Les Saignantes at TIFF

I don't think I have the words to describe how bad this film was. Put it this way: about twenty minutes in, realizing that I was trapped in the middle of the row, I willed myself to go to sleep so that the time would pass more quickly. I couldn't believe such an amateurish piece made it to the internationally-renowned TIFF. I feel sorry for this director in the same way that I feel sorry for the deluded souls on the American Idol audition episodes. Who will be his Simon Cowell?

This is simply called "avant-garde", your criticism reminds me some of the Godard's. I didn't take this film at all the way you did. First your perspective is a white male perspective. I felt this film didn't want to serve you the same thing you guys want to see about Africa. Bekolo makes a comment to his people about what's going on and ask them to do something about it. You guys are not in the picture. You have to know that! Like when you make pictures here and Africa is not in the scope either. African cinema has the right to experiment and find it's own style and voice; it has nothing to do with amateurism. What is professionalism? The 300 channels we watch here? When you decide to go a theater to see what people from another country do, please behave. Ask questions because you might know everything. If you needed "entertainment" How many channels do you have? Why only boys can be on the edge? I didn't take these girls as prostitutes, they are girls on the edge.This film is about girls on the edge in a society that is going crazy. Why don't you try to answer the questions asked? These are real questions, not a cinematic effect... Why you can only have a primitive response to the last one? I am afraid that Africa and its black skins make the same thing to you. If that's the case Bekolo is right he shouldn't waste his time for dumb audience like you. Sorry man, Les Saignantes was made by a genious from Africa!

A low-budget film need not be terrible. That being said, this film is quite possibly the worst piece of cinema I have ever sat through. About three quarters of the way through I was convinced that the film was a practical joke played on unsuspecting festival-goers.

I am told that the second screening went even worse than the first one. I am nevertheless inclined to mention that jarheed makes a good point - cultural context is everything in a case like this, and in not understanding the elements of Cameroonian politics that surround the creation of this film, a North American audience is at a serious disadvantage.

It's funny how you Matt can't give convincing criticism on the film. Saying stupid, non-sense, cheap... is not a croticism. You are not neutrl as an audience. You are formated... You don't answer any of the question raises. Have you seen any of Godard film? LES SAIGNANTES expands filmmaking beyond the actual bounderies. If this would have come from America, you would have been all excited. But because it comes from Africa, it can only not make sense. Yes it doesn't to you ... Dumbness is the culture now. Be honest, you have never seen something like this. And this is an achievement. The filmmaker could have copy anything and go with it. He didn't. This film is still in my head since I saw it. And that's talent man. How many films do I forget? Almost all of them. You say "cheap" This guys are Africans. Now it will be a sin to be poor. The filmmakers achieves a lot with what he had. Anything in this film is there for a purpose. The concept of science fiction wasn't to please young white men anglo saxons, with this film he is raising issues to change his people. It was to force people to integrate Africa in the future... It seems like he talks to his people. You are not on the scope for the one time... Poor Rich Young Dumb White American Man... Too Bad! I don't want to live in your world man... It is depressing to know that a guy like you lives on this earth. The audience in this country needs to be forced into difference. The audience needs education about other cultures. MAinly African culture. The references are different. Why aren't you trying to understand this "Mevoungou" idea that drives the film form and content? Dumbness is contagious... Watch it!

Comparing this film to anything by Godard -- or any other *successful or talented* experimental filmmaker -- is laughable. Godard knew how to use a camera, and had a grasp of editing techniques. My own strongest criticisms of the film have very little to do with the story (though making some attempt at internal logic is always a plus), but with the fact that it was painful to watch what this man did with a camera. Such lack of technique cannot be attributed to experimentation, I'm sorry.

And, for heaven's sake, why does everything have to be a question of race, colour, and geopolitics? I was sitting next to an African-Canadian woman in the audience, and she was as completely bewildered as I was by the entire thing, and as dissatisfied by the director's inarticulate efforts to explain his film (even in his own language, French, which I speak!). The dead silence that started off the Q & A said a lot about the film's reception by all members of the audience, which included people from all backgrounds, of all colours, including at least one native of Cameroon.

It's true, I've never seen anything like this film. That's because most films, by the time they are released, are actually polished. I work with high-school-aged students, and I have seen films created by sixteen and seventeen year-olds, with hand-held video cameras and iMovie, that had better attention to detail, internal cohesion, and understanding of storytelling. I've seen a lot of very strange, original films that the mainstream would deem boring, difficult to follow, or requiring too much thought. Now I can also say I've seen a film made by someone who is completely incompetent at making films.

I appreciated the questions that the director tried to raise with his work, but he needs to find another medium with which to communicate them, because he's ham-handed on film.

