Black Girl [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Ousmane Sembene Ousmane Sembene

Overview

The first major work of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene, this 1966 film is widely recognized as one of the founding works of African cinema. Diouanne Therese N'Bissine Diop, a young Senegalese woman, is employed as a governess for a French family in the city of Dakar. She soon becomes disillusioned when the family travels to the Riviera, where her comfortable duties as a nanny in a wealthy household are replaced by the drudgery and indignities of a maid. In a series of escalating confrontations with her mistress (Anne-Marie Jelinek), Diouanne is painfully reminded of her racial identity. She is caught in the tension between the French upper-class and post-colonial West Africa and finds herself alienated from both worlds. Along with narration and dialogue in French, this film also shares the sparse tone and visual style of French cinema of its period. Nevertheless, the influence of Sembene's European counterparts does not diminish this subtle but striking examination of racial and cultural prejudice.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/24/2017
UPC:	0715515191913
Original Release:	1966
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	0:59:00
Sales rank:	14,533

Special Features

New 4k Digital Restoration, undertaken by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; 4k restoration of the short film Borom Sarret, Director Ousmane Sembène's acclaimed 1963 debut; New interview with scholars Manthia Diawara and Samba Gadjigo; Excerpt from a 1966 broadcast of JT de 20h, featuring Sembène discussing his win of the Prix Jean Vigo for Black Girl; New Interview with actor M'Bissine Thérèse Diop; Sembène The Making of African Cinema, a 1994 documentary about the filmmaker by Diawara and Ngügï wa Thiong'o; Alternate color sequence; Trailer; New English subtitle translation ; Plus: An essay by critic Ashley Clark

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mbissine Theresa Diop	Diouana
Momar Nar Sene	Diouana's Boyfriend
Anne-Marie Jelinck	Madam
Robert Fontaine	Master
Ibrahima	Boy with Mask
Therese N'Bissine Diop	Diouana
Anne-Marie Jelinek	Madame
Robert L. Fontaine	Monsieur

Technical Credits

Ousmane Sembene

Ousmane Sembene

Director,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Ousmane Sembène, a pioneer of African cinema, first gained international attention with this story of the legacy of colonialism, adapted from the true incident of an African maid's suicide in France. An illiterate in a strange country, Diouanna is at the mercy of her white French employers; while Diouanna's refusal to speak makes her even more inscrutable to her boss, Sembène lends insight into her hopeless situation through her interior monologues and flashbacks to Senegal. Despite technical limitations, Sembène's location shooting pointedly, and poignantly, contrasts the flow of life in Dakar with Diouanna's claustrophobic existence in the French apartment, literalizing her entrapment. Black Girl's worldwide acclaim rendered it the first major work of African cinema, and it established Sembène as the foremost filmmaker in sub-Saharan Africa.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola