Vintage film posters reveal Western cliches
China Daily | Updated: 2019-05-14 07:18
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.
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