Boesman and Lena

I did not read anything about the film before I watched it, by chance, last Saturday evening. And then, as I was watching it, I felt the misery of Lena and Boesman into my bones. I was so captivated by the acting and the tone and the filming that I listened only partially to the dialogues. My husband fell asleep soon after we went to bed and I was sleepless, under the impact of the film. I wanted to wake him up just to say:"if I would ever vote for an Oscar nomination, it would be for these two actors." I decided to wait until the next day. Then I read more about the film on IMDb, and was sad to learn that Mr. Berry died before the release of the film and that he had probably never seen the last version of his brilliant masterpiece. I still want to tell him that to me his film was a true independent film, in its concept and spirit. The actors are to be praised not only for their brilliant performance but for accepting a part with no shine, no showing off, well to the contrary, displaying the true image of human depression. Sad but poignant.

It's always nice to see Angela Bassett getting to do a role that she can really sink her teeth into. She is at times intense, funny and even sexy in her role as Lena, a "colored" woman forced to make a home on a desolate mudbank just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Danny Glover is also good in a not entirely sympathetic role as her partner, Boesman. Willie Jonah gives a finely nuanced performance as the stranger that discovers Boesman and Lena's new living area. It's not often that you get a chance to see an intelligent film dealing with mature themes. Although it is based on a play, the late director John Berry (who also directed Claudine) opens the material up by having the film shot in the widescreen Cinemascope format. He also keeps things visually interesting through the creative blocking of actors and by showing us things only mentioned in the play. Just like Diahann Carroll in Claudine, John Berry may have directed Angela Bassett into an Academy Award nomination. This is definitely a film worth searching for.

Athol Fugard actually spoke at my college graduation. At the time, I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of him, but after hearing him speak (to be honest, it was so long ago, I can't really remember anything specific he said – just that he was impressive), I went out and read a couple of his plays – Master Harold and the Boys and The Island. I found them to be very poetic, lyrical works. Boesman and Lena is no different, as sort of a South African version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The writing is astoundingly good, both in its sharp, but unpretentious dialogue and in the twisting, careful shape of its narrative. The writing is at the heart of the film version of Boesman and Lena, even if its (second) transition to film is a little bumpy.

A common issue when adapting a play for the screen is how to make it cinematic. Plays are frequently long on talk and short on visuals (Angels in America is an exception – while still talky (and very esoteric), it has outstanding visuals built in). They also usually take place in one or two locations and have only a few longish scenes. Longish scenes are frequently problematic on screen. Films need to move and create pace and rhythm – more so now than ever before due to the ever increasing dip in attention spans. This is where Boesman and Lena suffers. It seems that director John Berry was aware of this because every once and awhile, he inserts some wordless flashbacks to give a sense of B&L's history, but it is not enough to make the movie seem filmic in any way. As a matter of fact, sometimes the flashbacks are hindrances – some made things more confusing instead of helping to illuminate anything, but I certainly applaud the effort.

Only three actors have lines in Boesman and Lena one of them is for a single line only. If you're going to have two actors dominate a film, they should be actors the likes of Danny Glover and Angela Bassett. They take full advantage of the juicy roles provided by Mr. Fugard. Glover and particularly Bassett are outstanding as the title characters, respectively. Bassett gives the best performance on Reel 13 yet – in a classic or an indie as the strong-willed, but mentally confused Lena. She is powerful, funny, charming and captivating. She is able to own Lena in all her states of mind. Glover reminds us of why he was the go to African-American actor of the 80's before the Lethal Weapon series hurt his serious thesp rep. The general conception is that Glover didn't have the passion or the skill anymore to challenge himself to do interesting work (see Robert DeNiro), but this proves that he still has the goods and is a cry to other filmmakers to start taking Danny Glover seriously again.

Boesman and Lena is proof that film-making has significantly more to it than writing and performance. This film had those in spades, but at the end of the day, the supreme talents of Glover, Bassett and Fugard are not enough to make Boesman and Lena a great film. They needed a different kind of writing and direction – they needed to work harder to fit the story of B&L into a cinematic framework (For example, what if they didn't stay in one place for the movie – what if the conversation(s) took place over several days on the journey? It might not solve everything, but it would be a start). Until then, I can only recommend seeing Boesman and Lena on a live stage, where it belongs.

Baseman and Lena is not a typical Hollywood or American film production. Actually, it more closely resembles Bergman's Wild Strawberries than anything I've seen before, which makes sense because the film's director, John Berry, hails from Hollywood's Golden Age. Berry's style reflects the era of the 40s and 50s— Boesman and Lena was his last film, I believe.

The performances from Angela Basset and Danny Glover were outstanding—far beyond Oscar worthy. The story is rather comprehensive and nuanced, but the setting is mostly stagnant, which would lead some to mislabel the piece as simple and boring. Yes, it was a play originally, but the cast brings an energy and realism to the story that is difficult to put into words. If you appreciate the work of Angela Basset or Danny Glover, I think you would be fascinated with this movie. If you are a student, teacher, professor, or just like learning about post-colonial African history —specifically the socioeconomic disparities of South Africa—then this would be a good film to supplement a research paper or analysis of some kind.

My only word of advice would be to ignore the reviews, including mine. Just as an aside, I went through Loyola Marymount's film school, and was exposed to a bunch of directors who are considered avant-garde and hoity-toity today, such as Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica, Godard, Cacoyannis, Camus, Truffaut, Renoir, Tarkovsky, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Weir, Bergman, Capra, Welles, Ford, Kurosawa, Zhang Yimou, Kaurismaki, Townsend, Mallick, Luis Bunuel, and Spike Lee, to name a few. After all that, I can say that John Berry's Boesman and Lena is on par with all of those film directors work in terms of depth of storytelling, acting, and the level of catharsis the film provided. So I would just encourage you to watch the film with a fresh pair of eyes in the same way you would watch some fancy-pants classic film : )

] Haven't seen this film? Haven't even heard of this film? It wouldn't surprise me. One of the few truly "independent" films produced in the last ten years, no studio had faith in the picture and it was never picked up for major distribution. The independent company Kino Films, gave BOESMAN AND LENA a very limited run with virtually no promotion, and the majority of major film critics didn't even bother reviewing it. I guess a movie based on a one act, one set play about the apartheid and its affect on two individuals never really had a chance in today's market - and it's the intelligent film-lover's loss.

For the record, both Angela Bassett and Danny Glover deserved Ocsar nominations (as did the cinematographer) but the film received such little fanfare that I can't even blame the academy on that one. This is a film that is challenging, thought-provoking, and heartbreaking, and it actually requires the audience to meet it on it's own terms. Taking that into consideration, it is definitely not a movie for mindless entertainment. Director John Berry wisely does not attempt to dress-up Athol Fugard's play. Sure, we're given a few fractured flashbacks and some breathtaking scenic shots, but the film version of BOESMAN AND LENA remains, on the whole, a story of two people living in inhumane conditions.

Stripped of their basic human rights, Boesman (Glover) and Lena (Bassett) have no one left to attack but each other. A third character joins them for awhile (Willie Jonah, amazing in a largely silent role), but the film's focus never strays from the title characters and what they've become. Bassett and Glover give brave performances as the broken couple, performances that simply could not be improved upon. Vigorously and brutally stimulating, both intellectually and emotionally, BOESMAN AND LENA deserves to be rediscovered of home video. Hands down, one of the best film of the year 2000.