Brassens and Hugo wrote about her, Kechiche made a wonderful film

You might have heard about Saartjie Baartman, also called the Hottentote Venus. This woman was born around 1789 and died in 1815 - at only 26. She came from South Africa to London and then to France to become famous as a dancer and as an artist, but all she got was being shown in a cage in front of White people and mistreated by her employer, an Afrikaaner - a Dutch from South Africa - who had come to Europe to become rich.

Because of her extra-ordinary body - large hips and buttock and bulging genitals - she became a freak: treated like a inferior human being, she had to pretend to be a monkey and to let people touch her on stage, when she was actually perfectly normal.

Soon enough, she started drinking and ended up her life as a prostitute - she probably died of alcoholism and STDs. But before that, in 1815, the Museum of Natural History in Paris payed to measure her and to examine her because "she was part of bizarre race". What scientists concluded was that she had similarities with orang utans and mandrills.

After her death, George Cuvier, a zoologist and surgeon, bought her body in the name of science and dissected her, placing her brain and her genitals in bowls full of formol that were shown to scientists to validate the thesis that indigenous people would always be inferior to Whites.

Her body was then moulded, exposed in the Museum until 1974, and kept until 2002. Then, South Africa got it back and offered this Black Venus a descent burial.

Abdellatif Kechiche decided to make a film about her. About her misery, her conscience, her despair. About how people can be cruel, sordid, brainless. About history, horror, racism. About women. Even though some might say that there are a lot of redundancies - the scenes where she performs on stage, where she pretends to be an animal, where people touched her and fear her -, even if Kechiche makes the choice to deliver an objective, hard, disturbing drama, it is a powerful and magnificent film. Unbearable at time, but profoundly true and important, dark but sensitive. A biopic that will remain in the minds, and a great tribute to the woman who was once dragged in the mud and who is here erected to the rank of an icon.

MJ

when art transforms people

12 ANGRY LEBANESE

Originally, it was a play, written in the 1950S, about a jury arguing about the innocence of a boy in court. But it became much more than that when a woman decided to play it with prisoners in jail, in Beirut. Zeina Daccache launched the first theatre project in Lebanon and auditioned hundreds of men for the play. Some of them were there because of small offenses, but others were convicted with murder.

Zeina Daccache made them work for a year on the play, and never let them take advantage of her or her work. The documentary follows the progression of the play, how prisoners see the plot and how it changed them to be considered as human beings, even if they were behind the bars. They learnt to act, they learnt to dance, they learnt to make people laugh and to laugh about themselves. The director chose not to show the long process of selection, and simply focused on the play and final actors. The film includes interviews during which the men talk about their crimes, their family, the play, the fact of living with the knowing that they'll be in jail for the rest of their life. It shows their anger, against themselves and their actions, and against how the world looks at them because they're now prisoners. And let me say that it is dramatically powerful to listen to those men, who sometimes have been living in the streets since they were kids, talking about their feelings.

People from the outside came to see the play 8 times. The prisoners were able to spend some time with their family - one of them celebrated his son's wedding - and most of all, they were able to regain some dignity as they were looked at as artists and not as criminals anymore. See? How Art can change lives?

Completely different, but just as wonderful - even more to me, but I am no totally objective as I really like Pina Bausch's work. DANCING DREAMS is a documentary directed by Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoffmann, about Pina's adaptation of her 1978 play KONTAKTHOF with teenagers, in 2007. Some might know that she had already made an adaptation with people age 65 and above - or how she managed to transform and give a totally new breath to her play/dance.

