Hey John.
I came across this post again, and wanted to ask about where this billboard was printed. From the wording on the lower left corner, it suggests it might have been done in France? And the artist, Marcel -- is he French? Do you know anything about him or other posters that he did?
Hi Jeff,
Marcel was Greek according to what I've read, and was one of the prolific early Egyptian poster designers (I don't know if he is dead or alive), but I'm pretty sure he is no longer active. I'm virtually certain L'Art Graphique was in Alexandria Egypt, but I don't know much about it. There is no reason to believe this particular Egyptian print shop would be in France, since everything else about the poster is so characteristically Egyptian. As far as I know the French printed posters for Egyptian films (think of the logistics of shipping the paper to Egypt) only when the film was released in France, and in those cases most of the text on the poster would also have also been in French. That was the case for a lot of films directed by Youssef Chahine. The film advertised on this billboard was directed by Niazi Mostafa, who had no particular connection to France. Marcel was one of the early classic Egyptian poster artists and was quite prolific. The following is a list of posters I have that were either designed by Marcel or by Marcel in collaboration with someone else. The key on the left from my database references what I recorded about the signature that appears on the poster. There are a lot of different keys because I tried to note variations such as street addresses and telephone numbers when I found them:
marcele df 1965 00pic/6833.html Wisdom and Money [al-aql wal-mal] (1965) - (Ismail Yasseen) Egyptian film poster F, NM $75 *
marcele snil 1955 00pic/10396.html Love's Madness [gonoun al-hob] (1955) - (Raqiya Ibrahim) Egyptian oversize stone litho film poster F, EX $150 *
marcele nahas 1944 00pic/egypt/e6.html Hassan and Hassan (1944) - (Mohammed Al Kahlawi) Egyptian film poster $550 *
marcelswf 1962 00pic/13429.html Ulysses against Hercules (1962) - (Georges Marchal) Egyptian two-piece film poster F, VG $95 *
marcelv sst 1955 00pic/13877.html Flesh [al-gessad] (1955) - (Hind Rostom) original Egyptian oversize film poster F, NM $750 *
marcele sst 1958 00pic/13876.html Gift from Heaven, A [rahma min al-sama'] (1958) - (Hind Rostom) original oversize Egyptian poster F, EX $300 *
marcel sssh 1964 00pic/4951.html Thousand and One Nights, A [alf layla wa layla] (1964) - (Shadia) Style B stone litho Egyptian movie poster F, NM $125 *
marcel asf 1969 00pic/11432.html My Father Is up the Tree [abi fawq al-shagarah] (1969) - (Abdel Halim Hafez) original Egyptian film poster F, NM $175 *
marcele snil 1954 00pic/5950.html Love's Madness [gonoun al-hob] (1954) - (Raqiya Ibrahim) Egyptian stone litho film poster F, NM $125 *
marcele 1965 00pic/13321.html Pistol for Ringo, A (1965) - (Giuliano Gemma) Egyptian film poster F, EX $45 *
marcele mtcsf 1963 00pic/10658.html Letter from an Unknown Woman [resalah min emraa maghula] (1963) - (Farid Al Atrache) original three-piece stone litho Egyptian film poster F, EX $250 *
maz mss 1970 00pic/10978.html Ticket Thief [harami al-waraqa] (1970) - (Naglaa Fathy) Egyptian film poster F, NM $45 *
marcele 1957 00pic/13432.html Phantom Stagecoach, The (1957) - (William Bishop) Egyptian film poster F, EX $45 *
marcele 1962 00pic/13323.html Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules (1962) - (Reg Lewis) Egyptian film poster F, EX $45 *
marcele 1965 00pic/13324.html Man Called Gringo (1965) - (Goetz George) Egyptian film poster F, EX $45 *
marcele sqs 1967 00pic/13416.html Oscar (1967) - (Louis de Funes) Egyptian film poster F, VG $55 *
marcele 1954 00pic/13409.html Jesse James vs. the Daltons (1954) - (Brett King) Egyptian film poster F, EX $65 *
takiaz sssh 1963 00pic/13689.html Soft Hands [al-aydi al-na'ema] (1963) - (Sabah) Egyptian one-sheet film poster F, EX $95 *
marcelv sst33 1956 00pic/6509.html Heart Has Commands, The [al-'alb lu ahkam] (1956) - (Faten Hamama) Egyptian stone litho film poster F, NM $125 *
best
John