Youre too young to understand, she says, while at the same time treating Eve as an adult by sharing her most visceral memories. Perhaps thats why its the only film my mother and I agree on. Because Cicely's emotions and thoughts were conflicted (perhaps due to transitioning from a child to a woman), the rebuttal from the second kiss, and her dispassion for her mother, Eve saw only what entangled in Cicely's mind. It was like poetry.. We celebrated my 10th birthday in the car with McDonalds and I remember reading the script. The film is about an African American family's encounter with a Voodoo entity in Louisiana in 1962. 808 certified writers online. The appearance of the entity associated with Voodoo that occurs between the trees, is to give a feeling of the danger that belies the Batistes family. Eves scream was also used to convey the fear of impending danger. When I initially watched this film with my older sister, I was still a girl myself. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Branford Marsalis, Lisa Nicole Carson, Meagan Good, Jurnee Smollett, and Diahann Carrol. You will immediately be placed into the cue wait time is normally 2 weeks. Lemmons has said she approached Bayou like a painting. Jouissance, as indicative of the drive that exposes divided desire, is never formally stabilized in a perfectly imposed conceptualization of consent. Eve's older sister Cicely (played by Meagan Good), a girl on the threshold of womanhood, seems particularly torn by the disintegration of the Batiste family. I always kind of want to be that free again. The opening sequence of Eve's Bayou which depicts a cocktail party, introduces nearly all of the film's primary characters, and runs almost exactly 20 minutesbelongs in the pantheon of . Most of the characters are of a racially mixed heritage, though they live as African Americans. Eve's Bayou movie clips: http://j.mp/1e6PYl0BUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/1e6PYkSDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTION:Loui. Jurnee Smollett and Lynn Whitfield in Eve's Bayou . Smollett, making her feature film debut, brings an exuberance and tenderness to the characters emotional life. A flashback is used during the session to portray specifically what the man is afraid of. The love for what I do, I found it in that project, Smollett-Bell said. (A flashback to that night: Louis and his wife Roz are fighting. The sound effect used in this scene helped the audience to experience empathy for Cicely and Eves. What did little Eve see--and how will it haunt her? Talk to an operator now This will not be a simple-minded story that breathlessly races from A to B. Eve's Bayou opens with a line that's as haunting as they come: "Memory is the selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain." This is the voice of Eve Batiste, who continues, "The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old." With this layered introduction, the mysterious film, written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, immerses us in the past, filtered . 1997 was the year that both Eve's Bayou and Contact were released, and they were two of the better films I . Did Cisely kiss Louis or did Louis kiss Cisely? Nonstop pride., Kasi Lemmons: I had shot some stuff where the girls got older and that was the way the script was originally written, that it resolved when the girls were older teenagers and I had their sisters playing them and they were wonderful! Eves Bayou Film opens in media res (in the middle of the story). Stop Saying There Are No Coming Of Age Films About Black Girls. It concerns Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett), the youngest daughter of the respected and popular doctor Louis . Is Still a Stunning Portrait of Black American Life. She was 88. The film, written and . Following the reveal of the truth, Cicely, crying, tells Eve that she still does not know what happened. Not a seer like Eve, Cicely occupies the place of the spectator in this scene insofar as there is no (signifiable) clarification of the images that the spectator sees of the incestuous encounter, differing from what has usually been happening with the various seer-sequences throughout the film. We understand that being a college student can be an expensive endeavor. There is accuracy in these film portrayals; while Grace is typified as a girls name, its so often a boys birthright. The train soundtrack was also used to represent the inherent risk. This film has too many subjects and themes. Lynn Whitfield, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Meagan Good, Jake Smollett and director Kasi Lemmons talk about the film on its anniversary. She was pedantic about her worldbuilding, and this shows in the meticulous frames, the actors embodiments of their roles, and the lulling watercolors of the land. Support CashApp : https://cash.app/$StruggleReviewzTVVenmo: https://get.venmo.com/hwCYxmhPSsb StruggleReviewz_TVInstagram: struggle_reviewz.tv https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChCuV-xlN77/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=Movie Request: To request a movie or album review send your payment directly to my CashApp with the movie title and the year its release. 300 words/page There are two types of narrative structures: linear and non-linear. Louis said goodnight to Matty and Mr. Mereaux shot and killed Louis. The movie has remained as a career high-point for Lemmons as well as her talented cast members. The second, Maynard, was shot by Mozelle's jealous lover. Starring Lynn Whitefield, Samuel L. Jackson, Diahann Carroll, Debbi Morgan, Jurnee Smollett and Meagan Good, the film was groundbreaking. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. In the original Boy Who Cried Wolf fable by Aesop, the crying boy had several opportunities to lie before he was disbelieved. I was glad to discover your service and Im not afraid to address it anymore. That was really an important moment for me where I felt my life were in the hands of these very young actresses and I think they just did tremendous work.. Bayou is seen through the eyes of a partial bystander Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett). 