zouzou ( film )
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with the headline: review / film; tam tam,' starring baker .
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an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
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at the beginning of the film the father - in - law of the protagonist dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. the remainder of the film is episodic, moving from one incident to another over the... see full summary »
zouzou, a black girl, and jean, a white boy, are displayed as twins in the side show of a circus. as adults zouzou (josephine baker) and jean (jean gabin) still regard themselves as sister and brother. jean is a seaman, and zouzou works in a laundry. zouzou loves to sing and dance for her friends at the laundry but has no thought of a theatrical career. after jean is arrested for murder, zouzou needs money for his defense. at a theater, she displays her singing and dancing talents to the impresario who immediately hires her. her…
it' s the achievement of'' princess tam tam'' to catch and preserve - within a conventional film - something of the star' s singular grace, energy and frequently self - mocking humor. the film, which is being shown here in a fine new print, is double - billed with miss baker' s 1934 vehicle,'' zouzou.''
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sly nods to baker’s infamous “banana dance, ” a camera that tends to introduce her via reflection when she is “performing”, and costuming that gets gradually more parisian as the film progresses, keep zouzou framed as a film as much about baker as about the fictional character. this is a woman who was accused of being more sexual than progressive and who’s tabloid - actions dominated her life. while the film isn’t as promiscuous as one might imagine, baker – the real woman – is very much at the heart of it .
the film follows the life story of a young black woman from her childhood in a circus to adult success in the musical theater .
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don' t they' s 1000 greatest films. this…
there’s more to allegret’s film than simple wish - fulfillment. counter to your 42nd streets and golddiggers of 1933s, the musical numbers in this film solve very little (if anything), and are instead showpieces only. zouzou’s ultimate number – a sultry “haiti” which is at once nostalgic of anything - but - paris and emblematic of the whimsy and fantasy of that city – rivals a hayworth or dietrich in its star - making moment. sitting inside a huge cage on the stage (the cage a nod to the birds zouzou frees from their cages earlier in the film) she sings, scantily clad, about unrequited love and a desire for a lost land. though she gets the fame here, she doesn’t get the guy, and sing as she might, the film seems to indicate, she’ll still be a caged bird on display in paris rather than a free bird in manila or haiti .
' the film enchants me... . everything seems easy, because i feel the story so very strongly. it all seems so real, so true, that i sometimes think it' s my own life being played out on the sets' (josephine baker discussing her appearance in zouzou )
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
throughout
zouzou ,
you sense that film was not baker' s bag, that the lack of impulsive creativity must have dampened much of the charm she brought to the more spontaneous stage environment. but those last images at least give a glimmer of what she was and what the fuss was all about .
it’s the rare jean gabin film for me where he’s not the main draw. his major period, which would begin 2 years after zouzou with renoir’s the lower depths in 1936, all the way through his final films in the 1970s, is littered with major hits. but in marc allegret’s zouzou, it’s josephine baker that demands all the attention. her filmography is about 1 / 9 the size of gabin’s, but this vehicle (advertised as “baker talks” !) made her more the star than she already was .
my first josephine baker film and a fine romance. theres even murder involved, lord knows why. pleasant and innocuous until the end, it then disturbs with a gutpunch of loneliness .
baker' s popularity was so huge that her handlers began looking for a larger stage than the risque parisian theaters where she strutted. in 1934, partly because baker was curious about movies but mostly to capitalize on her fame, filming for
zouzou
began. the picture can be seen friday night at golden west college as the
international film
series ends .
ouzou and jean, two orphans, are raised as brother and sister by circus artiste père mélé. many years later, they live together in paris, zouzou working as a laundress, jean as an electrician for a musical theatre, the folies. as zouzou pines for jean, he only has eyes for her fellow worker, claire. when jean is mistakenly arrested for attacking a man in the street, zouzou realises she needs money urgently to pay for a defence lawyer. she gets herself employed as the star attraction at the folies, replacing a famous dancer - singer who has just absconded to join her lover in brazil. overnight, zouzou becomes a sensation, but will she be in time to save her beloved jean... ?
