QUEUED UP: Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl

Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene' s Black Girl proves that movies about maids don't have to be so pristine.

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QUEUED UP: Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl

POSTED: Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 3:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies

Movie critic (and the guy who compiles our weekly repertory film listings) Michael Gold reviews his favorite Netflix Instant flick of the week.

Cinephiles hate to love the Academy Awards, mostly because the night celebrates supposedly progressive movies that are anything but. This year offers the consummate example. Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis are all but poised to be the sixth and seventh black actresses to take home golden statuettes. True, Spencer steals every one of her scenes in The Help, and Davis has a screen presence that deserved an Oscar years ago. But the two women will be grabbing awards for playing maids who help a white woman mature and learn something in the process. That might sound familiar, since seven decades ago, Hattie McDaniel earned her Oscar for doing exactly the same thing. Pat yourself on the back, Academy, for being so forward-thinking.

For the record, movies about black maids don’t have to be so pristine. Take Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl (1966, Senegal/France, 65 min.). The movie follows Senegalese maid Diouanna, who moves from Dakar to the French Riviera hoping for a glamorous European life. Instead, she suffers the abuses of her rich French employers and becomes essentially trapped in their apartment. Sembene, often labeled the father of African cinema, uses black-and-white film to highlight Europe’s stark racial divide and to portray the oppressed Diouanna’s growing alienation. Voiced inner monologues call attention to Diouanna’s dismay at being exploited by her cruel employers. By tackling racism and colonialism head on, Black Girl treads where The Help dares not go. It’s probably why Sembene never nabbed an Oscar.

(michael.gold@citypaper.net) (@migold)

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