Simple premise of this film is to follow the effects of colonialism on indigenous Africans via specific rituals developed as a reaction to the colonial system. The film turns into a crazy elaboration on both the madness of such a political system and man himself. At once we are amazed and confused by the violent and involved trance that the Africans take part in; however, we are, at the same time, forced to recognize the power that the camera may have over those in front of it. That is, the very "reality" of a documentary is dissolved or, at least, questioned. Disturbing and essential.
9 Reviews
Fascinating.
paulgeaf17 January 2011
This rare and interesting piece of film really struck me when I watched it. I was already expecting something like those old National Geographic films I remember seeing now and then as a kid, they must have shown them on TV at some point. This however is a bit different in that you are presented at times with quite horrific imagery and scenarios. As long as you have an open mind and are not going to get squeamish at the ritual sacrifice of a chicken, (a dog too but you do not see this at least), then I would say that everyone should watch this! These Africans are showing a quasi-religious ceremony that is an obvious reaction and mocking of the British colony masters. Each Hauka is dressed to represent some Colonel or General etc and they mock them whilst at the same time, showing a very intense and, at times, frightening display of trance and 'spiritual' behaviour. Watching this movie has opened my eyes to what I already loved to watch but did not know the term for it: Ethnographic Cinema. Ethnography. There are so many great films of records of Africans and Tribal peoples around the world and I find them so interesting. In fact this one isn't as good as a couple I already got a hold of and have just watched (Turkana Conversations Trilogy (1974) - Three films by David Macdougall & Judith Macdougall - Shot in Turkana, Kenya.) I highly recommend you checking those out if you find yourself being fascinated by this film.
French documentary short by ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch
AlsExGal18 September 2020
It details the bizarre religious practices of the Hauka, a sect of sub-Saharan Africans living and working in Accra, the largest city in Ghana. The Hauka gather at a nearby cocoa plantation to take part in their rituals, which consist of "spirit possession". They flail about as if in an epileptic fit, foaming at the mouth, sometimes bleeding from the mouth, shouting in gibberish, and attacking themselves and others. There's also some grisly animal sacrifices (a goat and a dog) but they're kept mostly off-screen. While I find the rituals ridiculous and depressing, I can respect the filmmaking involved. This has the feel of an early National Geographic piece, and an early version of the type of sensationalist stuff that would come out of Italy in the 1960's, with titles like Mondo Cane. Director Rouch's implication is that these bizarre rites are a result of a society set into turmoil by the evils of European colonialism, and he has a valid point. It's only about 30 minutes long, and not for the squeamish. Another short from one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
Reel Look: 'The Mad Masters'
JosephPezzuto17 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
"Some remedies that we still do not know." The ethnofiction (or "cine-transe") is a genre of film said to be created by the anthropologist, ethnologist and well-known French film director Jean Rouch (Chronicle of a Summer), his first being the 1955 half-hour plus short but harrowing feature entitled 'Les Maîtres Fous', or 'The Mad Masters'. But how does Rouch go about in filming the madness therein? Let's take a look.
The subject of the film: the Hauka movement in Accra which, according to some anthropologists was a form of resistance that began in Niger, but had spread to other parts of Africa. According to anthropologists, this ritual, though historic, was largely done to mock their authoritarianism by stealing their powers, trying to extract their life forces and not trying to emulate Europeans. Upon arriving in this certain district in Africa, we see the everyday men, working in jobs such as salt marketers, grass cutters, gold miners, etc. What thus occurs is the eventual eponymous actions carried out by these people. We, following Rouch in turn following these men into a bald spot in the jungle after a work day as he captures every intense frame of this dark pageant performed before our very eyes known well among the Hauka tribe: men begin foaming at the mouth, consume dog flesh and burn themselves with torches all while having summoned the souls of long-dead explorers who had traveled to Niger back in the late nineteenth century, some possessed by the "spirits" of that certain party, made up of a general, his wife, the guard corporal, a truck driver etc. The film was so controversial upon release that it was notably banned first in Niger, and then in British territories including Ghana. Today, the film still contains the raw power to disturb and does seem to reveal, sadly, the ugly side of the modern world. Deep in its intensity and unashamed of taking the bold risks Rouch did in capturing/showing the extreme, 'Les Maîtres Fous' is a fundamental revolution of a mortifying experience while also remaining a powerful study of robust visual anthropology.
