MOI, UN NOIR

Reviewed by: Jamie Stockholm-Berthe

Moi, un noir is shot in the same vain as Jaguar. Like Jaguar, it is an instance of a collaborative effort resulting in a great piece of ethno-fiction and serves as an example of the practice referred to as shared anthropology. As was the case with Jaguar, when Rouch shot Moi, un noir synchronous sound did not exist, so Rouch invited Oumarou Ganda - who plays Edward G. Robinson (and who would go on to become a filmmaker himself) - into the studio to record the film’s sound track.

The film follows two fictional characters, Edward G. Robinson and Eddie Constantine, through the neighborhood of Treichville, an impoverished sector of the city of Abidjan on the Ivory Coast. Robinson and Constantine are young Nigerian immigrants who have settled into the margins of society. Their struggle to find work within this coastal community is what sets the stage for the film. The film opens with a piercing commentary from Edward G. Robinson regarding the aggravations of being unemployed and the frustrations of having no money. One can hear in the tones of his voice that Ganda's commentary is far from role-playing, he is commenting on his own life in Treichville. There is something simultaneously tragic and impressive about Edward G. Robinson/Oumarou Ganda. Quickly the viewer is confronted with the blantant injustices and difficulties of this young man’s life.

Influenced by popular culture and images of Hollywoodian happy endings, the film also reveals a paradoxical sense of hope that resides within these young men. Edward G. Robinson dreams of the day he will find a woman with whom he can settle down and have children. He is often disappointed by reality but, at the end of the film, we see that perhaps his only respite from the misery that surrounds him is to imagine that something better lays ahead.

Moi, un noir represents the first instance in western cinema in which an African spoke frankly about his conditions of life. It also marks the beginning of a French cinematic tradition of breaking taboos that began with Rouch and continued with the nouvelle vague.