Aniseteph

Just been watching the recent film version of Vanity Fair, enjoying it in a not-as-good-as-the-book but suitably lavish to look at and has it's moments kind of way, when...


...imagine my surprise when at a pivotal moment where Becky Sharp is about to shock 19th century London high society, the authentic period tones of Hakim's Essalaamu Aleikum burst on to the soundtrack. WTF??!!! (and she does some belly dance-ish thing with a bunch of other society types, but frankly I was too busy LMAO to notice much).

OK I am not expecting 100% historical accuracy from a big budget movie, but they lost the plot there for me. Perhaps the director was having a Moulin Rouge day and wanted to chuck in something incongruous - mission accomplished. Glad I didn't go to the cinema to see it, I'd have been spluttering popcorn everywhere.

<deep breath and relax>... Just wanted to share.

Sara

I just sin it now! I loved it and I well can't believe what her and her hsband split up, and then she never got her son back! He was well fit n all! It made me sad.

I was like When the dancing came on. It wasn't that good and I was shouting bout the music played, but my fam dint really care. It was a very lavish colourful film, but I've re-created the ending in my head.

Becky and Crawley stayed together and lived in the countryside with his family. Amelia and General whatever got together. I refuse to accept that ending.

__________________
With a little bit of this and a little bit of that, now shake your bum.... :P

lizaj

Didn't you realise Hakim was top of the late 18/early 19th century pops. tsch..tsch...?
The bit about the ladies learning "oriental dance" is in there but yes why did they choose Hakim? To be fair I suppose we haven't a clue what the music might have been like..Turkish wise but I am sure a bit of Handel might have fitted snaky moves.
My first teacher was hired to be one of those dancers in the TV version of a few years ago.

Bellydeluxe

I knew before watching the film so I wasn't surprised but it's true that it is a bit odd...At the same time, no recording or written arabic music exist from that time, do they ?

Suheir

A huge amount of Arabic music exists in manuscript form from this time and back to the beginnings of Islam!

My teacher phoned me last night after she'd caught the dance scene in Vanity Fair on TV by accident, I was unaware of it before. To judge by the Internet Movie Database, the choreographers for this film are two Indians who usually choreograph for Bollywood films and the dancers aren't belly dancers.

There's a good critique here from an Anthropology Professor: hawgblawg: Hakim in "Vanity Fair"

Bellydeluxe

Thanks for the info !
But I didn't express myself properly...I didn't mean classical or religious music but pop songs (ie songs sang by the people in their countryside)

I don't think the directors intended to recreate something authentic

It's more into the energy and the spectacular... and maybe they like Hakim so much that they wanted to include his music in the film ...???

Moon

I haven't seen the film, looked it up on youtube


(Spanish version)

And OMG that is really bad! I'm glad I didn't see it, it would have spoiled it completely for me. This seen does not belong in a film about the 19th century!

Suheir

The correct response from that audience would be to scream with horror and summon a Peeler to have all those lewd females arrested.

Babylonia

I hate these anachronistic musical sequences that seem to be very popular these days.

lizaj

I think the women were supposed to have learnt to dance in Turkey but would they necessarily have used Turkish musicians at the time or had Western players playing what they thought was appropriate music. It isn't an important part of the book nor of the film so I suppose the producers just shrugged and went for the bizarre choice they did!