in the Movie “Vénus Noire” by Abdellatif Kechiche
Abstract
Sarah Baartman is not the name known by every person, only a few are aware of the facts about her ordinary but at the same time, tragic life. Among the different sources of getting to know the biography of Sarah Baartman, there is a fabulous feature film "Vénus Noire", which exposes “the Hottentot Venus period” of life of this woman till her death. The film review presented in this paper was influenced by the Africa study. Although the world cinematography covers a wide variety of films dedicated to the race discrimination "Vénus Noire" stands out for the brilliance of the personage and the actress herself. The spectator is imbued with her sad story, he sympathizes with this unknown woman and becomes interested in her biography. Abdellatif Kechiche, the director of the movie, tells us a story of an ordinary black woman who became the source of the big earnings and the fame all over Europe in the XIX century. Sarah Baartman was the representative of the human circus: she was exhibited like an animal thanks to her specific looks that were completely different from the European standards. The movie tells a story of a black sheep, of a human creature which was perceived as an animal. The audience is shown as a stupid flock thirsty for filth, debauchery and humiliation. This paper examines race and gender discrimination shown by Abdellatif Kechiche in his movie on the basis of Sarah Baartman’s biography.
"Vénus Noire", the work of the French director of the Tunisian origin, Abdellatif Kechiche, took my attention because of my strong interest in Africa and its history. I didn't expect the movie 2+ hours long to be so thrilling and deep. The story of a woman who didn’t make any contribution to the historical progress is shown so vividly and pathetically, you actually don’t doubt in her martyrdom.
The story leads us through "the Hottentot Venus period" of life of Sarah Baartman, a South African slave in the past, who was exhibited on the freak shows in Europe. The shows themselves reminded of the animal-taming, that is why the audience, that visited them, took Sarah as a beast. What was so special about her, that made people in London and Paris pay money and visit the shows? It was her body (large buttocks, short chin, flat nose, peculiar jaw structure and strange hair) and her animal-like behaviour on the stage. At the beginning of the show, Sarah came out of the cage and acted like she was some kind of a barbarian, baring her teeth and rushing to the audience. During the show, she danced, played some strange musical instrument, sang and parodied the European ladies' manners. At the end of the show, the Hottentot Venus turned her back to the people, so that they could touch her buttocks and be sure that they were real. It was the most disgraceful part for Sarah.
Though we plunge into the atmosphere of the XIX century, which is completely different from nowadays, it's still difficult to imagine all the wildness of the audience. When it comes to the staginess, the public is brutal and pitiless, greedy and shameless, whether it is the poor inhabitants of London or the respectable and well-mannered people in Paris.
Sarah ended her life as a prostitute and died of some infection with her unrealized dreams, with no money and no friends. After her death, her body was sold to the scientists for examination.
When the film ended, I was speechless. Trying to formulate the problematics and the idea of the movie, I asked myself what I saw in the first place. First of all, I saw the human cruelty. And this is relevant for the today's society, this is what leads to racism, sexism, chauvinism, homophobia and other types of discrimination. Cruel was the tamer, cruel was the public. And Sarah was a lost soul dreaming of freedom in her motherland, too weak to struggle with injustice and violence and strong enough to come through them.
Sarah had a peculiar state of being relevant: her tamers wanted to work with her, the audience loved her, the scientists chased after her, men who used services of prostitutes adored her. But still she didn't manage to find any pure and unselfish love, everyone wanted something from her. Despite her fame, her existence was really quite miserable and extraordinarily poor.
Some would say that the movie is about racism and gender discrimination, but what I saw is the unacceptance of a different person by the cruel society. People who hate someone don't realize it's racizm or sexism, they usually don't even understand the reasons for their hatred, they just reject somebody new and awkward. Sarah was black, her appearance and body didn't look standard comparing to the typical European girl, her native language sounded weird, her motherland seemed so far. The audience thought she was from another world, they thought she wasn't even a human being. They thought it was normal to laugh at her, touch her and speak about her in 3rd person when she was near.
Why didn’t Sarah react when the African Association tried to release her? Was it money or pressure from her tamer? Or was it both? We’ll never know.
When I think of sad stories like this, I recall the survival of the fittest. If people were not so cruel, this story, like many others, wouldn’t exist. But cruelty is a part of a human nature and as long as people prevail, there will be the strongest and the weakest, there will appear injustice and immorality, there will be those who break the rules for their own benefit and those who sacrifice their lives for the general weal. Will the society ever be healthy? No, it will never be. When one disorder is cured, another one appears. It’s a cyclic process. For me, it’s an excuse for all the evil in the world.
References
Strother, Z.S. (1999). Display of the Body Hottentot, in Lindfors, B., (ed.), Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business. Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press, 1-55.