The subject of the film: the Hauka movement in Accra which, according to some anthropologists was a form of resistance that began in Niger, but had spread to other parts of Africa. According to anthropologists, this ritual, though historic, was largely done to mock their authoritarianism by stealing their powers, trying to extract their life forces and not trying to emulate Europeans. Upon arriving in this certain district in Africa, we see the everyday men, working in jobs such as salt marketers, grass cutters, gold miners, etc. What thus occurs is the eventual eponymous actions carried out by these people. We, following Rouch in turn following these men into a bald spot in the jungle after a work day as he captures every intense frame of this dark pageant performed before our very eyes known well among the Hauka tribe: men begin foaming at the mouth, consume dog flesh and burn themselves with torches all while having summoned the souls of long-dead explorers who had traveled to Niger back in the late nineteenth century, some possessed by the "spirits" of that certain party, made up of a general, his wife, the guard corporal, a truck driver etc. The film was so controversial upon release that it was notably banned first in Niger, and then in British territories including Ghana. Today, the film still contains the raw power to disturb and does seem to reveal, sadly, the ugly side of the modern world. Deep in its intensity and unashamed of taking the bold risks Rouch did in capturing/showing the extreme, 'Les Maîtres Fous' is a fundamental revolution of a mortifying experience while also remaining a powerful study of robust visual anthropology.
a strange and often disturbing documentary short
framptonhollis7 April 2017
Saliva bursts from their shuddering mouths, forming bubbly clouds of white. Obviously, images such as these are quite shocking and unpleasant, but one must get used to them before delving into Jean Roach's twisted short film "The Mad Masters"
"The Mad Masters" is a film as weird and fascinating as its subject, a religious sect in West Africa. Roach's lens follows their often uncomfortable rituals, as they are "possessed" by spirits and even manage to drink blood. Throughout the film, many unforgettable images are exposed to the viewer. Whether these people are genuinely being possessed by spirits or not, there is no denying that their movements, actions, and noises whilst in such a state are quite petrifying. Their dances of painful possession shall forever remain in my cinematic memory as some of the strangest and most unbelievable content I have witnessed in a documentary film.
"The Mad Masters" is a film as weird and fascinating as its subject, a religious sect in West Africa. Roach's lens follows their often uncomfortable rituals, as they are "possessed" by spirits and even manage to drink blood. Throughout the film, many unforgettable images are exposed to the viewer. Whether these people are genuinely being possessed by spirits or not, there is no denying that their movements, actions, and noises whilst in such a state are quite petrifying. Their dances of painful possession shall forever remain in my cinematic memory as some of the strangest and most unbelievable content I have witnessed in a documentary film.
Ecstatic
Camoo22 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I had been looking for this film for a good three years to no avail. It had come highly recommended by one of my more esoteric friends, one of those people whose best lists are topped with films that nobody has ever seen nor heard of, so I figured it was a lost cause. But his manic and passionate description of this so-called documentary intrigued me, and I made a silent note in my head to keep my ears and eyes open. Soon it became my elusive holy film grail: I played detective, draining every possible resource from Kim's Video in New York to eBay...I even had a friend of mine scour the Smithsonian anthropology archives in my quest, but the search was fruitless, my energies depleted, my mind numb and wandering to more easily available filmmakers. Then last night, I watched the news: An rare planetary alignment expected tomorrow, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter... This was the same night I saw les Maitres Fous for the first time, in a chance screening at New York's Film Forum, presented by Werner Herzog, along with another great film called 'Sans Soleil' by Chris Marker. Talk about planetary alignment! Herzog presented it by saying this film was shot for virtually no money, on a 16mm Bolex wind-up camera, and the result was in his opinion, one of the greatest films ever made. I sat during this thirty odd minute experience, at first confused, then disturbed, then fascinated, then finally entrained. Whatever it was that I was privy to during this film was magnificently effective and at times profoundly disturbing and apocalyptic.
The film follows a tribe of West Africans in 1955 ruled and oppressed by British colonialists; they work hard labor, for little money, the same story told by generations of Africans when Europe had control over most of the continent. They devised initiation rituals within their tribe in which they work themselves into a kind of therapeutic ecstatic rage, 'possessed' by incarnations of the British elite class: soldiers, generals, governors; rituals that involve thriving, screaming, foaming at the mouth, self mutilation, flagellation, animal sacrifice, all as methods to protect themselves mentally and spiritually from what might be an otherwise rage-inducing role in colonial society. This enables them to resume labor the next day as subservient working class, but regenerated and spiritually cleansed.
