FIRST SECTION
1.4 Introducing the Corpus .1 Introduction
As proposed to the University of Naples in 2013, the first objective of this study was to collect a corpus of about six hours of dialog involving actors playing the role of foreigner in Egyptian films from the beginning of cinematic art in Egypt to the end of the 1960s.
The targeted foreigners in that proposal were the members of the six largest foreign communities living and settled in Egypt in its modern history, namely the Greek, the Turkish, the Italian, the French, the British, and the Armenian communities.
However, and after discussion with my supervisors, I came to realize that the distribution of this corpus, at nearly one hour per community, would not be sufficiently representative to identify the major features that characterize the speech of each community. I therefore decided to restrict the subject of the study to the Greek, the
Turkish, and the Italian communities, being the largest, the most constant, and the most represented communities in Egyptian cinema.
1.4.2. Collecting the Raw Material
I started collecting classical films by all possible means. To expedite the process, I decided to go to Egypt in the summer of 2014 to visit the Egyptian National Film Archive, seeking assistance in gathering as many of these films as I could. When I started my fieldwork in Egypt, my disappointment was epic: the archive collection starts only from the 1970s. Not only that, but another disappointment was awaiting me in the archive of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU), where I discovered that most of originals of the Egyptian classical movies had been sold to major entertainment distributers, such as Arab Radio and Television Network (ART), Rotana Group, and Melody Holding. In addition, what they still had was in 35 mm film format and digitalizing a film costs $100 per hour.
Therefore, I started to acquire all the movies I could from the distributers. Most of these movies were CD quality and some were DVD quality, meaning low to average quality. I was also able to obtain other films available on the internet, mainly of the same quality and, in rare cases, of high quality. The quality issue made my work harder and somewhat confined my study.
Over a period of nearly three years, I was able to obtain about 1,200 movies, covering the time between the early 1930s and the mid-1960s.
1.4.3 Film Selection 1.4.3a The Criteria
I watched the classical films I had been able to acquire to select the material that could take part in the corpus of this study, i.e. films with an actor / actress playing the role of a Greek, a Turk, or an Italian. My selection was based on three criteria:
1. the actor / actress must be Egyptian or, in the case of being a foreigner, he / she must have the communicative competence of a native Egyptian or close to it;
2. the actors / actresses for each foreign community should vary as much as possible;
3. the segments selected should be adequately long and taken as far as possible from different situations.
To give an example of the first criterion, the famous actress and belly dancer Kaíti Voutsáki (in Greek, Καίτη Βουτσάκη), born in Alexandria in 1927 of Greek origin and commonly known as Kītī, appeared several times in my selection playing the role of a Greek:
• Aḫlā’ li-l-bē‘ [Morals for Sale] (Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, 1950) as Katīna;
• Kās il-‘azāb ‘[The Cup of Suffering] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1952) as Elēni;
• Il-Mi’addar wi-l-maktūb [Fate and Destiny] (‘Abbās Kāmil, 1953) as Marya;
• Bent il-gīrān [The Neighbors’ Daughter] (Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, 1954) as Rīta;
• Ismā‘īl Yāsīn fī matḥaf il-šam‘ [Ismā‘īl Yāsīn in the Wax Museum] (‘Īsā Karāma, 1956) as Kītī.
However, in Hal aqtul zawgī? [Should I Kill my Husband?] (Ḥusām-il-Dīn Muṣṭafā, 1958), for instance, she plays the role of an Egyptian belly dancer Inširāḥ, speaking normally in EA, proving that she has the same communicative competence of a native Egyptian (see Melakhrinodis 2003: 12, 22 and Qāsim 2004: 429–430 for a list of her works).
As for the second criterion, in at least one quarter of this selection the foreigners’ roles were played by single actor / actress (vide infra in this chapter). Nevertheless, I kept some actors / actresses who played the role of the same foreigner in several films in the selection. I refer here to three actors who specialized in playing the role of Greek and one actress who frequently played the role of a Turk.