instead of disgracing herself, as her enemies had hoped, she brings down the house. this is one of those rare occasions when a performance within a film matches the acclaim given it by the audience on the screen .
what the audience is waiting for, of course, is for baker to take center stage in some huge production number. and that' s just what you get as
zouzou
strolls toward its grand finale .
the plot is simple, though it doesn’t follow all of the regular structure of a typical hollywood backstage musical. baker is zouzou and gabin is jean. growing up in a carnival atmosphere as part of the “freak show” (where freak implies interracial brother and sister), they eventually move to paris where jean gets a job as an electrician at a local theater. zouzou realizes her love for him is more than sisterly, but he, in standard gabin tough - guy fashion, is either ignorant of her affection or just doesn’t return it. zouzou is accidentally discovered by the theater producers and at the same time, jean is wrongly accused of murder .
with its expressionist lighting – particularly a scene at a bar and laundromat – that anticipates the noir - poetic realist hybrid of carne and renoir, zouzou is a standout cinematically and narratively. director allegret uses some bold match cuts, elaborate blocking, and montage - driven cross - cuts to stage his action. one particular moment, where allegret cuts between zouzou singing in the laundromat where she works and the current star of the musical barbara (ill meery) singing the same song on - stage is particularly effective, demonstrating how place can negatively affect passion (ie performance) and anticipating zouzou’s inevitable rise to stardom (as if the title weren’t enough of a hint) .
josephine baker shines in this film, which features a sometimes befuddling plot. this is fine, since baker is the real attraction here. she' s a magnetic performer, and one whose career i' m very excited to explore further .
the match cuts and time compressions that allegret uses here – from a toy ship to a real ship; from jean in jail to jean in paris; from zouzou singing to barbara singing; from a poster of barbara to a poster of zouzou – all imply a change for each character (wish fulfillment), but remains male - dominated. it is jean whose wishes are fulfilled. he gets to ride a ship, go to paris, and leave with the woman he loves. each of these moments is implied via the match cut / time compression. it’s zouzou whose wishes are only partially fulfilled, where the match cuts surrounding her character are more to move to the obligatory musical number than to solve anything narratively .
zou zou is a creole laundress, brought up in the circus along with her foster brother, jean. she yearns for a life onstage, and longs for the love of jean, who falls for her best friend. zouzou manages to save jean from a false…
once jean is on land, the everyday events (zouzou gets a job in a laundry but frequents the playhouse where jean works as a stage manager) are mundane and static. zouzou' s love is frustrated as jean falls for one of her friends, and that' s about it as far as conflict goes in carlo rim' s screenplay. but every now and then, baker gets moments to show off her comic flair, especially the mix of physicality (an eccentric, akimbo dancing) and a gamin' s innocence .
as children, zouzou and jean are paired in a traveling circus as twins: she' s dark, he' s light. after they' ve grown, he treats her as if she were his sister, but she' s in love with him. in paris, he' s a music hall electrician, she' s a laundress who delivers clean underwear to the hall. she introduces him to claire, her friend at work, and the couple fall in love. jean conspires to get the show' s star out of town and for the theater manager to see the high - spirited zouzou perform. when jean' s accused of murder and zouzou needs money to mount his defense, she pleads to go on stage. her talents may save the show, but can anything save her dream of life with jean ?
of course baker is top - billed, but check out that image. it’s a bit racist in a “savage” kind of way, and is actually more concerned with representing baker’s banana dance, which makes its way into the film only indirectly, than it is with anything plot - related .
would be just another run - of - the - mill musical melodrama struggling to imitate its american cousin. even with baker giving it all she has, much of the film is a chore to sit through, and it only comes to life when its star begins doing what she does best, dancing and singing with the raw energy of a typhoon .
when
zouzou
came out in 1935, st. louis - born josephine baker was a cultural phenomenon in france, her adopted country. she was a song - and - dance comedienne with an appeal both exotic and common. by making the most of her talents, and by generating sparks through expert image - making, baker was the madonna of her day, the queen of the demimonde .