In several bizarre sequences, we watch the very primal and brutal dances these young men put themselves through, in order to achieve the desired catharsis, akin to my memories of adolescence where I screamed and punched my walls at the top of my lungs until I was out of energy and breath, a natural reaction to bottled frustration -- a diversionary tactic to potential outward violence by inflicting the pain instead upon myself. They tap into this ingrained potential energy, and intuitive body rhythms, and at times it almost seems like a well choreographed dance, but there is a dark and primal spontaneous sense all though these ritual that while it is very theatrical, the pain and empathy is very real. Herzog afterwords even called it 'a deep glance into the darkest hell and abyss of the human soul'... The rituals are also very creative and surreal, compared to the dull monotony of their everyday jobs, it seems a rather positive, albeit extreme, outlet for these energies and frustrations. In a spectacular series of final shots, we see these same men the next day, in their 'proper' societal roles, as truck drivers, salesmen, hospital attendants, all smiling for the camera, as though the day before had never happened.
It's disturbing that their rituals are what modern day psychology might call 'coping mechanisms'. This kind of collective spiritual purging is virtually unseen or unspoken of in Western society, where I can only imagine it would be considered taboo or blasphemy to act out some of what these men do. The film is endlessly fascinating, and an essential ethnographic document, though how much is 'documentary', I do not know. It is so enormously powerful and surreal it is hard to believe that any of it is 'real'. I suppose the word 'real' is inefficient at describing any film, document or not, but what is fact is that undoubtedly these men and the theater-going audience were profoundly affected. I would say that the larger picture was revealed to me by the end of this film, and it connects all cultures around the world: Society creates the need for such irrational and insane practices, just in order to maintain order and sanity.
The film follows a tribe of West Africans in 1955 ruled and oppressed by British colonialists; they work hard labor, for little money, the same story told by generations of Africans when Europe had control over most of the continent. They devised initiation rituals within their tribe in which they work themselves into a kind of therapeutic ecstatic rage, 'possessed' by incarnations of the British elite class: soldiers, generals, governors; rituals that involve thriving, screaming, foaming at the mouth, self mutilation, flagellation, animal sacrifice, all as methods to protect themselves mentally and spiritually from what might be an otherwise rage-inducing role in colonial society. This enables them to resume labor the next day as subservient working class, but regenerated and spiritually cleansed.
In several bizarre sequences, we watch the very primal and brutal dances these young men put themselves through, in order to achieve the desired catharsis, akin to my memories of adolescence where I screamed and punched my walls at the top of my lungs until I was out of energy and breath, a natural reaction to bottled frustration -- a diversionary tactic to potential outward violence by inflicting the pain instead upon myself. They tap into this ingrained potential energy, and intuitive body rhythms, and at times it almost seems like a well choreographed dance, but there is a dark and primal spontaneous sense all though these ritual that while it is very theatrical, the pain and empathy is very real. Herzog afterwords even called it 'a deep glance into the darkest hell and abyss of the human soul'... The rituals are also very creative and surreal, compared to the dull monotony of their everyday jobs, it seems a rather positive, albeit extreme, outlet for these energies and frustrations. In a spectacular series of final shots, we see these same men the next day, in their 'proper' societal roles, as truck drivers, salesmen, hospital attendants, all smiling for the camera, as though the day before had never happened.
It's disturbing that their rituals are what modern day psychology might call 'coping mechanisms'. This kind of collective spiritual purging is virtually unseen or unspoken of in Western society, where I can only imagine it would be considered taboo or blasphemy to act out some of what these men do. The film is endlessly fascinating, and an essential ethnographic document, though how much is 'documentary', I do not know. It is so enormously powerful and surreal it is hard to believe that any of it is 'real'. I suppose the word 'real' is inefficient at describing any film, document or not, but what is fact is that undoubtedly these men and the theater-going audience were profoundly affected. I would say that the larger picture was revealed to me by the end of this film, and it connects all cultures around the world: Society creates the need for such irrational and insane practices, just in order to maintain order and sanity.
The Mad Masters
jboothmillard24 February 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This may not be listed in any film books, but this thirty-minute documentary is in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so that has to be a good reason to give it a go. This was filmed in 1954 by ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch who was invited to the Western African city of Accra to document a small group of Hauka, the black community, as they do their yearly religious ritual. Throughout the course of the ceremony, many of the people went into a trace-like state, possessed by the spirits representing French Colonialist Administrators, or the "white oppressors". These would include the engineer, the doctor's wife, the governor-general and the cruel major, and besides that is no real purpose or meaning behind the film, it is just simply seeing some African people acting peculiar in a few moments. Even being Docu-fiction, this film supposedly caused a lot of controversy for its racist material, i.e. mocking of whites, so much so that it was banned from cinemas. I can't really comment on my opinions on that, I don't I was paying full attention to understand it all, but I certainly didn't get bored with it, so I guess it is something to be seen. Good!
