There are great movies about colonialism, like The Battle of Algiers or Lawrence of Arabia, which show the complicated relationships between settlers and natives and the natives' struggle for freedom. And then there are comedies like Black and White in Color which make you wonder how the settlers rose to power in the first place.
This biting comedy is a scathing indictment of French colonialism in Africa and is deliberately uneven in its portrayal of the French as a bunch of morons, drunks, cowards and hypocrites, apparently unable to handle their own lives let alone an empire.
The action begins in 1915. World War I started many months ago but news take a long time to get there, and the French go about their lives, oblivious, continuing their nice relations with their German neighbors just across the river. But when they receive newspapers with the war news, they decide it's time to declare war on their peaceful neighbors because France is wherever the French are settled.
So they recruit natives and go to war with disastrous consequences. One of my favorite sequences is when all the French settlers go on a picnic to watch the natives charge against the German fort. The French sit around in the shade, drinking wine and eating and commenting on the battle as if talking about sports. Then they hear the sound of machine guns and they realize things aren't as easy as they expected.
The Germans come across as better in this movie. That's evident from the beginning, when their flag is vibrantly waving in the wind, as opposed to the French one which stays still. The Germans are better equipped and trained, whereas the French go arrogantly into war without preparation. It's quite obvious who's the target of this movie.
But in the end this is an indictment of any country that's ever had colonies in Africa, whether it be France, Spain or Portugal. It's all here: the spite for the natives' culture, the Christian proselytizing, the assumption of European superiority. But the settlers are so dumb you wonder how they could have conquered anything in the first place, and the answer is clear: it's got nothing to do with intelligence or racial superiority, just good old strength in numbers and weapons.
Black and White in Color was made 33 years ago but it's still relevant today. Wherever nations continue to impose their will upon others through force, I don't doubt the same waste, abuses and incompetence depicted here will go on. For that reason, this movie is well worth watching.
This biting comedy is a scathing indictment of French colonialism in Africa and is deliberately uneven in its portrayal of the French as a bunch of morons, drunks, cowards and hypocrites, apparently unable to handle their own lives let alone an empire.
The action begins in 1915. World War I started many months ago but news take a long time to get there, and the French go about their lives, oblivious, continuing their nice relations with their German neighbors just across the river. But when they receive newspapers with the war news, they decide it's time to declare war on their peaceful neighbors because France is wherever the French are settled.
So they recruit natives and go to war with disastrous consequences. One of my favorite sequences is when all the French settlers go on a picnic to watch the natives charge against the German fort. The French sit around in the shade, drinking wine and eating and commenting on the battle as if talking about sports. Then they hear the sound of machine guns and they realize things aren't as easy as they expected.
The Germans come across as better in this movie. That's evident from the beginning, when their flag is vibrantly waving in the wind, as opposed to the French one which stays still. The Germans are better equipped and trained, whereas the French go arrogantly into war without preparation. It's quite obvious who's the target of this movie.
But in the end this is an indictment of any country that's ever had colonies in Africa, whether it be France, Spain or Portugal. It's all here: the spite for the natives' culture, the Christian proselytizing, the assumption of European superiority. But the settlers are so dumb you wonder how they could have conquered anything in the first place, and the answer is clear: it's got nothing to do with intelligence or racial superiority, just good old strength in numbers and weapons.
Black and White in Color was made 33 years ago but it's still relevant today. Wherever nations continue to impose their will upon others through force, I don't doubt the same waste, abuses and incompetence depicted here will go on. For that reason, this movie is well worth watching.