we' re first introduced to baker after seeing her character, zouzou, as a pretty little girl who lives with the carnival and is entranced by the image she sees in a hand mirror. soon, she' s all grown up and eager for her childhood companion, jean (the great jean gabin, looking uncomfortable and mildly confused here), whom she loves, to return from his life as a sailor .
from tcm zou zou (1934) the french film zou zou (1934) is a rare opportunity to see one of the great african - american entertainers of the 20th century. josephine baker, known primarily as a singer / dancer on the stage, cabaret, and music halls, made only a handful of films, and zou zou was her personal favorite, the closest, she said, to whom she was in real life .
a film to exploit the popularity of the' creole' cabaret artist josephine baker. and she is the light driving this. sadly there is not much else making it interesting then to see the famous lady do a rare movie project. jean gabin is more or less anonymous and the plot... . not sure that was. baker is a cleaner and ends up in a show singing about haiti... . and some random situations happens without much context .
because of baker' s significance in france ,
zouzou
is historically intriguing, one of the few documents of a rare career. as art, though, it' s only a curiosity, a footnote in french cinema. even as entertainment, it' s sporadic, with little dramatic push and only the barest of a plot contrived to set up baker' s few spotlighted scenes. but we do get to see baker perform, and that' s something .
directed by: blandine lenoir produced by: local films genre: fiction - runtime: 1 h 21 min french release: 24 / 12 / 2014 production year: 2012 a large house in the countryside. solange, in her sixties, her three daughters agathe, marie and lucie, and her 14 - year - old granddaughter, zouzou, get together for a few days. it' s an opportunity for solange to tell them some great news: she' s got a new man in her life. about time! so, does sexuality get mentioned? or is it like politics, and not a word is said? more info: urltoken
most of this is simple performance shots – keeping baker framed in a fairly uninteresting way so as to focus on the song and her body. the end, where she swan dives out, is a freeing moment, but it’s worth noting that when we see her in the cage next, there’s no such exit (freedom all but gone). this is another way that zouzou runs counter to the warner bros. musicals at the time. whereas this should naturally be the end – woman jumps out of cage, gets man, roll credits – it’s not. it’s a faux - ending, one that gives the catharsis one expects from this genre, but then recants it in the end .
allegret sprinkles other nice elements throughout: the bumbling producers, framed by the empty theater seats as if to anticipate the empty house come show - time; the busby berkeley - like overhead numbers, with hilarious set pieces like giant beds and combs (domesticity? or just a notion for the absurd); multiple animal references (birds, dogs, jaguars) that are as much about human vs. animal in a freedom - sense, as they rhyme with the derogatory language used to occasionally refer to zouzou (savage, cannibal); a roaming camera that frequently dollies, frames on windows, and pans in to start scenes, as though as interested in the surroundings and the movement of a bustling city and scene as it is in the characters themselves .
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this is the 1935 french comedy starring josephine baker, the st. louis - born dancer who, in the mid - 1920' s, became one of france' s greatest cabaret stars. when she died in 1975 after suffering a stroke, miss baker was just four days into the run of a new paris revue celebrating her 50 years as an entertainer. her funeral service was held in the church of the madeleine .
movies were only an occasional diversion for miss baker, who, as a black performer, was far more highly regarded abroad than she was at home, at least until near the end of her career. she was a stunning - looking woman who wasn' t conventionally beautiful. her face was too round and the chin too small for her to succeed simply as an exotic femme fatale .
nevertheless, she managed to parlay her considerable assets as a dancer, singer and comedienne into a remarkable career. her flamboyant personality was best expressed in her cabaret appearances in which, when she started out, she wore as little as the law allowed, mostly bananas or feathers .
in'' princess tam tam,'' miss baker, as alwina, a saucy bedouin beggar, catches the eye of max, a blocked french novelist who has come to tunis to live among'' the savages'' and find inspiration for a new book. the charmed max decides to write a novel about alwina, in which he acts as pygmalion to her galatea .
having taught alwina how to walk, speak and dress like a lady, max accompanies her to paris, where he introduces her as'' princess tam tam from india.'' his principal purpose is to make his wife jealous, but alwina, with her couture wardrobe and ingenuous manners, becomes the toast of paris .
