For the second pairing in his Carte Blanche film program, Jafa brings together Jean Rouch’s documentary Moi, un noir and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Jafa considers the titles “two different films about people pretending to be gangsters,” and he also notes the unexpected stylistic overlaps across both films–including jump cuts and self-referential narration.
The protagonists of Moi, un noir – immigrants from Niger living in Abidjan two years before Ivorian independence from France – find themselves entangled in global colonial structures. They give themselves American names as pseudonyms, they work as day laborers on shipping docks where goods are sent to Europe, and some fought for France in the First Indochina War. Paired with Breathless and its depiction of Parisian life during the same time period, dynamics between colony and metropole are illuminated. Together the films show what might be considered early manifestations of 20th century ideas around economic and cultural globalization–a phenomenon shaped by empire.
Films will be screened with a ten-minute break in between.
Showtimes:
Nov 21
Moi, un noir: 6:30, Breathless: 7:55
Nov 25
Moi, un noir: 6:00, Breathless: 7:25
Moi, un noir. 1958. France. Written and directed by Jean Rouch. With Omarou Ganda, Petit Touré, Alassane Maiga. In French, Italian; English subtitles. DCP. 70 min.
À bout de souffle (Breathless). 1958. France. Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. With Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Bemondo, Jean-Pierre Melville. In French; English subtitles. DCP. 90 min.