Vintage film posters reveal Western cliches

BEIRUT - A pale woman rides through the desert, flanked by armed men on camels, a palace shimmering in the distance. This is Lebanon - or so someone thought in the 1950s.

At a Beirut cultural center, Lebanese film buff Abboudi Abu Jawdeh is exhibiting vintage film posters from his collection that show off a lost art, but also offer insight into decades of Western cliches about the Arab world.

On a guided tour, the collector gestures toward the desert scene, which is an Italian poster for the 1956 French movie, The Lebanese Mission. "This is from the artist's imagination," the 61-year-old says, standing beside the image featuring the camel riders and a palace resembling India's Taj Mahal.