esrosedotblog

AFRICA

Director Claire Denis has done several films on Africa, where she grew up in a colonial outpost. Her very first work is CHOCOLAT (1988) ; today's film and the most intimate to Denis' experience. It is autobiographical and tells the story of a French outpost in the African bush during the last day's of colonial rule in Camaroon.

It is very quiet and well paced; creatively discontinous. It follows a time line episodically. We are left to fill in the middle parts. It evokes the life very convincingly. The relationships of the black natives and the white family are laid out very carefully. The house servants' intimacy with the French mom and pop and daughter (Denis) are lovingly rendered and all of it is seen through the child's eyes and the adult's memory. It is a flashback.

All is peaceful and pastoral until a plane is forced to land nearby and the passengers must stay with the family. The fragile balance of everyday living is thrown off by their presence and subtle elements of racism, sexuality, and family relationships grow into major conflicts. Roger Ebert can, once again, be depended upon to unravel all the little threads for us.

This, along with Denis' BEAU TRAVAIL is a NY Times 1176 Best Film. In many ways the two are similar. Quiet, carefully controlled colonial relationships are upset by one event showing the situation's fragility and the inevitability of collapse.

Don't get this film confused with AU CHOCOLAT. There is no Johnny Depp in this one. But get it.

I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.