MovieChat Forums > Omaret yakobean (2006) Discussion > adding to the list of frustration

adding to the list of frustration

posted 18 years ago by fady_henry
5 replies | jump to latest

What makes a novel a real master piece is not the story itself, but rather the language used, the metaphores, and use of symbolisms as well as it's creativity and originality versus the artistic description of facts. Brief it is a serie of complicated talents that only a frequent reader can absorb and enjoy it to almost it’s fullest extent. Yacoubian is definitely one of those novels, while the story is plain and simple to the average reader, it goes way beyond with it’s shoking, controversial phsyco and socio analysis of key figures in the Egyptian society.
It is very difficult to adapt a movie from a best seller, it requires both the technical skills as well as the deep understanding of the author’s/novelists thread of thoughts in order to present the story in motion, whilst maintaining – as much as possible – the spirit and the deepest meanings of the story, and believe me, if it was THAT easy to fully understand what goes on in those novelists brains, they wouldn’t have been thought as geniuses and masters in literature.

Looking back at the Egyptian movie history, we find that zillions of great novels and novelists have been interpreted in Egyptian movie, such as Naguib Mahvouz, Ehssan Abdel Koudouss, Youssef El Seba’y, Taha Hussein and many more, and I do admit, most of these movies had huge success, but if you look deeper into these movies, you find that they do not feed you with some basics elements, elements that you can only witness while reading between the lines in the original novel.

Brief I want to say that I do not expect much of the – soon to be released – 3emaret Yacoubian – especially that the director is known for his commercial career rather than an artistic one. I’ve seen some comments on this boar concerning the actors, whether they succeed in portraying the characters or not, frankly I am not worried about that since a good actor is more or less guided by the director, it is up to director how the actor’s role will be successful or not (providing of course that the actor is good).

Now let us take a look to the main characters of the story and see if they can be HOSESTLY portrayed in the movie;

1- A rich, spoiled, lonely, playboy lawyer in his sixties trying to recap his lost identity that was lost after the revolution. Should you mock him or will he gain your sympathy
2- A young girl, crushed by poverty and heart break tries to make a living surrenders to the invitations of men in exchange of sexual favors, will you respect her, condemn her or will you sympathize?
3- A middle aged rich homo and his young boyfriend who is torn between homosexuality and money versus his love for his wife and child. What motivates these two, is it simply an illness? Is it the desire to rebel? Will we laugh at them as we usually do when we watch them in Arabic movies or will they be presented in a very different and broader prospective
4- The concierge’s son, who wants to make something useful of himself but is forced to turn into a fanatic terrorist, would he be portrayed as the cold blooded, brain washed mass murderer or will you be shocked when you find out if you were in his shoe, you will end up even worse than he is

payback is a b*tch

[–] someone80 18 years ago

I agree with most of what you said. But I think it is kind of a rule that good novles are much better than the movies based on them. No matter how good the movie is, the novel always wins. The only aspect that you enjoy in a movie and is missing in the novel is the performance of the actors (if it was good).

About the characters, yes I think they will be portrayed as they appeared in the novel, but whether the audience will sympathize with them or not is questionable. I am almost sure that no one will sympathize with the girl nor the gay couple, but they may sympathize with Zaki and Taha(the terrorist) .

BTW, did you notice that Taha's character did not commit any REAL crime in the novel?? the only one he killed is the sadistic officer who turtored him, which is not exactly a crime if u ask me. The guy was a pure victim from the beginning to the end.

Ellen Roark: What would Harry Rex do?
Harry Rex Vonner: Cheat. Cheat like crazy.

[–] fady_henry 18 years ago

My friend, I agree with you all the way, a book usualy reveals all feelings, while the movie - though - puts the thoughts into visualization, misses a lot of aspects and ideas that were present in books. I am currently reading - for the second time - "seasons of immigration to the north" by El Tayeb Saleh, though this novel has been presented as a "play" in several Arab countries, i beleive it will be very difficult to be transformed into a movie, nevertheless, although the book is so beautiful, the story it self won't attract the "arabic" movie goers.

Concerning Taha, indeed he did not commit any true crime, but the interesting part is is that amaret yacoubian is the Egyptian society, composed of the rich, the poor, the gay,the terrorist, the playboy and a woman who would sell herself, the corrupted business man and government, the story is so realistic that no one dared to say it is "esa2a le som3at massr" lol lol

payback is a b*tch

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] guy-bellinger 14 years ago

Sorry I did sympathize with the gay couple, both in the book and in the movie. Marwan Hamed mustn't be such a bad director after all.

[–] tookus 14 years ago

This is not unusual for any movie rendition of a book. The expression "The book was better", is almost a staple of any movie that was made based on novel. Books have the opportunity to be as long and threaded as they need to be, readers will always get a much deeper understanding of what the novelist is looking to achieve as every back story, every part of the personality would be portrayed and 'explained' in detail in the book. But since great novels are basically very good stories, they will always be good material for a good movie. I saw the movie and thought it was really good, and probably did as much justice to the novel as possible within the time frame the movie allows. Having said that, I will definitely still stand by the statement that the book was better. I got sucked by all the hype and decided to read the book prior to seeing the movie. Nonetheless, I think it was a very excellent movie and eagerly trying to find subtitled version of the movie to show to my non Arabic speaking friends.