I love that The Captain's mom always runs over to tell me when she sees any Africans (or Slovene speaking Americans) on television. This is exactly what my own mother does any time I go home for visit (and what she did all throughout my childhood), "CAMILLE, COME LOOK!"
Anyway, as a result of such beckoning I ended up watching Die Weisse Masai (The White Masai) last night. This movie was a hot racist mess of the highest order, but darn if I didn't keep watching. It was totally guilty entertainment with pretty good cinematography.
Hey, they made a sequel to Mandingo? No.
This movie is supposedly one Swiss woman's "true story" of going to live with this (mostly mute and mildly insane) Masai(actually he was Samburu not Masai) man in his village with no running water or electricity. As far as I can tell, this woman was never in love at all, she just seemed to be fascinated with the "exoticness" and mostly just plumb out of her mind. And of course, as is the case with films like this the African people get a bad rap as being corrupt, backwards, irrational, and stubborn....but (on the bright side?)they are surprisingly phenomenal lovers (oh dear, good grief).
While there were a few moments early on in the movie where the woman's experience resonated with my own, I hope people don't think I'm anything like her. I am not here for some exotic party or to come up with a story I can sell for a fat book advance. I love The Captain and all but... no talking? no electricity? no water? living in a mud hut? Not happenin, my man. Anyone who goes into some dumb mess like that does not deserve a movie made about them, they need a swift kick in the pants.
So anyway, I don't recommend this movie. In fact, I un-recommend it, so if you choose to watch it don't come whining to me because you've been warned.
BTW, you can read a good, but not scathing enough, review of the film here).
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Errr, Thanks Mom
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9 comments:
They made a MOVIE out of that dreadful, deluded book? Oy. OY. Why!?
Oh, by the way, in the book he was supposedly a terrible lover due to a prohibition on touching anything below the waist with one's hands. So, er, I guess they sexed that one up for film. :-/ (It was a real, true story and the silly woman had a kid. And nearly died trying to "experience the authentic experience" or some crap.)
If I didn't know better, I would've thought this was made up! And your review!...so funny. I'm enjoying your blog.
@anthrophile - it's so shameful. i mean if they are just giving money away for this kind of crap, i should hurry and put pen to paper.
as to sex, in the beginning he was doing it horribly but of course Ever Wise Western Woman taught him the Ways of Love (TM).
@kara - believe me. i WISH it weren't real. i really wish.
I've been reading your blog since the beginning but only now I decided to leave a comment :)
You could always write a vice-versa book about a girl from NY who came to Radovljica, where people still eat regrat :) well, you can always invent the rest :)
@locke - thanks for reading! i think such a story would require more imagination than i have! it's really just not that weird here. it's actually bit too normal for me.
I applaud you for even watching it--I wouldn't even attempt, we all know the story with our eyes closed and never any surprises. There was one French film I've seen though, it's called Chocolate (not the American one)--it takes place in West Africa and it was the first movie and perhaps one of the only movies I've ever seen that intelligently handles the subject of race and culture and colonialism. Check it out, you'll be presently surprised.
lab
@bom - I was trying to remember the name of that other film...Chocolate! I saw that a million years ago and yes I agree it was quite good.
Yeah I remember living in Germany when this movie came out!
Some of the liberal white people I knew at work were going to see it and asked me to tag along. They looked shocked and almost offended that I politely turned them down.
It's a dumb movie with a very similar story...one that Europeans LOVE to constantly tell...a person from a "wild/poor/downtroden" "tribe/group/race" hitting it off (sexually) with a white person. The white person falls in love and realizes that the person was "the unknown love of their life" and all the cultural blending takes a back seat to everything else going on.
It's so much a part of their movie history...and people are CONSTANTLY talking about the non-European women in Germany who are "hustling up" European men.
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