STAR BAROMETER
(cairolive.com, January 12, 2002)

The critics look back:
A look at how two top critics gauged 2001

In her end of the year review, Amal Bekir in Ahram names Al-Nass illa fil Talet (The people on the third floor) as best public theater production of the year, with honorable mention to a youth production of Moliere's "The Miser". As for private theatre, Bekir thinks that Fifi Abdou's play "Dousa" has filled "a great space in the musical scene". She also doesn't mind "Kida OK" starring Ahmed El-Saqa and Mona Zaki and Adel Imam's "Bodyguard", directed by the star's son Rami. Ibramin Nasr's "Zakia Zakaria Tatahada Sharon" did not get high marks on Bekir's list, however.

Ahmed Zaki's "Days of Sadat" and Heneidi's film "Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali" were Bekir's cinema favorites, with special mention going to "Asrar El Banat" which Bekir said offered a true service to society, besides its high-value creativity.

As for Opera, Al-Ahram's top critic lauded the performance of the ballet Cinderella, put on by the Monte Carlo Troupe, while remaining critical of the opera's tendency to concentrate more on Egyptian and Arabic works at the expense of the classics and ballet.

On television, Bekir strongly opined that Nour El-Sherif's "Ailat Al-Hagg Metwalli", the attention-grabbing saga of a fabric merchant with four wives, as the worst show of the year. She has much kinder words for Yehia El-Fakharani's "Lil Adl Wgouh Katheera" and a Naguib Mahfouz interpretation called "Hadith el Sabah wal Missa" that she called "successful".

In his end-of-year sum-up, Tarek El-Shinawi of Al-Wafd and Rose El-Youssef, gets more specific when it comes to cinema, and declares Hala Sheha as the year's best actress for her role in "Al-Selem Wal Tho'ban". Hani Ramzi is his favorite comic actor, and Dawoud Abdel-Sayed (who Shinnawy later attacks in Al-Wafd) is here named best director for "although he has a vision other than the perverse one in the cinema scene, he managed to express his feelings truly in a film like "Mowaten wa Mokhbar wa Harami".

Mohamed Mounir picked up Shinawy's praise for the simple ditty "So Ya So", whose words everyone across the country was singing without even knowing what they mean. (This is the second time Mounir has done this...) Best female singer -- Angham. And we've saved Shinawy's best for last: He awards a special prize to the Egyptian public for putting up with TV presenter Mamdouh Moussa.

Saber on both screens
Ashraf Abdel-Baqi is slated to star in television scriptwriter Magdi Saber's first foray into authoring for the big screen. Sawaaq Al-Taxi (The Taxi Driver) tackles the changes that have taken place in Egypt over the past 10 years through the eyes of a cabbie. After losing his job in Iraq, where he ended up after failing to find work at home, at the start of the Gulf War, the college graduate forced to work as a cabbie becomes privy to the oddities of society's new big spenders. Al-Akhbar reports that comic star Ashraf Abdel-Baqi, whose last film Rasha Garea did well at the box office, is being considered for the role.

Saber meanwhile, is forging ahead with his writing for TV. Al-Ahram reports that he is involved in an ambitious new show with director Mohamed Fadel to be called Atfal al-Internet (Internet kids). The show will include big stars as well as five children in main roles, and will feature plenty of computer graphics and mixing between cartoons and real life figures. There is an educational element to the idea, aiming to encourage internet and computer use, but not without the slick dramatic techniques the director and scriptwriter have shown in the past.

Entertainment tonight coming to channel 1?
Al-Wafd's Entertainment page editor Awny El-Husseiny dedicated a recent column to call on TV officials to introduce a new kind of show -- for Egypt at least. The show Awny had in mind was one that would let people know more about new Egyptian film releases coming out, in an advertorial sort of way. Something along the lines of Entertainment Tonight, I suppose. Awny's call was prompted by a recent tiff that occurred because of a program on which singer Mohamed Fouad appeared to plug his latest film Rehlat Hobb. It was unclear whether the plug was paid for or not. Awny thinks the public deserves it, producers would love it and pay for it, and the TV would profit from it and make viewers happy.
 

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