Quest Status: 744 / 1000
TSPDT Rank #305
Heavily inspired by French New Wave films like Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and Pierrot le fou on the surface, there’s much more to this densely layered tour de force than initially meets the eye. Rebel without a cause Mory decides to shake off the dregs of Dakar and head north to Paris with his girlfriend Anta, first setting off on a carefree crime spree to raise the funds. But while the core story is straight out of Pierrot le fou, Mambety isn’t just a stylist looking to transplant French cinema into an African setting.
After all, Senegal had only recently gained their independence from France at the time this film was made. There’s a sarcastic edge to much of the self-consciously French New Wave flourishes, like the song on the radio incessantly crooning “Paris, Paris, Paris” and jokes at the expense of those who have sold themselves out to the new neo-colonial order. And when Mory finally has his chance to leave Senegal, Mambety uses allegorical montage to signal his change of heart, a stunning moment of free-flowing visual poetry that leads into an impressionistic dreamlike sequence to end the film. Mambety’s vision is vivid and defiant, integrating French influence into a framework that is proudly African, with logic defying montage and cinematography so vivid and striking that it threatens to explode right off the screen.
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NOTE
This review is part of my new Tumblr blog Cinema Cycles, which can be found here.
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