Black Girl (1966)

 
Welcome back for another round in the Criterion Collection Backlog Challenge (we're still shopping names around.)

This marks a small, but special road marker for me on this project – this marks the first movie on this list that I had not seen before. With that said, Black Girl made a very strong first impression on me.

First off, just reading up on the backstory of this movie is worth it. I don't mean in the sense you get often now of a larger in-film lore, rather the life of the movie's director, Ousmane Sembène, and the role this film has in the larger history of African cinema. In the case of the former, Sembène had already lived a pretty storied life even before he took up film, making a prominent mark as a writer and activist before deciding on film as the best medium to reach people. This movie, meanwhile came in part as a result of changes following Senegal's independence from France (stick a pin in this, we'll be coming back to it.) The Senegalese, largely blocked from making film by law before that point, were finally given an opportunity to make their mark on film history.

Black Girl is largely considered to be, perhaps not the first in general, but certainly the first movie of this movement to really make an international impression. A well earned distinction, given how hard Sembène had to fight to get it made in the first place (I'd highly recommend reading the essay for the film on the Criterion website for this, rather than have me unload all of that here.)

Like the films that led this project last month, this movie is by no means diminished by the history around it. Quite the opposite, for clocking in at only a little shy of an hour, Black Girl leaves one Hell of an impact, one that's even stronger when you know the larger context it was made in.

This is the first, and certainly won't be the last film
on this project where it's gonna be tricky for me to get
cheeky with the captions.

So in the meantime, the link to the above-mentioned essay:
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4402-black-girl-self-possessed

Part of why this film proved such an uphill battle (I promised myself I wouldn't just rehash, but I'm going somewhere with this) is because Sembène did NOT want to make a happy film out of his country's independence. He was certainly glad to not be under French rule, but he also recognized that they were still not completely free of France's influence.

In that regard, the movie is a perfect microcosm of that sentiment – the titular girl, Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop, giving this movie's emotional core a lot of its resonance) agrees to a job with a white family in France. Initially excited by the offer, she soon realizes the situation is far from what was promised, finding herself effectively a prisoner in the apartment she works in, treated in equal parts with disdain, disinterest, and fascination as an oddity. The last is captured in especially uncomfortable nature in a dinner party where Diouana serves the guests, while treated to all manner of commentary about her from them along the way.

As you can likely tell, this falls under
'fascination' in a genuinely unsettling way.

Throughout the film, we're treated to flashbacks of Diouana's life back in Dakar, first from the day she got the job offer and expanding beyond that from there. The contrast, not surprisingly, is stark - the open, welcome life she has at home compared to the close confines (in every sense) of her life in France. The only shared symbol between the two worlds for Diouana is a mask she buys from a local boy to give to her new employer, where that piece of her culture is rendered purely decoration with no meaning behind it.

I know I did this last week, but once again, if anyone wants to avoid spoilers, I'm gonna ask you to skip ahead to the end (to make this easier, do a CTRL-F to 'SPOILER END'), cause this is another film where I want to discuss the ending in terms of impact.

Okay?

Moving on.

There's a lot to recommend in this film, and a lot of things that will stick with you. One of the biggest examples of this is the film's final scenes. Diouana, having come to terms with the fact she was lied to repeatedly by her employers as they tried to control aspects of her life tries to fight back, ultimately in vain. Realizing she is in a no-win situation with them, she concludes the only way out is to commit suicide.

The act isn't played for high drama. In fact, the reveal is fairly stoic, paired with a news clipping that doesn't even mention her by name. The heavy hit, instead, comes in the aftermath of the suicide, when the man who hired her (Robert Fontaine) returns to Dakar to give Diouana's family her possessions and try to offer the money she was promised to her family. They decline, and as he leaves, he finds himself followed by a young boy, wearing the mask and watching him every step of the way to the boat.

The end result is considerably more resonant than a full
hour of "Screw you!"s could have been.
Albeit that would still be pretty damn cathartic.

It's a powerful message in the larger post-colonial context of the movie. Of the two employers, the man is presented as the 'lesser evil' (one would be hard pressed to call him good, but compared to the crueler demeanor of his wife, he is far more passive and indifferent toward Diouana). Despite his not being overtly antagonistic, he nevertheless stands by and watches everything happen, doing nothing to stop it. When he attempts to make it 'right' by offering money, he is justifiably rebuked. Simply watching oppression might be argued as being better than actively oppressing, but it still can't be taken as good, and one can't pretend their hands are clean for the act either.

SPOILER END.

If I had to describe Black Girl in a single word, it's probably 'angry.' Not in the sense of full-throated rage or hyperbole. Rather, the anger in the film is quiet and intense. It doesn't scream its message at you, but Sembène still makes what he's saying incredibly clear in a controlled, effective manner. He doesn't wish for the days of French rule back, but doesn't think they've magically vanished into thin air either.