Jo, you should this filmmakers other films. He knows how to use the camera. You might kill yourself after you hear this. Aristotle's Plot his previous film shot on 35mm Panavision is technically irreprochable. It was the African entry to the 100 years of cinema along with Scorsese, Bertolucci, Godard... put together by the British Film Institute. All this people are so wrong and you and your african-canadian lady are so right... We were all at the Q&A the filmmaker never spoke in French. Don't lie. He teaches film at Duke University in the US. Even them are also so wrong... Your situation is so hopeless..

Yo, Jo, perhaps you'd have more faith in this film if you read an excellent review by a white man, as French as they get! French-French like Godard!!! Here, since you claim you speak his language:

Les Saignantes
de Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Cameroun)
par Olivier Barlet
publié le 08/08/2005 sur:
http://www.africultures.com/index.asp?menu=affiche_article&no=3943


A première vue, on pourrait se demander si Les Saignantes est une pédante fantaisie ou bien vraiment porteur de sens. Mais à bien y regarder, son originalité explose. Au-delà de l'apparence, Les Saignantes n'est pas le résultat d'une imagerie reproductible à l'infini dont le clip et la publicité dévoilent les intentions mercantiles. Au contraire, ce film étonnant, provocateur, insolent, jouissif et parfaitement paranoïaque développe une réelle poésie sur des codes reconnaissables par les adeptes mêmes de l'imagerie : la jeunesse. Poésie parce qu'il en est une réécriture, non seulement dans son esthétique mais en ce qu'il renouvelle et même reconstruit de l'image de l'Afrique et plus particulièrement de la ville africaine.
Majolie et Chouchou (!), les deux Saignantes qui manient à gogo le sexe et la mort, ne sont pas seulement superbes parce qu'elle sont fringuées collant mini et séductrices professionnelles. Elles ont plus que la plastique de leur corps : chaque rencontre est une chorégraphie, chaque aventure une synergie, chaque regard un échange. Elles forment un couple d'enfer qui parvient à maîtriser son destin. Cela suppose une force qu'elles puisent dans le mevungu.
Au Cameroun, le mevungu est un rituel purificateur et réparateur des femmes beti qui se protègent en reconnaissant leurs vols ou adultères. Association secrète interdite aux hommes mais tolérée par eux, le mevungu soude la société des femmes autour d'un engagement moral. La chef de l'association doit posséder un puissant evu, glande de magie et de clairvoyance, que chaque femme développe au fond de son ventre quand elle est "éveillée". Cette entité de puissance ambiguë, mélange de sorcellerie et de clairvoyance, est représentée par un sexe féminin proéminent qui joue un rôle dans la partie finale des cérémonies. (1)
Dans Les Saignantes, le mevungu est régulièrement évoqué par une discrète voix off féminine. S'il développe volontiers le rituel dans sa mise en scène, y compris dans les jeux sexuels inventés par ces saignantes, Bekolo ne fait explicitement référence qu'à l'entité de puissance transmise par les gardiennes. Seule la lune est à l'écran quand "le mevungu s'invite". En ce jour de 2025, Yaoundé ne vit que la nuit et le mevungu invite "à rejoindre la danse". Majolie offre son corps à un dignitaire pour obtenir un marché, mais voilà que l'homme trépasse sous les cavalcades à la Zingaro de la belle chevaucheuse. Comment se débarrasser d'un cadavre aussi compromettant ? En le découpant en morceaux. Mais il est impensable en ce pays de couper court aux funérailles d'une telle personnalité : un "morguier" corrompu restaure un corps à la tête fournie par les deux entremetteuses. En dehors de la veuve, tout le monde n'y verra que du feu et de toute façon, tout le monde s'en contente. La levée de corps est l'occasion pour les deux saignantes d'approcher le ministre interprété par Emile Abossolo pour un nouveau coup, mais celui-ci se révélera plus dur à cuire que le précédent…
Il y a du Takeshi Kitano chez Bekolo : un burlesque ravageur en lumières froides pour se jouer de la mort. Il aligne sans complexe les ellipses et fragmente systématiquement les plans pour imposer un rythme, ralentit ou saccade l'image, casse ou alterne le récit, convoque l'ambivalence de corps demi-nus qui ne cessent de se dandiner ou de danser, invente des lumières pour truffer la nuit interlope de couleurs vives comme des vitraux, suit les lignes et provoque les perspectives, au point d'en gaver le spectateur qui n'osait plus en redemander... L'écran se fait composition abstraite, plus proche de la bande dessinée que de la réalité. C'est pourtant celle-ci qu'il réinvente, celle de la nuit de Yaoundé, celle des corruptions et des débrouilles, celle où les femmes se vengent des hommes pour tenter de se définir un avenir.
Rien n'est simple pour les saignantes, à commencer par le commerce de leurs corps, mais elles sauront se faire justicières dans la clairière aux couleurs de spotlights. Revolver, chemise rouge, voiture et karaté : les genres sont convoqués, du polard au fantastique, mais des encarts en signalent l'impossibilité. "Comment faire un film d'anticipation dans un pays qui n'a pas d'avenir ? Comment faire un film policier dans un pays où on ne peut enquêter ?" Ainsi, si c'est le pays le sujet, c'est aussi le cinéma, parce que sans l'art pas de rêve, et sans utopie pas moyen de penser l'avenir. Mais comment faire du film de genre dans une cinématographie qui est elle-même prise comme un genre ? C'est pourtant ce qui permettrait de connecter avec un public mondialisé qui intègre les modèles esthétiques dominants. Les Saignantes s'inscrit dans cette tentative chère à Bekolo de redéfinir un cinéma à la fois africain et contemporain. Quartier Mozart constituait une première rupture et Le Complot d'Aristote la définissait (cf. notre entretien à propos de ce film). Dans les Saignantes surtout, comme chez Caro & Jeunet mais sans le même arsenal, le bizarre y est une nouvelle norme, l'étrangeté un nouveau bréviaire, l'album une nouvelle esthétique, l'inconscient le compagnon obligé, le désir le moteur diesel. Cela ferait bricolage s'il ne puisait sa consistance dans la tragique réalité d'un continent écartelé. Ce n'est pas le film qui est décalé, c'est la réalité.
C'est dans ce contexte que Majolie et Chouchou s'émancipent pour exister. Elles ont en elles un evu qui les brûle tant qu'il en devient dangereux, mais qui les fait croire au pouvoir de la danse et du rêve. De l'utopie, il en faudra pour échapper à la bête encore vivante, celle du pays qui rappelle celle du Brecht d'Arturo Ui, tant le ventre est encore fécond de toutes les horreurs contemporaines. 2025 n'est pas à prendre au pied de la lettre : s'il est clair qu'il veut ouvrir à un avenir, ce film est le produit de notre siècle débutant. S'il multiplie les répétitions, les signes et les effets, c'est pour cuisiner ce qui serait une expression de rupture, sorte de feu d'artifice formaliste très fabriqué, mi-comic mi-manga, d'une indéniable beauté, où l'intégrité n'est plus à chercher dans l'humanité qu'il dégage mais dans la détermination qu'il propose.
Olivier Barlet

