The
film Black Girl was an interesting
interpretation of independence. When the film started I didn’t even guess that
Diouna was a maid because she was dressed so nicely. I thought it was weird how
she always dressed nice, even when doing housework. If she wanted to live a
more free life, she should have chosen a different occupation besides a maid. I
know her employer told her she needed a nanny, but to begin with Diouna was
waiting on a corner where maids were sought out. It was because of this reason
I spent the whole film trying to decide if I liked her or not. I mean I’m all
for independence and living your dreams, but she should have made more of an
effort or found a different occupation. Suicide was too harsh of solution to
her problem. She could have just quit her job, it’s not like her employers
could actually do anything to her.
In the reading the director sympathizes with those that
challenge their fate and fight back. I just feel like in the film Diouna was
more in control of her fate than she realized and yes she fought back and said
no to do working for her employers. However, it was her job in the first place
to choose to work as a maid/nanny. How was killing herself winning? Sure her
employers would have to deal with her mess for once, but at what cost? She
didn’t need to kill herself to fight back against them; she could have just
walked out, packed up all her things, and left when they were all away. It
would be effective enough and she would still be alive. Then she could have
tried to find her own freedom and a different job.
The film promotes anti-racism in the fact that Diouna
refuses her employers and is shown as an independent woman. Anti-colonialism is
present as Diouna’s employers are French and shown as the “bad guys”. After
all, they were the ones that drew her to depression and suicide. They’re
friends’ mannerisms in dealing with her were shown as bad as well. They were
excited to have a real African meal and one man wanted to kiss her because he
had never had a black woman. This just represented them as horrible and semi-racist
people.
At first, I thought the same was as you did about the suicide. Because we are use to American movies that often have themes about the American Dream: try hard and you can accomplish everything, it is difficult to understand why Diouana didn't just pack up and leave. In fact, she did pack up, and then all the sudden she is naked and bloody in a bath tub. But, then, I remember some of the other films we saw in class that were before 1966, and I realize that the acting even of itself is revolutionary. The actors aren't as extreme. The emotions are not worn like masks with heavy sobbing or boarderline crazy laughing or harsh turns away and then turns back. I feel that Black Girl was a more subtle film, showing Diouana's daily tasks as the maid in France. Then, out of no where, the suicide? It's actually amazing. It may at first seem unrealistic, but then you think back to how excited Diouana was to have a job with a white family. When her mistress gave her those nice clothes, and when she had money to also buy nice shoes, she probably felt like a million bucks...but actually she was just feeling emotions that everyone woman or man should be entitled to. When those feelings were taken away from her and she was reduced to nothing more to be considered than a house made, her suicide begins to make more sense. She cried on the floor in front of her entrusted family and they did nothing but walk away like she was an animal. I'm not saying any modern woman in America would do the same, but for Diouana, maybe she didn't want to go back to feeling like anything less than a million bucks.
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