La jeune fille

"The Young One" is a rare English-language enterprise for acclaimed director Luis Bunuel: a thoroughly perverse, unpleasant yet fascinating tale of corruption of innocence and racial prejudice. Bunuel, well-known as a provocateur, makes the black character (Bernie Hamilton, in a charismatic performance) the most positive one, and he takes advantage of Key Meersman's precocious, efortless eroticism (remember, this was made two years before Kubrick's "Lolita"). There is a great shot near the end of her playing hopscotch while wearing high heels which perfectly illustrates her duality - both a child and a woman. Terrific theme song, too. *** out of 4.

To viewers in 1960 this mostly seemed a rather turgid and unappealing tale of a bigot's reform, compromised by its trashy atmosphere. The key to the film, I believe, is Bunuel's admiration for the writing of the Marquis de Sade. The Zachary Scott character has a whole host of unexamined prejudices, not merely a racial one-- and when that one tumbles, his mind is liberated in all directions. The fact that this includes being "freed" from conventional sexual morality is the Sadean aspect of it-- as in A Clockwork Orange (but no other film that I can think of besides these two), true freedom is by no means an entirely positive or benevolent thing.

On the surface a simple little tale involving a middle aged white man, a young girl whose grandfather has just died and a black fugitive, later to be joined by a gung-ho racist and a priest. But simple, this is not. Beautifully photographed and leisurely told this is a tale of man's inhumanity to man, the corruption of innocence and the very nature of man. The young girl is central to the film and she gives a fantastic performance as she catches the eyes of all the men, yet retains her dignity throughout. It is not really true to consider her totally innocent from the start for she happily takes money for the 'stolen' items and intends to keep the cash for herself. What is more we assume she intends to buy dresses and make-up to make herself more beautiful. Tough though it may seem for her to become aware of such matters so young, we just have to accept it. She is reluctant for her relationship with Miller to become sexual, but not as unhappy as the priest and she has been promised more dresses and significantly a silver pistol, as she gleefully informs him after she survives his baptism. The racial affairs are extremely well portrayed, especially considering this is only 1960. The black character is a completely believable one and likable and seen to be liked by the young girl and eventually even by Miller. The priest (Is this the most sympathetic portrayal of a priest in a Bunuel film?) even offers to stand as witness at any trial. There will be no trial, the fugitive points out to him, showing he has just a little more grasp upon reality. One of the very many highlights in this, for me, was the young girl skipping happily towards the boat with the priest. She is wearing the high heels Miller has given her but she trips gayly along as if playing hopscotch and still, 'just a child'.

Young One, The (1960)

**** (out of 4)

An innocent black man (Bernie Hamilton) is accused of rape by a white woman so he runs off into the swamps of Louisiana. Once there he meets a young (11-13 year oldish) white girl (Key Meersman) and her racist guardian (Zachary Scott) who is also having sex with her. I've seen quite a few Luis Bunuel films now and earlier I said I wished he would do a normal film and tell a normal story without all the dreams and surreal aspects. Well, this is a film like that and I must say it's subject matter is still quite graphic and hard to watch even forty-six years after being released. I have a hard time imagining this thing got released in America due to its sexual and racist nature but apparently it did as the IMDb lists an American title for the film. It's also worth noting that this pre-dates To Kill a Mockingbird but this film here goes a lot further than that film even dreamed. The "N" word is constantly thrown around and unlike the blaxploitation films that would follow a decade later or the earlier Sidney Poitier films, that word has never had a more damaging saying than what's on display here. I'm not exactly sure what the director felt about race but every time that word is said it's used in such a graphic and evil way that you can't help but want to wash your ears out. Race is an issue throughout the film but thankfully Bunuel never lets his message get preachy. He lets the viewer see the hypocrisy and that's enough. The sexual aspect is also quite shocking since there are a couple love scenes between the older guardian and the younger girl. Bunuel also doesn't shy away from showing the girl taking a shower, showing shots of her legs and even a shot of her breasts. No nudity is used and in some ways this makes it seem all the more dirty because of the innocence lost. The performances are all remarkable and even in their most evil ways, the actors make you care for them. Scott steals the film as the racist redneck who's also having sex with the young girl. Just watch the actors eyes and you'll see him thinking, which is something a lot of actors don't do. The thinking of whether or not he should kill the black man and if it's right for him to be sleeping with this girl. The three actors are always looking at one another and you can see that they are thinking about their actions and what could follow. I was rather shocked to see this film get a * 1/2 in Leonard Maltin's movie guide but I guess this film would be rather hard to watch for most people. It doesn't shy away from its subject matter and Bunuel hits the viewer with punches from all sides. The film shows evil and bad people but he also shows the good in such people so it's rather refreshing to see a film that deals with race and isn't one sided towards any point of view.

"Cela S'Appelle L'Aurore" (1955) :the priest ,in the luxury of the bourgeois house ,can do nothing for the poor proletarian who has lost house ,wife and job......

"La Mort En Ce Jardin"(1956) :in the first part,the priests sing "Alleluia" in their churches when the dictatorship kills outside.....Later the heroes lost in the jungle will light a fire ,with the pages of the Bible!

But It was "Nazarin"(1958) which must be considered Bunuel 's greatest achievement as far as this subject is concerned.The whole movie deals with the life and times of a priest ,at odds with his hierarchy ,who tries to live like a saint and who will only get a pineapple (sexual symbol) at the end of his pitiful adventure.

"The Young One" continued in that vein.Although the priest is absent in the first hour,it's him who finally invents right and wrong as a doctrinaire religion imposes them on (more or less) innocent characters. The scene when the girl wants to bury grandpa with a bottle whiskey has something of all the old ancient pagan religions.Isn't it better than a cross?

My favorite scene remains that of the baptism,the girl's so-called golden key.It's almost a comical scene as the priest washes the body in the water and takes away the young one's sin.

It' a golden key to a rotten world:the black man understood that a long time ago ,he does not expect anything anymore from the white justice: this is not the part of a black man you could see in Hollywoodian flicks in 1960,no Uncle Tom and no Sidney Poitier style either..

"The young one' is a good movie,but I would not rate it as high as "Viridiana" or "Nazarin" the two greatest Bunuel achievements of the 1955-1965 era.