Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema

Deborah A. Starr

book: Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema

Open Access Published by University of California Press 2020

Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema

Deborah A. Starr

Volume 1 in the series University of California Series in Jewish History and Cultures

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780520976122

Overview
Contents

About this book

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

In this book, Deborah A. Starr recuperates the work of Togo Mizrahi, a pioneer of Egyptian cinema. Mizrahi, an Egyptian Jew with Italian nationality, established himself as a prolific director of popular comedies and musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. As a studio owner and producer, Mizrahi promoted the idea that developing a local cinema industry was a project of national importance. Togo Mizrahi and the Making of Egyptian Cinema integrates film analysis with film history to tease out the cultural and political implications of Mizrahi’s work. His movies, Starr argues, subvert dominant notions of race, gender, and nationality through their playful—and queer—use of masquerade and mistaken identity. Taken together, Mizrahi’s films offer a hopeful vision of a pluralist Egypt. By reevaluating Mizrahi’s contributions to Egyptian culture, Starr challenges readers to reconsider the debates over who is Egyptian and what constitutes national cinema.

Author / Editor information

Starr Deborah A. :

Deborah A. Starr is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt: Literature, Culture, and Empire and coeditor of Mongrels or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Figures and Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Notes on Translation and Transliteration Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
1 Togo Mizrahi, Agent of Exchange Open Access Download PDF	1
2 Togo Mizrahi, Work over Words Open Access Download PDF	27
3 Crimes of Mistaken Identity Open Access Download PDF	50
4 Queering the Levantine Open Access Download PDF	73
5 Journeys of Assumed Identity: Seven O’Clock (1937) Open Access Download PDF	91
6 Traveling Anxieties Open Access Download PDF	107
7 Courtesan and Concubine Open Access Download PDF	125
8 Frames of Influence Open Access Download PDF	158
Appendix: Togo Mizrahi Filmography Open Access Download PDF	169
Notes Open Access Download PDF	179
Works Cited Open Access Download PDF	211
Index Open Access Download PDF	225

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 252

eBook

Published: September 22, 2020
ISBN: 9780520976122