Teenagers from Wuppertal, an industrial town in Germany's Ruhr area, auditioned for this show. The documentary follows their work with dancers/ rehearsal teachers Jo-Ann Endicott and Benedict Billiet - who were both in the original adaptation of KONTAKTHOF. Some interviews of the final cast are also included: the very thin blond girl explains how important it was for her to focus on this show and to make her dead father proud, the gipsy boy tells why he needed to be looked at thanks to it, two friends show how is reinforced their friendship but also developed their point of view on the woman's body. The show teaches them to look at each other, to touch other without being uncomfortable or shy, to give away their shyness. The entire crew works hard, and from time to time, Pina Bausch comes to the rehearsal to look at them, pick them and give them advice. The process shown is unique, human, touching and as it's Pina Bausch, extraordinarily beautiful, colorful, joyful and elegant. We follow teenagers as they grow thanks to this experience, and we notice how much they want to be perfect all together. And the result is a stunning performance, but also an incredible documentary. Especially after the recent but still oh so tragic death of one of the greatest choreographers of all times.

That's why it is also a tribute to Pina, this marvelous woman and artist who died too soon, all of a sudden. The fact that people keep on dancing her work, keep on showing what she made and how she transformed the Art of dancing, also keeps her alive forever. And this documentary is one more proof that Art can really transform people.

PS: to see - even if I haven't, but if you're in France, you CAN whereas I can't - : PINA by Wim Wenders. Trailer here: http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19196968&cfilm=189098.html

Cheers,

MJ.

The dude has no beard

Great album I discovered today.

I don't know much about this guy but his latest album released last month on Matador just makes me wanna know more...

The perfect soundtrack for the arrival of the Spring season in Seattle (finally!) - I know I don't have to get used to this though...

Check him out!

A.C.

spanish discovery

Porque "Todas las canciones hablan de mi".

Pelicula de Jonàs Trueba

Espana 2010

107 min

I am pretty sure that there is only one interrogation in your mind right now: what is it about? Instinctively, you're probably seduced by the thought that this film might be some other narcissistic film about love and separation, due to its self-centered title ? Well, this isn't far, but because it is not exactly what it is, this film - that I discovered thanks to A.R - is a wonder, a bizarre but oh so pleasant trip to life.

Ramiro (Oriol Vila), a poet in his late twenties, wanders in Madrid, thinking about his only love, Andrea (Barbara Lennie), who left him to enjoy life and experiment new things - the letter she writes to him to let go of their story, which happens to be a quote from a writer she likes, is simply entirely true, honest, and touching. Lazy, he doesn't try much to improve his poetry and works in a bookshop with his uncle. At night, he meets with friends in bars, goes dancing and flirts with a different girl each time to forget about his pain and ease his sadness.

However, memories of architecture student Andrea are everywhere. They even meet again to share a coffee, a laugh, a kiss, a night together, which makes the whole healing process impossible for Ramiro. Because even if the poet can enjoy sex with ex-schoolmates, strangers and beautiful women, the one he really loves is Andrea.

The pleasures found in this film are undefinable somehow. The retro aspect of it is touching, well used - and gives us a wonderful and lighted up view of the city of Madrid, which is shown for one of the first times as the extraordinary city that she is. Dialogues are funny and clever at the same time. The soundtrack is very interestingly used. And characters exist, over all, without a lie, without a temptation of trying to draw things with a perfect and dishonest line. They are self-centered and neurotic, but God, they're so representative of a generation : the twenty-something generation. And it feels good to be a witness of such a powerful mise en scene of these people !

Sometimes a reminder of some of Despleschin's work, but much more humble and lyric, EVERY SONG IS ABOUT ME announces one simple thing: that Trueba will have to be followed closely because of his human qualities, his sensitivity and his numerous qualities in filmmaking.

(he was nominated for Best New Director at the Goya Awards, and it's a shame he didn't win!)

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lctUkg9FXzw

MJ.

THEY ARE BACK!!!! (and so am I...)

Almost a week ago, the Fleet Foxes' new album "Helplessness Blues" leaked on the Internet, as you may know. Everybody has their own opinion on this band. You might like them or not, but to me the album is good and honest and is not just a copycat of the first one, released in 2008.

And trust me, I had very high expectations!

While watching the video of "Grown Ocean", which is a mix of documentary images and was made by talented Sean Pecknold (also Robin-singer-dude's brother), I couldn't help but smiling and feeling happy.

I am really looking forward to seeing them play on May 3rd!

To be continued...

A.C.