The first of these actors is ‘Alī ‘Abd-il-‘Āl, one of the earliest and most prolific actors who featured the role of Greek in Egyptian cinema. His works included in this selection are:
• Il-Sā‘a 7 [Seven O’Clock] (Tōgō Mizrāḥī, 1937) as George;
• Aḫlā’ li-l-bē‘ [Morals for Sale] (Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, 1950) as Yanni;
• Šāṭi’ il-ġarām [Love Beach] (Henrī Barakāt, 1950) as Ḫristu;
• Il-‘Īmān [The Faith] (Aḥmad Badraḫān, 1952) as Panayōti;
• Ibn il-ḥāra [Son of the Alley] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1953) as Anasipus;
• Qiṭār il-lēl [Night Train] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1953);
• Taḥyā il-reggāla [Long Live Men] (Kāmil Ḥifnāwī, 1954);
• ‘Uyūn sahrāna [Sleepless Eyes] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1956) as Ḫristu;
• Ismā‘īl Yāsīn fī matḥaf il-šam‘ [Ismā‘īl Yāsīn in the Wax Museum] (‘Īsā Karāma, 1956) as Kiryāku;
• Tūḥa (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1958).
Other films were excluded from the selection because his role is very short, as for example Min ’alb li-l-’alb [From Heart to Heart] (Henrī Barakāt, 1952). Moreover, in Gizīrit il-aḥlām [Dreams Island] (‘Abd-il-‘Alīm Ḫaṭṭāb, 1951), ‘Alī ‘Abd-il-‘Āl played the role of Šingār, a Turkish sea captain.
The second of these actors is George Iordanidis (in Greek, Γιώργος Ιορδανίδης), born in 1913 in Egypt to a Greek family, who was active in Egyptian cinema from the late 1940s to the early 1960s until he left for Greece. He appeared in about 40 Egyptian films where he typically played the role of the Greek, who was usually a barman or receptionist.
From his high-volume production I selected:
• Kās il-‘azāb [The Cup of Suffering] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1952) as Yanni;
• Ḥobb fi il-ẓalām [Love in the Darkness] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1953) as Kosta;
• Milyōn ginēh [One Million Pounds] (Ḥisēn Fawzi, 1953) as Manōli;
• Bent il-gīrān [The Neighbors’ Daughter] (Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, 1954);
• Ḫaṭaf mirātī [He Kidnapped My Wife] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1954) as Yanni,
• Il-Gasad [The Body] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1956) as Gorgi,
• Ḥobb wi insāniyya [Love and Humanity] (Ḥisēn Fawzi, 1956) as Manōli,
• Mo‘gezit il-samā’ [Heaven’s Miracle] (‘Āṭif Sālim, 1957) as Stawru,
• Il-Ma‘allema [The Mistress] (Ḥasan Riḍā, 1958) as Yanni,
• Il-Zōga il-‘azrā’ [The Virgin Wife] (Il-Sayyid Bidēr, 1958) as Ǧorǧ,
• Ḥasan wi Mārīkā [Ḥasan and Marika] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1959) as Marku,
• Il-Mar’a il-maghūla [The Strange Woman] (Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, 1959) as Yanni,
• Bēn il-samā’ wi-l-‘arḍ [Between Sky and Earth] (Ṣalāḥ Abū Sēf, 1960) as Ḫristu,
• Šahr ‘asal baṣal [An Onion Honeymoon] (‘Īsā Karāma, 1960) as Ḫristu,
• Il-Fursān il-salāsa [The Three Cavaliers] (Faṭīn ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1962),
• Lā waqta li-l-ḥobb [No Time for Love] (Ṣalāḥ Abū Sēf, 1963) as Yanni.
