Fatmah

I recently saw this film in my history of motion pictures class at the university of oregon. Needless to say, this movie is absolute garbage. I have been asking myself why? Why has my teacher included this in a history of motion pictures class?! There are hundreds of thousands of other films that could've been shown in place of this - i shall not name any to spare my sanity!

This film is a lousy excuse for a musical. Every song is a tortuous ride into eternal damnation! UMM's voice spouts from a larynx formed out of the fiery chasms of hell! The songs oh the songs, help me god...please do not weep when I say this but there are at least six or seven of them! And they sound exactly the same, every one! Not one change of key. These songs! Umm's voice will haunt my dreams for weeks to come. In all actuality my dreams may never come because the memory of this atrocity has caused me to jab screwdrivers into my eyes and ears.

Now may I be frank with you all, there are in fact a few redeeming qualities to the movie. At times it was lovely to look at(any time Umm wasn't singing) some of the shots were beautifully composed. Also whoever designed the look of Fathy(?) is pure genius - the pants hiked up almost to the nipples revealing a grotesque flabby butt that smiled with guilty pleasure every time it was shown on camera, the mustache- perfection, and his hair oh baby so sensual it flowed like the peak wave of a tsunami. No wonder he was the apple to so many women's eyes. And last of all the monkey, he made the movie! Best supporting actor?

OK OK if you are still reading you may ask yourself why 4 stars. Well its funny..kinda...If you're into S&M and like hearing the agonizing screams of 200 film students viewing this film then maybe its for you. If you don't fit into this category, don't watch this movie. The four stars go to the monkey. Oh and the mustache!

Since there's no valuable review, let me add my amateurish opinion, it might be helpful for some, although I'm neither a movie or a Northern Africa expert :)

While my "repertoire" of Egyptian films is only about a dozen, based on my experience I think it's safe to assume that the 1940s were dominated by simplistic entertaining films of jokes and songs. I'm quite sure that many jokes were puns and cannot reach the ears of non-Arabic speakers, and it's worthwhile to mention that the concept of Arabic music and its rules are quite different from Western principles. Finally, it is also essential to know that the lead, Umm Kulthum is a legendary singer.

As for the film itself, it's definitely not a great one, I've seen much better ones from the 1950-1960s, so again, while I'm no expert, I can safely tell at least that much. The plot is not really tight, 2 hours are way too long for the relatively simple story: there is a poor, but righteous woman, Fatmah in a poor, but righteous community; she falls in love with a rich and immoral guy, Fathy, and while the love is mutual, the guy's immoral environment and his own immorality pulls him back away from his love. The rest would be spoiler.

The main theme is that of a typical Capra-film, such as You Can't Take It With You (1938) or It's a Wonderful Life (1946): the poor community is righteous and strong together (and nationalistic), the rich are immoral and mime foreigners. Another theme could be Fathy's character development. Unfortunately, neither of them are really explored well enough and although the story is warm-hearted, it remains shallow. The camerawork is occasionally interesting, but most of the time it does not add much to the film. Acting is good enough for this level, and as for the songs, as I mentioned, I absolutely dare not judge them, I have zero knowledge in Arabic music.

To sum up, it feels like it's a simple, uplifting, entertaining film with a moral lesson for the masses, similar to Afrita hanem (1949). A must-see classic for Egypt, negligible for others.