There have been numerous academic scholarly articles written about the “stereotypes” depicted in Orfeu Negro or “Black Orpheous”. It is absolutely not surprising at all that Obama or any other mindful viewer would become aware of the striking stereotypes of "Black bufoon sevants ", and Blacks that are only concerned with song and dance. To a contemporary viewer who is well aware of theblack stereotypes on screen this movie becomes the epitome of the song and dance african or the happy happy wide eyed smiling bufoon that became the condescending sterotype. Nevermind the exoticism of the African body dancing on display for the western world. It is no coincidence that Carnaval is known for the one time of the year that racial and socioeconomic borders are blurred. The remainder of th year these borders lines are not so well crossed…shown clearly in the film.
Obama’s reaction is not hateful or disturbing, it is an intellectual one, an insightful and real one for most academic scholars who have studied theory of film and literature.
Yes the movie has great music and dance,in fact it put the Bossa Nova movement on the map. But it also shows the racial problems in Brazil and the Western World when objectifying Blacks as exotic “others”.
I thought it was awesome, really awesome. I watched it on TheAuteurs.com around a year ago.
There is so much going on in this film at so many levels that I think it is very simplistic to write it off as just another Western conception of Brazilian culture after colonization. I think this film actually deserves a shot-by-shot or scene-by-scene analysis to fully appreciate just how rich it is.
Where is the West and whose culture is being objectified? (Especially when you have such a heterogeneous country as Brazil!)
I saw the film as more in line with some of the ideas aligned with the Cinema Novo and Tropicalia (and Neo-Concrete) movements in giving the body a transgressive moment of freedom in all the movement, dance, song, costumes, and color.
I thought BLACK ORPHEUS was most interesting and beautifully done.
meli
There have been numerous academic scholarly articles written about the “stereotypes” depicted in Orfeu Negro or “Black Orpheous”. It is absolutely not surprising at all that Obama or any other mindful viewer would become aware of the striking stereotypes of "Black bufoon sevants ", and Blacks that are only concerned with song and dance. To a contemporary viewer who is well aware of theblack stereotypes on screen this movie becomes the epitome of the song and dance african or the happy happy wide eyed smiling bufoon that became the condescending sterotype. Nevermind the exoticism of the African body dancing on display for the western world. It is no coincidence that Carnaval is known for the one time of the year that racial and socioeconomic borders are blurred. The remainder of th year these borders lines are not so well crossed…shown clearly in the film.
Obama’s reaction is not hateful or disturbing, it is an intellectual one, an insightful and real one for most academic scholars who have studied theory of film and literature.
Yes the movie has great music and dance,in fact it put the Bossa Nova movement on the map. But it also shows the racial problems in Brazil and the Western World when objectifying Blacks as exotic “others”.