Other films where the actor’s part is very short and/or repetitive were excluded, for example, Fāliḥ wi Meḥtās [Fāliḥ and Meḥtās] (Ismā‘īl Ḥasan, 1954), Ḥobb ilā il-abad [Love Forever] (Yūsif Šāhīn, 1959), Bēn ‘īdēk [In Your Hands] (Yūsif Šāhīn, 1960), and Ṣirā‘ fī il-gabal [Struggle in the Mountain’] (Ḥusām-il-Dīn Muṣṭafā, 1961). He also played the role of a British officer in Bōrsa‘īd [Port Said] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1957), a British businessman in Serr ṭa’eyyit l-ixfā [The Mystery of the Magic Cap]
(Niyāzī Muṣṭafā, 1959), where his performance was totally different from his habitual Greek character, and a British sea captain in Ḥobb wi dumū’ (Kamāl il-Šēḫ, 1955), where he spoke only in English (see Melakhrinodis 2003: 13, 23 and Qāsim 2004: 110 for a list of his works).
The third actor is Fu’ād Rātib, better known as Il-Xawāga Bīǧu. His full name, as mentioned by himself in several films, is Bīǧu Masfarītu Katulyānu Bastānu Arisyān Gundobulu Kukās Pawlu Fastawlu Pōlo Fīno Bīǧu (corresponding to the Greek names:
Μπέζος … Κουταλιανός … … Κοντοπούλος Κούκας Παύλος Σταύρος Πόλος Φίνος Μπέζος). Fu’ād Rātib began his career as a comedian in the early 1950s in the well-known comic radio broadcast Sā‘a l-qalbak [A Time for Your Heart], playing the Greek foreigner il-xawāga Bīǧu, a character he brought to the silver screen in nearly all his works in the 1950s and 1960s. In performing this comic character, he excelled to the extent that the audience believed he was actually Greek. Not only that, but il-xawāga Bīǧu became a synonym of ‘Foreigner’.
Here is a list of his films included in the selection. In all these films except one he appears as il-xawāga Bīǧu.
• ‘Arūsit il-mūlid [The Sugar Doll] (‘Abbās Kāmil, 1954),
• Banādī ‘alēk [I Call You] (Ismā[īl Ḥasan, 1955),
• Baḥbūḥ afandī [Mr Baḥbūḥ] (Yūsif Ma[lūf, 1958),
• Ismā‘īl Yāsīn fī mustašfā il-magānīn [Ismā‘īl Yāsīn in Asylum] ([Abbās Kāmil, 1958),
• Šāri‘ il-ḥobb [Love Street] ([Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1958),
• Ḥamātī malāk [My Mother- in- Law is an Angel] (‘Īsā Karāma, 1959),
• Ḥayāt imra’a [A Woman’s Life] (Zuhēr Bakīr, 1959),
• Il-būlīs il-serrī [The Secret Police] (Faṭīn ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1959),
• Baqāyā ‘azrā’ [The Remains of a Virgin] (Ḥusām-il-Dīn Muṣṭafā, 1961),
• Malik il-betrōl [The King of Petrol] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1962) as Kiryāku,
• ‘Arūs il-Nīl [The Bride of the Nile] (Faṭīn ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1963).
In Ġarām il-milyunēr [A Millionaire’s Love] (‘Āṭif Sālim, 1957), Fu’ād Rātib attempted to get out of this ‘character’ role but the attempt was not very successful.
Consequently, he returned to his characteristic role, il-xawāga Bīǧu, until the end of his cinematic career.
