(1/14/01)
At the beginning of Borom Sarret a man makes a prayer, asking God to protect him from the law, or law-makers, or the police. It is interesting that the law is viewed not as something that protects, but as something to be feared. And this is certainly reinforced by the rest of the film--the police officer who confiscate the Borom Sarret's cart and lets his customer skip without paying does not administer justice. Back in his section of the town, he says he feels safer there because there are no police around.
There is a priest or singer of some sort who tells the borom sarret about the glories of his ancestors. That certainly doesn't do him any good. If anything, it makes him feel more acutely how far he and his people have fallen.
When this sarret, this cart-driver walks through the streets, thinking about losing his cart, it just doesn't feel that sad. His words are certainly dejected enough, but they don't hit me emotionally. I don't know if that was the way it was intended.
At the end of the film his wife assures him that they will eat that night and leaves. How is she going to provide for them? The thing that comes to my mind is prostitution, but I don't know for sure if that is the way the ending was meant to be understood.
Showing posts with label Ousmane Sembene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ousmane Sembene. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Black Girl (La Noire de...). 1966. Directed by Ousmane Sembene.
(1/14/01)
On a second viewing, a couple of things in this film became clearer. Diouana can understand directions in French, but she can only speak a few words, such as, "Oui, monsieur." Thus she has no effective means to express herself.
What is not clear is why the woman who employs her becomes so unpleasant. In Dakar she had given Diouana her old dresses, so why does she suddenly start snapping at her when they are all in France? The lack of communication doesn't explain it.
It is so poignant to see Diouana's excitement about getting the job when you know what it will lead to. She is so happy, running around telling everyone that she knows.
Diouana says internally that her mother didn't write the letter she received. So it seems that neither one of them can write. I noticed this time that the mother's letter is (at least partly) a request for Diouana to send her some money. She complains about how poor she is. That adds an extra bit of punch to the scene towards the end when she refuses to accept Diouana's wages.
The people who visit Diouana's employers for lunch discuss the situation in Africa. I don't have the background to really appreciate this conversation.
There is one moment that struck me this time around. Diouana gaily skips around on the top of a monument. The man she is with becomes angry and tells her to come down. I didn't grasp the significance of it, but I appreciated how alive and vital Diouana seemed.
On a second viewing, a couple of things in this film became clearer. Diouana can understand directions in French, but she can only speak a few words, such as, "Oui, monsieur." Thus she has no effective means to express herself.
What is not clear is why the woman who employs her becomes so unpleasant. In Dakar she had given Diouana her old dresses, so why does she suddenly start snapping at her when they are all in France? The lack of communication doesn't explain it.
It is so poignant to see Diouana's excitement about getting the job when you know what it will lead to. She is so happy, running around telling everyone that she knows.
Diouana says internally that her mother didn't write the letter she received. So it seems that neither one of them can write. I noticed this time that the mother's letter is (at least partly) a request for Diouana to send her some money. She complains about how poor she is. That adds an extra bit of punch to the scene towards the end when she refuses to accept Diouana's wages.
The people who visit Diouana's employers for lunch discuss the situation in Africa. I don't have the background to really appreciate this conversation.
There is one moment that struck me this time around. Diouana gaily skips around on the top of a monument. The man she is with becomes angry and tells her to come down. I didn't grasp the significance of it, but I appreciated how alive and vital Diouana seemed.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Black Girl (La Noire de...). 1966. Directed by Ousmane Sembene.
(12/31/00)
Diouana seems like a rebellious teenager in a dysfunctional family. She is hired in Dakar to care for the children of a white family. They take her back to the Riviera with them and expect her to just cook and clean. She feels she wasn't hired to cook. The wife yells at her more and more and she refuses to carry out her duties and eventually cuts her throat.
According to the program notes this symbolizes the lack of communication between the black and white cultures. It is obvious that the husband and wife are having relationship problems and the wife--possibly also the husband but primarily the wife--is taking it out on Diouana. Diouana makes no attempt at all to communicate her unhappiness except through her rebelliousness. It seems pretty stupid to me that she would cut her throat without at least making an attempt to talk it out.
