{"id":24773,"date":"2017-03-23T23:03:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T03:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=24773"},"modified":"2020-05-26T22:54:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T02:54:20","slug":"black-girl-la-noire-de-1966-the-criterion-collection-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/23\/black-girl-la-noire-de-1966-the-criterion-collection-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Girl (La Noire de\u2026) (1966): The Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Director Ousmane Semb\u00e9ne\u2019s drama is less an art house film and more of an observational drama that explores how one woman\u2019s idyllic views of French life traps her in to a life of indentured servitude. Actress M’Bissine Th\u00e9rese Diop is great as Diouana, a young woman stuck in an African village who finds that her options there are limited. She\u2019s not very capable of doing much but servant work and longs to see the world. When she gets a job with a wealthy couple, she\u2019s taken to the French Riviera for the season and asked to live with them to work as their live in nanny. Diouana comes to France expecting luxury, shopping, amazing adventures, and exploration of the beaches.<\/p>\n

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Sadly, when she begins working she realizes that\u2019s been somewhat trapped and is right back where she started as a woman who is being forced in to servitude by the couple that\u2019s hired her. Rather than roam France, Diouana is stuck in between four walls of a small condo where she cooks and cleans for her demanding Madame and becomes something of a novelty. She\u2019s tasked with doing nothing but feeding them and attending to their every needs, being pushed out in to her own corner and never really being able to experience what\u2019s outside the windows. Diouana finds that misery is even more apparent among the wealthy as her Madame becomes cruel the more Diouana is withdrawn.<\/p>\n

Diouana is more a slave within this upper crest abode than she is at home. At least at home she\u2019s granted self respect, despite the limitations. One scene finds her new hires force her to make them an African dinner, which they consume while fawning at her, to which she\u2019s then approached by a dinner guest who gropes and kisses her. When she responds angrily, she\u2019s dismissed by her Madame, rather than embraced as someone whose has had every bit of dignity stripped away before gawking dinner guests. \u201cBlack Girl\u201d is a bold statement about slavery, the dead end of poverty, and the idealism of wealth that can attract those bereft of opportunity, and often snare them in a life of tedium and thankless work.<\/p>\n

Featured within the packed edition from Criterion from \u201cBlack Girl\u201d is \u201cOn Ousmane Semb\u00e9ne,\u201d a nineteen minute interview from 2016 with samba Gadjigo, who discusses Director Ousmane Semb\u00e9ne, and his relationship with challenging dominant conversation. As well there\u2019s a look at the director\u2019s film work placed against the context of the social political climate of Africa throughout his career. \u201cM’Bissine Th\u00e9rese Diop on ‘Black Girl’\u201d is a twelve minute interview from 2016 with actress M’Bissine Th\u00e9rese Diop who talks about working on the film, trying to find work and how it affected a job she wanted. \u201cOn Black Girl\u201d is a twenty one minute interview with Manthia Diawara, filmmaker and culturist who talks about cultural significance of \u201cBlack Out,\u201d and the way Semb\u00e9ne believed in equal opportunity for men and women of every race.<\/p>\n

\u201cColor Sequence\u201d is a minute long look at the alternate opening for \u201cBlack Girl\u201d which featured a lot of color, but instead was replaced with a new black and white prologue to fit with the rest of the film. It\u2019s a wonderful depiction of Diouana\u2019s view of what the French Riviera held for her, but the final opening is still very good. \u201cPrix Jean Vigo\u201d is a two minute archival television interview with director Ousmane Semb\u00e9ne, who was interviewed shortly after \u201cBlack Girl\u201d was released. ‘Borom Sarret’ (1963) is a short film and debut from Semb\u00e9ne who won the first prize at 1963\u2019s, Tours Film Festival. \u201cOn Borom Sarret\u201d is a twelve minute talk with filmmaker and cultural theorist Manthia Diawara who offers insight and ideas about the importance of \u201cBlack Girl.\u201d Finally, along with the original trailer, there\u2019s \u201cSemb\u00e9ne The Making of African Cinema\u201d an exhaustive one hour documentary by Manthia Diawara whose quite stellar work discusses how African Cinema derived from the context of French filmmakers, and how Semb\u00e9ne was one of the first African filmmakers to emerge from the industry.<\/p>\n