Yes, Collounsbury’s first foray into Cafe society. Not sure if in fact this is properly a Cafe Society subject versus GD or lord knows what, but perhaps it is more art than anything else
From here I see that our very own Sean Connery * seems * to be slated to play, well Salah ad-Diin al-Ayoubi aka Saladin.
An extract:
“International director Mustafa al-'Aqaad has confirmed that British actor Sean Connery agreed to play in the upcoming film Salah Ed-diin al-Ayoubi some years ago”
Blah blah about script updated to reflect international events. And it’s going into production shortly because iit’s an active/genuine interpretation of current events in PPalestine” Furtyher, it would introduce Islam and its tolerant side through Saladin’s character. (Not a bad choice in many respects, although of course Salah ad-Diin wasn’t an Arab but a Kurd and a whole raft of other historical tedious detials)
So, what is there ti discuss?
Well, Sean Connery.
Agreement to play in the film & sticking to it.
Film as history.
For. Films and Western Audiences.
Or just, this is possibly the most strange piece of news I read today.
I thought he did a pretty good job of presenting a positive image of an Islamic leader in “The Wind and the Lion”. I think he’s getting a bit long in the tooth for Saladin. 30 years ago, sure.
To say the least. Unless we’re talking his twilight years here.
He’s a good topic for a film, I suppose. But I don’t know - “updated to reflect international events?” Makes me nervous. And as usual for a history-geek, I worry about what they can do in two hours. Howabout a mini-series on HBO, instead ?
Yeah, Tamerlane, if you’ve ever seen Syrian historical dramas you’d not be encouraged. I can’t say if I’ve seen al-Aqaad’s movies or not but I’ve seen plenty of Syrian films. Actually their comedies are way better than Egyptian ones, but that’s not a very high standard.
Still, the magic of film I dunno with Sean…
It’s just bizarre enough that I think I’d have to see it.
(Mind you I rather think this is about as reliable as the reports in the Arab press that Hingis was going to ask for Qatari citizenship.)
Well, the guy’s phrasing is less-than-direct but given (a) he’s Syrian and (b) his other comments I have to infer that he means to insert modern Syrian politics in the Saladin story and assert a “pro-Arab” reading of “Arab” control over the holy lands. Tedium?
I don’t want to bust on someone who’s work I don’t know if I know… but given Syria and given the phrasing I have to expect some really tedious modern land-politics inserted into the story.
(But frankly the whole thing about Connery having agreed long ago to the project sounds rather fishy)
Perfect. You’ve just given me a great icebreaker for the next boring cocktail party I go to. Just the right amount of snob quotient. I suppose all I need is an ascot…
Boy this guys take on ‘updating to reflect current event’ is a gas:
So it was the darned media making up all the stories about airplanes crashing into buildings, suicide bombers, exploding embassies, and so forth that is causing an image problem in Arab world! :rolleyes:
What’s Connery thinking getting involved in this crap?
squeegee: I’m guessing he’s thinking the same thing he was thinking when he agreed to do Finding Forrester. Or Entrapment. Or Playing by Heart. Or The Avengers, The Rock, Dragonheart, First Knight, Rising Sun, Medicine Man, Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood, or Highlander II.
Let’s face it, it’s been at least a decade since the guy’s done anything worth watching. I’m long past surprised at the kind of crap Sean Connery is willing to put his name on.
Well, to be fair the US media, and I think from the context of the original Arabic he was refering to movies and Hollywood, has been fairly abysmal in any kind of balanced portrayal of the Arab and Islamic world. The negative side is largely the sole picture. There are, of course, a selection of good and bad reasons for this.
His phrasing (as translated and in the original) of course is less than encouraging and I share the sense of … over-reaction.
I should be more clear, my reading of the original leads me to think that our director is putting a lot of weight on perhaps an off-hand comment to him by SC a long time back.
Collounsbury, thanks for the reply. I would personally love to know more of the history of the Islamic world, especially in the middle ages when Saladin lived. A movie based around this could be a wonderful thing for Western audiences to see.
However, the remarks from the director (and you seem to agree, I think) are disheartening. He seems to imply that the Arab world has an image problem in the West entirely due to negative propaganda from western media, which is absurd.
Ahhhh. Well if you know the Arab world the director’s comments are utterly unsurprising. Alessan I am sure was not surprised that a Syrian director would say what he said (wa ash btehki aw bteqra al-arabiya ya alessan?).
Now, the saving grace is what this guy said to ash-Sharq al-Awsaat, the paper where this came from, might be as much “fronting” / posturing as anything.
Now, back to the art of it all. The story of Saladin actually could be a really cool vehicle to present a sympathetic, and accurately so, vision of Islam. Salah ad-diin al-Ayoubi was not a fundie. Sure, any movie is going to disappoint me and Tamerlane (BTW did you see the movie on Ibn ar-Rushd from, eh, 99 or so? Not bad) but it could be a good vehicle if done right.
I certainly agree on this. I think this project could be done in a credible way. I suppose one could try a condensed narrative of his life, but even as a long movie I think that starts getting too complex ( unless it was a multi-film Godfather saga-type thing ). A better solution would probably be to take one pivotal point ( maybe the events surrounding Hattin, for instance ) and use it as a background to study his character. He certainly was a fascinating guy and there’s a lot of levels one could play with.
But I still don’t think Connery is the man for the role .
No, I missed that one . Do you remember the title?
Al Masir. Not a very good film to be frank. Nice scenes and can be fun to watch, but as a film about Ibn Rushd… 1997 maybe rather than 99. Late 1990s. I don’t know if there is a sub-titled version. Probably since I think it was shown at Cannes.
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