Vénus noire

Was this film 3 hours long or fourteen? Kechiche takes us across borders (Africa / Europe, Dead / Living, Savage / Civilized) in a movie that has the gravitas and sensual weight of a kind of stations of the cross. The "Venus" is our Christ, suffering for and as the direct result of our sins, chief among those the blindness we call racism. Potently, even explosively mixed with virulent sexism, racism shapes the ever more horrible experience of the film's subject, as she is reduced (figuratively and then literally) to an object. The film is gorgeous, infinitely wise about the costs of being marked (trapped in the legibly different body), smart about the role that money plays in the ongoing betrayal (if Judas saw this film he'd really feel rooked: the point is not to sell out Christ, the point is how many times you can--for an increasing price--take trust to market), and worth every minute of horrified attention. Then--you ask-- why an "8"? Of course we are (as the film is eager to point out), as spectators, aligned with all those who want to look at this...complicated site of excitements--but we are also (in tight close-up for the tears that always start in Yahima Torres' left eye) vaguely miserable with her (growling at the end of a chain is okay, being touched is--at first--not) and then...nowhere. Who was she? What did she (aside from bright red leather gloves and a tres joli hat) want? There's something about this film, in other words, that seems just about as hard and cold and stiff as the plaster cast of the Hottentot, which seems always just on the verge of coming to life.

it is not only the pain of lead character but , in a special form, the pain of viewer. because not only racism and exploitation of a woman vulnerability are the subjects but large manner to discover, in each period, in each society, the other, the stranger, the strange, the exotic victim who inspire fake feeling of power. it is the film of an admirable actress and a necessary lesson about sins who are not absolved. it is a kind of mirror. more than touching, it is terrible. more than terrible it is honest image of a circle. and , maybe, image of a sacrifice who has as axis the force of silence. a powerful message. reflection of profound pain. that is all. and the image of a human been as ordinary tool.

This movie should be half an hour. There are same scenes over and over. Okey we got it that the woman is suffering under a very horribble man but we do not know what she thinks . She keeps her silent thorough the movie.

The storytelling is not sufficient altough the subject is perfect.

Anyway i am very sorry for that woman and shame on those white people so called "the founder of modern world"

Pros: A very important tale worth telling.

A true depiction of a strong black woman, who did what she had to do to survive.

I saw the story as a metaphor for how every European country took advantage of the continent of Africa.

Cons: I hate the fact that what took place in the film, happened to many people of African descent.

I finally watched this movie earlier today with a sorrowful heart after first hearing about it a couple of years ago. hard to get it here in Indonesia on DVD, finally got it on two split You Tube downloads.

Yes this is not a film for the faint hearted, it is extremely graphic and harsh in its direction to say the least and certainly long at 2 hours 40 minutes (comparable with the Hobbit which I saw on new Years Eve).

The film is an artistic portrayal of a dignified South African tribal woman who is abused and misled once she arrives first to England and then later to Paris. However, it lacks artistic direction and balance. Not a contradiction in terms exactly.

for example, the opening scene shows her being exhibited in a medical seminar and the end of the movie displays her physical remains which would later be put in a Paris Musueum. My point is that the Director could have taken more attention to detail and put the lady into a greater prospective, perhaps a prequel to the main part of the story (the recent Johnny Depp movie 'Dark shadows" a case in point) showing the lady in her tribal land and how she met the Doctor before arriving to England. The explanation in the movie is all too bland and passed over for the most part. The same applied for the ending although there were some explanatory subtitles and compensating visual glimpses of when she was returned to South Africa.

What we see in this film is no different from what still goes on in our world today but in a different way. We go-global in order to see the very thing that this humble woman was subjected to and we pay to see it, sometimes on the internet - animals as well as humans - and it is only perhaps in western countries that there are anti-voice against the abuse in circuses.

We should watch this film and want to be shocked. Unlike the spectators shown throughout the film, we have the benefit of a greater education and enhanced knowledge but abuse such as Saartje Baartman is shown to endure in the movie, goes on to this day.

There was a lack of cohesion at times in the transition from going London to Paris and then later when Saartje found herself in the Brothels. Yes, she drank and smoked and was inevitably sensitive and temperamental given her real life role play but this is indeed an extraordinary film about an extraordinary woman who is extraordinary for her courage and determination and not so unordinary from any other woman except for her buttocks and her labia, according to the medical scientists.

I certainly enjoyed this film more than the "Hobbit' which bored the pants off me (except for the special effects) and yes 'Venus Noire' is slow and often repetitive but I can share empathy with the Director and in an unkind, cruel, uncomfortable way, this is entertainment.

On a general note, there is no swearing or offensive violence, despite the harsh treatment Saartje Baartman endured while away from South Africa. Yes, she is mostly naked for large sections of the film and there are a couple of later scenes in Paris where she is in a sexual situation but apart from that, this is not a film for a sexual voyeur and don't expect to see flashes of an unusually large labia because you will not.

The standard of acting in this film is excellent. I may be wrong here but this is a French film and so good sub-titles in English or language of your choice are important. I suggest that there are a lot of other movies out there who will shock and offend you a whole lot more than this one.