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on this fairly primitive frame, written by pepito abatino (miss baker' s husband at the time), edmond t. greville, the director, constructed a lighthearted entertainment that well serves the star. the star also somehow manages to serve it and to send it up at the same time. she' s a delight, especially in two of her musical numbers .
in one, she takes over the floor of a low - life sailors' bar to sing and dance with an abandon that thoroughly shocks the society snobs who have dropped in to slum. in the other, having been plied with drink during a paris ball, she can' t deny the beat of the tom - toms. again princess tam tam makes a spectacle of herself doing what comes naturally .
she tears off most of her clothes and leads the orchestra and chorus in a big, hilarious production number that owes a lot to hollywood' s busby berkeley. she jumps, slides, shakes her shoulders and swings her hips, using her bare arms and legs to describe primitive passions that supposedly set her audience free .
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zou zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he' s accused of murder .
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struggles to hold its ramshackle plot together but it is nonetheless compelling viewing, thanks to the presence of its charismatic star, here partnered with one of the great icons of french cinema, jean gabin. without the endlessly fascinating baker ,
director marc allégret makes a good stab at emulating the big budget song - and - dance musicals that were being churned out in hollywood at the time, but lacking both experience and anything approximating to flair when it comes to staging musical numbers his efforts are seldom entirely successful. compared with the grand set - pieces choreographed by the great busby berkeley in such films as
( 1933), allégret' s efforts look pretty feeble, and most fail to take full advantage of josephine baker' s breathtaking vitality. baker was a reasonably capable actress, but singing and dancing were her forte. with baker giving her all in a stand - out erotic dance sequence and some show - stopping songs ,
is ultimately saved, but when you consider how few films this legendary performer appeared in you can' t help thinking this was a missed opportunity .
( saint - lévy), madeleine guitty (josette), claire gérard (mme. vallée), marcel vallée (m. trompe), serge grave (young jean), teddy michaud (julot) ,
solange is pleased to welcome her three daughters agathe, marie and lucie for a few days. she has great news for them, she is in love. but the three women are struggling to imagine their 60... see full summary »
solange is pleased to welcome her three daughters agathe, marie and lucie for a few days. she has great news for them, she is in love. but the three women are struggling to imagine their 60 - year - old mother in the arms of a man... especially as agathe' s teenage daughter is caught in the act of making love upstairs, certainly for the first time. talking about sexuality in family is not so simple .
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star vehicles, those usually flimsy movies designed to put some celebrity (such as madonna) on the screen so fans have a 10 - foot image to adore, are nothing new. hollywood, not known for missing commercial opportunities when they come along, has been doing it for years .
as for these last chorus line shots, it' s clear that busby berkeley was the inspiration. the peculiar choreography and fanciful props (the dozens of dancers step through a giant bedroom complete with girl - sized telephones) are berkeley knockoffs but, unfortunately, performed without the panache he insisted on .
still, it' s captivating when the camera finally settles on baker, done up only in feathers and singing while perched high in a bird cage. she appears almost magical under the soft lighting, a strange, glowing creature with a tiny but passionate voice .
where: golden west college' s forum ii theater, 15744 golden west st. , huntington beach .
whereabouts: take the san diego (405) freeway to golden west street and head south to the campus .
here' s a vehicle for the utterly unique french / american singer and exotic dancer josephine baker as a laundress who replaces a temperamental performer in a stage revue and captivates the crowd in a star - making turn while at the same tame loving her childhood friend jean gabin, a sailor turned electrician who only has eyes for another .
i can' t believe she gets discovered while doing the gangnam style ...
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basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him. riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you. …
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* this filmography is not intended to be a comprehensive list of this artist’s work. instead it reflects the films this person has been involved with that have been reviewed on this site.
zouzou is a french film by marc allégret released in 1934 . as its star , josephine baker was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture . 
zouzou is a french film by marc allégret released in 1934. as its star, josephine baker was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture.
zouzou is a french film by marc allégret released in 1934. as its star, josephine baker was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture.