Egyptian cinema bids farewell to ‘The Bad Boy’

In January this year, and just ten months ago, the Egyptian artist Hassan Youssef officially announced his retirement from performing arts, after his personal life was affected the death of his son Abdullah by drowning in 2023, appears in media reports. This event left a deep sadness in him, which made him unable to perform roles as his followers used to, preferring to devote himself to reading, and towards the end of the -one year, Youssef died at the age of eighty, after spending about a full year in which he retired from his artistic career, he closed himself in, and he was hard at work separating from his son, the audience very connected.

90 years was a very appropriate age for a life full of everything, which was lived by the Egyptian artist Hassan Youssef, who died a few days ago. The “bad boy” was not going to live a few quiet years. Instead, fate chose for him a long life that corresponds to his tremendous energy on artistic and humanitarian levels, despite the fact that he was not the involved in acting for many years still being the focus of attention of the public and the art community alike.

Hassan Youssef quickly rose into the world of art, and was noted for his beauty and his comedic and romantic achievements. Among his most famous films were “The Sins,” “The Student,” “Shafiqa al-Qibtiya,” and “Mother of the Bride.” She has three loves,” “For Men Only,” and “Showgirl.”

According to film critic Tarek El-Shenawy, Hassan Youssef has been the closest member of his generation to the young audience since the mid-fifties, “because it was easy for young people at the time that of feeling close to Youssef, especially if they didn’t have the charm of Omar Sharif or the physical strength of Farid Shawqi or the handsomeness of Kamal. no effect.”

Hassan Youssef was not one of the stars who sought roles that would be left in history, but he presented different social themes that expressed his generation at different levels, therefore, his roles in the film ” In Our House is a Man” and the film “Khan Al-Khalili” is considered one of the aspects of the extraordinary transformation in the work, where general heroism represents the main part of Egyptian cinema at the that time, and his works of art reflected his spirit, his personality and his experience with the time.

While several schools of art spread around the time Hassan Youssef appeared and the time after, he was only busy courting the public. He succeeded in this matter with great efficiency that easily captured the attention of the observer. the very common hearers, just as it seemed to him, walking as they did, eating according to their desire, and dwelling in matters also, simple to the point of the deep, and deep to the point of honesty, in order to gain great fame in a time that saw legends of Egyptian cinema of the golden age such as Rushdi Abaza, Farid Shawqi, Omar Sharif, and Kamal El-Shenawy.

Two years ago, specifically in 2022, Youssef said in his last television interview that he misses his lifelong friends, and that he wants to meet them and talk to them about art, life, and situations. In the tone of the man who died at the age of eighty, there was great pain and loss.

Hassan Youssef’s knowledge was not limited to cinema alone, although the lion of his main roles and interests, however, he participated in immortal works in the Drama Library Egypt, especially the series “Layali Al-Helmeya” with the character “Tawfiq Al-Badri”, which achieved widespread public and critical success. In 2002, Youssef chose to include the biography of Sheikh Muhammad Metwally Al-Shaarawi in the series “Imam of Preachers”, because during that time he approached the world of Sufism and later moved on leave to work in art, but he was enthusiastic about Sheikh. Al-Shaarawi, while he represented a religious evaluation to him, even if some currents agreed with him There were several legal cases, so people’s intense love for Al-Shaarawi and his moderate opinion, according to the opinion of Hassan Youssef in this time and brought it back. to the artistic scene again strongly, adding to his cinematic credits and gathering more of the creative momentum that the man achieved through a busy career and a surprising end par excellence.