The fourth and last, who specialized preeminently in playing the foreigner, is the actress Viktoryā Ḥebēqa, an Egyptian born of a Levantine family who immigrated to Egypt. Her family origin helped her, unsurprisingly, to play the role of a Levantine woman several times. She also played the role of an Italian, Mariya Kastellāni, in Ġarām wa intiqām [Love and Revenge] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1944), and a Greek, Marīka Papadoplo Bīǧu, in Anā barī’a [I am Innocent] (Ḥusām-il-Dīn Muṣṭafā, 1959). But what Viktoryā Ḥebēqa was particularly known for is her portrayal of middle-aged and old Turkish women (see Qāsim 2004: 411–12 for a list of some of her works). In fact, my selection includes:
• ‘Arīs min Istānbūl [A Bridegroom from Istanbul] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1941) as Gulbahār;
• Lēlet il-ḥaẓẓ [Lucky Night] (‘Abd-il-Fattāḥ Ḥasan, 1945) as Fātīnšāh;
• Magd wa Dumū‘ [Glory and Tears] (Aḥmad Badraḫān, 1946) as Anga;
• Abū Ḥalmūs (Ibrāhīm Ḥilmī, 1947) as Yaldiz;
• ‘Alā ’add liḥāfak [According to Your Means] (Fu’ād Šibl, 1949) as Anga;
• Agāzah fī Gahannam [Holiday in Hell] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1949) as Gulfidān;
• Il-Milyunēr [The Millionaire] (Ḥilmī Raflah, 1950);
• Ḥasan wi Mor’uṣ wi Kūhēn [Hassan, Morcos and Cohen] (Fu’ād Il-Gazāyirlī, 1954) as Gulfidān;
• Mamlakit il-nisā’ [Women’s Realm] (Iḥsān Farġal, 1955);
• Il-Armala il-ṭarūb [The Merry Widow] (Ḥilmī Raflah, 1956) as Ḫadīǧa.
The decision to keep as many as possible of the works of the above-mentioned actors was made because they helped define the stereotype of the foreigner in Egyptian cinema and the imaginary of the Egyptian audience. I reiterate here what Schweinitz (2011: 49) referred to as ‘narrative stereotype’:
While this figure drew on culturally established ideas, it also produced an independent, fixed narrative form, a type that soon became conventional, a ‘mask.’ Through a unique and latently comic exaggeration of traits, a certain bearing, and limited and clearly displayed attributes, this figure began to take on a life of its own in the conventional and playful realm of the imaginary. This independence was expressed by the fact that the narrative type soon managed to swing toward an amusing and almost even likeable comedy stereotype, although the figure was originally based on a clearly negative sociopsychological stereotype.
Finally, following the third criterion, I excluded films with very short utterances or frequently repeated situations.
1.4.3b The Production Crew
This study’s corpus is based on a selection of 120 classical Egyptian films. These films were directed by 46 directors. While 21 of those directors produced only one film each, another 10 directors produced more than half of the films: Yūsif Wahbī and Ḥilmī Raflah with eight films each; Aḥmad Badraḫān seven films; ‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, Faṭīn
‘Abd-il-Wahāb, Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī and Ḥisēn Fawzi with six films each; Ḥasan il-Imām, Maḥammad ‘Abd-il-Gawwād, and Tōgō Mizrāḥī with five films each.
Furthermore, the stories of these films were written (or co-written) or conceived by 55 authors. Foremost stand Fāyiq Ismā‘īl, with 11 films, and Abū Il-Su‘ūd Il-Ibyārī, with 10 films. Then come Badī‘ Ḫayrī and Yūsif Wahbī with seven films each, followed by Yūsif Gōhar with five films. These five authors alone wrote one third of the selected movies, while the other 31 authors have a single film. The screenplays, on the other hand, were plotted by 68 writers (or co-writers): Il-Sayyid Bidēr and Abū Il-Su‘ūd Il-Ibyārī with seven screenplays; Yūsif Wahbī, six; ‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār and Tōgō Mizrāḥī five screenplays; ‘Abbās Kāmil, ‘Alī il-Zorqānī, Aḥmad Badraḫān, Henrī Barakāt, Ḥilmī Raflah and Ḥisēn Fawzī four screenplays. This constitutes nearly one half of the selection.
It is worth mentioning that all of them except Il-Sayyid Bidēr and Abū Il-Su‘ūd Il-Ibyārī were also the films’ directors. In addition, there are 43 writers who plotted the screenplay for only one film each.
