Farid and Samia

[aameenah]

I'm sure many of you have seen this clip before, but I've just found it and I love it! Perfectly heartwrenching! I love this song! Samia comes in near the end...

YouTube - Farid Al Atrash - Habib Al Umer...

[*Shira*]

This is the finale from the movie titled Habib el Omr. It's great that you've picked up on the emotion being expressed - in the movie's story line, it's a very intense scene.

You can get a copy of the movie on DVD with English subtitles at either www.rashid.com or www.aramovies.com (where it's called Love of a Lifetime).

Edited to add: The entry in Internet Movie Database is at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297159/ . If you look at the FAQ you'll see that I've added an entry to it.

[melania]

Is the word habibi often used in songs the way "baby" is used in English?
It's really interesting how close those two words are, habibi and baby.

[JeanneLF]

A while back I heard a piece on NPR in which some young Arab-American women were describing what their lives were like, and one of them was talking about listening to Arab pop songs (a little more contemporary than what we're looking at here, I know, but anyway ...). She said, "Most of the lyrics are really dumb, it's always something like, "Oh, habibi, do you know, habibi, that you are my habibi?"

[Lauren_]

WHO is that actor playing the kanoun in the orchestra? (we see him right after the violin-sawing guy, at about 7:15 on the count-downer in the embedded clip)


He seems to be in ALL the old movies -- is he like Jerry Lewis to Farid's Dean Martin?

[ssipes]

Originally Posted by Lauren_

WHO is that actor playing the kanoun in the orchestra? (we see him right after the violin-sawing guy, at about 7:15 on the count-downer in the embedded clip)


He seems to be in ALL the old movies -- is he like Jerry Lewis to Farid's Dean Martin?

That's Ismail Yasin.

[*Shira*]

Originally Posted by Lauren_

WHO is that actor playing the kanoun in the orchestra? (we see him right after the violin-sawing guy, at about 7:15 on the count-downer in the embedded clip)

He seems to be in ALL the old movies -- is he like Jerry Lewis to Farid's Dean Martin?

As Sedonia said, that's Ismail Yassin, and you're right, he WAS in a lot of the old movies. Your analogy of him being sort of like Jerry Lewis to Farid's Dean Martin certainly applies to some of his movies. He was a VERY famous comedian in his day.

Another apt analogy - remember all those old Abbott and Costello movies with their names in the title, such as "Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy", "Abbot & Costello in the Foreign Legion", and so on? Well, Ismail Yassin has his own series of comedies named after him: Ismail Yassin Meets Frankenstein," "Ismail Yassin Tarzan", "Ismail Yassin in the Navy", and so on.

In "Habib el Omr" (the movie the clip Aameenah posted was from), there's a short scene where Ismail Yassin and two of the other male characters get up and do a comic dance using belly dance moves while Samia Gamal's character sits, watches, and laughs.

[Tammyraks]

My sons (11 and 14) enjoy watching the Ismail Yassin movies.