexuality is a topic one can discuss with him today!!
Soad Hosni? Hmm, hadn't thought of that. That opens up new perspectives..
Well in lel regal faqat the scene that most surprised me is when the boys kiss the women dressed as men, mustaches and all. alright, perhaps it wasn't all naive comedy... :-)
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