More relevant to the study is the category of dialogue writers. Nearly one third of the films included in this selection were created by only two drama writers, namely Badī‘
Ḫayrī, with 21 films, and Abū Il-Su‘ūd Il-Ibyārī, with 16. Both were also prolific film story writers and, before that, writers for the theater. Equally, another five film directors
wrote the dialogues for their own films: Il-Sayyid Bidēr in nine films; ‘Alī il-Zorqānī for eight; Yūsif Gōhar for seven; ‘Abbās Kāmil for six; and Yūsif Wahbī for five films. Taken together, this is about two thirds of the selected film dialogues. In addition, 21 writers created dialogues in only one movie in the selection. In the other 15 films the name of the dialogue writer has not been given, which means, probably, that dialogue was written by the screenplay writer himself. It is worth mentioning that in the early works of the Egyptian cinema only the screenplay writer appears in the credits as responsible for the script.
1.4.3c The Cast: Actors and Characters
This 120-film selection includes 202 represented foreigner characters. These characters are distributed as follows:
• 150 Greek figures: 105 males and 45 females;
• 45 Turkish figures: 22 males and 23 females;
• 8 Italian figures: 4 males and 4 females.
It is worth saying that the number of the last-mentioned does not reflect the actual presence of Italians in Egyptian society and, consequently, in its cinema. Unfortunately, I could not obtain more films that I knew to contain Italian figures. On the other hand, the imbalance between the Greek male and female figures is justified by the fact that the Greek figure’s most characteristic professions, namely the barman, the waiter, the bar owner, and the cabaret owner; were almost exclusively men’s professions.
These foreigner characters were represented by 70 known actors plus over 30 bit-players. Some foreigner figures appeared in these films as extras and so are not considered here. Some of those actors were cinema stars and superstars at the time; ‘Abd-il-Salām Il-Nābulsī, Bišāra Wakīm, Farīd il-Aṭraš, Fu’ād il-Muhandis, Ismā‘īl Yāsīn, Istifān Rostī, Kītī, Laylā Ṭāhir, Maḥammad Fawzī, Maḥmūd Šukūkū, Maḥmūd Zū-il-Faqqār, Mārī Munīb, Negma Ibrāhīm, and Zakī Rustum. There is no doubt that these celebrities helped propagate the stereotype of the foreigner in Egyptian society.
Some of the actors / actresses who played the role of a foreigner appeared in only one film of the selection: 33 as Greek, 16 as Turkish, and six as Italian; while others played the role repeatedly (vide supra). Moreover, a few actors / actresses played the role of a member of more than one foreigner community:
1. playing the Italian and the Turk:
a. Mārī Munīb: Italian in Gamāl wi Dalāl [Gamāl and Dalāl] (Istifān Rostī, 1945) as Tortorella della Tor, and Turkish in Šuhadā’ il-ġarām [Love Martyrs]
(Kamāl Selīm, 1944), as Golson, and as Bahīga Hānim in Al-Murāhiqān [The Two Adolescents] (Sēf-il-Dīn Šawkat, 1964);
b. Bišāra Wakīm: Italian in Gamāl wi Dalāl [Gamāl and Dalāl] (Istifān Rostī, 1945), as Cavallo, and Turkish, as Qāwūq Bāšā Arṭuġrul in ‘Arīs min Istānbūl [A Bridegroom from Istanbul] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1941), Šalabī Bāšā in Šuhadā’
il-ġarām [Love Martyrs] (Kamāl Selīm, 1944), and Šākir Aġa in Malāk il-raḥma [The Angel of Mercy] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1946);
