Black Girl

This Senegalese film is very important. It's a film made by black filmmakers and espouses a very strong black nationalist attitude. Because of this, it must have really struck a chord for African film patrons.

"Black Girl" is a film about a young woman from Senegal that has taken a job working for a white French family. She thinks she was hired to take care of the children but the woman of the house sees Diouana as a personal servant and soon this young lady finds herself working as a maid--and an under-appreciated on at that. Part of the problem is a communication barrier between the white family and Diouana as often neither quite understands the other's expectations. Part of it is the wife is rather cold and sees the Africans as being dumb and beneath her. Where does all this end up? Well, in a sad way it's a giant 'I'm not gonna take it any more' from Diouana--much like the attitude through the continent towards their colonial or former colonial masters.

While this is a very important film and it would be great to use in a class about African cinema or world history, technically speaking it has a few small shortcomings. It's not the smoothest or highest quality production--but considering its humble roots, I can easily look past that and it's still worth seeing if you are patient and can appreciate the context for when it was made (such as the Patrice Lumumba banner briefly seen in a tiny portion of the film).

Not exactly a cheery story and a pretty simple one as well, but the important thing is the perspective, which is that of a Senegalese maid (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) working for a white couple in France, as told by a Senegalese director (Ousmane Sembène). By using simple narration to reveal the maid's thoughts, he ensures that viewers will see her as a person, not as a dumb servant or as an object of pity, as differing extremes might. It seems so incredibly basic and obvious, but it's this recognition of humanity that's powerful, and unfortunately still such a relevant message today. Despite the obvious ways a story like this might go, Sembène is restrained in what he shows us, and a part of the film's strength is that there are moments when we can easily imagine worse with such a gap in power and wealth.

Over her new boyfriend's concerns, the young lady comes to France after having worked for the couple in Dakar. He's a little too grabby with his hands in one scene, but as he stands in front of a Patrice Lumumba 'Uhuru' poster in another, is correct in warning her that she may be treated like a slave in France. When she gets there she soon finds herself bored with being confined to mundane tasks in a small home, disappointed for having been deceived about what she would be doing there, lonely because of her isolation, and weary of being so openly spoken down to and angrily ordered around. In other words her reaction is what any intelligent person's reaction would be, but her employers don't see it that way. They think she's just lazy, and attribute her quietness with ignorance, casually likening her to an animal. When they entertain their friends, another way they take away her humanity is by speaking about her as if she's not there, and by critically sizing her up as some kind of exotic thing.

I loved the scenes in Senegal, and wished there had been more. I also liked the aspects of quiet dignity in poverty, and the brilliant ending scene. It is so pitch perfect that the initial response of white guilt is to turn to money, instead of empathizing or trying to understand. It might have been better fleshed out, but it's a very good movie as it is.

Black Girl (1966)

*** (out of 4)

Impessive feature from Ousmane Sembene about a black woman (Mbissine Therese Diop) from Senegal who goes to live in France as a servant but soon begins to feel the abuse of her "owner." Some people have called BLACK GIRL one of the greatest films ever made but I'm going to fall well short of that type of praise. With that said, there's no question that the film has a pretty strong message and gets its across without having to preach or wag fingers in the viewers face. Some people have complained about the look and style of the picture but I personally thought this was one of the highlights. I really liked how the thing almost came across as a documentary as we often just see the woman as she is working or being abused and then we hear her narration afterwards. I also liked how the flashbacks were used to give us more information about the woman and of course this leads us to the ending, which I'm not going to spoil for those who haven't seen the film. It's certainly a very effective one that will lead people to have their own views on what it actually means. I liked how the film isn't just about a black and white issues but there's also the issues of differences between people of different countries as well as a issue of money. Director Sembene does a very good job at telling the story and doing so in a rather original way. The performance from the lead actress is simply wonderful as is the supporting one from Anne-Marie Jelinek.

On the injustices one culture can do to another. The film is about an African woman who gets a job with a white family and agrees to follow them back to France, only to be disenheartened in the end. While, the production values were not great, the messages of this film are stronger than most major US motion pictures. The characters (especially the French) do seem to be a bit shallow, and don't have much depth to them. Yet, the theme of loneliness from displacement and cultural injustice ring powerfully loud in the end. An 8 out of 10.

Senegalese auteur Ousmane Sembene's feature debut, engraved in the film history as the first Sub-Saharan African feature film made by an African filmmaker. But the "very first"tag doesn't necessarily guarantee a masterpiece for its own sake, BLACK GIRL, recently restored to its original transfer with vintage graininess and monochrome sheen, running approximately 60 minutes, has been rammed down audience's throat more like an ardent manifesto than an artistic adventure.

Diouana (Diop) is a young Senegalese girl, has been working for a French couple as their child- minder in Dakar, when the couple is transferred to Antibes, they intend to continue hiring her, offers her a one-way ticket to Antibes living with them. Thrilled by the opportunity to come to France, Diouana arrives with high hopes, like any girl in her age, pining for a new life in a developed country, breathing the fresh air of the Western civilization and seeing a world beyond her imagination, only all turns out to be a dashed dream.

Upon arrival, Diouana surprisingly finds out that the couple's kids are not there, instead, she is requested to work as a maid, cooking, cleaning and all other trappings. As days go by, we are guided by Diouana's inner voice, she becomes increasingly disillusioned with misgivings, questions and reminiscences of her life in Dakar, eventually she realizes that she has been cheated and exploited, living like a prisoner in the apartment, France to her merely means her tiny bedroom and the kitchen, what is worse that she is illiterate, therefore she cannot even express her true feelings in letters to her mother in Dakar. What can she do enmeshed in such dire circumstances? Diouana plumps for the most radical way to lay bare her protest, ire and accusation against the stuck-up madame (Jelinek, a force of unapologetic monstrosity) and the aloof monsieur (a grotesquely- looking Fontaine), it is as searing as startling, she has other alternatives, but in Sembene's ideology, perhaps, this is the best tack to provoke a rude awakening.

Ultimately the film serves as Sembene's fervent anti-colonialism diatribe, a symbolic indigenous wooden mask relentlessly haunts the guilty party, where the poverty-stricken country holds its dignity in a defiant way, BLACK GIRL, also benefits from its unruffled frame compositions, marks the dawn of African cinema which finally finds its voice to speak volumes about the cinema- eschewing continent's own story, history and ethos, for that particular reason, Sembene's debut can promisingly function as a stepping stone and find its niche in a hallowed recess.