The last movie i saw at this years NY Film Fest was Black Venus. As flawed as this movie may have been, at the end of the day it was a step forward in black film (if there even is such a thing). For once i didn't have to sit through a movie about; the first black athlete to slam dunk a basketball at an ivy league school, a single teen mother in the ghetto (yes I'm taking a stab at precious and the hundred other movies to focus on that), an aspiring rapping pimp (hustle n' flow), a black sidekick that has some stupid loyalty to the white main character (a role kept alive by Morgan Freeman and Whoopi Goldberg) or a biography about a predictable civil rights leader. Black Venus Tells the story of Saartjie Baartman (aka "Hottentot Venus"), a young women from Cape Town who was shown as a "freak" in a traveling carnival in Europe during the 1800's, due to her curvy physique (something Europeans had not yet seen). In her short life, not only was she exhibited (and groped at) in a freak show, but she was used as entertainment in private sex parties, studied by scientists like an object and even had to work as prostitute in order to make money. Even though this was Yamiha Torres's first time acting, she gave a performance reminiscent of Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist or even Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet. I make those comparisons, because each of those actresses had to let their guard down, and really stretch as actresses (almost to the point where you kinda feel embarrassed for them at certain points in the movie). Naturally, Black Venus will draw comparison to a movie like; The Elephant Man or even Todd Browning's Freaks (not to say that either Saartjie Baartman or John Merrick were freaks). Black Venus had the natural feel of director; Abdellatif Kechiche's other movies like; Secret of The Grain, which i appreciated. This film only had one flaw but as far as I'm concerned it was a MAJOR one. The editing. Jesus Christ this movie could've been cut down quite a bit. I thought there were WAY too many scenes that focused on her being shown as a freak, and hardly no focus on the main characters back story (outside of a few references here and there). Even more, the scenes where she is paraded around like a sideshow went on for way too long to the point where you want to scream; "ALRIGHT, ENOUGH! WE GET IT!" The last half of the movie in particular has its share of scenes that are very difficult to watch. Black Venus is a lot to take in, and its still stuck in my head. So, even though the movie lacked some serious editing, it obviously succeeded in that the images are still stuck in my head and i cant stop thinking about it. The ending sequence during the credits draws comparison to another David Lynch film; Inland Empire. Both Black Venus and Inland Empire are very intense and take a lot out of you, but both movies have an ending sequence that put you at ease. In Black Venus, the movie ends with actual news footage of Saartjie Baartman's remains being shipped back to South Africa after years of (ironically) being exhibited in a french museum. This one of few scenes in the movie that out you at ease.
Review of Black Venus
