Ismail Yasin in the Coloring Book

By Walter Armbrust

Fall 2007 | ArteZine

It is no secret that black and white Egyptian films are powerful objects of nostalgia. No secret either that the films are remembered by their actors above all else. My nomination for the most popular Egyptian actor of all time would be the comedian Isma’il Yasin. He was born in 1912 in Port Suez, and began his artistic life singing munulugat (“monologues”) in cafes. Monologues were aria-like pieces—expressions of a single person’s thoughts, though in tremendously varied forms. Yasin’s monologues were comic and often topical. Like many Egyptian film actors, he performed in live theatre throughout his life, and even had his own theatrical troupe, named after himself. But as an object of nostalgia he is inevitably remembered for his recorded performance in films.

Yasin appeared in a lot of films—172 by one tabulation. (1) That may be a low count. I remember reading one history of Egyptian cinema that claimed he appeared in over 400 films by the time he died in 1972. That was a passing remark in a book that I’ve long ago lost. Whether it was 172 films or 400, Isma’il Yasin has the distinction of having both thrived through most of his career as a secondary character, and at the same time, having played the lead in films named after himself. There were only a few actors like him. One was Shalom, a Jewish actor playing a Jewish character in two films during the 1930s. Another was the singer Layla Murad, whose six “Layla” films were made in the 1940s. And Isma’il Yasin. He made something like fifteen “Isma’il Yasin” films between 1954 and 1960. They were not the only films made as vehicles for him, but with his name featured so prominently in the titles, they almost were bound to become the iconic Isma’il Yasin works. At least that seemed the case in the early 1990s, when a sidewalk vendor in downtown Cairo was selling a series of colouring books based on Isma’il Yasin films. The colouring book on the top of the pile was this one [Figure 1]: Isma’il Yasin fi al-Gaysh (Isma’il Yasin in the army).

Figure 1

I bought one of everything he had. After the army, it was Isma’il Yasin in the Navy, … in the Police, …in the Air Force, and finally, Isma’il Yasin fi Mustashfa al-Maganin (Isma’il Yasin in the mental hospital). [Figure 2]

Figure 2

It was a bit startling to see Isma’il Yasin in colour. Almost all his films were black and white. For many fans one of the defining features of film nostalgia is that it applies largely to black and white films. If nostalgia is a yearning to return to a comfortingly familiar home, then these colouring books seem to be a kind of amnesiac nostalgia. The artist who made them was a man named Hilmi Khalifa. Now, years later, I wish I could go back to that sidewalk in downtown Cairo and ask the vendor who sold me the colouring books if he himself was Hilmi Khalifa. I would like to have asked Mr. Kahlifa how he came up with the idea of colorizing Isma’il Yasin, and whether he thought the colorized version was true to the original. He could probably have made a case. Even in the heyday of the much-loved black and white films, publicists marketed the cinema in colour. For example, a gift poster of actress Amina Rizq distributed in a 1950 magazine was made from a hand-painted colorized black and white photograph. [Figure 3]

Figure 3

It was a technique used in studio photography in Egypt since at least the 1930s (earlier in other parts of the world). The same technique could be used in advertising, as a 1950 ad for Amir al-Intiqam (Prince of revenge) shows. [Figure 4]

Figure 4

Of course Yasin rarely if ever appeared in such dignified poses. He was a comedian, not a heartthrob. The colouring book images are variations on Yasin’s famously rubbery face and enormous mouth, which were more often than not depicted in various contortions. This was true to the conventions of portraying Yasin in his heyday, as a page from the pamphlet produced for the 1950 film al-Milyunayr (The Millionaire) shows. [Figure 5]

Figure 5

Indeed, while Yasin had his share of “starring” roles—including in The Millionaire, which was every bit as much his vehicle as Isma’il Yasin in the Army—it would be more accurate to say that he was the leader of a cast of character actors than a box-office kingpin. Consequently, he tends not to dominate any setting in which he was depicted. In much of the advertising for his films he appears no larger than other characters, and indeed, is often dwarfed by them even in films made as his vehicles. The back cover of the Millionaire pamphlet shows this well. [Figure 6]

Figure 6

Yasin, face contorted and body drawn small in proportion to his head, is dwarfed by Kamelia, his leading lady in the film. Or in an ad, for al-Batal (The Champ), another Isma’il Yasin vehicle from 1950, his tiny head sits on a drawing of an enormous body-builder, with the leading ladies’ names and faces tattooed onto his muscles. [Figure 7]

Figure 7

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