The Criterion Channel Presents: Black Girl (1966)

So some of you may have heard of this thing called The Criterion Collection -it’s pretty awesome. You may also have heard that last month they launched a streaming service called The Criterion Channel. I am a subscriber to this channel and though it definitely still has some bugs to be worked out and improvements to be made, I’m quite liking it so far. It’s got a good stock of movies, as well as original content including interviews, shorts, discussions, and documentaries. Of course, little of the content on the Criterion Channel is much a part of the modern film discourse, which is a shame. Part of the fun of being a movie fan is discovering great older movies for the first time or being exposed to the tremendous work of artists from other backgrounds -learning more about the breadth of cinema in the process. And Criterion is all about classic, foreign, arthouse, and independent cinema. I love the experience of stumbling upon a great director for the first time, like when I encountered Kurosawa through Rashomon or was introduced to Satyajit Ray with Pathar Panchali. Or becoming swept up in a style I’d never thought I’d like such as the neorealism of Bicycle Thieves or the graceful surrealism of Last Year at Marienbad.

I wish there was more prominent discussion about these kind of movies in the online film world, often so preoccupied with the latest mainstream successes or failures (not to diminish great Hollywood movies by any means); and that more movie fans were aware of them. The kind of films on the Criterion Channel are the ones that either influenced some of the greatest movies of today or are pushing the form in interesting new directions. So I’ve decided to do my part to promote them. Yes, this is free advertising for Criterion (and of course I would accept a job or sponsorship if it were offered) but more so it’s a means to highlight films that I feel deserve recognition

In this series I will promote one film per month that’s available on the Criterion Channel that I’ve never seen before but believe warrants attention. And given that the collection is great, but far from perfect, I’ll also include a recommendation for a movie I believe deserves to be in the collection with a brief explanation as to why.

First up is Black Girl, written and directed by Ousmane Sembѐne and released in 1966, it’s a Senegalese film that’s sometimes credited with putting Sub-Saharan African cinema on the map. A short movie at just under an hour, it’s the story of a poor woman in Dakar, Diouana (Mbissine Thérѐse Diop), who’s plucked from a group of other unemployed women by a wealthy French madame to be a nanny for her children back in Antibes. Incredibly excited to not only have a job, but to go to France, which she envisions as a cosmopolitan paradise, Diouana is ultimately let down by the reality of her situation once there, where she’s made to be more of a housekeeper to a family that disrespects her. 

The film is told somewhat out of sync, cutting back and forth from her excitement and prospects in Senegal to her frustrating and disillusioned life in France. Diop gives an excellent performance, barely speaking at all in the present tense, with most of her dialogue conveyed through her thoughts in voiceover. Obviously the movie deals with themes of racism and colonialism through the perception of the Senegalese people that life in France is comparatively wonderful,

and specifically how Diouana is exoticised. There’s one slimy scene where one of the family’s older dinner guests kisses Diouana on the cheeks simply because he’s “never kissed a black girl before”. And then there’s the cultural mask that Diouana initially gives her mistress as a gift of thanks, but comes to symbolize the lingering effect of imperialism; to Diouana it’s traditional, to the family it’s home decor -and it’s not something they earned. The movie isn’t saying anything particularly unique (at least not by todays’ standards), but it is striking. I had to be reminded multiple times it was set in 1960’s, when it was made, and not some more foreign era. Because Diouana’s role in the household and the way she’s treated screams of slavery and with that in mind, it’s not surprising the way the movie ends. Black Girl is a sharp and insightful vision of the relationships between the colonised and the colonisers of French Africa as told by someone in the former camp, and it’s no wonder it resonated internationally the way it did.

Criterion Recommendation: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

I’ve talked about this movie before and I frankly can’t believe it’s not in the collection already. Criterion in general has a big blind spot when it comes to animation, Fantastic Planet and Watership Down being the only ones in there I can think of (and if they have the latter they could certainly include The Secret of NIMH). But this movie deserves a spot above all else as the oldest surviving feature-length animated film, and a touchstone of womens’ cinema as far as I’m concerned, having been made by the great Lotte Reiniger. It’s also incredibly stylized and expressionistic, animated through elaborate silhouettes that are really spellbinding and unlike anything else the medium has known. Indeed this film, and Reiniger’s vast collection of shorts are unique in cinema, fitting better than most the mould of technical innovation and aesthetic artistry that Criterion is meant to celebrate.

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