Boesman and Lena

An absorbing (although repetitive and rather didactic) analysis of exploitation and despair in a situation where there is no way forward or up, where the attempts to make yourself feel better by violating and putting down whoever is below you seems to be the only option. But even here, in this desolate wasteland of lost dreams and no future, that does not work, and reaching out to something or someone to comfort and share with, a simple act of charity, gives some reward, even if it just makes the present bearable by reviving memories of the past.

Although there is little actual on screen violence, this is a harsh and brutal film about the small mindedness of oppression (politically and personally) that does not make for easy entertainment. Clearly based on a play, with a small cast, a broader more expansive relation to the general social and political environment would possibly have helped the film to reach a wider audience.

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 : )

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.

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.