Dreaming
of Manderlay….
Reviewed by Marsha Prescod
Lars von Trier, the super talented bad boy
of independent filmmaking crashes through the No
Entry barriers
of race, sex and bringing democracy to the unenlightened
masses to deliver Cannes’ most provocative
film…
Manderlay is different and similar to Crash. The
similarities? An ensemble film. A thought provoking
film. A film about race - oh no, wait, actually that
last bit is where it diverges from Crash. See, Crash
is all about race. Race is a metaphor through which
Manderlay talks to the audience. But it’s not
necessarily the Theme. Even though it is set on a
plantation.
Manderlay is the second film in von Trier’s
American trilogy. To shake up those people who might
have seen Dogville, Nichole Kidman’s character,
Grace, is now played by Bryce Dallas Howard. An excellent
choice. She is the innocent abroad, who whilst travelling
in a car with her father passes a plantation where
a black man (Isaac de Bankole) is being whipped.
On investigation, they find the big house, fields
and cowed/sullen looking black people lorded over
by white people that reveals the shocking news. It’s
the 1930s but the blacks don’t seem to know
that slavery is over.
There is the dying slave mistress, Mam - (Lauren
Bacall)- in the big house, and her faithful retainer,
butler-house slave Danny Glover. Glover is all white
headed, soft spoken, deferential, driving-miss-daisyish.
Just what we’d expect in that sort of environment.
Glover is the go between aiding communication between
the white master class living in the big house and
the field hands living in the cabins. He becomes
the go between for Grace and the slaves. Her trusted
confidant, and supporter.
The set up in Manderlay is feudal, hierarchical. There is a place for everyone
and everyone knows their place, and Grace, full of indignation and righteousness,
breezes in like an avenging angel to overturn this injustice- against the warning
of her father played by Willem Dafoe (replacing James Caan in the role). Her
father departs, leaving his headstrong child to get on with it. Grace frees
the slaves, and is determined to bring democracy to the plantation. At one
point she makes whites don blackface and serve their former servants. People
in the audience looked queasy at this point. von Trier wants the audience to
concentrate on the ideas rather than the visuals of film and to that end, he
closes them down to a stage set like a play. Doors and houses may be solid,
or they may be dotted outlines on the stage floor, requiring the actors to
mime their use. Sound effects are used for wind and water. And when the audience
concentrates on the ideas, von Trier pelts us with big ones. Is democracy really
the best political system? What if the ‘liberated’ people have
no concept of how to use their freedom, or if their instincts push them towards
the tyranny of the mob? Can ‘liberators’ truly have the moral high
ground if they have overwhelming force rather than reasoned argument as the
justification?
It doesn’t take much imagination here to see
that the film is as much about America’s actions
and rational for going into and staying in Iraq as
anything else. Grace’s combination of lack
of understanding about what is going on when she
arrives, and the power she has from the barrels of
the guns that the gangsters her father has left her
with….makes disaster inevitable. She suffers
and the people she brings freedom to, suffer. The
collateral damage is harrowing, and ultimately Grace
uses the same kind of brutality that the old order
does. Shades of Abu Graib.
There is an ironic narrator, voiced by John Hurt,
giving the audience clues that there may be more
to what is happening than the simple morality tale
of Grace’s convictions. He also gives us insights
into her mind, particularly her growing sexual obsession
with Timothy (de Bankole) who she projects her frustrated
fantasies on to in a way that will be very familiar
to a black viewer.
There is a ‘sex scene’ arid, graphic,
harsh camera lighting, pandering to prurience about
black sexuality, that had some people muttering angrily,
and others looking away from the screen.
In France.
Hell knows what the reaction in America - where
black leading men do not even have kissing scenes
with
white women on screen - will be.
Indeed, the discomfort that scene may arouse in some of us black people, together
with that caused by the slaves seeming inability to grasp their freedom and
make the best of it, may be the reason why African-American (other than Glover),
actors reputedly refused to take part in the film. This gives us a rare opportunity
to see some of the cream of black British acting talent on the big screen.
Mona Hammond, Clive Rowe, Dona Croll, Joseph Mydell, Nina Sosanya…the
list is too long to put everyone here. My jaw dropped when I saw them and I
can only praise von Trier and his casting director for their imagination in
pulling together this fabulous cast. I’ve seen Hammond and Croll over
many years on stage and screen. Those who only know them from soaps, know little
of their full range and power. This film had some renowned US and European
actors too, such as Udo Kier, Chloe Sevigny, and of course Dafoe, Hurt, and
Bacall. Some in very small parts, as if they just wanted to work with the director.
Praises due to the white and black actors for venturing into controversial,
emotionally and technically difficult territory such as this.
The last ten minutes, scene after scene of still
photos showing African Americans in modern times
in the most harrowing condition - so much for freedom,
liberty, democracy- made my heart clench. All set
to the David Bowie tune, Young Americans.
Many American journalists seeing the screenings
at Cannes were outraged by the film- to put it mildly.
von Trier has been labelled anti-American-why?
He’s been criticised for daring to make films
about America, despite not having ever been to the
US - why?
American culture, particularly film and music- is
ubiquitous enough to ensure foreigners know more
about them than they know about the world. There
are many facets of America, many ‘Americas’.
Von Trier’s current trilogy is a journey through
one aspect of America’s psyche. Its worth taking
the journey with him.
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