Hailed Garbage
Rodrigo_Amaro23 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
It has to be one of the most irresponsible and confusing film choices to be included in a reverenced book, the classic "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die". Here's "Les Maîtres Fous" a pointless docufiction, the first ever created actually, whose scenes aren't sublime, interesting, positive, but it can make us disgusted, horrified for a few moments, and feeling that the director had nothing better to do with his and our time.
The "1001 Movies..." book only included this short film simply because (I believe) a new genre was created and as a matter of fact not much of a good one, since mixing both types of art (reality and fiction in a documentary) tends to be forced, always unrealistic, always acted and it's very hard to someone relate with it since how can one knows where fiction ends and reality begins? Too much abo about nothing!
Here we have wild Africans who appear in front of camera drooling, doing weird movements, possessed by some demon or something and they're being "healed" by allegedly exorcists called "governors", and their "healing" process consists of sacrificing animals (a dog has its throat sliced up with the blood drunk by the possessed, to later have its parts eaten). By the time the film reached this infamous part I was confused, quite shocked and I wasn't seeing any relevance to showing a culture being portrayed the way they weren't in real life. Also the fact about the black people making fun of white people, which caused some controversy at the time of its release but this is almost unnoticed. But what amazes me the most is the last minutes of its projection when we're able to look how wonderful actors these "possessed men" were when the director tells us what they do, showing them in their jobs, smiling and with no creatures inside their bodies telling what to do. Class acting!
It takes a few minutes but those minutes count in someone's lives. I could be a better person in half an hour instead of watching this; I could have been watching again the first half hour of my favorite film instead of this. You can do better and greater things than watching this silly movie, but if you, like me are going on a crusade after the 1001 movies, well, you can waste a few minutes away. It's not the worst film of all but it is the worst of its kind. The only people who likes this stuff are the ones who are easily impressed by the wilderness, uncivilized people and their acts. I like these themes when better developed, and when it states a point of view on our lives and the habitants living in the jungle. Godard and Deodato shocked us and they made more relevant things than this dull project of film. 3/10.
The "1001 Movies..." book only included this short film simply because (I believe) a new genre was created and as a matter of fact not much of a good one, since mixing both types of art (reality and fiction in a documentary) tends to be forced, always unrealistic, always acted and it's very hard to someone relate with it since how can one knows where fiction ends and reality begins? Too much abo about nothing!
Here we have wild Africans who appear in front of camera drooling, doing weird movements, possessed by some demon or something and they're being "healed" by allegedly exorcists called "governors", and their "healing" process consists of sacrificing animals (a dog has its throat sliced up with the blood drunk by the possessed, to later have its parts eaten). By the time the film reached this infamous part I was confused, quite shocked and I wasn't seeing any relevance to showing a culture being portrayed the way they weren't in real life. Also the fact about the black people making fun of white people, which caused some controversy at the time of its release but this is almost unnoticed. But what amazes me the most is the last minutes of its projection when we're able to look how wonderful actors these "possessed men" were when the director tells us what they do, showing them in their jobs, smiling and with no creatures inside their bodies telling what to do. Class acting!
It takes a few minutes but those minutes count in someone's lives. I could be a better person in half an hour instead of watching this; I could have been watching again the first half hour of my favorite film instead of this. You can do better and greater things than watching this silly movie, but if you, like me are going on a crusade after the 1001 movies, well, you can waste a few minutes away. It's not the worst film of all but it is the worst of its kind. The only people who likes this stuff are the ones who are easily impressed by the wilderness, uncivilized people and their acts. I like these themes when better developed, and when it states a point of view on our lives and the habitants living in the jungle. Godard and Deodato shocked us and they made more relevant things than this dull project of film. 3/10.
Bizarre yes, entertaining not that much
Horst_In_Translation28 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Les maîtres fous" is as you probably guessed correctly from the title already a French French-language documentary from 1955, so this one is from over 60 years ago already and the man who made this is Jean Rouch for whom this was an early, but not very early career effort. Apparently there exist several versions of this one, but the 36-minute version listed on IMDb is one I couldn't find anywhere. All I found was a few minutes short of the half-hour mark, but honestly this is also enough given the material in here, which was bizarre and strange yes, also if we compare what we see in here (an African tribe) to what the narrator tells at times. This surely isn't a purely informative piece we got here. I would agree with those saying it is a mockumentary, even if there is certainly a great deal of truth and social commentary perhaps too attached to this project. I am kinda surprised to see how well-known this film still is today and I can only attribute it to the absurdity of it all. To me, it looks like one that would not really attract the masses. Anyway, I personally did not particularly enjoy the film and my suggestion is that it may be best to skip. Doesn't say really anything positive in my opinion if this is a contender for Rouch's most famous. Don't watch "The Mad Masters".
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