Charleston Parade (1927)

Shot in three days, this surreal, erotic silent short shows a native white girl teaching a futuristic African airman the Charleston dance.

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

André Cerf (idea by), Pierre Lestringuez (scenario)

Stars:

Catherine Hessling, Johnny Hudgins, Pierre Braunberger

Cast

Cast overview:
Catherine Hessling	...	Parisian Savage
Johnny Hudgins	...	African Explorer
Pierre Braunberger	...	Angel
André Cerf	...	Angel
Pierre Lestringuez	...	Angel
Jean Renoir	...	Angel

Storyline

Shot in three days, this surreal, erotic silent short shows a native white girl teaching a futuristic African airman the Charleston dance.

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Genres:

Short | Sci-Fi

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Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Jean Renoir: An Auteur to Remember (2007)

User Reviews

"That is how White aborigines culture became fashionable in Africa"

I enjoy science-fiction just as much as the next man… but what the hell was that? Apparently shot over just three days using excess film stock left over from his previous film, 'Nana (1926),' this Jean Renoir short is a bewildering futuristic satire, produced on a budget that couldn't have been much more than zero. In the year 2028, following a great war, Africa has become the most civilised region on Earth, and what was formerly Europe has been designated "Terres Inconnues (Unknown Land)." An African explorer – played by Johnny Huggins, a Black man dressed up as a White man dressed up as a Black man, if you follow me – travels to the ruins of Paris in his spherical aircraft, and lands outside the lair of a Parisian savage (Catherine Hessling, then the director's wife) and her primate companion, perhaps the creepiest ape-man costume I've ever seen. The savage, as part of some bizarre sexual initiation ritual, starts showing the explorer the Charleston dance, which he is delighted to learn himself.

It doesn't help the film that Hessling, who was wonderful the following year in Renoir's 'The Little Match Girl (1928),' isn't much of a dancer, though the extensive use of slow-motion adds a touch of surrealism to the ceremony. Furthermore, I'm quite shocked that Renoir would exploit his own wife as such a blatant sexual object – it doesn't come as a surprise to learn of their divorce just three years later! On the plus side, I did like the general sci-fi concept behind the film, and the slyly satiric touch of the reversing the racial roles usually typical in such stories as this. However, why Renoir decided to dress up his Black actor as a minstrel will remain a mystery for all of time. Silly, crude and quite pointless, 'Charleston Parade (1927)' is a cinematic oddity from one of cinema's most respected directors, and is perhaps an effort that he would have liked to forget. The DVD version came without a musical soundtrack, but I compromised with a selection of pieces from Dmitri Shostakovich.

Details

Country:

France

Release Date:

19 March 1927 (France)

Also Known As:

Charleston

Company Credits

Production Co:

Néo-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

17 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1