We hear Diouana's thoughts through an interior monologue similar to the one in Borom Sarret. We hear how unhappy and disappointed and isolated she is. She had hopes of seeing the Riviera and having nice clothes. The reality turns out to be quite different. She says that her whole life is spent between the kitchen and another room.
Why doesn't Diouana have time to herself, to do with as she pleases? Her employers don't seem to be really evil. And they don't seem to understand what's with her--it totally puzzles them.
When Diouana arrives in France the husband driver her to their home. There is a section in color showing the Riviera. The rest of the film is in black and white. I think that the brief section in color is unnecessary and distracting. Most of the rest of the film (except forflashbacks) takes place in the apartment. We never seem to go outside again and there is a real claustrophobic atmosphere.
Diouana can't write. We are also told that she can't speak French. That puts her at a great disadvantage on the Riviera, but I also wonder if there was any language through which she was able to communicate with her employers. I assume they had one language in common as the wife was always giving her orders.
There is a memorable scene in which Diouana receives a letter from her mother. The husband reads it to her and then, as Diouana can't write, decides to write a reply on her behalf. This scene is memorable because Diouana has no opportunity to express herself. She certainly couldn't dictate a reply in which she told her mother how she really felt and what her circumstances were really like. Moreover, the husband decides to just write a letter on her behalf, putting words in her mouth, and this struck me as presumptuous and disrespectful. (I wonder why exactly Diana can't write if her mother could. But maybe the letter from her mother was dictated.)
When Diouana comes to her new employers she brings them an African mask as a gift. Later, when she feels betrayed she tries to take it back and there is a fight over it. After her suicide the husband takes her belongings back to her family and a little boy puts on the mask and follows him around. I am sure that there is a significance to all this that I am not aware of. At any rate, the business of the little boy following the husband around wearing the mask is moving and eerie.
The husband tries to give Diouana's mother her wages, but the mother just turns away from him. The husband, at least, wasn't a bad person. Diouana's death seems like a tragedy that was stupid and unnecessary. If only the employers could have been attentive enough to this black girl to have heeded the warning signs. They could have at least taken her back to Africa.
Diouana seems like a rebellious teenager in a dysfunctional family. She is hired in Dakar to care for the children of a white family. They take her back to the Riviera with them and expect her to just cook and clean. She feels she wasn't hired to cook. The wife yells at her more and more and she refuses to carry out her duties and eventually cuts her throat.
According to the program notes this symbolizes the lack of communication between the black and white cultures. It is obvious that the husband and wife are having relationship problems and the wife--possibly also the husband but primarily the wife--is taking it out on Diouana. Diouana makes no attempt at all to communicate her unhappiness except through her rebelliousness. It seems pretty stupid to me that she would cut her throat without at least making an attempt to talk it out.
We hear Diouana's thoughts through an interior monologue similar to the one in Borom Sarret. We hear how unhappy and disappointed and isolated she is. She had hopes of seeing the Riviera and having nice clothes. The reality turns out to be quite different. She says that her whole life is spent between the kitchen and another room.
Why doesn't Diouana have time to herself, to do with as she pleases? Her employers don't seem to be really evil. And they don't seem to understand what's with her--it totally puzzles them.
When Diouana arrives in France the husband driver her to their home. There is a section in color showing the Riviera. The rest of the film is in black and white. I think that the brief section in color is unnecessary and distracting. Most of the rest of the film (except forflashbacks) takes place in the apartment. We never seem to go outside again and there is a real claustrophobic atmosphere.
Diouana can't write. We are also told that she can't speak French. That puts her at a great disadvantage on the Riviera, but I also wonder if there was any language through which she was able to communicate with her employers. I assume they had one language in common as the wife was always giving her orders.
There is a memorable scene in which Diouana receives a letter from her mother. The husband reads it to her and then, as Diouana can't write, decides to write a reply on her behalf. This scene is memorable because Diouana has no opportunity to express herself. She certainly couldn't dictate a reply in which she told her mother how she really felt and what her circumstances were really like. Moreover, the husband decides to just write a letter on her behalf, putting words in her mouth, and this struck me as presumptuous and disrespectful. (I wonder why exactly Diana can't write if her mother could. But maybe the letter from her mother was dictated.)
