NYFF51 Review Wrap-Up: Blue is the Warmest Color (La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2) (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

Two of the year's best performances, female and otherwise, are found in this year's problematic Palme d'Or winner at Cannes, Blue is the Warmest Color (La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2). Abdellatif Kechiche's 3-hour lesbian romance stars Adèle Exarchopoulos as Adèle and Léa Seydoux as Emma, two young women who embark on a passionate love affair with serious, life-changing consequences for at least one of them. That would be Adèle, who the movie follows from her high school years on through to her first years as a schoolteacher.

NYFF10 Movie Review: Black Venus (Vénus noire) (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

The "Hottentot Venus" was a freak show exhibition in the early 19th century, in which a black South African female, Saartjie Baartman (Yahima Torres), was displayed to European audiences curious about her anatomical differences, primarily her large hips and buttocks, a genetic trait common among her people. Not exhibited to the same spectators was another rumored physical feature, the elongated labia minora which hung down 3 to 4 inches from her vagina. As Black Venus (Vénus noire) begins, we see a plaster-cast figure of Baartman being examined at a scientific lecture, with particular attention being paid by the biologists to this feature, which they dubbed the "Hottentot skirt." This denigrating and sexist nickname is but one of the many indignities Baartman would suffer throughout her life, indignities which would continue even in death.

Two from Criterion: Louie Bluie (1985) and The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) (2007)

by Tony Dayoub

Bowing on DVD Tuesday are two documentaries by director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World). One of them is Crumb (1994), the widely seen movie about well known underground artist Robert Crumb and his gonzo family. The other (sporting a cover by Crumb) is Zwigoff's first film, Louie Bluie, a one-hour look at unsung blues musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, a real pleasure to watch. I can count on one hand the number of times I've watched a film all the way through then immediately watched it again, and viewing this doc is one of those times.