2. playing the Italian and the Greek: Edmund Tuwēmā, Italian in Zōg fī agāza [A Husband on Holiday] (Maḥammad ‘Abd-Gawwād, 1964) and Greek in Šāri‘ il-ḥobb [Love Street] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1958), as Ḫristu, Bēn il-samā’ wi-l-‘arḍ [Between Sky and Earth] (Ṣalāḥ Abū Sēf, 1960) and in Māfīš tafāhom [No Understanding] (‘Āṭif Sālim,1961), as Stawru;
3. playing the Turk and the Greek:
a. ‘Alī ‘Abd-il-‘Āl (vide supra),
b. Ismā‘īl Yāsīn: Turkish (fake)8 in Il-Sa‘d wa‘d [Fortune is Predestined]
(Maḥammad ‘Abd-il-Gawwād, 1955), as Za‘tar Aġa, and Greek (fake) as Ḫristu Kiryāko Papadoplo in Fāṭma wi Mārīkā wi Rāšēl [Fāṭma, Marika and Rachel] (Ḥilmī Raflah, 1949), Fī il-hawā sawā [Equal in Misfortune] (Yūsif Ma‘lūf, 1951), as Gamīlopolos, Bošrit ḫēr [Good News] (Ḥasan Ramzī, 1952), and in Ḥasan wi Mārīkā [Ḥasan and Marika] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1959), as Marku Kiryāku;
c. Ṯurayyā Faḫrī: Turkish in Rodda qalbī [Give Me Back My Heart!] (‘Izz-il-Dīn Zū-il-Faqqār, 1957), as Dilbār, and as Laṭīfa Hānim in Bēn il-’aṣrēn [The Dead End of the Two Palaces] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1962), Greek, as Omm Yanni, in Il-Settāt ma-yi‘rafūš yikdibu [Women Don’t Know How to Lie]
(Maḥammad ‘Abd-il-Gawwād, 1954), as Marīka in ‘Āši’ il-rōḥ [Soul Lover]
(Ḥilmī Raflah, 1955), and as Sophia in Wa ‘āda il-ḥobb [And Love Returns]
(Faṭīn ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1960);
8 I use the term ‘fake’ to refer to the case in which an actor / actress who plays the role of Egyptian disguises themselves as a foreigner.
d. Fatḥiyya ‘Alī: Turkish, as Nāzik Arṭuġrul, in ‘Arīs min Istānbūl [A Bridegroom from Istanbul] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1941), and Greek in Ibn il-ḥaddād [The Blacksmith’s Son] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1944), as Marī, and as Katrīna in Ḍarbit il-qadar [Blow of Fate] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1947);
e. Fīfī Yūsif: Turkish in Awlād al-fuqarā’ [The Sons of Poor People] (Yūsif Wahbī, 1942), as Inǧī Hānim, and Greek, as Kukōna, in Birlantī (Yūsif Wahbī, 1942) , as Stella in Il-Gasad [The Body] (Ḥasan il-Imām, 1955), and in Ismā‘īl Yāsīn fī matḥaf il-šam‘ [Ismā‘īl Yāsīn in the Wax Museum] (‘Īsā Karāma, 1956);
f. Loṭfī il-Ḥakīm: Turkish in Lēlet il-ḥaẓẓ [Lucky Night] (‘Abd-il-Fattāḥ Ḥasan, 1945) and Greek in Ibn l-il-igār [Son for Hire] (Ḥilmī Raflah, 1953), as Spīru 4. playing the Italian, the Turkish and the Greek: Viktoryā Ḥebēqa (vide infra).
Furthermore, some actors / actresses who were originally foreigners—or of foreign origin—played the role of foreigner of their own origin. In this selection we have the Italian Armando Lazzara, who appeared as such in Ibn il-Nīl [The Son of the Nile] (Yūsif Šāhīn, 1951) and in as Mario Il-Mi’addar wi-l-maktūb [Fate and Destiny] (‘Abbās Kāmil, 1953), and the Greek Kiryākos Petridis in Il-Bāšmi’āwil [The Chef Contractor] (Tōgō Mizrāḥī, 1940), as himself. Also, the Egyptian actress of Turkish origin Zēnab Ṣidqī played the Turk in Dayman fī ’albī [In My Heart Forever] (Ṣalāḥ Abū Sēf, 1946) and the Egyptian actress of Greek origin Helene (or Ēlēn Gābir) played the Greek Sonia in Il-Zōga 13 [The 13th Wife] (Faṭīn ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1962) and Katīna in Hārib min al-zawāg [Running Away from Marriage] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1964), together with the aforementioned George Iordanidis and Kītī, the two Greeks who were born and raised in Egypt.
