FRANCOPHONE CINEMA, a PRIMER Francophone Cinema Is a Promising and Cannes
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FRANCOPHONE CINEMA, A PRIMER Francophone cinema is a promising and Cannes. Belgium has a long, successful a massacre of expatriated Senegalese relatively new language and culture resource history in cinema in spite of being divided troops returning from battle in World War II, for French teachers. Francophone cinema into two linguistic and cultural camps, the is one of the most potent colonial confron- does indeed seem to have a lot to offer: The Dutch-speaking north and the Francophone tation films. Ousmane Sembene continues films present new voices, issues, and per- Wallonie, which dilutes production. Switzer- to make films and is one of the few African spectives from the Francophone world, and land too is divided along linguistic and cul- directors with several titles to his credit. at the same time, provide new materials for tural lines but, like Belgium, has managed Unfortunately, few of his films are available teaching and learning. I was first attracted to carve out a cinematic presence. There on videocassette. A totally different film is to Francophone films as a way to show my are several Francophone titles, but only a Ngangura Mweze’s La Vie est belle. This students the importance of French as an few are well-known or have been widely dis- film is about Kourou who comes in from the international language and to help them ex- tributed on videocassette. An exception is Zairian countryside to Kinshasa to find suc- perience life in a Francophone country as the work of Alain Tanner, a filmmaker of the cess. Kourou is played by Papa Wemba, in directly as possible. I began by making lists auteur tradition who has some 18 feature real life a legendary singer/musician known and watching as many Francophone films films to his credit. One of these is Messidor throughout sub-Saharan Africa as well as as I could and soon discovered the number in which two girls, a 17 year-old shop clerk in Europe. (Papa Wemba makes a cameo of films could be overwhelming. I concluded, and a bored university student, hitchhike appearance in Ngangura’s most recent film, however, that they offered an effective way through Switzerland and resort first to petty Pièces d’Identité that won the 1999 to explore la Francophonie, and that when then serious crimes. Messidor has all the FESPACO best-film award.) Ngangura’s La grouped together, they constituted an area requisite nature panoramas and reflects the Vie est belle is a good example of Diawara’s of research comparable to Francophone lit- placid, orderly tenor of life in Switzerland that social realism while Burkina Faso’s Dani erature. the girls do all they can to disrupt. Kouyaté sought to retell a major African What is Francophone cinema? Es- African Francophone films come typi- epic, the thirteenth-century Sundjata Epic, sentially, a Francophone film is a French- cally from former French colonies. Countries in his Keïta, L’Héritage du Griot. language film that takes place in a country of the Maghreb, that is, Tunisia, Algeria, and Francophone films from the Antilles or region other than France. The writer, di- Morocco, have produced a number of no- are similar in many respects to their African rector, and actors are usually “local,” and table films but most are in Arabic. There counterparts. Euzhan Palcy’s Rue cases- the film’s narrative reflects the community are a few Francophone titles, however: the nègres recounts with style and grace the in some way. Ousmane Sembene’s Camp classic La Bataille d’Alger represents a coming-of-age experiences of José during de Thiaroye and Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle whole group of films on revolution and colo- the early 1930’s in colonial Martinique. This Antoine are classic examples of nial liberation and still seems valid even af- uncontested Antillean classic has become Francophone films from Senegal and Que- ter 35 years. Many of the Francophone titles a favorite among French teachers because bec, as are Alain Tanner’s Swiss Messidor by Maghreb directors are like Merzak of the engaging characters and because of and Jean-Marie Teno’s documentary-style Allouache’s Salut Cousin! about Algerian the wealth of materials available to help in- Afrique, je te plumerai about the socio-eco- immigrant experiences in France. Or like corporate the film into instruction. Euzhan nomic problems in Cameroon. In reality, Férid Boughedir’s Un été à La Gouette, a Palcy is not the only Antillean film director though, few films meet all the criteria of a multicultural story in French, Italian, and Ara- to achieve success. Christian Lara of Francophone film. Jaco van Dormael of bic that takes place in Tunisia. Guadaloupe is the most prolific of the Belgium wrote and directed Le Huitième jour A host of