La Noire de...

“Back in Dakar they must be saying: ‘Diouana is happy in France. She has a good life.’

For me, France is the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom and my bedroom.”  This harrowing quote is recognized by the main character, Diouana, and to ears of viewers as a complete lie.

La Noire de… is the first African film that made a notable impact on European and North American audiences back in the late 1960's. This landmark film was directed by Ousmane Sembène and was loosely based off of the true story of a young African girl who was hired by a similar French couple during this time [Hoffman, 2016] . La Noire de… directly translates to Black Girl in English which is how I will be referring to the film from now on.

I found Black Girl to be extremely hard to follow due to the following reasons: 1. there were a multitude of flashbacks alternating back and forth from the time when Diouana was first hired as a caretaker for the children and back to present time where she is now solely recognized as a housemaid, 2. I found myself uncomfortable and wanting to look away many times watching this film due to the profound racism and ignorance depicted by the French couple that hired Diouana as they repeatedly treated her like a prop and an African novelty to show off in their home to their friends, and 3. the lack of dialogue which left me constantly guessing as to what exactly was happening in the film.

Black Girl follows a young African girl from the newly liberated Senegal on her journey to becoming a nanny turned house maid for a French couple who are referred to solely as “Madame” and “Monsieur.” The beginning of the film mirrors Diouana’s excitement as she steps off of of the ship. She descends onto the port, grabs her singular suitcase, and eagerly awaits for her employer. The upbeat music that follows Diouana’s movements and the wide angle shots of the picturesque French countryside zooming away past the car windows lures viewers into a sense of safety and hope for the journey that Diouana is ready to embark on in France. Once arriving in her employer’s French apartment, Diouana romanticizes the life she believes she will have in France during her days off of work; she will mingle with the local people, spend her earnings shopping in the finest stores, and dress in the most beautiful clothes. Unforeseen to Diouana, those daydreams are unfortunately short-lived.

Diouana quickly begins questioning where the children are because they are nowhere to be found in or around the apartment; after all, wasn’t she hired to take care of the children? From the moment she arrives in the apartment, Diouana is immediately barked at by Madame, who is constantly dissecting Diouana’s every move. Madame repeatedly calls Diouana lazy and reprimands Diouana for wearing the same hand me down dress to work everyday and eventually becomes so fed up with Diouana’s choice in clothing that Madame purchases Diouana an apron in, what I believe, was a further attempt to separate herself from Diouana and put Diouana in her “place” as a housemaid. We see that this apron is the beginning of Diouana’s deterioration because from this point on, Diouana realizes that her French dreams will never come to fruition and that the couple who hired her are not the kind people she believed them to be.

Madame and Monsieur are not the perfect happy family that they want people to believe they are. They are not the elite French couple that obtained a African novelty and the downfall of the two is that they are barely able to take care of and keep track of themselves, let alone Diouana. Madame constantly looks unkempt and in a much worse state than Diouana. Madame’s hair is always done but never to the degree in which I believe she wants it; there are always a multitude of fly away hairs and her hair always looks as if it is on the verge of spiraling right out of her bun. In addition to her hair, Madame’s makeup and clothes are not up to par to with the perfect French woman that I believe Madame wants to portray. Diouana, on the other hand, is always perfectly done. Her hair is in a perfect beehive shape and she constantly dresses in her finest clothes and shoes and always looks ready to walk right onto the streets of France and begin the life she wants. Diouana dresses for the life she wants, not the one she has and Madame has the life that she wants but the way she dresses clearly shows that the her life is not as perfect and pristine as she wants people to believe.

Madame and Monsieur are constantly bickering with one another about what to do with Diouana and what is bothering their poor maid all the while Diouana is deteriorating right in front of the audience’s eyes. We watch as Diouana quickly spirals into a depression and loses the hope that she initially had. Instead of doing something to help Diouana or getting to the bottom of what is bothering her, they continue to pile on orders and looks of disappointment on the girl when she has no simple way of getting out of this life. This deterioration can be seen through Diouana’s actions, the change in her way of dressing, the tone of her voice over, and the constant flashbacks to her life in Dakar where she seemed much happier and relaxed even if she was out of work and not making any money.

Diouana has become a prisoner in this scarcely decorated and miniscule apartment but, she is not alone. Diouana is accompanied by one other inmate in her prison of solitude, the mask. The mask seen on the large white wall near the entryway of the apartment is one of Diouana’s keepsakes from Dakar that she gifted to her new French family. This mask is representative of many things: a reminder of the home Diouana now longs for, a peace offering given to her employers from Diouana, and a embodiment of Diouana herself. During a flashback scene, we see the moment when Diouana first gifts the mask to Madame, after the exchange, Monsieur exclaims “it’s the real thing,” and then continues to place the mask gifted by Diouana among a multitude of what seems to be other African artifacts collected by the couple. This scene supports the French’s fetishization of African culture during this time period and the fact that the couple only sees Diouana as another toy to add to their collection.

Following the movie’s tragic climax, Monsieur travels back to Dakar to return Diouana’s things back to her family. Among the many personal items that Diouana left behind was her mask. On Monsieur’s journey through Dakar, he is accompanied by a young boy who playfully follows Monsieur until they both reach Diouana’s mother and the young boy realizes what is wrong. Once the young boy has connected all the dots, he raises Diouana’s mask up to his own face and begins following Monsieur once more. This time, the boy following Monsieur has lost its playful fun and is now ominous. Viewers can infer that the young boy with the mask up to his face is representative of Diouana’s spirit following her past employer to make sure that he immediately goes back to France and does not bother anymore young African girls to be his housemaid so they do not suffer the same tragic end that she did.

Black Girl is a visually striking film that takes audiences on the journey of Diouana through her adventure into a new life in France gone wrong. The stark contrast that is found due to the film being shot in black and white shows the great divide between Diouana and her employers and their white counterparts. Black Girl is an extremely poetic film which allows a lot of room for interpretation on the audience’s part. This is unequivocally a landmark film that is a must watch for any film fanatics interested in postcolonial cinema.

Would I watch it again? Absolutely not.

Was it an interesting watch? Absolutely.

Would I recommend it to a friend? Nope.