Other foreigners also played the role of a foreigner from a different community. Isaac Dickson, a choreographer of Austrian origin, played the Greek Ḫristu twice in Il-Šaraf ġālī [Honor is Precious] (Aḥmad Badraḫān, 1951), ‘Antar wi Lebleb [Antar and Lebleb]
(Sēf-il-Dīn Šawkat, 1952) and Il-Leṣṣ il-šarīf [The Honorable Thief] (Ḥamāda ‘Abd-il-Wahāb, 1953). Istifān Rostī (Stéphane Rosti), whose mother was Italian and father Austrian, played, inter alia, a Greek in ‘Āḫir kedba [The Last Lie] (Aḥmad Badraḫān, 1950), Panayōti in Il-Settāt ma-yi‘rafūš yikdibu [Women Don’t Know How to Lie]
(Maḥammad ‘Abd-il-Gawwād, 1954), Yanni Papadoplo in Ḥasan wi Mārīkā [Ḥasan and Marika] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1959), and Manōli in Gam‘eyyit qatl il-zawgāt il-hazleyya [Comical Association of Wives’ Killers] (Ḥasan Il-Ṣēfī, 1962). Laylā Ṭāhir, an Egyptian
of Turkish origin, played the role of fake Italian Rosetta in Zōg fī agāza [A Husband on Holiday] (Maḥammad ‘Abd-il-Gawwād, 1964) and Lūlā Ṣidqī, who had an Egyptian father and Italian mother, played the Greek Marīka Papadoplo in Fāṭma wi Mārīkā wi Rāšēl [Fāṭma, Marika and Rachel] (Ḥilmī Raflah, 1949).
1.4.4 Processing the Data
Once I had my raw material, I started editing it. I extracted all the scenes in which an actor / actress playing the role of a Greek, a Turk or an Italian, or even pretending to be so, appears. As a matter of fact, there is a significant difference, probably intentional, between the performance, and hence the register, of both the actor / actress playing the real foreigner and the fake one.
Excluding movies with very short scenes that do not contain significant material for the study, the 1,200 movies were short-listed into 120 movies. From the latter movies, I could extract about 16 hours of scenes relevant to my study. These extracts are attached to my thesis as an appendix, on digital medium.
I also built a small database of all the participants of each movie, including the movie title in Arabic and transliterated, its genre, its director(s), its story writer(s), its screenplay writer(s), and its dialogue writer(s). I also listed, when available, the actors / actresses who played the role of the foreigner, their character name, their original names as they are supposed to be in their relative languages, their age range, and their professions. These data are deemed to be useful for the analysis of the corpus either on the linguistic level, since they may justify the difference of style between some registers, or the extra-linguistic level, as the stereotype of the foreigner includes inter alia his / her name, profession, and class.
1.4.5 The Transcription of the Corpus
The corpus’ main subject is the speech of the foreigner, which is transcribed completely, whether the represented foreigner is real or fake, i.e. an actor / actress who plays a role of an Egyptian and disguises themselves as a foreigner. As for the speech of an Egyptian (or other Arabic-speaking communities), the transcription is limited to only the parts including ‘foreigner talk’ and the necessary parts for understanding the context of the foreigners’ registers.
In my transcription of the corpus, I mainly adopted a broad (i.e. phonemic) transcription (see Wells 2006: 397, Crystal 2008: 490 and Brown & Miller 2013: 446).
However, regarding vowels, I opted for a narrowed transcription, since the contrast between open and close vowels, although not always phonemic, is underlined in the
However, regarding vowels, I opted for a narrowed transcription, since the contrast between open and close vowels, although not always phonemic, is underlined in the