As a first impression, both as a movie, and as a director, this landed for me. So much so that, earlier this week, a Criterion flash sale led me to put in an order for Sembène's later Mandabi. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the man's work and, even independent of this project, reading up on his life and career in general.

That makes for a strong note to end our second month on. Next time we're shifting gears again for March with Women's History Month. As you can imagine, that will mean exploring some films directed by women, starting off with a name that's been a cinematic blind spot for me for a while. A blind spot I look forward to correcting.

Till then.

Do The Right Thing (1989) – The More Things Change...

Well, the first theme month has officially come and gone.

To that end, as we established last time, we're now moving into a look at black filmmakers in the Criterion Collection for Black History Month.

Before we get into this first entry, a small disclaimer – this was gonna be a lean month. I knew that going in one part because of our own selection, and also because, independent of what's on hand, Criterion has had something of a blind spot where POC filmmakers have been concerned. This has been brought up before, and last year they did respond saying more of an effort will be made to focus on this in the future, so we'll see what comes of it.

Just wanted to get that disclaimer out there up front was all, because this was enough of a discussion to get them to sound off was all.

So, with that said, let's start this theme with Spike Lee's classic Do the Right Thing.

In terms of what struck me about this, two things come to mind, both of which can be summed up as being about how well this movie has aged. This is, as some of you may be guessing, both a good thing and a bad thing.

First, the good – this was and still is, an incredibly well made film on several levels. Lee does a great job of setting up all of his players and their disparate plot lines throughout the day and slowly drawing them all together for the film's explosive finale. Further, Lee's script, as well as his cast, present a cross section of people with an impressive level of nuance. No one is presented as a complete saint or a two-dimensional villain, and as the heat rises on the day, no one manages to stay completely above the rising tension.

That nuance being a key part of what makes the tension in the movie work. Race is certainly not a new topic in film and not unique to this one movie, but this is a movie that gets a good handle on how to present it, with everyone presented as having both their humanizing moments as well as their biases and bigotries, presented in a fashion that doesn't feel forced.

Samuel L Jackson's Mr. Senor Love Daddy is probably the
closest to being above the growing tension and chaos,
and even that is largely a result of his job keeping him
separated from everything unfolding on the streets -
a voice trying to keep the peace to increasingly diminished effect.

I realize I'm painting in broad strokes. Admittedly, that's because every time I start to focus on a particular player or storyline, I feel like it will have to lead into going into at least four or five others as well. The movie's cohesive nature is both a blessing and a curse in that regard here, and has me honestly wanting to come back to this independent of this project and try to give it a more in depth going over.

...suffice it to say, I am wholeheartedly recommending this.

So what is the bad side of this?

As I said, this movie has aged incredibly well. Unfortunately, this isn't just a reflection on how the craft of the movie still holds up well over thirty years later. The other side of this is, thematically, much of this movie feels uncomfortably all too familiar.

Okay, I WILL concede the relaxed attitude of the police
early on feels a bit dated now. That said, not exactly scoring
a point for things in the 2020s by acknowledging that.

I'm gonna say now, if you haven't seen this, this is probably the best time to step out (or go to the bottom of the page for the next installment teaser image) cause to really go into this, I will need to drop a spoiler.

Okay? All clear?

Good. Moving on.

On this rewatch, there was already that sense of familiarity in how some of the racial tensions were still there. That wasn't too shocking on its own. The part that really hit home with this regard was in the movie's finale, most notably the death of Bill Nunn's character, Radio Raheem, put into a lethal choke hold by the police.

Raheem's death in the film isn't meant to be read as simply a fictional hypothetical by Lee. In fact, even within the confines of the film, parallels to what happens to Raheem are drawn by other characters using real life examples of other black people killed as a result of police brutality.

This was before Rodney King. Before Tamir Rice. Before Eric Garner. Before George Floyd. Before Breonna Taylor. Those are just off the top of my head. Again, if I tried to comprehensively list every incident since this movie's release, we'd be here a while. The fact that that is only scratching the surface says a lot right there.

Further adding to the 'then and now' factor on this -
Watching and remembering discussing this in film school,
wherein the professor pointed out how some audiences at the time
completely missed the point of this ending and questioned the property
damage.
...Yeah, watching this in 2021 is a LOT.

It's a grim feeling, and one that honestly calls to mind the ending of Lee's later film BlackKklansman – as much as it may be comforting in other films to act as though this sort of thing is in the past and over with, it hasn't gone away. If anything, it's gotten worse with time, to the point where reminding one's self this movie was made in '89 does little to dispel how contemporary much of what one sees in this feels.

...Okay. Those of you who walked out for spoilers, it's okay to come back in. Once again, standing by the recommendation on this one.

Hopefully if you've not seen this one, that will change soon.

In the meantime, back next week with the next entry for this month's theme.

Till then.