1. Cf. Jeanne-Françoise Vincent, Femmes beti entre deux mondes – entretiens dans la forêt du Cameroun, Karthala 2001, 242 p. et le compte-rendu qu'en fait Sophie Blanchy dans la revue L'Homme n°163, 2002, pp.257-259.

"We were all at the Q&A the filmmaker never spoke in French. Don't lie."

Ok, Jarheed, so you were at both screenings, were you? I was at Sunday's screening, where an audience member asked him a question in French, and where the director, uncertain whether to answer in French or not, was prompted to do so.

I'll forgive you your weak own English skills, but your choice of the word "lie" is a bit beyond the pale, attacking me personally as it does. As for killing myself... well, it's hardly worth it in general, and certainly not for this film or this director.

. . .

Merci bien, 400 Coups. Lorsque j'ai un moment, je voudrais bien lire cette revue francaise. Je doubte qu'elle changera mon opinion, parce-que, apres tout, c'est toujours un opinion, mais de toute facon elle doit etre mieux ecrivee que celles de Jarheed.

Yo, Jo, instead of wasting your time insulting Jarheed's English skills when you have your own issues with (may I assume?) your native tongue, do me a favor and try reading Olivier Barlet's article. Although... How shall I put it? Hm, hm... Your French skills might let you down here, 'cause honestly, man, you got some serious polishing to do if you want to claim that you know that language. No wonder you thought the director was inarticulate at the Q&A! He was probably speaking way over your head....

Jarheed, you keep talking the talk. Your English rules!

And back to "Les Saignantes," this film is a classic. Period. Start getting used to this idea, folks.

To"JO"
The problem with many "Anglos" is they can't fully understand how French folks are so prone to bilingualism, switching speech from French to English in public appearance...Yes Les Saignantes's Director had some hesitation during Q&A whether to go english or french...(I was there on sunday)...you know when you're good you can't go wrong heee! he can handle both culture ...now this is not the point here ..lets focus on the movie right?....WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT this movie...Mr. les Anglais??? just try to be a little more open minded and "brush-off" your french if you can.Bonne journee et au plaisir de vous parler en francais svp.