Francophone film titles are Antillean directors with some 10 films to his starring the French actor Daniel Auteuil, and available by directors from Senegal, Ivory credit. His films include, among others, the Zairian film La Vie est belle was co-di- Coast, Cameroon, Congo, and Burkina Adieu foulard, Vivre libre ou mourir, and, rected by Ngangura Mweze, an African, and Faso, among others. Filmmaking in sub- more recently, Sucre amer. Aside from Rue Benoît Lamy, a European. The latter films Saharan Africa had its beginnings in the cases-nègres, however, Francophone films would still qualify as Francophone because 1960’s just after independence. Most films from the Antilles are difficult to find. they meet the basic criteria of geography, from the early years had social or political Francophone films from North America, cultural setting, and especially voice, agendas because the film medium was of- that is, Quebec, pose a whole new set of which help distinguish the exotic and the au- ten used as an instrument of social and po- questions. Québécois films are similar in thentic. Classifying a film can be a frustrat- litical progress. Manthia Diawara groups many respects to their African and Antillean ing and sometimes fruitless experience be- films into three broad thematic categories: counterparts even though the cultural and cause film is a very international medium, (1) (neo)colonial confrontation, (2) so- linguistic contexts are very different. For but grouping films under the banner of Fran- cial realism, and (3) cultural identity. starters, the market for Québécois films is cophone cinema helps us organize a body These categories are useful in that they help relatively small and the resources to make of work and expands our role as learners determine whether a film is primarily about a film are limited. At the same time, and teachers. exploitation, alienation, conflicts with the Québécois filmmakers have to compete with It was no surprise that a Francophone West, or the search for heroes and myths the overwhelming number of imported films, film from Belgium, Rosetta, won the most in the pre-colonial past. particularly those from the United States. recent top-film award at the Cannes Film Ousmane Sembene is without ques- Still, Québécois cinema has a long, com- Festival. Belgium has had its share of tion the dean of African cinema. He was a plex history, and many of the films are world- award-winning films; Le Maître de musique pioneer with Borom Sarret about a cart- class. was nominated for an Academy Award in driver on the outskirts of Dakar and Mandabi The classic of early Québécois films is 1989, Ma vie en rose won the Golden in which an illiterate Dieng gets duped out Mon oncle Antoine, a coming-of-age, rites- Globe’s Best Foreign Language Film, and of his money order. Mandabi is considered of-passage film that takes place just before Le Huitième jour’s Daniel Auteuil and Pas- sub-Saharan Africa’s first full-length feature Christmas in a small asbestos mining town cal Duquenne shared best actor award at film. Sembene’s Camp de Thiaroye, about in Quebec during the late 1940’s. This film provides a lot of material to learn about ror of society. Peter Cowie’s annual Variety Press, 1994. Quebec and Québécois issues, for example, International Film Guide lists new films by Variety International Film Guide 1999. Pe- cultural roots, conflict with Anglophones, country and provides up-dates on cinema ter Cowie, ed. Los Angeles, CA: Silman- family problems, and decadence. And there worldwide. James Press, 1999. are ample materials to help adapt Mon oncle There are also numerous resources, Viswanathan, Jacqueline. “Approche Antoine for instruction. Another Québécois both books and articles, for using (Franco- pédagogique d’un classique du cinéma classic is Gilles Carle’s La Vie heureuse de phone) films in the classroom. Garrity in- québécois: Mon oncle Antoine.” French Léopold Z. This film recounts the adven- cludes Mon oncle Antoine and La Vie de Review, Vol. 63 No. 5 (April 1990): 849- tures of Léopold Tremblay during Christmas Léopold Z. in his Film in the French Class- 858. Eve. Léopold, a snowplow driver, makes room. Sugarman and Ward prepared a 54- Zéphir, Flore. “Caribbean Films in the several side-trips during his working day, first page study guide for Palcy’s Rue cases- French Curriculum: Strengthening Lin- to borrow money for a fur coat, to meet his nègres, and more recently, Flore Zéphir guistic and Multicultural Compe- wife’s friend Josette at the train station, and outlined a plan for using film documenta- tency.” French Review, Vol. 72 No. 3 to haul a sofa for his boss Théophile. This ries on Haiti for teaching language and cul- (February 1999): 515-528. is a relatively short film, some 68 minutes, ture. It’s important to remember that films Internet: that captures Montreal in the mid-60’s.