During the film Black Girl, I noticed significant features in the character of Diouana. She was almost the exact opposite of the stereotypical Mammy figure. She was unhappy while doing work for the family whereas the Mammy was always cheerful and even singing at times. Diouana was never caught singing or even being in a good mood unless she thought of people in Dakar. She was also given sexuality in the scene in which she changed to get ready to go to sleep. The Mammy had no sexuality at all; she was often large and had no positive attention drawn to her looks.
I also noticed the mise-en-scène while Diouana was in France. It seemed that everything was extremely white: the walls, bathroom, kitchen. Basically everything that she had to use or clean was white. She stood out against the background colors. One of the only things I noticed that was dark was her bed. It seemed this was put in to show where she belonged and wanted to be. She hated cooking in the kitchen and cleaning in the bathroom, but she could always get away when she was in her bedroom. I am sure there were more radical aspects of the film, but these were a couple that really stuck out to me.
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3 comments:
I feel like Sembene didn't have to fight against a lot of the stereotypical portrayls of black people. Donte and/or Portia can correct me if I'm wrong, but the Mammie (or is it Mammy?) was an American stereotype of African Americans. Sembene was portraying Africans. If people were seeing this in the U.S. then Sembene had to combat certain images, but I don't think he was consciously combatting some of the Old South characters. Instead he was truly representing African yearning for independence.
I'm sure a film could have been made on 1930's Vietnam in the same vein.
Although Brian is correct about the African context of the film and that "mammmie" is an American stereotype, I think Jordan has a valid point. Sembene was an emigre to France after WWII and he experienced first hand the racism of the "colonial fathers." In his literature (he was a writer until age 40, when he turned to film to touch the oral traditions of his culture) he discusses how Africans working in France were to work and not be heard. In a sense, the whole colonial experience was similiar; the occupier was a not so benevolent father, who expected the occupied to do what they were told and not think or talk about it. From my perspective, this is very similiar to the African experience in the New World and thus many of the stereotypes we "accept" in the United States were also "accepted" by the "colonial masters."
I think Diouana undergoes a Kafka like "metamorphosis." At first she thinks of the material and cosmopolitan adventure the colonial homeland will offer. Her boyfriend foreshadows the shallowness of this belief, but she is headstrong. As a headstrong person, Diouana discovers her boyfriend's wisdom and, out of character for the way an African should act in the "colonial homeland," she rebels. As such, she is challenging the stereotypes of the "colonial fathers" about how the occupied should act. Her mother does the same thing, when she refuses the money of the "occupier," who drove her daughter to despair.
James Kimball
I'm interested in your observation of space in the second paragraph. I didn't catch it then, but looking back on the film and the mise-en-scene I agree with you that it was an intentional move of the filmmaker to place Diouana in an environment in which she stands out to help our further understanding of the didactic situation. The feeling of a kind of looming uncomfortable, a growing destinction was being made by these formal elements. It was brilliant that Sembene chose to fill this white family's house with "African" artifacts and culture, but made sure to tell Diouana to wear her apron and "remember, she's a maid."
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