1997 gothic drama starring Jurnee Smollett, Samuel L. Jackson, and Lynne Whitfield. Photofest. Eves coming-of-age is undergirded by the sense that shes realizing the mortality and tragedies of her parents. For the viewer, it is a reminder that sometimes films can venture into the realms of poetry and dreams, he wrote in his original review. Roger Ebert was a champion of the film when it was released, comparing it to the work of Ingmar Bergman and Tennessee Williams. When Eve asks Mozelle how to kill someone with voodoo, she angrily answers, "You can't kill people with voodoo! Starring Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Meagan Good, Jake Smollett and Diahann Carroll, the film received accolades including nominations for the 1998 NAACP Image Awards. Speaking at the National Film Theatre about the film in 1998, Jackson noted, Studios looked at the script, and said Who is gonna come and see this? Just because we couldnt put a hip-hop soundtrack on it meant it wasnt going to be Soul Food. Ive seen two narratives: that cicely was obsessed with the dad and tried to kiss him leading to him slapping her, but Im more inclined to believe that Louis was m*******g his daughter? But this does not result in a pure knowledge of the unknowability of incest forbothEve and Cicely, and specifically not for the spectator. Im striving for some of the freedom that I had then because I didnt know as much and maybe I took greater risks.. Smollett, who played Poe Batiste, expresses how Lemmons depiction of a Black family shows the true importance of representation. After Kasi Lemmons screened a director's cut of EVE'S BAYOU in Toronto, she said, "I was looking for a cinematographer who has an emotionality. Writer: Kimani Leftridge The Black American community has produced quite the catalog of legendary cinema over the past 50 years or so. As the plucky heart of the film, Jurnee Smollett-Bell gives an unadorned performance packed with feisty innocence, and she and Meagan Good, who was actually considered for Smollett-Bell's role during the long pre-production period of the movie, are convincing as their characters sway among strong . The flashback of Mozelles deceased husband is used, again, to evoke fear and the risk inherent in her marrying another man. The rich cinematography by Amy Vincent, careful costume design by Karyn Wagner, and evocative editing by Terilyn A. Shropshire create a marvelous tableau of rural Louisiana life in the 1960s. Her father, Louis (Jackson), is a doctor, and her mother, Roz (Whitfield), minds the family. Omg-Just rewatching (it's on Prime) and he absolutely molested Cicely. Eve (Jurnee Smollett): . Husband, father and womanizer Louis Batiste is the head of an affluent family, but it's the women who rule this gothic world of secrets, lies and mystic forces.What did little Eve see--and how will it haunt her? Dave Dave is the cheerful Native American cook at the Brick. Being a 10-year-old shooting a film and having to be in that mode the majority of the film, I still look back to that and Im like wow. This was a delightfully good movie. 2023 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. You okay? Im like, Yeah, Im fine. Sam was as equally nervous. I think Kasi had such a command with her approach. The close-up shot of Cicely in the garden portrays tension and her vulnerability in the form of a genuine fear for her life. That we have other ways of dealing with each other. Morgans performance is rightly considered the strongest for how she carefully mines the melodrama of this tale and grants it more gravitas than any of her co-stars. When Jackson came onboard as a star and producer, the film finally became a reality. With Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Good, Lynn Whitfield, Samuel L. Jackson. | Samuel L. Jackson served as a producer, and starred in the film with Lisa Nicole Carson, Jurnee Smollett, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Morgan, Meagan Good and Diahann Carroll. In addition to her interest in microcosmic films, she is a student of Black American literature and speculative fiction writing. EVE'S BAYOU Directed by Kasi Lemmons Starring Samuel Jackson, Lynn Whitfield. While it is not completely known the exact details of Harry's death, in Eve's vision, she sees a car crashing, so one could assume his death resulted from that. Nonetheless, as the origin story is being told, the mysterious figure of Eve appears and vanishes into the land that she is rewarded, first into the bayou itself (figure 2) and then into the trees of the land (figure 3). Set in the Louisiana bayou country in the 60's, it is a wonderful story of a well-to-do black family caught up in family tensions that drive the plot but never overpower the family's love for each other. After the mother slaps Cisley on her face the close up on the mothers face shows both fear and anger toward daughter. The premiered at the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in theaters on November 7, 1997. Then she wrote about a Creole family in Louisiana revolving around the father, a well-respected colored doctor, Louis Batiste. The question of who initiated incestuous encounter between Cicely and her father is never resolved by the films conclusion. ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc. Add the fact that Elzora also already knows that Louis is going to die, and you have a clear opportunity for Elzora to not only profit off of Eve, but get revenge on Mozelle by causing psychological trauma to her own niece. The use of non-diegetic sounds and the use of the asynchronous sound of a woman narrating the film gives the viewers an uncomfortable foreshadowing of Eves possible impending doom. : r/blackladies. Watching Eve prod her father into truthfulness when she accompanies him along his route caring for local patients, and navigating her mothers icy, perfectly curated demeanor, speaks to the awakening the character is undergoing. Haunting Magic: On Eves Bayou, 20 Years Later. Hailed as the best film of 1997 by film critic Roger Elbert and also an indie success in the American film world that year, this film spoke to audiences from coast to coast which translated into box office ticket sales and plenty of critiques on race, class and gender. So, to me, it wasnt controversial. The use of black and white film effectively gives viewers a feeling of fear, and also effectively portrays the taboo inherent in the clandestine encounter. A drunken Mr. Mereaux confronted Louis in a night club about having an affair with his wife, Matty. In a Netflix comedy by Katharine McPhees stepdaughter. The family members include a ten years old daughter , Eve Batiste, her older sister Cisely, their young brother, Poe, the father, Louis, their beautiful mother, Roz, and Eve's Aunt Mozelle. Youngest daughter of the drive that exposes divided desire, is never stabilized. & # x27 ; s Bayou Directed by Kasi Lemmons starring Samuel Jackson, and mother! 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