- Michelle is so annoying.
- Michelle makes me glad that I am not straight.
Hey, welcome to "Black Film School"
where we talk about Hollywood classics
and then offer up lesser known films for the Canon.
(upbeat music)
Today, we'll be talking about Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless"
and Ousmane Sembene's "Black Girl."
So, if you have not seen "Black Girl" or "Breathless"
stop the video now,
go watch the films
and come back because we will be discussing spoilers.
So, can anyone explain what the French New Wave is?
(Sarah-Tai laughs)
- The way you asked that.
- Okay, I can ask it,
I can ask again, - No, no, no. It was good.
It was me, it's not you. It's me.
The French New Wave was a film art movement that emerged
in the late 50s and 60s
and the French New Wave filmmakers were really
exploring new ways of editing, and style,
and narrative in ways that were really experimental
and radical for the time.
- Why is the French New Wave taught in film school?
- While I was in film school,
the conversations that were being had
around French New Wave films were just
about the process of making movies.
It really kind of motivated us to go out and do it ourselves
and to employ different visual storytelling methods
to crafting a narrative.
- Oh, the style of filmmaking is very referential
because the films are a commentary on film itself.
And so film people love films that are also about films.
So, it makes total sense
that we would be learning about it in schools.
And a lot of the styles
have influenced independent filmmaking.
- Mandu filmmakers love films about films, man.
- So, "Breathless" is a quintessential French New Wave film
and it starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michel,
who is a car thief on the run
after murdering a police officer.
And he's also in the midst
of trying to convince his girlfriend who is American
who run away with him to Rome.
(both speaking in French)
- [Patricia] I can never be alone when I wanna be.
- And he just won't let her live
just constantly trying to get her attention,
and just a lot of whining,
- A lot of pawing at her.
- And it's really clear that she has a future
and he doesn't, and he wants to bring her down with him.
- There's a lot of nagging,
there's a lot of nagging in this film.
(motorcycle engine roaring)
(gunshot fires)
I think one of the reasons that "Breathless" has been
so enduring is because it's just like a,
it's a real testament to a particular kind of youth.
"Breathless" is one of those first where you realize
that film and cinema and artistry can be different
and it can be kind of democratized and it can be a platform
for a very distinct, radical politics.
- I feel like Sarah-Tai, had the most intelligent answer.
And so, - Yes.
- Guys, my brain is smart today
because the other videos, I'm joke-y jokes.
- So if you like radical existential films then
you'll probably love Ousmane Sembene's "Black Girl"
from 1966.
- "Black Girl" is a 1966 Senegalese film
by Ousmane Sembene.
And it is about a young African-Senegalese woman
named Diouana,
who travels to France after she's recruited to become
a domestic worker in a white family's home.
And after she gets there,
things take a very very dark turn.
(Actress speaking in French)
This movie really frustrated me.
And this scene in particular was kind of like,
the beginning of that,
because this woman thought
that she was going to do work taking care of this child.
And then she became,
and she's kinda like tricked into becoming a domestic,
like a cleaning lady.
So this is the beginning of that transitioning
into her becoming subservient or inferior in the minds
of these people who she's working for.
(Diouana speaking in French)
- Terrible, isn't it?
- Yeah, I'm sorry.
Just like thinking about how she was lured in.
Promised all these wonderful things,
these riches and this like pleasant experience.
And then also thinking about like the time,
like this is a comment on neocolonialism as well.
I think this was made just like shortly after Senegal
gained its independence.
So, you can actually feel that emotion
that commentary permeating from the screen.
- There is something that is so palpable
and lived and very effectively conveyed in this.
In terms of like the psychic violence of colonialism,
the flattening, the extinction of identity,
which is kind of the function of colonialism
and white supremacy.
And it's just a really palpable thing to watch
especially as a people who've experienced that, so.
- There is this idea of coming into a white space
and assimilating and I almost feel like "Black Girl"
is like an encapsulation of that entire process.
Like almost like metaphorical.
It's like you're promised all of these beautiful things
but because of your skin, because of your place in society,
you don't actually get access to those things.
The world outside isn't really available to you.
And it was never really made to be available to you.
(Actress speaks in French)
- Her silence almost feels like an active protest,
especially when the white woman here as the film continues
and she keeps asking,
"Why are you acting like this?
Why are you acting about this?"
It's almost as if Diouana is saying that,
"You're not worthy of the answer."
You know, "I refuse to give you the answer."
It's like her one thing that she can control is
whether she answers her questions or not.
- It's almost just like she doesn't speak
because she has given up
on the idea that they see her as human.
- That's also like very much
like white guilt working over time.
Like, "If you can't tell me what the problem is,
then I can't help you solve it."
(foreign song playing)
- Haunt him, haunt him, haunt him.
- That's maybe like my favorite sequence in the film
because it's just, nobody even has to say anything.
It's just like, "You white man, you killed her.
Your people killed her.
Your culture killed her."
And now we're just gonna follow you around.
And we're not even gonna give you the satisfaction
of getting mad at you or like having a dialogue.
It's just you bring death.
(Kevin laughs)
- I think this is a perfect example of why it's important
for filmmakers in these communities,
black filmmakers to tell their own stories.
Because I think in the hands of a filmmaker
who wasn't black,
this story would have probably ended in the bathtub
and we wouldn't have been able to feel her community
and really get this moment that we all really needed.
(upbeat music)
- I think that both Patricia and Diouana
are incredibly intelligent,
but are treated like they're not.
They're just constantly underestimated.
And they're always being told what to do.
And any kind of pushback is considered to be childish
when it's really the people around them
that are acting the most childish really in both films.
(upbeat music)
So does "Black Girl" belong in the Canon?
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
I'm a fan of political movies
especially once told from the point of view
of the characters or the community that's being portrayed.
So absolutely 100%.
- Yeah. I 100% agree.
I absolutely think it should be part of the Canon.
All of the things I said earlier about "Breathless"
apply here as well
but in such a more depth-y way.
My least favorite ever response to "Black Girl" is often
from white people who are saying like,
"Isn't it wild, they have these French New Wave elements
in the film?" like,
"Oh, well how much they were influenced."
And it's like, that's not what's happening here.
We're not seeing it an influence like,
"Oh, I wanna make movies like the colonizers."
Like, that's not at all.
I see it as resting away this idea of like,
artistic modernity
and this kind of privilege of experimentation.
And instead changing it
into this really self reflexive,
really deducted temporary form
that reconstructs myths and storytelling,
it's just from a collective African memory.
That's how it's supposed to be done.
That's radical politics that lives in people
and affects people and is born from a life.
Put it in the Canon.
It's already in my Canon.
Put it in your Canon.
- Thank you for watching "Black Film School."
Tune in next time.
We will be talking about more films to add to the Canon.