When Diouana comes to her new employers she brings them an African mask as a gift. Later, when she feels betrayed she tries to take it back and there is a fight over it. After her suicide the husband takes her belongings back to her family and a little boy puts on the mask and follows him around. I am sure that there is a significance to all this that I am not aware of. At any rate, the business of the little boy following the husband around wearing the mask is moving and eerie.
The husband tries to give Diouana's mother her wages, but the mother just turns away from him. The husband, at least, wasn't a bad person. Diouana's death seems like a tragedy that was stupid and unnecessary. If only the employers could have been attentive enough to this black girl to have heeded the warning signs. They could have at least taken her back to Africa.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Borom Sarret. 1963. Directed by Ousmane Sembene.
(12/28/00)
I very much liked the photography of Borom Sarret.
The film has a political significance which was lost on me, really. It is the story of a cart-driver in Dakar who is persuaded to drive a client into a section of the city where cart-drivers (borom sarrets) are not allowed. He is arrested, the customer leaves without paying and his cart is confiscated. He has to return to his wife and children without the means to make a living.
The story is told through interior monologue. The driver comes across as an average person, not particularly likable.
The two sections of the city are contrasted through music. We hear African music when we are in the poor section and Western music when we are in the wealthy section. The soundtrack is quite inventive. When the driver is stopped by the authorities the sound ceases to be natural and becomes subjective, expressing his shock. There is also the motif of a squeaky wheel on the cart.
The driver is asked to take a pregnant woman to the maternity hospital. (He has difficulty driving because she insists on resting her head on his shoulder.) Soon afterwards he is hired to drive a man with a dead child to the cemetery. Birth and death are thus linked.
After he has been swindled and his cart confiscated the driver thinks back on these encounters, mentally blaming the customers involved for what happened to him. It was the fault of the man who had hired him to drive the child's body to the cemetery. It was the fault of the man who hired him to drive his wife to the maternity hospital. This is a very genuine human reaction.
For me, this film is a depiction of human meanness. I suppose the authorities in the wealthy district needed to keep some kind of order or protect the power structure. But did they really need to take his cart? I think that a stern warning would have been sufficient (as well as being deprived of his fare). Taking away his means of support really accomplished nothing except adding to the amount of misery in the world.
But I suspect that there was a lot to this picture which eluded me.
I very much liked the photography of Borom Sarret.
The film has a political significance which was lost on me, really. It is the story of a cart-driver in Dakar who is persuaded to drive a client into a section of the city where cart-drivers (borom sarrets) are not allowed. He is arrested, the customer leaves without paying and his cart is confiscated. He has to return to his wife and children without the means to make a living.
The story is told through interior monologue. The driver comes across as an average person, not particularly likable.
The two sections of the city are contrasted through music. We hear African music when we are in the poor section and Western music when we are in the wealthy section. The soundtrack is quite inventive. When the driver is stopped by the authorities the sound ceases to be natural and becomes subjective, expressing his shock. There is also the motif of a squeaky wheel on the cart.
The driver is asked to take a pregnant woman to the maternity hospital. (He has difficulty driving because she insists on resting her head on his shoulder.) Soon afterwards he is hired to drive a man with a dead child to the cemetery. Birth and death are thus linked.
After he has been swindled and his cart confiscated the driver thinks back on these encounters, mentally blaming the customers involved for what happened to him. It was the fault of the man who had hired him to drive the child's body to the cemetery. It was the fault of the man who hired him to drive his wife to the maternity hospital. This is a very genuine human reaction.
For me, this film is a depiction of human meanness. I suppose the authorities in the wealthy district needed to keep some kind of order or protect the power structure. But did they really need to take his cart? I think that a stern warning would have been sufficient (as well as being deprived of his fare). Taking away his means of support really accomplished nothing except adding to the amount of misery in the world.
But I suspect that there was a lot to this picture which eluded me.
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